Category: Crafts and Hobbies
Hi All, I found this topic interesting. I'm totally blind, and have done my share of drawing. I've drew pictures and get well cards and stuff like that. Has any of you tried to draw?
Drawing was fun. I had enough vision to use some coloring books and actually stayed in the lines. The books had to have dark bold lines of course.
When I used to see some, I would draw in spiral notebooks, and I think I used to draw more kinds of things than I do now.
Then when I was in elementary to high school, and started using the Brailler, I would draw with that. And in one of my art classes, I would draw on special foam paper or on those alluminum sheets the Braille teachers use to do graphics.
Recently, though, I've been using a drawing frame that has an indentation for a regular-sized sheet of paper and the indentation has a rough surface so that of course, when you press down while drawing, you can feel the lines you make and you have a raised-line drawing when you flip the paper.
The only drawing I've done by hand to give to someone was as part of a birthday card for my niece. It was a small cake with a number 7-shaped candle on top. But I had to ask someone else if it looked like what I wanted it to look like, since I'm not very good at drawing evenly. But mostly, I draw by tracing, or I draw people, simple shapes, and sometimes houses. I haven't tried coloring in any of the recent hand-drawn pictures yet though, but I do like coloring also.
I also would love to be able to color in a coloring book and wish they had a much larger variety of tactile ones or that you could send some printed ones to at least get the lines tactily traced. That would be pretty fun to be able to pick up a coloring book and just start coloring. *smile*
Yeh that would be fun. I like to hand write some times. I handwrite my birthday cards, get well cards, and even hand written mothers and father's day cards and my sister's party invitations.
I used to hand-make my Christmas cards with the brailler. I'd take a sheet of paper, fold it in half, and draw a Christmas tree or candles on the front side. Then, I'd put it in the brailler so that the bottom half with nothing on it went in first, and the tree candle faced the tabletop surface on which the brailler was sitting. I'd braille my message, and then put the paper in my typewriter and type the message. I know the Guild for the Blind in Chicago published books that detailed how to make drawings in braille, and I think they had some postings about such on blind cool tech.
Lou
O yes, you can find a lot about drawings on the brailler on blind cool tech.
I don't draw. I just scribbled with crayons when I was little.
hmmm, drawing. I use markers mostly, bold bright and easy to see. I don't have an eye for detail with them but oh well. I like my stuff. mostly dragons or pokemon. filled in and everything. I have enough vision to see, I just can't read print or drive. I also use crayons and colored pencils. I can get more of the little details with them, but the only person who really knows what I've drawn is myself. but I don't use them as much anymore. I tried using chalks but those were a major mess. I just have to put all of my drawing stuff in ROY G BIV order. It helps. Pink, red, orange, green, blue, purple and then nutrals ending in black. It works for me. I need to find oil pastells but I can't find them at my local art store. I just draw mostly dragons in different poses, pokemon doing different things or draw out characters for my origional stories so I have a picture of what I'm working with.
Post 2 Same thing here.
I also like coloring. I used to draw with a run-out pen on german film when I was younger, but I don't really do drawing much any more. If I had drawn a picture and I wanted to color it in, someone at my old school used to photocopy it and put the photocopy onto a special kind of paper and put that through a machine which ues heat to raidse the darker lines. I also lik coloring and I used to do q
Yes, this is interesting. I could not colour in anything, I haven't got enought sight to do it. But when I WAS little my aunty should me how to rite in capital letters. I haven't done it for a while though. Last year I made some things out of clay and they asked me if I new how to draw on clay. I didn't understand. It was a course for blind people to make things out of clay.
I can write but the problem is that I'd start at one end sort of in a straight line then end up slanting down to the bottom oposite corner of the paper. but my teacher for one of my classes last year said she could read it, which I found interesting.
hmm, a braille coloring book? sounds interesting. haha well, I can't draw for shit anyways. unless I trace around stuff. I remember I got a picture of a car and I had to draw inside the felt things on the paper.
writing is another interesting one. I was tought using large lined paper with the letter printed on it and I had to repeat it. I still can't write my signature.
