Learning to draw... in preparation

Some of you may recall that I mentioned a few weeks ago that I plan to start a Graphic Design course in the autumn at my local college, well my plans have changed slightly, but for the better I think. Instead of attending college to study a BTEC level qualification. I have decided to do a distance learning Graphic Design degree... part-time over the next four years. Gulp!  

The course starts in October, and the first year's syllabus runs side by side the illustration qualification, something which is thrilling and daunting in equal measure. With this in mind (and because I really wish the course was starting now and not in two months) I decided to try and teach myself to draw.

My art education at school was pretty non-existent, we had an art teacher who wafted round our classroom and a few naturally brilliant artists who made the rest of us feel inadequate, and that was pretty much all I remember. So despite getting a C Grade GCSE art, I still can't actually draw.

My quest for artistic education lead me almost entirely accidentally to Mark Kistler's You Can Draw In 30 Days (thank you Amazon!) and let me shout this from the rooftops.... It is brilliant!

The book consists of thirty 20 minute lessons. It's written in a very approachable and relaxed tone and the results though impressive to look at (in the book at least!) are easy to achieve when talked through. It's based on a few blindingly obvious principles that I wish someone had bothered to teach me at an earlier age

I'm less than a third of the way through the exercises and although I've not produced anything particularly noteworthy, I feel about a hundred times more confident than when I started, and I'm enjoying it.

So if you, like me (like so many of us?) are one of those people who would LOVE to be able to draw and never thought you could, or if you have a school-age child who would like some art exercises to do over the holidays, go buy the book, it's superb!