Talking Pictures for Children 

Talking Pictures is an online resource for children and their adults based on artwork from the Crawford Art Gallery Collection. We will share creative prompts for happy talk and play every Wednesday.

You can download an Irish language version of this page in PDF format here.

Look Closely

Look at all of the lines that Kathy Prendergast has drawn on this hand, there are so many of them! Look closely at your own hand - can you see all the fine little lines on your palm? The tiny ridges on our palms give us better grip, so that we can hold on to things and pick things up more easily. Do you know why your hands get wrinkly in the bath? To give you a better grip in the water!

A handy fact

Us humans have opposable thumbs - which means our thumbs and fingers can work together to pick something up or to climb a tree. This makes us different to a lot of other animals - except koalas who have opposable thumbs too!

Can you think of any other animals with opposable thumbs? Can you picture a dog holding a cup of tea? What about a frog? Take a guess which of the following animals have opposable thumbs like us: 

What do our hands say about us?

Some people see a lot more than lines on our palms. All over the world you will find people who can read your palm for you, these people look at the deepest lines on your hand and tell your fortune from them. This practice is called palmistry, or palm-reading. It is hundreds of years old and is traditional in many cultures.

You and your hand

Let’s make our hands tell our own story.

Put one hand down on a piece of paper and draw around it.

Look at your hand and draw in the most important lines onto the page. 

Can you connect them to make any funny creatures?

Next we will decorate the fingers. Draw a picture of yourself on one of your fingers. What do you like to wear most?

You can use your fingers to tell your story - do you have a favourite pet or cartoon character?

Maybe you would like to include your sister or your best friend?

Imagine yourself as another creature - are you a mer-person living under the sea? Or maybe you would like to live underground and have a big nose like a mole?

Or maybe you would just like to draw yourself in five fabulous outfits? It’s your hand and your story to tell! Enjoy!

Talking Pictures: Hand was devised by Annie Forrester. We would love to hear your stories and artworks inspired by Talking Pictures! Share them with us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter using the #crawfordartgalleryhomelife.

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