Butterworts - AMI Award of Merit
Client:
David Rini
Audience:
General public
Media:
Graphite, Photoshop
This award winning biological illustration highlights a lesser known carnivorous genus Pinguicula, commonly known as butterworts, and how they catch prey discreetly. Two butterworts are depicted in full detail, the one in the back being a mature flowering butterwort. The left inset depicts the dynamic interaction between the fungus gnat and the stalked glands, calling out the sessile glands. The diagrammatic inset at the top right is simplified for didactic purposes to clearly depict the curling mechanism of the butterwort leaves. The labeling has been created with low vision in mind and has been tested to meet a baseline contrast ratio of 4.5:1 or higher (WCAG AA standard).
Process
Thumbnails
A series of more than 15 thumbnails were drafted for this piece, including several inset iterations. The final layout was chosen to best depict the stick and digest mechanism of the butterwort. A rough sketch was created to further mockup the layout, then final transfer sketches, and lastly the final piece was rendered in black and white in Photoshop.
