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A creative Bahraini student is making waves in her school as she uses digital art to break down complex concepts, with her illustrated stories being lapped up by her peers to enhance their understanding.
Zainab Jafar, a 15-year-old from Saar secondary school, discovered her artistic skills in 2020, and has been collaborating with her teachers since then to create short stories that help her and her classmates better comprehend their lessons.
“I started drawing during the Covid-19 quarantine period, which provided me the free time to dedicate myself to the skill, and I found it to be a great tool to express my ideas and feelings,” Zainab told the GDN.
“I eventually thought of using my drawing skills to help simplify educational material, so I started summarising lessons from subjects like math, science and more, and transforming them into illustrations that facilitated understanding and comprehension.
“As exams approached, my schoolmates started sharing my drawings around, which they said helped them review information easily and quickly.
“I relied on the textbooks and my teachers’ guidance for my work as the process included extracting key information and drawing them in an organised manner, clearly including data and concepts.”
The young talent has also created a digital literary work titled The Story of Sarah and The Pearl, which tells the tale of a pearl searching for its shell. During the journey, the pearl passes by some of Bahrain’s prominent landmarks including Bahrain Fort, Bab Al Bahrain and Pearling Path, and expresses her astonishment at its rich history.
“The story took a full week to be completed, and the process included writing the script, drawing the characters and scenery, editing and proofreading,” she said.
“The biggest challenge was preparing and illustrating the storyboard using only one A3 page, but thankfully, all the hard work paid off, as the story won second place in two secondary school contests.
“I am incredibly proud of what I was able to achieve through this initiative.”
The storyteller, who aims to pursue her higher studies in engineering, is aiming to publish the story for the public in the future, as it is currently only available at her school.
“I am working on developing and expanding the story to include more scenes and historical landmarks, I am also continuing to work with my teachers to transform more lessons into illustrated stories,” she added.
The student thanked her teacher Maryam Murad for encouraging her to participate in contests, which she said has boosted her confidence.
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