Month: January 2022

For my ASL class, we covered the multiple components of ASL Grammar: Facial Expression, Letters, Numbers, and Shapes. I had never seen the hand sign for Shape before, so I drew an illustration to remember the lesson. For this word, I drew a cartoon of comedian Stephen Colbert, a character I had skipped illustrating in the past. During my research for the deaf history page, Colbert’s name was on the list of deaf celebrities. I didn’t add him for the biographies as the surgery he had to remove a tumor only made him deaf in his right ear. His was a great story to tell, but one with no effect on deaf history.
For the sign for Shape, I needed a face with no connection to the others. Facial Expression is a Clown, Letter is a Postal worker, and Number is the talking Doll that said Math Class was hard. A cartoon of this actor, comedian and talk show host with his deaf right ear sticking out at an angle would fit in perfectly. A fun twist in choosing him for a cartoon was later watching Steven Colbert interview actress Marlee Matlin on the Late Show for her film, CODA. In the middle of the interview, he signed Later to her in American Sign Language. When she pointed out this surprise, he humbly admitted Later, and Thank You were the only two words he knew. Still an impressive feat, two words were more than I remembered after high school. His unscripted signing was also a good reminder that I have yet to make a cartoon for the ASL hand sign for Later.

A beautiful November morning walk turned into a terrible accident when stepping on black ice sent me crashing to the ground. At first, I thought I had a sprain of my left ankle as the ankle and foot were very swollen. A change of family doctor and close to a week later an x-ray revealed I had an undisplaced fracture of the distal left fibular metaphysis (a crack in the leg bone above my ankle). Thanks to the protection of my hiking boots, there were no broken bones, and no surgery was required. Having to stay off my feet (in a walking cast that looks like a boot) while the injury healed, I preserved the memory by drawing a cartoon of myself doing the ASL hand sign for Boot. Instead of using the initialized sign for Shoe, I went with an alternative hand sign for the footwear from the Canadian dialect. Another plus to this lesson was learning another version of the hand sign for Rubber.

 

With my book complete and its publication mostly finished, I am back in school for my ASL studies, starting from scratch with Conestoga College American Sign Language 101. With my knowledge from past classes, I plan to use this introduction to ASL to build on my future studies. ASL1010 is also the same class I failed back in 2007, the only F in my educational history. I love sign language and am eager to return to this course to complete it with a better grade. With Pandemic restrictions closing my access to the University of Guelph Sign Club, the opportunity with Conestoga College is better. ASL Word of the Day is Student/Pupil.

While Tellwell Publishing is preparing the epub format of MY ASL DICTIONARY, I created another Instagram ad for the book that focused on its inclusion of Deaf History biographies. I drew a Football player as while some may know that the history of baseball hand signaling can be traced back to its use by deaf players (also included in the dictionary), the origin of the football huddle may be a surprise. Doing the research for these biographies always was for me.
The ad itself focuses on the book’s inclusion of deaf history, that the book is more than just a dictionary. Other dictionaries preface the ASL history in their opening pages. I placed the multiple biographies on deaf history throughout the book because my ASL courses taught history with the language, not apart from it.

There are many reasons to take the first step in learning a new language. I wanted my next series of ads to focus on the different motivations to start learning American Sign Language. My first drafts began with Family being the reason to learn, as I know many who started their ASL studies for a deaf child or family member. To be different, however, I went with learning ASL for Work. Instead of illustrating the position of a sign-language interpreter, I went with a truck driver and their supervisor. The left-handed boss in this cartoon is doing the ASL hand sign for Understand while the driver gives him a thumbs up. While both these characters use ASL, I did not refer to which one was deaf as it could be either. I also placed the silhouette of the ASL hand sign for Boss on the supervisor’s shirt. This ad is an opening first draft. While I’m happy with the picture, I want to work more on the ad’s graphic design.