This morning I arrived thinking I would be getting one illustration checked so that I could get on with finishing off the ID sign it was to go on. However, I had an email from the assistant curator of the Aquarium, Jonny, asking for a species to be added to one sign and a new sign to be made for a display he has almost finished setting up and hope to have the fish in and on show later in the week.
I did the revised ID first; this was a simple matter of adding another species (freshwater angelfish - Pterophyllum scalare) to an existing sign. So I had only to open the file on the computer and drop in the relevent details and illustration before printing it. But the printer had other ideas and today decided it wouldn't print an Quark A3 file (which it did quite happily last month when I did the original sign that I had just added to) without a fight. It has been a troublesome beast of a printer and very fickle on what it will and won't print and when.
So I spent most of the day converting the template I use for the Aquarium ID signs from a Quark design file to an Illustrator one. I have been avoiding doing this for a while . . but as I was in no mood to play around with the confounded awkward piece of technology for the next hour or so (as I have in the past) I resigned myself to having to just get on and do it. I'm not a graphic designer so it took me longer than it would have done for either of my colleagues, who are both graphic designers, but on the up side it was good practise. For as well as painting the animal identification illustrations I also compile the finished sign on the computer putting in common and scientific names, sometimes a map with distribution marked, text about the species and sometimes also a logo indicating whether it's on a breeding programme or as in the case of the Aquarium - showing whether it is a carnivore, herbivore, omnivore etc. Before printing, laminating and then usually I put it up on display - up ladders, climbing over fences etc to do so.
The second job for Jonny was the sign for a new tank that has been set up for goodeid's - a family of endangered fish found in only in Mexico. So using my newly set up template I compiled the new ID sign for the 4 species that are going on show - Rainbow, blue-tailed, butterfly and goldbreast. Strictly speaking this isn't a completely new sign. The butterfly goodeids have been on show (and therefore have had a sign) for some years. However they are being moved into the new tank and more species of goodeids added, so a new sign is required. On the old goodeid sign there was a body of text explaining the importance of the fish and how it was thought to be extinct until some were discovered in a spring that fed a pool. This needs to be reworded to be relevant for all the fish on show in the tank, once the Education department have checked over the new body of text, I can add it to the sign and get it printed off and up on display. Luckily of the 3 new species, it is a relief to know that I have already painted two - the rainbow and blue-tailed (these were done for another display a few years ago), leaving one, the goldbreast, to be added to my jobs list.
Last jobs of the day were to put up the revised ID with the angelfish in the relevant lightbox in the Aquarium and get the illustration I finished last week, a pearl eartheater - Geophagus brassilensisi (fish) checked by Jonny, to make sure it was correct. He was happy with the painting so I then scanned it into the computer and started work on colour adjusting the background of the illustration.
I do this because although I paint the fish onto a black background - to get a really solid black needed for a backlit sign (which the Aquarium signs were) I need to reset the background colour in photoshop. I finished the day, at 5.30pm, part way through that process; so tomorrow, no doubt, I shall be continuing with that.
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