Sci-fi field guide research

Field guide with a science fiction twist- 'publication'

The end result of this project is to produce a field guide (with a twist) that could be printed and sold by a publisher. I would like to have a dummy copy for the final exhibition. I will be documenting all progress on this blog.

Explanation of project:

It will be a traditional folded format with images illustrated by me and text to accompany where appropriate. The premise is that the field guide has been written by an alien that has never been to earth. A lot of the information will be factual, and the drawings will be scientific, however some information will be blatantly false or misinformed, adding a comedic element to the work. I have always had a keen interest in the natural world and want this product to encourage others to take an interest, in a new way.

Inspiration comes from a book I read over summer called all tomorrows by C.M. Koseman. This is a science fiction book with illustrations but it is about creatures that do not exist (future imaginations of what humans would look like). This book is more writing than images, mine will be more images than writing, the text will mainly be notes from the 'author'. I am also of course inspired by field guides but these tend to be text heavy, photographical and not very accessible to all audiences. Other inspirations include the book of dragons (from how to train your dragon) and the mythical field guide from spider wick chronicles.

The target audience will be from teens to young adults/adults due to the nature of some of the jokes. Illustration styles will be explored in this thread. I will also be exploring potential structuring options and at a later date printing techniques and paper stocks. Please refer back to this blog every week or two to see progress.

This project will span across both semesters as my largest project of the year.

This blog post contains bits of research compiled, but there is also a word document that will be shared on the script.

19/10/2023

Initially I was going to have a sort of random assortment of animals from page to page without a proper structure, however it makes more sense to me now to split the main body of work into these 6 main categories, with introduction and conclusion chapters and a section on humans.

Structure breakdown:

-introduction and author profile

-Mammals

-Amphibians

-Reptiles

-Birds

-Fish

-Invertebrates

-Humans

-Conclusion

Research for educational content:

Platypus are in a weird middle ground from mammal to amphibian, so they will be the bridge between these two chapters.

Big cats:

Amongst the big cats, the lion is the only social animal. While other big cat species have a mostly solitary life in the wild, lions almost always live in groups, called prides, of up to 30 adults and their offspring.
Although commonly assumed, panthers are not a separate species. The term panther is often used for leopards and jaguars, especially for the melanistic individuals of these species: the black panther.
Big cats are found from desert through forest to mountain areas, from cold temperate zones to the tropics. They can also be found at all altitudes, ranging from sea level to 6000 meters high. As predators, their distribution is mainly determined by the amount of available prey. Human encroachment has become a huge determining factor too.
All the big cat species are declining worldwide. The main threats to big cat populations are habitat loss, human–wildlife conflict, (illegal) wildlife trade and hunting.
The tiger is the most endangered big cat with estimated numbers of between 2,154 and 3,900 individuals. Most of the remaining wild tigers are found in India. In addition to habitat loss, tigers are under threat due to poaching for Traditional Medicines.
White lions and white tigers do not belong to separate (sub)species. Instead, their white coat is caused by a rare and recessive mutation. Captive white tigers are often cross-eyed, which is a sign of inbreeding, a practice used to breed animals with this rare colour, despite the negative effects for their health.
The solitary big cats are highly dependent on olfactory communication, which includes scent marking through urine, faeces, and a variety of scent glands. Scent marks provide information about the individual and are often combined with visual marks, like scratches on trees.
The big cat coat pattern varies between species and provides camouflage. Adult lions do not have a pattern on their coats, leopards and snow leopards have spots and jaguars have secondary patterns known as rosettes. Tiger stripe markings are individually unique - like a fingerprint!
While all the other big cat species are found in Eurasia, jaguars are the only ones that are found in the Americas. There is another large species of wild cats that are found there, but it does not belong to the Panthera genus: the puma, also known as mountain lion or cougar.
The term ‘big cats’ is used in varying ways. FOUR PAWS uses the scientific grouping which includes only the five species belonging to the Panthera genus (lion, tiger, leopard, jaguar, snow leopard). Other common groupings often also include species such as the puma and cheetah.