Month: July 2022

The ASL hand sign for Alcohol (and Whiskey) is a cartoon of my favorite science fiction bartender, Mike Callahan. While not the perfect duplicate of his appearance in the cover art of Spider Robinson’s Callahan novels, I wanted to have a dedication to this warm character from my first experience reading science fiction. For its addictive properties, Alcohol has been called the Devil’s drink. For me, the one Horn Classifier striking down on the other connects to that reference and makes the ASL hand sign memorable.

#asl #signlanguage #alcohol #whiskey #beverage #drink #cartoon #spiderrobinson #Callahan #dictionary

Today countries around the world will be celebrating friendship for International Friendship Day. The perfect time for a break from the beverage list to salute the bonds that hold us all together.
This pleasant character is a 2013 illustration from when my dictionary project first began, and my cartoon designs were simpler. Instead of giving this cartoon a busy shirt crowded with happy faces, it’s a tunic with peaceful blue skies and a single happy face button. The animation allows me to show the interlocking index fingers of friendship in motion while the dictionary uses instructions and direction arrows. Happy Friendship Day!
#asl #signlanguage #friend #friendship #cartoon #dictionary #internationalfriendshipday

Another aromatic hot beverage. The animation is an update to the hand sign from the dictionary. In 2013 I was taught to keep the F hand sign vertical with the pinkie finger up as the index finger and thumb jiggled inside the opposite hand. Now, wearing a vest of a checkered table cloth, this young princess in lace corrects this ASL sign for Tea with her palm facing down as she stirs. For extra fun, I made the animation reveal what the sign mimics.

#asl #signlanguage #dictionary #cartoon #tea #beverage #drink

My good friend Shannon Stuart was also interested in learning ASL for herself and her son. After my cartoons got approval from my ASL instructors, I would test them out on Shannon to see if they were clear enough to be understood by new eyes. In gratitude for her help, I drew a cartoon of her for the hand sign for Coffee and placed it in the dictionary she helped me make.

#asl #signlanguage #dictionary #cartoon #coffee #java #beverage #drink

The first drink for Beverage week is Life’s most essential ingredient. Instead of cartoons of merfolk or scuba divers for this hand sign, I drew two people made of water. These fluid characters show the dominant hand’s positioning on the face as the forefinger of the W hand sign taps against the chin like water from a fountain. For animation, I dramatically placed the entire screen underwater to have the waves recede for the reveal of the liquid hand sign.

#asl #signlanguage #cartoon #water #beverage #drink #dictionary

This week will focus on the various ASL hand signs for beverages.
We start with the word for both liquid refreshment and swallowing. In this 2013 cartoon, I drew a gangster from the prohibition era. The original art from the dictionary has his eyes closed, a common habit when drinking deeply from a cup. For animation, I opened his eyes first to make closing them more dramatic. Tomorrow we will be covering the drinks inside the cups.

#asl #sign language #cartoon #drink #beverage #dictionary

of Coal Miner showing the ASL hand sign for Work.

Before watching Guillermo del Toro’s 2017 Shape of Water, I thought the film had a deaf character. But instead of a story dealing with deaf culture, the lead was hearing and mute. My dictionary had the hand signs for deaf and hearing, but after seeing the film, I added mute with a cartoon of young Elisa with the marks on her neck. Before finishing the illustration, I verified with my ASL teacher the correct hand positioning and movement. For the future, I might even add the Canadian variant of this hand sign.

Just like Spoken Languages, ASL is constantly growing and evolving. In 2014 I was taught the hand sign for Weird. I illustrated the lesson and placed it inside my dictionary project. That version of the hand sign had similar movements to the hand sign for Strange, which uses an S hand sign instead of a W. Today’s Word of the Day is a more updated and distinct version of the Weird hand sign, which is posted on this Author’s Website for fans of the book.