So, I got this idea in my head, you know, to make a poster about sharks from all over the world. Sounded pretty cool, pretty straightforward. Boy, was I in for a ride.
Getting Started – The “Easy” Part
First thing, I figured, I need a list of sharks. Easy peasy, right? Just Google “sharks of the world.” Turns out, there are a LOT of sharks. Like, hundreds. My first thought was, “Okay, this poster is going to be massive, or I’m going to have to be really picky.” I spent a good couple of evenings just scrolling through names, trying to pick ones that were, I don’t know, famous, or looked cool, or were just plain weird. It wasn’t as fun as it sounds, mostly just a lot of “hmm, maybe this one?” and then getting distracted by videos of them.
The Picture Hunt
Next up, pictures. You can’t have a shark poster without pictures of sharks. I thought I’d find some awesome, ready-to-use illustrations. Nope. Not easily, anyway. Or the ones I liked weren’t quite right, or they were all different styles. So, I ended up deciding to try and draw some myself. Big mistake for a quick project. I’m okay at drawing, but drawing like 15-20 different sharks, trying to make them look accurate? That took ages. I’d get one done, feel all proud, then look at the list of how many were left and just sigh.
- I started with the Great White, obviously. Classic.
- Then a Hammerhead, because they’re just so weird looking.
- Whale shark, gotta have the biggest.
Each one was its own little battle with shapes and fins. Getting the proportions right was a nightmare sometimes. I had a lot of eraser dust, let me tell you.
Layout and Info – The Real Headache
Okay, so eventually, I had a decent collection of shark drawings. Now, how to arrange them on a poster? And what info to put next to them? I didn’t want a whole textbook, just some cool facts.
I tried a few layouts.
First, I thought I’d group them by ocean. That got complicated fast. Some sharks are everywhere!
Then I thought, maybe by size? That was a bit better, but still looked kinda messy.
I must have rearranged them on my screen, or on paper, a dozen times. It was like one of those sliding puzzles, but with more swearing.
And the facts! For each shark, I wanted:
- Common name (duh)
- Scientific name (to look smart)
- Max size (people love that)
- A cool fact (this was the hardest to keep short)
Trying to condense everything into a tiny blurb for each shark without it sounding boring or too complicated… that was a challenge. I spent way too long trying to find that one perfect, snappy fact for each one.
Putting It All Together
Finally, I settled on a layout. Got my drawings scanned in, cleaned them up a bit. Typed out all the little info boxes. I used some pretty basic software, nothing fancy. Just dragging and dropping, resizing, nudging things a pixel to the left, then a pixel to the right. You know how it is. You stare at it for so long, you don’t even know if it looks good anymore. My eyes were definitely going square.
I also wanted a nice background, something ocean-y but not too distracting. Spent a while on that too. Tried a few blues, some wave patterns. Ended up with something pretty simple, just a gradient. Sometimes simple is best, especially when you’re running out of patience.
The “Is It Done Yet?” Phase
Then came the proofreading. Checking all the names, the sizes, the facts. You would not believe how easy it is to type “Great White Shart” by accident when you’re tired. Luckily, I caught that one. I even got my partner to look it over, just for a fresh pair of eyes. They pointed out a couple of things I’d completely missed. Always good to get a second opinion.
And that was pretty much it. It took way longer than I thought it would. What started as a “quick weekend project” turned into a couple of weeks of evenings and a fair bit of muttering to myself. But, hey, I got it done. The poster actually looks pretty decent, if I do say so myself. Learned a lot about sharks too, which was a bonus, I guess. Would I do it again? Ask me in a month, when I’ve forgotten how much of a pain it was.
