And before anyone makes me out to be an idiot, I'd like to make two things clear:
- I'm aware that smiling, frowning, and crying/laughing are pretty much universal
- I'm talking about people who are completely blind from birth, not the legally or recently blind
I have a blind character in my comic. Granted, I won't actually have to start drawing him until much later, but that's good because it gives me time to straighten these things out.
So I was thinking about how I would draw a certain scene, and I imagined I'd make him roll his eyes at something. But then I thought: wait, where would he have learned to roll his eyes??
That's a behavior you have to mimic to learn, right? I mean, babies don't eyeroll...and seeing as it's a silent gesture, I don't think he'd be able to perceive it...
So that started me down the rabbit hole...basically, I think there's a limit to how many gestures you can learn to use when you can't see. Pointing wouldn't be out of the question, I don't think (sound is directional, too) but things like eyerolling, shrugging, sticking out your tongue, and hand gestures (from to ) I think someone would have to make a conscious effort to teach to him.
What bugs me is that'll make it that much harder to draw him: in comics, you really depend on those gestures and movements to convey emotion. I do have it a bit easier than most, since he's not a very emotional person (he's grouchy, but reasonable). But I do wonder what I'm going to be able to do with him in conversational scenes.