Project Overview: Fish of the Freshwater Aquarium was designed to provide an illustrative experience of different freshwater fish and their care requirements. This project primarily utilized Adobe Illustrator and Adobe InDesign to create the vector art illustrations and the book layout. There are currently six entries within the original edition that include the Male Betta, Neon Tetra, Platy, Kuhli Loach, Angelfish, and Clown Loach.

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Design Process: The original plan for my project was to include fifteen entries, but due to time and the workload of four additional project classes, I had to cut down my number to six. By doing this, I was able to focus more detail into the illustration process as well as the text entries which resulted in a more fulfilling experience. Each illustration and its composition reflects the description of the fish as well as their temperament and type. This gives a unique look to each while also emphasizing the fishes' individual qualities. Setting up a habitat with aquatic foliage and other decorations or natural hardscape materials is essential for providing a comfortable home for aquarium fish, so I planned on including such visuals within the background of the artwork. To simulate this naturalistic setting, I created plant brushes to help me easily illustrate aquatic foliage for the backgrounds. These were created with a more simplistic design in mind in order to keep the fish as the focal point of the illustrations. In order to establish uniformity between the pieces, I decided to incorporate a water color brush effect to add to the underwater theme. All six completed illustrations can be found below:

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