Thinking about visual literacy

This semester, I am on leave to work on a book for the Visual Literacy course that I teach at James Madison University. So far, I have outlined the book and have written most of the first chapter. At this point, I am dissatisfied with all of the WORDS and have decided to switch gears. I realize verbal explanations are important, but I am going to practice what I will be teaching and attempt to integrate meaningful PICTURES! 

While it is tempting (and easier) to use clipart, I am developing my own symbols, icons, and images to explain some of the concepts I will be trying to teach. This is a time consuming project, which definitely will take me longer than one semester to finish!

I would like to use some color illustrations, but that will need to come later. In the meantime, I will be kicking in to high gear to get a rough draft of the book ready for the spring.