Digital Painting

‘Autism: It’s The Little Things’ will be a series of books available as both a printed version and an electronic version. The goal at the moment is to create a printed version of one book to see how this would work. The first book is an introduction to the characters and narrative. It begins when the character john is just a baby. The narrative explains how at the beginning John did not speak. This is an example of one of the traits of autism in young children. Autism varies in its severity but it is not unusual for young children with the condition to have limited speech. The character of John as a baby was created for the debut book. As the character does not speak much he was designed and described as having a sewn up mouth . The mouth was sewn together and prevented him from speaking or expressing himself verbally. The character received mixed reviews during a recent presentation. The metaphor of the sewn up mouth was admired by one tutor but the others seemed to think it was quite scary. Looking back on the design, it is easy to see where they are coming from. There is a Frankenstein like feel to the baby.  This could give out mixed messages to readers and onlookers. This was not intentional. It was felt that the closed mouth was a way to express the child’s frustration not being able to say what was wrong when he was upset and annoyed. The final design will be looked at again and this feedback will be taken on board. When it comes to the final design outcome the character of the baby may be redesigned in a slightly different way. There will be some decision making to be done in regards to whether or not that image is discarded or used. 

The story continues through John growing up and how he learned to talk. It shows the transformation from being able to say nothing to being able to express his feelings verbally. It also shows the reader all the mischief the character gets up too and reveals the little sense of danger the character with autism possesses.  From naturalistic observation, the author recalls the times where her brother would get himself into all kinds of dangerous situations. He would climb up on to the roof of the house, climb up trees and run across the road without checking for cars. He had no fear in what could happen next. 

The narrative also recalls the times when John would do the things he shouldn’t do. Like drawing on the walls and cutting his own hair .  The story continues to John growing up and how he dealt with going to school and interacting with other people. It shows the transition from being a little baby who could not speak to a young man who becomes quite social and can express himself through words. The author recollects how he would talk to anyone and everyone as well as anything and everything, including himself.