Without question, the best way to learn a new language is in class with a teacher. For a fluid and ever-evolving language like ASL, this applies as well. Back in 2017, I illustrated the signs for education with the hand signs for Elementary, High school, College, and University. Following my lessons, some signs ended the motion of the dominant hand in front of the chest. In 2022, I was taught High school, like University, is supposed to have the hand positioned further up. I returned to the original drawing and reworked the image to fit the new upgrade. While it looks like I just moved his hand to get a better view of my signature, this is the current way to sign High school with the letter H and S.
CLOSE SHAVE
One of my trials as a younger cartoonist was drawing men. It was common for my cartoon men to be mistaken for women. In frustration, I would draw mustaches on these characters to prove their manhood. For fun in college, I added a mustache to my superhero parody comic, Mapman. When our ASL class reviewed vocabulary and the hand sign for Mustache was covered, I knew which word I would draw next.
Mustaches can be a challenge for the deaf community. It’s hard to read words or ASL mouth memes when the lips are covered. Mustaches are tricky to add to my ASL artwork too. The trouble with drawing a mustache in ASL is there’s not much space to work. In a still image, the hands overlay each other making it hard to see their position on the face. To avoid this complication, I used two faces, one in black and white and one in colour. For a fun twist, I also shaved Mapman so his whiskers wouldn’t block his hands signing Mustache on his face.