Illustrated Worksheets
for Kids
Over the past four years, I have created worksheets for a client who sells instructional materials to home daycare businesses. A major requirement of these worksheets is that numbers and letters must be in the Zaner-Bloser style, as that is the model for printed handwriting that elementary schools teach in Minnesota.
Worksheets for Learning Letters and Numbers
(Above) A drawing of pancakes for a set of letter worksheets in 2022.
(Above) A carton of french fries for a set of letter worksheets in 2022.
My Process:
Before creating the first set of worksheets, my first task was to find a Zaner-Bloser font. I quickly learned that I wasn't going to find it on Adobe Fonts, Fontsquirrel, or any of those sites. Some searching led me to a man in Spain who had developed a Zaner-Bloser font for teaching purposes. Using my Illustrator skills, I traced the letters and numbers so they would be fat enough for kids to color. Using Illustrator I created original drawings to accompany the letters and numbers, and I used InDesign to create the format of the worksheets.
I had fun with this project and I wanted the kids to have fun coloring the worksheets. Here is a frog that I drew to look comical.
Here is a narwhal, drawn in an imaginative way. When possible, I tried to make the animals appear friendly to young children, often giving them a smile.
