In 2019, I began to collaborate with the Roots & Shoots youth program by the Jane Goodall Institute in Spain. This is an institute founded by the late Jane Goodall, a primatologist and activist, known for her long study of chimpanzees at Gombe National Park in Africa. Her work led to pioneering findings in primatology, such as the observation of chimpanzee tool use, a discovery that forced the scientific community to rethink the definition of what “human” meant at the time.

The program takes positive action through local and international projects aimed at wildlife conservation, the environment, and local communities.

I volunteered on multiple designs, including a diploma handed to new Roots & Shoots group participants.

Illustration Process

I combined hand-drawn dot-work with later digital colour refinement, combining a traditional illustration style with a finished digital touch.

This is the digital post-production stage, where the original hand-drawn dot-work was refined through colour-correction, texture work, typography, and final layout adjustments in Photoshop.

Here is the final result:

Some Roots & Shoots members that have received the diploma:

Chimpanzee Hand

A chimpanzee hand drawn so that children can compare their own hands to those of one of our closest relatives and understand the functionality of the opposable thumb.

The digital illustration was drawn in Photoshop, paying close attention to anatomy, texture, hair, and the position of the thumb. By comparing their hand with the illustration, children can explore how the opposable thumb supports gripping, climbing, touching, grooming, and manipulating objects, while learning how form relates to function in evolution.

Final version:

(more illustrations coming soon)