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Description
A piece for: Vollie93439024

This is an example of how to make a sheet about your creature, that explains everything so it is readible.
It is by no means perfect, but I hope it can serve as a partial guide for some people out there

So the main thing about when you want to present your creature is readibility. You should make sure that everyone can understand what is going on and catch what is interesting about your creature.
remember- a picture speaks a thousandt words.

I personally think, that a schematic, readible drawing is better at explaining than a ornamental but one that is hard to understand.

That being said i tried to show it on an example of ,,The common worm"
Basic idea is that if you have something about the creature that would differ from its default state -show it to us! The common worm has sexual dimorphism- show both forms.
does it have something important about it on the inside? sure, show us!
does have some extendable, folding or inflating organs? show the creature with it in the organ both being active and inactive. It could be wings, defense structures, display structures, feathers, bladders, volvation, some interesting mechanism... draw it how the creature does it, step by step . In the case off the common worm, I chose to give it inflatable eyes for scaring off predators. To that picture I also aded more information: I showed the animal in its natural habitat and showed other species in that ecosystem which it interacts with- its predators. but i could draw anything else...its prey, feeding, competitors, symbiotes etc.
Also, does the creature have other life stages that we wouldn't guess just from looking on the adult one? draw that lifecycle!

Thats for the drawings... for the sheet as a whole, make sure the image is taken with good lighting, has some amount of contrast, that the lines and letter don't blend together, that the image isn't blurry or otherwise unclear. The ideal is, when a viewer doesn't have to zoom in, when he wants to see something what is essential to the creature. The viewer should be invited to zoom in at interesting details of your creature after he's been interested and captivated on the first sight.
The text should be readible too. What works best for me are capital letters because these are the easiest to distinguish in my handwriting. think about this too, it would demotivate some viewers if they would need to riddle my hieroglyphs instead of enjoying the new facts they find out about the creature.

If the photo has bad lighting (usually too dark), low contrast etc. It can be fixed to certain extent by playing with contrast, exposure, shadow, highlight, black and white and colour values in some editing program. For this picture I used the free Photoshop Express app for Android which usually suits my needs well. For bigger touch fixes use regular Photoshop or a similar app, there is plenty of them... or sometimes its better to just retake the picture in different light or scan it.

I don't by any means declare that I or this guide is perfect I know that I make plenty of mistakes and I sometimes have problems with these things as well, especially when it comes to readability and understandability of my pictures, but I try to improve.
This should be just a guide with tips that'll lead to more people enjoying your art, not a critique.
Thank you for attention!

Any questions are welcome! feedback too just ask and I will try to answer...

Description
A piece for: Vollie93439024

This is an example of how to make a sheet about your creature, that explains everything so it is readible.
It is by no means perfect, but I hope it can serve as a partial guide for some people out there

So the main thing about when you want to present your creature is readibility. You should make sure that everyone can understand what is going on and catch what is interesting about your creature.
remember- a picture speaks a thousandt words.

I personally think, that a schematic, readible drawing is better at explaining than a ornamental but one that is hard to understand.

That being said i tried to show it on an example of ,,The common worm"
Basic idea is that if you have something about the creature that would differ from its default state -show it to us! The common worm has sexual dimorphism- show both forms.
does it have something important about it on the inside? sure, show us!
does have some extendable, folding or inflating organs? show the creature with it in the organ both being active and inactive. It could be wings, defense structures, display structures, feathers, bladders, volvation, some interesting mechanism... draw it how the creature does it, step by step . In the case off the common worm, I chose to give it inflatable eyes for scaring off predators. To that picture I also aded more information: I showed the animal in its natural habitat and showed other species in that ecosystem which it interacts with- its predators. but i could draw anything else...its prey, feeding, competitors, symbiotes etc.
Also, does the creature have other life stages that we wouldn't guess just from looking on the adult one? draw that lifecycle!

Thats for the drawings... for the sheet as a whole, make sure the image is taken with good lighting, has some amount of contrast, that the lines and letter don't blend together, that the image isn't blurry or otherwise unclear. The ideal is, when a viewer doesn't have to zoom in, when he wants to see something what is essential to the creature. The viewer should be invited to zoom in at interesting details of your creature after he's been interested and captivated on the first sight.
The text should be readible too. What works best for me are capital letters because these are the easiest to distinguish in my handwriting. think about this too, it would demotivate some viewers if they would need to riddle my hieroglyphs instead of enjoying the new facts they find out about the creature.

If the photo has bad lighting (usually too dark), low contrast etc. It can be fixed to certain extent by playing with contrast, exposure, shadow, highlight, black and white and colour values in some editing program. For this picture I used the free Photoshop Express app for Android which usually suits my needs well. For bigger touch fixes use regular Photoshop or a similar app, there is plenty of them... or sometimes its better to just retake the picture in different light or scan it.

I don't by any means declare that I or this guide is perfect I know that I make plenty of mistakes and I sometimes have problems with these things as well, especially when it comes to readability and understandability of my pictures, but I try to improve.
This should be just a guide with tips that'll lead to more people enjoying your art, not a critique.
Thank you for attention!

Any questions are welcome! feedback too just ask and I will try to answer...