Hi, all. What an interesting topic. I'm totally blind, and have been since I was in infant. But I've always loved to draw, and had my Mom and sisters help teach me how. I had tactile coloring books as a child. We ordered what was available, and my Mom made a ton of them for me as well. She'd take a regular coloring book, and trace the lines in glue. Then when the glue dried, I had a tactile coloring book. I used markers or crayons, but liked crayons best, since at least I could feel those. I also got a raised-line drawing kit, if you guys have ever heard of those. Drawing with a Perkins Brailler? Now this I've got to do some more research on. I'm curious.
I also got taught how to write. I can write all the alphabet in print, and my signature in cursive. I wanted to learn the entire alphabet in cursive as well, but no one would teach me. So, I ordered a writing kit from APH, and am teaching myself.
I should get a raised-line drawing kit. Those things seem so cool.
They are. Not sure where you can get them these days. Maybe APH?
Hi. I had someone send me an e-mail which contained directions on how to make pictures with a brailler, and sighted people could actually look at the pictures, and see what they were. I thought that was interesting.
Hmmm, wonder what happens if I google something like, "Making pictures with Perkins Brailler?" I'll have to try that.
I havee drawn on clay a couple of ways. One I like the best is with a stincel. and the other just by hand I love to do ceramics and pottery. I sometimes need to feel what ever I am copying like a dog. I have been able to see most of my life I am almost totally blind now. Where I live we have an adult art class for the last five years. I would like to know more about people who do and or love art. I am glad to see this topic.
I'd also love to draw with a brailler. Maybe I'll look that up some day.
Drawing with the brailler sounds cool! I didn't know you could do that.
I took an art class, but it didn't go that well. Um, lets just say, I kind of did poorly. I got an a though I suppose for trying. I used wickysticks to help me, but those really frustrate me. I try drawing the giant squid in the Harry Potter books. Lmao! I can write, but no one can read it, unless I tell them what I wrote.
I've been drawing since I was very young and I love it. I used to be able to see well enough that I could color in regular coloring books, staying in the lines and working on fairly detailed pictures. The only pictures I might have trouble with would be those with which I was totally unfamiliar. For example, if I saw a picture of a flower, blown-up, in great detail shown from an arial view it might confuse me. But usually I would have a coloring book that made sense to me; a Lion King coloring book, a teddy bears coloring book, puppies and kittens, transpirtation, flowers, trees and rainbows, outerspace, marine life, etc. I could figure out pictures in context quite well based on the subject matter of the book. For example, if I saw an image that wasn't processing and I covered the most complicated area of crowded lines I might see the shape of a tailfin in the less complex section. I could then trace the drawing with my eyes and locate the dorsil fin, the flippers, the main body structure and the mouth of the dolphin, thereby identifying it. I'd then look for smaller identifyable details such as the eyes, lines on the fins to give them the illusion of texture, a piece of seeweed shown in the foreground more so than the dolphin, such that it appeared to be on the body, small individual leaves of an underwater plant. Sometimes coloring in small known sections would allow me to isolate those sections I didn't grasp right away and once they were set apart I could identify them. I would only rarely have to ask someone to identify something for me, usually things I had not seen before, or at least not from that particular perspective, and then I could incorperate what I was seeing into my working knolege of shapes and images. It was very helpful that I had some usable sight as it allowed me to grasp such concepts as three dementional, foreground and background, visual distance and near/far preportionality. Over time I needed coloring books with darker and thicker lines. Sometimes I would have pages of ordinary coloring books photo coppied, enlarged and have the lines boldened. After a while that wasn't enough and so I would have photo coppies made, enlarged and then rico fused. Unlike simple raised line drawings that are purely tactal, the rico fuse drawings were both tactil and allowed me to continue to be able to see what I was doing with the thick black lines. I think that helped me to retain my ability to connect visual and tactal input. I would also draw free-hand. Although I enjoyed it very much and although my images were quite good and accurate, my lines were very dark and course which gave even serious drawings too much of a coloringbook quality. Also I tended towards very bright colors which made my pictures look too childish. My tendency towards high contrast didn't help either. I fully understand and appreciate the subtlety of pencil drawings, carefully selected gradiating colors and maticulous shading; I simply could not utalize such techniques in my free-hand drawings. Now I am more able to do so when creating works in other mediums. When I stopped being able to accurately color in the lines I was creating images with I resorted to line drawings. When I seesed to be able to connect lines exactly where I wanted them, leaving distorted shapes and small gaps in my work I gave up. I now use a conplex system of craypas, watercolors, wickey stix and oil paints, which can be made to look quite professional and impressive with a little work. I'd describe that process, but it is a bit complicated. If anyone is interested I will explain it, as it is quite fun and yields nice results.
