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| Mounted with actual support frames on a wall! With shiny lights! Q_Q |
Right, let's start with the introductory wall text:
One afternoon I left my favorite pencil on the table and turned to get a piece of paper. Two seconds later my pencil was gone. Later my friend complained of the black hole that was her physics teacher's pigeon-hole. And so began an investigation into the root causes of these mysteries.
Cover
Nothing much to see here, except the illustration of armarillia (a kind of fungus) on the back cover.
Armaril
Main illustration: watercolor
Supplementary illustration: technical pen
Set in Boswell (body text & headings on lower page), Aquiline (heading on upper page) and Jellyka, Saint-Andrew's Queen ("handwritten" notes).
Supplementary illustration: technical pen
Set in Boswell (body text & headings on lower page), Aquiline (heading on upper page) and Jellyka, Saint-Andrew's Queen ("handwritten" notes).
The body text reads:
Armarillia are a most peculiar type of creature. For one, their regenerative capabilities are incredible. An injured armaril will make its way to the nearest power source, then use its tail to divert part of the current to itself. The healing process is most fascinating to watch: sparks play about its body, and tissue is seemingly rebuilt out of thin air. Most minor injuries heal within five minutes, while substantial damage takes from an hour to several days to recover from. It would seem that the armaril uses electricity as-is as an energy source, instead of converting it to a different form like most other animals do. Electricity provides energy for all the armaril’s biological functions, though most of it is used on growth and repair.
Effortlessly blending into the shadows to avoid detection, the armaril has a great affinity for anything electrical. Armarillia are known to cause problems with computers and are believed to be behind approximately two-thirds of electrical breakdowns in the school. They have extremely sharp teeth, which are used to gnaw through electrical insulation. Unfortunately, this also causes considerable damage to the circuitry. The armaril’s tail is almost always in contact with the ground, a simple self-defence mechanism against accidental electrocution. Even when the tail is in use, i.e. “plugged in” to a power source, the armaril’s fantastically high internal resistance - almost three times that of the human body - usually prevents shocks from occuring.
Main illustration: watercolor & colored pencil (wing translucency added in Photoshop)
Set in Boswell (body text & headings on right page), Aquiline (heading on left page) and Jellyka, Saint-Andrew's Queen ("handwritten" notes).
The body text reads:
Termed “flies-on-the-wall” for lack of a better name, little is known about these creatures, though it is possible that they exist for the sole purpose of collecting and transmitting information. Only two species have been discovered so far, namely the Department’s fly (Kataskopos myga, pictured opposite) and the speckled diode fly.
The fly’s appearance mimics that of the common green-bottle housefly, which makes it more difficult to be detected. With an average body length of less than 1cm, they are virtually indistinguishable from houseflies unless closely inspected. A fly-on-the-wall can be identified through the presence of lens-like eyes in place of the usual compound eyes, several protruding metallic rods on its back, a matrix of infra-red lamps on its head, as well as many smaller lights all around its body. While these seem like man-made implements on first glance, further study will reveal that they all contain traces of keratin, a tough protein. This suggests that the structures are natural, rather than artificially implanted.
It has been theorized that flies-on-the-wall are used by teachers to monitor the behavior of delinquent students both in and out of school. Some of the wilder rumors circulating amongst the students suggest that houseflies were subject to genetic engineering to force their bodies to accept the implants and fuse them on with keratin. If this is so, then the fly’s unusual body structure can be much better explained, though anything from this point onwards is pure speculation. Its lens-like eyes would take photographs of its subject, while the lights might be status indicators. It is also possible that the rods are actually antennae used to somehow transmit data wirelessly to staff rooms.
Poulocamp
Main illustration: watercolor & colored pencil
Set in Boswell (body text & headings on right page), Aquiline (heading on left page) and Jellyka, Saint-Andrew's Queen ("handwritten" notes).
The body text reads:
The common poulocamp is so named because it is the most commonly sighted local species of poulocamp. Its most distinctive feature is perhaps its muscular tail, which resembles that of a snake’s, but ends in a large claw. In some individuals an eye-like structure has been observed on the tail, but whether or not it is a true eye remains unconfirmed. If indeed an eye, then it is probably used to look out for approaching predators. Also interesting are its arms, which have highly developed musculature - essential for quickly snatching items and carrying them over long distances back to its nest.
All poulocampi have downy feathers on the front half of the body, though these gradually get more compact and eventually condense into scales. This unusual morphology might have come about earlier in the evolutionary line, before birds became fully distinct from reptiles.
Some creatures employ their own magic to render themselves invisible to humans, but the poulocamp does not belong in this category. Instead, poulocampi remain unseen through a combination of speed and stealth. This makes attracting wild poulocampi more difficult, but it is not impossible. Born with an innate desire to hoard useless trinkets, most poulocampi are unable to resist the lure of small objects lying about unguarded. A specimen can easily be tempted out of its hiding place by scattering some coins and stationery around, after which the setup can be observed from afar.
Pterippus
Main illustration: watercolor & colored pencil (text added on paper with Photoshop).
Supplementary illustration: technical pen
Set in Boswell (body text & headings on lower page), Aquiline (heading on upper page) and Jellyka, Saint-Andrew's Queen ("handwritten" notes).
The body text reads:
A pterippus is a type of bird-like creature, but with the head of a goat. It resides in pigeonholes, where it often makes its nest in an inconspicuous corner, or within an unused drawer. Despite their bulky appearance, ptereppi are actually capable of flight by using their powerful legs to push themselves off the ground, before using their wings to move about in the air. However, pterippi do not have much reason to fly under normal circumstances ; at any rate, many prefer to walk, only flying when they must move from one block of pigeonholes to the next to forage for food.
Because their diet consists almost entirely of paper, pterippi are the main culprit behind cases of mysteriously missing documents. The rock pterippus, pictured above, has an especially voracious appetite. In one recently conducted experiment it was shown that the rock pterippus could consume up to thirty per cent of its body weight in one feeding.
One highly effective method of preventing one’s own papers from becoming a pterippus’ dinner is making markings with a red pen on the document, for pterippi seem to have an aversion to that color. Alternatively, pencil shavings or mud can be scattered liberally around the area, though this is not reccomended. A hungry pterippus, while formidable, is nothing compared to the wrath of a teacher.
Preparatory Studies
This is the useful bit for Sec 4 and O-level art students. My coursework prep boards. Click to view large size to read the text. I can't speak for O-level art standards nor how your teacher would grade work of this standard, but this set got me an A under an IP programme's AEP course.
