by John Parker
Andrew out birding
Local artist and illustrator Andrew Guttenberg has made the Gallatin Valley home for the past twenty years. Andrew was born in Glasgow, and until junior high lived there, where he was introduced to the open prairie county and the bird life of eastern Montana. Practically born with a pencil in his hand, Andrew drew his first bird at age two. His mom still has the drawing of what he thinks maybe was supposed to be a Pileated Woodpecker.
Andrew’s cover art for Birding magazine in 2011.
With his parents’ encouragement and a steady supply of art supplies, Andrew stayed focused on birds and how to portray their beauty through art. After high school, Andrew entered Montana State University with the intent of becoming an art teacher, but after having the opportunity to explore different mediums and techniques, he ended up getting his BFA degree in print making.
While continuing to refine his work, numerous opportunities and commissions followed, including illustrations for a field guide for the Caribbean Basin and drawings for the Cara Cara Project in Costa Rica.
More than three years ago, National Geographic began the initial phases of development for their trio of United States and Canada bird guides. Andrew joined the project early on as a technical advisor and to help with the layout and design. The production team quickly realized they should be using Andrew’s artistic talents more comprehensively, or as the lead author Ted Floyd said “The birding gods smiled on us when Andrew Guttenberg, one of the greatest ornithological illustrators of his generation, agreed to join the project.”
The new Field Guide to the Birds of the West.
Over the course of two years Andrew drew hundreds of illustrations for the Eastern and Western guides, and also the “Big Book” which covers all of North America. Included in these illustrations were completely new drawings for all of the birds of Hawaii. Each drawing was done after many hours of studying hundreds of photos, videos, and the natural history of each species. All of the previous illustrations for the National Geographic guides were painted using acrylic or wash paintings, while Andrew’s illustrations were done with colored pencil. Trying to match his style seamlessly with the older paintings was one the more challenging aspects of the project, along with finding the balance between finely detailed drawings and a more representational approach. Along with drawing the illustrations for the guides, Andrew and Marky Mutchler were responsible for the layout and annotations on all of the righthand pages.
When out birding, most of the time Andrew likes to keep it simple and bird local patches, finding “a lot of joy in visiting places that I know well.” In Montana we are blessed with having public lands with good habitat where you can get out and enjoy the regular birds, whether it’s listening to the Ruby-crowned Kinglets on a local trail or in eastern Montana, just “listening to the prairie.”
When not frequenting some of the local patches in this area, Andrew and his wife Ana look forward to visiting her family in Brazil. It’s not surprising that with the greatest biodiversity on the planet, “Brazil has grabbed a pretty big piece of my heart.”
Now that the National Geographic guides have been put to bed, Andrew plans to catch up on some of the commissions that have been sidelined the last couple of years. Most of all, he’d like to get back to some more intricate drawings, paintings, and print making.
Great Gray Owl by Andrew Guttenberg
