Source: Bored Panda
For more than a decade, John Bramblitt has painted gorgeous portraits and colorful landscapes, despite the fact that he was rendered blind from epilepsy in 2001. Before you assume that he was always a successful painter, know that while art was always an important part of Bramblitt’s life, he never picked up a paintbrush until after he lost his sight.
Source: Bored Panda
Source: Bored Panda
When Bramblitt lost his eyesight, he had no idea what was in store for him. “All of the hopes and dreams that I had for my life; all of the plans for what I would do after I graduated school were gone. I was not only depressed, but in mourning. The life that I had, along with the future that I was planning, was dead and gone,” he says. “I felt like I had no potential; that basically I was a zero.”
Source: Shopify
Source: Bored Panda
Source: Bored Panda
About a year after his sight had left him, Bramblitt attempted to bring a seemingly impossible passion back in to his life–he learned to draw. Bramblitt started out using a special kind of fabric paint with raised edges, which enabled him to feel the shapes he was making. His artistic abilities only grew from that point on.
Source: Bored Panda
Source: Bored Panda
Bramblitt has found solutions to the many obstacles he faces as a blind painter, namely the ability to determine paint placement on the canvas and create the correct hues. “Basically what I do is replace everything that the eyes would do for a sighted artist with the sense of touch,” he explains. As far as color goes, “All of the bottles and paint tubes in my studio are Brailled, and when mixing colors I use recipes… I will measure out different portions of each color that I need to produce the right hue. This is no different than using a recipe to bake a cake.”
Source: Bored Panda