Relying on accessible coloring books will severely limit you. Have a sighted family member or friend help you pick out some nice coloring books. Take those to somewhere like kinkos and have someone there show your sighted friend how to enlarge the images, bolden the lines and print them out. Then if you need tactil too, find a TVI in your area who will rico fuse them for you for a small fee. Many will do this for free and it is so worth it; it works wonderfully. I would reccomend however that you use either crayons or when using markers give sections time to dry as the ink will beed up a bit on the surface of the rico paper. As for drawing with the Braille writer; I have done it and it is amusing to sighties, but it is not a serious art form, at least in there eyes and besides I far prefer works with colors even though I can no longer see them. Also, drawing in Braille is a pain in the ass unless you have a Braille writer that holds it's spacing well and has good solid locks to keep the paper in place during typing. All of my Braillers are functional but too old and with not enough persision to draw with anymore. I too put my supplies in R O Y G B I V order. It is a real help and it makes sense to sighted people who might help you get things in order in the first place. I always work red, red orange, orange, yellow orange, yellow, yellow green, green, blue green, blue, blue purple, purple, red purple, black, grey, white, brown, tan. I also organize dark to light, vibrant to pastelle and group glittery colors or other specialty colors at the end of the variations of their particular color. I've used the drawing frames before but I don't care for them. The tactil outline fades rather quickly with time, the lines are too thick and childish looking and if you use an actual colored medium such as crayon it will not cover evenly, or in the case of pencils will stab through, or markers and pens which will make the paper moist and undo the tactil effect. I would highly reccomend fuzzy posters. They are paper with a very thin flocked material making up the background and or the outlines of a picture which can be colored in on the exposed paper. They come with their own markers and are very fun and nice and tactil and easy to see. They are not for blind people, rather they are made for sighties and work well for low vision individuals and even totals. I hated tracing, as it requires little creativity and is simply using someone else's image as your own. I can understand using a form to trace and then embellishing it though as that can be very helpful and is still creative and requires skill. I actually found in a lot of cases that using tracing forms or stensils was actually more difficult than working free-hand as the stensil could move and then re-aligning it was very hard. I can hand write in print quite well, if a bit big and can write quite small for a blind person if I pay close attention and press down firmly with a pen on a piece of paper with a pad of paper behind it to help the initial sheet take the impression. I can not write in cursive, accept for my signature and I really hated trying to learn it in third grade. Yarg. I also did all of my IPA International Phonetic Alphabet assignments in college by hand-writing them because it was easier than doing them in Braille then sending them off for a transcriber to prepare for my professor. IPA can not easily be produced with the computer and is very different and more complicated then the ordinary letters of the print or cursive alphabet. I never cared for the foam paper that raises a line when you use a felt tipped marker, because you get a very impresise fuzzy looking line and once you start to try coloring it in everything gets smeery and the paper raises unevenly and looks generally a mess and awful. If I'm not mistaken, from an earlier post; "at my old school used to photocopy it and put the photocopy onto a special kind of paper and put that through a machine which ues heat to raidse the darker lines" refers to the rico fuse process. Also from an earlier post, I think that; "a picture of a car and I had to draw inside the felt things on the paper." refers to fuzzy posters. To the poster who's mother made ordinary coloringbooks accessable to her with lines of glue; that's very awsum that your sighted parent was interested enough and creative enough to do that for you. I've had a few TVIs use glue lines in a pinch to adapt simple drawings and graphs for me when they didn't have a rico fuser or a tactil drawing kit. I think the tactil drawing kit has some tools with sharpened, spikey little pizza wheel looking things that produce a raised line on the opposite side of the paper? We had something like that in our house, although I didn't care for how the tools would not turn easily to make sharp angles and presise shapes. Aside from writing my name for the purpose of signing checks and legal doccuments and such I never saw the point in learning cursive writing as ninety-nine percent of all signs that have raised lettering are in print. Also most people write in print and those who do write in cursive often write so illegibly that even though they are sighted and even though those trying to read their work are sighted they can barely make it out. lol I have drawn on clay a few times, mostly to enhance my three dementional ceramics pieces. I like to do so, because if you screw up you can use some water and some slip and just smooth it out with your fingers, let it dry for a while then try carving it out again with your drawing implement.
