Introduction to Project:

This project was made for honors credit through an honors contract between myself and my SCN301 Ecology of the Sonoran Desert class in the Fall of 2021. The contract stated that I was to complete five digitally illustrated posters depicting five different Sonoran species, including:

-an animal

-plant

-cactus

-flower

-tree

My Process:

I took on this project one poster design at a time. I would look up real images of the species I wanted to digitally design, and used them as references for my work. I used Adobe Illustrator for the whole project. I drew each shape using mainly the Pencil Tool, and did minor adjustments using the Pen Tool and Eyedropper.

My Inspiration:

I drew inspiration from simple, 2D nature wall prints for interior design and aesthetics. I wanted a realistic yet color-blocked look for my designs. I also wanted to highlight specific aspects of each species that I had learned from my time in SCN301, so I included numbered points and descriptions at the bottom.

Challenges:

The biggest challenge was figuring out how to illustrate the Tree and Plant posters. I knew it would be extremely difficult and time-consuming to digitally illustrate a whole complex tree, so I decided to focus on the most important aspects of the two posters: the leaves and fruits. It was also a challenge to pick a background color that complemented all of the colors across all five posters. I feel that this light gray did the job well.