I started off my Senior Project with a few goals in mind. It would be a combination of science, art, and writing, with a touch of history. I imagined this as a pie with each of the aforementioned topics taking up a certain amount of the pie. The slices of the pie changed as the project progressed. Partially due to me not predicting the number of time things would take, among other human errors, and partially because of where the project itself guided me. From the very beginning, I hoped to include a lot more science than I did. I actually learned quite a bit in preparation, though the project led me towards the more creative side of things. My research did help me in the creative department, especially in terms of my writing. The way I wrote, and how I would write about each creature or plant etc. was affected by my knowledge of naturalists in the 1800’s. One thing I underestimated, but really enjoyed was the experience of learning from a lense of historical sciences. Seeing where and why we thought certain things, and how that has helped us to get to where we are now. 

At the end of my project I had hoped to have my completed journal. I do in fact have that, and I am working on finishing touches and presentations. At the beginning of my work, a few weeks in, that is, not my proposal, I had tons of ideas I wanted to include in the book. The nature of my book would allow me to include them, but my carpal tunnel and time will not allow me to. I may one day, possibly during the summer, make myself an extended edition where I do include those sections. Those sections or ideas, were not part of the project proposal, or original goals per say, more a part of the cutting process, which means that overall I was faithful to my original goal, no matter how I felt from three weeks in. 

I faced a few challenges over the course of my project. One of these centered around the lack of information I needed for the area of science I was emulating. The issue is that this took place well before the internet, and noft many of the works are readily available. Often articles would mention early taxonomy and maybe a few ideas I needed from it, but they would then go into the modern taxonomy. Making it hard for me to find the full amount of information I would need, such as a chart or list. I often did my best to piece together the information I got from multiple sources. Even then I had to be creative in the way I used it as even then my knowledge was not complete

While I was working on the art for my project I looked through a lot of different references and ideas for inspiration.  One of these sources gave me the idea to add color, monochrome color that is, to my drawings. At that time my drawings were done in a ballpoint pen and were simple hatching. This was a risk as if I added the color and it didn’t work I would end up ruining and having to redo a lot of art. I took a deep breath and started to add color to one of the drawings. I eventually added color to all of my drawings, the effect not only worked but improved them in a way I hadn’t expected. This step really added warmth to the drawings as well as a whole new dimension.

Senior Project was a time of discovery and learning for me, as well as time to immerse myself in my passions and improve my skills. I learned much about science, art, history, literature and writing, and this can all be seen in the project itself. But I also learned about myself, how I work, and my own capabilities. I experimented with new materials in my art, especially a material I had been hesitant to use in the past, alcohol markers. I had also previously believed myself completely unable to ever learn cursive, now this is not the biggest achievement, though it was quite encouraging. One thing I discovered, and I am thankful I did before college, is the conditions and ways I work best. I found that I have to hand write, map out, and organize my ideas before typing them up. I also found that I work best when listening to classical music, things that would usually be hard for me to work on became easy. As someone with ADHD my brain won’t give me enough dopamine to do tasks I don’t enjoy, as dopamine is the reward. Because of that, forcing myself to do something is much harder than the average person. There were times when I had to catalog my inventions, or I wanted to draw but needed to write or vice versa. Usually I would have struggled to do these things, though with classical music playing, Beethoven is my favorite, these tasks went by in the blink of an eye. 

While working on my project I also found an interesting trick my brain does, I’m not sure anyone else does this. Whenever I read something, something I am extremely invested in, I will often be able to emulate the style of writing it is written in. This goes as far as my thoughts, when I think before, or as I write, I am thinking in the voice I imagine the book is narrated in. Or if I had listened to it as an audiobook then I would have heard the narrator’s voice. This is helpful in the sense of sentence structure, and how I would describe something. 

I thought that changing my style of writing to fit my concept would be a struggle for me, as I have only really written for school, or creatively, and nothing from the late Victorian era. Especially combining that era with the scientific nature of the writing made it more complicated. Luckily, Karen had suggested a series of books to me that fit my needs perfectly: A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent, by Marie Brennan. These books were from the point of view of a naturalist in an alternate victorian world, though they were memoirs studying dragons, rather than a research journal of odd creatures, the tone still fit my needs perfectly. I really do think that without this for inspiration the final product would not be as good as it is today.

One thing I feared during the writing process was my dyslexia. This takes many forms, but often it causes my notion of spelling to be incorrect. I often will look up words I am unsure of, though there are times that I don’t know they’re wrong. Now even though the final product was hand written, my writing was typed up and spell checked. The only issue is that dyslexia will also cause me to miss reading things, and this error would be extremely hard to avoid, but is generally a rare occurrence. This is all to preface a choice I made in the making of my final product. In my research I came across the term “word blindness” which was the original term coined for dyslexia. I dove deeper into this idea, as the discovery was before the time period my author was writing in. I wanted to include this in some way in my writing. 

This being the research journal of a naturalist, rather than a published and edited piece, it would be natural and messy to an extent. To that point I tried to emulate the style of my own journal that I had used to plan and create my final work. I included little information about my author though I wanted her to feel genuine, like a real person. Because of this I intentionally let there be spelling mistakes and such. She would know what it ment, as it was her notes. I included her own research on word blindness, as It would be an idea she had interest in. This is both to round out the character more, to add more to her world then her research, such as the inclusion of her sister. And as a sort of easter egg for myself, my signature within the work. As I was writing and creating this character I felt akin to her, for us to share dyslexia only seemed right. I had created an intelligent, odd, ambitious, unorthodox, brilliant woman, and since the book does not delve very deeply into her personal life I wanted to include parts that I had thought of. If I were to include more I might have added that she takes her tea with two sugar cubes every morning, one brown, one white. Or that she loves to ride her bicycle and feel the cool breeze on her face. Though those are parts of her whimsey that only, and whoever reads this will ever know.

Who knows, I may add on to this work one day. I may not. Either way I am proud of my accomplishment.