I drew simple figures and houses and colored them in when I had a bit of sight, but wouldn't try now! I also did drawings with the brailler in elementary school, I'm surprised to know that they have books about that! How marvelous!
My mobility teacher had this cool map making kit, and you pressed symbols and lines into heavy foil paper, and that was great fun to play with, though I didn't often get to; I imagine the foil was expensive.
When I was about eight, my grandmother gave me a tracing wheel, I guess it's used in sewing?--and so I could do reversed line drawings with that, and I remember being able to keep that made me very, very happy! A few years ago, I got an old tracing wheel with a Bakelite handle from the '30s on Ebay, and so I still have fun with this, now and then, although I doubt I'd let anyone see my creations. LOL
I would love to learn how to make something of quality, though, maybe some work with clay, but I haven't looked into where I might take classes.
I was taught cursive writing in a summer program in high school, at the state school, but only enough to write my name. I sort of taught myself the rest of the letters, and was told I had beautiful handwriting. That was nice to hear, although I never thought it was anything extraordinary, I was just copying the shapes I memorized from the book. *grin* Now, from lack of practice, I've forgotten most of the letters, and I really regret that. Thanks, Sister Dawn, I will check APH for a handwriting book! I had no clue where one would find such a thing. The couple of times I've inquired about one, I was told no such book existed. I'd love to be able to get some raised-line paper, perhaps, and write letters and little notes to friends and such. Since it's not something I, as a totally blind person, would do everyday, and unnecessary, I sort of view handwriting as an art.
sculpting is fun, all you really need to learn is how to score pieces proporly and how to wrap a piece in progress, keeping it damp but not too damp, keeping it tightly wrapped but not enough to crush what you are working on. how to stencil stuff onto it, making luminaries, cutting out the patterns, how to do the little details, like the skales or the eyes or the teeth and wing patterns of a dragon, or the scales and paterns of a snake. also how thick you have to make a bowl or plate or mug or any piece like that. other than that, sculpting really isn't that hard. it's quite fun!
I'm going to see if I can get into some potery class. Hmm, I once did that in school.
I would make things out of clay.
I miss doing that.
i am parshally bliend and i do know how to draw thanks to a few of my art teachers in highschool.
sigh, I miss sculpting, grr, same goes for pencil drawings, I've done some good ones, one that was hanging in the capital of CT in a VI artshow, but, we can all admit that we're never going to be on par with a sighted person. we all can come close, but still. and that gauls a bit
I'm totally blind too, since birth & I color with crayons & my screen board. I do draw with pencils, but I don't try to "actually" draw anything with them, because you can't feel your outlines, at least I can't.
I've got a few podcasts with step-by-step instructions on how to draw some pictures like a shamrock, some hearts superimposed iwthin each other, etc. After getting my Perkins brailler back yesterday, I drew the hearts. God,that one's a challenge, but it turned out just fine. lol All I have left to do is the snowmn. If anyone would like these podct episodes, i can send them to you over skype.
erm ... correction, that was supposed to be a snowman. lol
I have done some with a Perkins Brailler, basically a Christmas tree on a card taped to my daughter's gift, and using a tracing wheel to do diagrams for sound creations back in the late 80s and early 90s.
I also experimented with wood carving - pretty primitive stuff like arrow heads, spear shafts and points, etc., when I was a boy. Never any good at handwriting except I've got my signature.
But here's what I want to know:
For those of you born blind, what do you get out of coloring books, or colors-only art? I mean, I understand the importance of color, we all do, but for me it's never been more than analysis since I have no real basis on which to interpret it, outside of the parameters based in literature, etc.
