Tips on painting again

A number of our patients used to paint for their enjoyment. The challenge is that painting is much more difficult when someone has lost some vision. We can’t make painting the same as before vision loss but we can help low vision patients express their artistic spirits again using some different strategies.

As is true for much of our work, good lighting makes almost everything easier for our patients. We worked with a patient who really wanted to paint again. In her case, shining the light from her left side onto the canvas worked best. We then taught her to make outlines of the shapes she wanted to paint using a bold lined marker. That way she could fill in the shapes using the colors and textures that she wanted. Lastly, we suggested that she paint using bold, vibrant colors. The vibrant colors offer more contrast and makes it easier for her to see and fill in her shapes. Our patient did, "better than I thought" and will started experimenting using oil versus acrylic paints. 

We were very pleased to help this patient paint again and "fill in much of that hole in my soul."