Word: DRAW

This drawing was inspired by my friend Tuko who lives in Hawaii.

I took my work to the beach this past Wednesday, as planned.  There was only one problem, I took my sketch book out of my bag, looked at the list of words, then put it all back in my bag, rolled over on my towel, and took a nap.  So much for my mobile office.

Word: SUMMER

SUMMER

It's summertime here in San Diego.  Let's see, what would I rather do...sit at my desk and work... or go to the beach ?  Luckily, I have the best job in the world because I don't have to choose.  I just take my work to the beach! I have to admit though, wouldn't it be so nice to have everyone in the world stop working for the summer?  No bills, no worries, no work. We could all be kids for July and August.  Discuss amongst yourselves.......

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Word: CONTINUE

CONTINUE

I'm back!  I just finished another batch of words, which brings me to a grand total of 800!  I haven't really taken the time to look back at the entire 800, but... man, that's a lot of drawings.  Now to get started sketching the next 100.  I hope somewhere in my little brain are a few more fresh ideas.

Word: SLOW

SLOW

I've been working away on the next batch of 100 sketches.  Six more to go.... Sometimes it feels like it's going so slowly, I've now been working on this dictionary for 2 1/2 years.  When I saw this article on the computer yesterday I felt a lot better.  This project should be done by the end of the year.

Later Dude, I Mean, Bye Oprah...

One of my California Christmas t-shirts

Quite a few years ago I illustrated and produced a line of t-shirts with the theme "California Christmas". One of  my bright ideas was to send a box of them to Oprah Winfrey.  One day I came home and on my answering machine was a message from Oprah Winfrey herself!  She just wanted to call me to thank me for the shirts.  One of the designs was of this reindeer looking up from a surfboard at a giant wave.  The caption was " Think Big".  At the end of Oprah's message she added, " I'm thinkin big girl".  Yeah, Oprah's the real deal.  This doesn't have anything to do with the dictionary, but  since this seems to be celebrity week here on my blog, and it's her last show tomorrow, I thought I'd throw it in. Plus, it's a pretty cool story...bye Oprah.

Congratulations Marlee Matlin !!

EXCITED

I just wanted to congratulate and thank Marlee Matlin for the great job she did on Celebrity Apprentice.  I don't normally follow that show, but Marlee made it interesting, being one of the most famous deaf people in this country.  She is beautiful, talented and smart, an awesome spokesperson for deaf children.  Watching the finale with the New York School For The Deaf kids signing a song with Marlee, then the whole audience applauded (the deaf way), GREAT!   That was just what I needed to get me through the last 250 drawings.  I really hope this dictionary makes it fun for deaf kids to learn sign language.  If anyone out there knows Marlee, tell her about this dictionary, she can be the project manager on this task any day!!

Word: MOTHER

                                  HAPPY MOTHERS DAY

MOTHER

Just wanted to wish all of you Moms out there a great day.  One thing I've noticed on mothers day, you see a lot of dads and kids out at the park or the mall or where ever.  Who you don't see joining them is the mom.  You know why?  Because the last thing a mother wants to do on Mothers day is spend her day taking care of anyone!  The only women you see with their families are the poor senior citizen moms, who have lost their drivers licenses a long time age and are taken hostage and forced to have lunch at an all you can eat buffet. 

Word: TREE

This is what's so great about little kids, who wants to sit around and draw a tree, when you can actually make your self INTO a tree.  Although, if  I saw two grown women  doing this, I don't know, just the visual of that would be kind of ugly.

my drawing of a TREE

Gilly and Rosie being TREES!

Word: GIVE

GIVE

This is an example of working backwards.  On the list I made of different looking locales was Hawaii.  I thought of the tradition of giving a visitor a lei.  Going down my list of words, there it was...GIVE!  Aloha!

Colors

I think I have  every single color of the rainbow on my list.  Here are a few examples.  I tried to think of  something different for all of them.

There's a funny story that goes with each one, but .......WHADYA THINK, I'VE GOT ALL DAY TO SIT AROUND AND THINK UP FUNNY STORIES TO AMUSE YOU???  I've got sketches to do!!!!!!!!

He could only find one BROWN sock.

He held his breath until he turned BLUE

He was captain of the YELLOW team.

Working Backwards

One way I use to come up with different ideas is to work backwards.  I start by making lists of things like, time periods, occupations, famous people, fictional characters, etc.  Then I choose one, for example,Venus Fly Trap is an interesting looking thing.  I guess that was under the category, "interesting looking things.  So I start going down my list of words to see how I could use it.  It didn't take long, when I came to CLOSE (V).  So there it was, a Venus Fly Trap closing on a poor little fly!

My List (along with some notes about having some double hung
windows made, which has nothing to do with this job.)

Word: CLOSE (V)

Progress Report.....

pay ATTENTION

Here's a progress report for the month of April......uh, do we really have to talk about this?  My goal was to have 100 sketches done by the end of the month.  I have a long way to go.  There is no way I could have a job where I had to show up for work every day and just start coming up with ideas, 9-5.  My boss would look out the window and say,"what the hell is she doing outside pulling weeds?"  Today is the day though, here come the sketches.

Help AMERICA!

Word: AMERICA

When I attended a Veterans Day event this year, there were a group of girls who performed some patriotic songs in sign language.  Every time their arms went straight up I thought it was for the word AMERICA, which I also thought represented the Statue of Liberty.  So that's how I came up with the image for AMERICA.  I don't remember which songs they performed and after watching all the patriotic songs being signed on Youtube I don't see anyone making that motion.... it's not America, freedom, bombs bursting in air, stars....If anyone out there knows what that sign means, let me know, it's bugging me.

Something For Everyone

                                      HAPPY EASTER

Word: EAR

Word: JESUS

The Little Ant That Could

Word: ROCK

One of the picture books I've illustrated is called "Hey Little Ant".  For those of you who have written a children's book and never been able to get anyone to publish it, here's a little encouragement.  The man who wrote "Hey Little Ant's name is Phillip Hoose.  I believe he tried for ten years to get his story published.  He never gave up, when finally Tricycle Press agreed to publish it.  That was in 1998.  It's now been in print for 13 years, sold over 1,000,000, copies and is in something like 12 languages.  It is now an imprint of Random House and is soon to be an ebook.  That just goes to show you, if you really believe in your story, don't give up!