As a programmer I can find where a color resides on the RGB spectrum, but to do actual art, I'm curious how you both do and enjoy it? I had to color in stuff during school I think in early grades, but it was more of a chore than anything; apply wax to paper and not outside the raised lines lest you disturb the masters ... <g>
I know that when being tought to handwrite, I was fraught with many frustrations:
My inability to check my work, and being subject to massively imprecise measurement techniques while still needing to adhere to at least some form of legibility made me give it up. I did get a Braille handwriting syllabus, but it was said in the book you had to practice an hour a day to maintain it. How exactly does one practice something one can't even verify? Then there's the fact it can't be read except by a family member who just happens to have been exposed to so much scribble they can manage - a strain on their part I imagine.
But it sounds like some of you have surpassed all this, if you in fact enjoy writing / drawing? Do you all use Optacons to check your work out?
This is something I've never asked or even heard anyone bring up. Frankly I'm impressed, especially with those of you say you've been blind basically your whole life and yet you manage this. I don't really want to draw but am quite curious.
I drew some pictures when I was little, wrote and sometimes even just scribbled. I could not really feel the lines, they though could see that it was a girl in a long dress I was drawing. Just shortly I drew a picture of a woman in a dress and long curly hair standing in a meadow. right side of her was a tree with a bird sitting on it, right up you culd see part of the setting sun, left side of her were some flowers and clouds were in front of the sun. the girl is smiling. I showed that to a sighted person and this person told me you could really recognize what it should be. I was quite proud of it.
I love taking art classes even though I haven't done any in a long time. I usually draw on those alluminum sheets or on a foam type of paper. I even won first prize in an art show for an alluminum drawing I did in high school. I also remember drawing on the braille writer in elementary school. I think I'll check it out on blind cool tech.
To the person who commented that most of our drawing may not be on par with those of sighted people, you may be right. I do think, however, that sometimes, the joy is in trying to meet the challenge of completing the task. As a musican and writer, I don't think any of my works will ever be perfect, but I really enjoy the process of seeing how my work can be improved.
Lou
don't draw, but do do fingers painting as a hobby type of thing. mostly abstract type of work.
before this i thought visual art its impossible for the blind or people who have sight problem, untill i met a VI visual artist early last year, he inspire me to do my own visual art...
for those that is interested, some of my crappy work can be found at
http://www.redbubble.com
and search for season, will be the first on the list. :P
Well, when I was little and had a bit better sight, my mom would outline pictures in a coloring book with black crayon so I could follow the lines and I kept my colors in a certain order so I could find them. Needless to say, I used the standard pack of eight crayons. She never outlined the small stuff like eyes or bushes, but basic outlines of people animals houses letters plants, whatever. Now, that my sight is worse, I use braille to make braille drawings. It's amazing what you can make using the basic braille letters, punctuation, and number signs. Sometimes it takes a bit of trial and error, but it workes after a while.
I do draw with a reading pad or rather a rubber mat sometimes and now people can read my letters, but... yes, not an artist. *grins*
I draw on the perkins brailler. st and ch help with the curvey lines. Fors help with definate solid things like brick walls. I like to use kkkkkkk for things like snow or lace on a lady's gown. It's also good for hair. Xxxxxxxxx is also good for hair depending on the texture of the hair. I like to use x hair for gentlemen and kk hair for ladies. Eyebrows are st, c, ch and eyes are g. Noses are five six, for, two three. Mouths are e two five I one right on top of the other. If you want a broader smile, I like to use E F F D I for the top lip and en low H low H, low J, in for the bottom lip. that makes it look like they have teeth. I like thee for a hand. It looks like the fingers are curved that way. I always go between the lines when using fors to give it a solid look. There's no need for that with k and x though. Tell me what you think.
Utt
I used to have some sight so i believe it has helped me now. I'm in a AP Art = Advanced Placement Art class which is like a college class just taught at high school, and I've done some drawings which i've been told are good. If you want to draw but don't know how to or you are afraid of messing up use wicky sticks. They stick and pill off any type of solid surfice easyly. you can shap the sticks and then trace inside outside whatever :d