These past couple of months I’ve delved into a new ongoing commission project for MyAuslan.com, making sign language educational aides for Deaf kids, their parents, and teachers. Darlene and Tony got in contact with me and asked if I’d be able to make some illustrations for flash cards, posters, and picture books. I’d never had my work physically published anywhere before so I was really happy to take this opportunity!
Before starting this project, I’d had no meaningful exposure to sign language. Additionally, I’d avoided drawing hands just as much as I could my whole life, so I understood that I would have to study them a lot in order to do a good job.
We started with a set of flash cards for a “memory” game (and the illustrations may be used for posters and colouring books down the track). They consisted of 15 farm animals, performing the signs for their respective names.
Once the farm animals were completed we did zoo animals!
And sea creatures. Fins and tentacles are hard to turn into hands!
Throughout the process, Darlene was able to give me some feedback to help me get the shapes, arrows, and gestures just right, as well as making some suggestions for the animal designs. Below are some examples of the drafts, before amendments were made in the later stages.
Most of the animals were fairly easy to draw. Since cartoon farm animals are ubiquitous in children’s media, I could basically draw them from my imagination with little need for reference material. But many of the zoo animals and sea creatures were a little more obscure. So for the latter two, I started a Pinterest board for this project to reference various cartoon stock images.
Hopefully these will be enjoyed by many Deaf children around the country!
The flash cards can be purchased from MyAuslan on their online shop.
Wow!! How fantastic to have had the chance to be in different places, meet new friends and new experiences!!💓🌸