Page #11 (Adder)

For page 11, I decided to give this slot in the zine to the Adder.
The Adder is the only reptile to be featured in the zine, and is one of Britain's few native snakes.
I begun implementing the Adder into the zine by firstly producing research on the animal, which lead to me illustrating a few sketches of the creature. These sketches can be found below.

Like the development of the other pages, I had to find the best illustrations produced to be featured on the page, as I only wanted the best as part of the design.
Out of the 4 sketches, 3 stood out to me, and since they were quite small, this meant that I could fit multiple images on the page.

I scanned all of the chosen illustrations into photoshop, and placed them onto a page that was a5 in size.

With the illustrations scanned in, I then adjusted them to my taste, which involved inverting, and trimming a few of the drawings in order to make them work.
I accidentally flooded the background with a shade of black, and I actually liked this. I felt that the contrast really helped to make the sketches stand out, and the darkness also gave a sense of unease, and made the adder look evil and mysterious, coming out of the shadows.
This could be a reference to that fact that these snakes like to hide under rocks, and they tend to live in dark areas.

The flooded background.

I moved onto thinking about the wording for the animal, and I had a mental brainstorm as to what summed the Adder up.
I also took a look online into the folklore behind the animal, and I found some interesting information, which can be seen in the screenshot below.

http://www.herefordhart.org/species_snakes_adder.html < image reference at this link.

I decided that instead of focusing on folklore for this animal, I wanted to just make something up, as a way to make the zine more personalised, and creative. I also think that it is more fun this way.
Below are a few of the points revolving around the Adder that I thought up whilst brainstorming.

• Bite
• Venom 
• Scale
• Fang
• Slink
• Hide
• Dark
• Evil
• Hunter
• Sting
• Pain
• Sneaky

I thought about perhaps highlighting the Adder's venomous fangs, since it is the only only venomous snake in Britain that has the potential to kill, unless the bite is treated.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/highexplosive/SARG/08000-TheAnimals/SpeciesPages/NativeAnimals/Reptiles/Adder/Adderpics/StrikingAdder.jpg < image reference at this link

I thought about the following term, which can be seen below.

The page with the wording.

This wording refers to the painful strike of an Adder, and also the burning of the venom as it enters the skin.
I feel that this message really does the following.

• Makes the Adder a dark creature.
• Is interesting.
• Quick and simple.
• Refers to one of the Adder's traits.

Thomas.