Contributor Marda Bartel - Review of "Drawing With Your Perkins
Brailler"
So who says we blind folks can't draw? Not me. I've been making
greeting cards for friends and my students for several months now and
have started teaching others to draw.
I got started a couple of months ago when I bought a Braille book
called "Drawing with Your Perkins Brailler." I had heard about the
book a while back and it was something that I'd wanted to explore, so
one day I just decided to order it and I haven't had so much fun with
a new hobby for a long time.
"Drawing with Your Perkins Brailler," by Kim Charlson, is like a
recipe book of directions on how to draw 36 line drawings using
nothing but heavyweight Braille or construction paper and your Classic
Perkins Brailler. The book begins with a brief history of the Brailler
and some other introductory material and then launches straight into
the hands-on how-to.
The book is divided into four theme-based sections--basic shapes
(large and small squares, rectangles, triangles and diamonds),
animals, holiday drawings, and drawings related to transportation. The
directions are clear and line numbers make it easier to keep track of
where you are as you complete the picture. After being drawn, the
pictures can be colored in if desired. I use scented markers and
scented colored pencils as well as crayons labeled in Braille if I
color the pictures in.
This book is a wonderful resource which can appeal to a wide audience
in the blindness community. For young children, it can be a way of
reinforcing concepts of shape and of how things can be represented on
paper. For newly blind adults learning Braille, the book can help them
to stay motivated to learn new Braille symbols and to practice their
writing skills. The thing I like best about the book is that sighted
people actually recognize what I've drawn without my having to tell
them!
It takes a little patience to do this, but as long as the directions
are followed, the pictures come out great and give people a real sense
of accomplishment. Recently, I taught a twelve-year-old boy how to
draw a dog. He didn't want to start with basic shape--he wanted to
dive right into the more complex drawings. The first time we did one,
I read him the directions while he worked the Brailler. This boy lost
his sight due to a brain tumor, so still remembers what things look
like. He fell in love with the pictures in the book and after he'd
drawn the dog, he went on to draw a bear independently, using the
Brailler with one hand while he read the directions with the other. By
that time, he was hooked and wanted me to get him a book so he could
draw on his own. When I told him how much the book cost, $24.95 from
www.perkinsproducts.org, I thought that was the end of it, that he
couldn't afford the price. But the next week he showed up with $25 so
he got his copy of the book.
I would encourage anyone, whether you think you have artistic talent
or not, to try using this book to make your own Braille pictures. I'm
very glad I did.
