Nicer quality quicktime version available here

Betty Edwards’ Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is a book that every aspiring artist should have as it completely demystifies the process. Drawing is not a God-given talent gifted to a lucky few but a skill that anyone can acquire provided they take the appropriate steps and then, as they say, practice makes perfect!

Another drawing book that I’ve found very useful is Drawing Masterclass by Ron Bowen. It features a mixture of very useful exercises, where, rather like Betty Edwards’ book, the emphasis is on learning to see as opposed to mere mark making on paper. It is also packed full of drawings of all sorts of styles and eras, from comic books to architectural plans, cave paintings to 19th century masters. As far as I know this one isn’t currently in print so it’s one to look out for in second hand bookshops.

What I like about these books in particular is that they teach you not only to look at the world but explain how it is that we see the world, our primal need to conceptualize our environment and how this in turn affects how we then render that world on paper. So while there are many books that can tell you how to cross hatch, or stipple or use the box model, and so and so on, it’s the seeing business we need to understand first which is why I think that these books are good beginning points.

And when those books get you drawing then the next step is to start challenging your creativity a little more which is where the third book comes in, another Betty Edwards’ title called Drawing on the Artist Within. The focus here is on drawing too but there is plenty of useful advice that will help you with creative thinking and problem solving in many areas of life.

Commit to drawing something every day for a month. To join in or find out more check out this post.

(and if you liked the video you should check out Amanda’s website)

Here’s how the OU describe it: “This course offers a wide-ranging introduction to literary texts and how they are studied. Fiction, poetry and drama all have a place in the course and there is a variety of literature to read, study, analyse and enjoy. The texts selected for study are drawn mostly from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but also include three Shakespeare plays. You will find other familiar names among the authors – Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Alice Walker, William Blake – and also some that are less familiar, such as Aphra Behn and Susan Glaspell.

“The focus throughout the course is on texts (words on the page or drama in performance), and the course material is designed to help you to gain a full understanding of the set texts. We also introduce some of the main ways in which critics approach literature, so that you can come to an understanding of what it means to study this subject. By the end of the course you should be equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to go on to literary studies at Level 3.”

It’s divided into four blocks, the first of which is called The Realist Novel. It introduces the concept of genre by looking at the development of the 19th century novel. I suspect that I might enjoy this block the most as it includes one of my favourite novels, Pride and Prejudice.

Of the other set texts there’s Shelley’s Frankenstein which I’d already read before and again a couple of weeks ago. An interesting read and still very relevant in its message.

I struggled through Great Expectations. Another one I’d read before but I’d manage to forget what an annoying little twerp Pip is for a large part of the book. I kept wanting to give him a smack, insufferable little snob that he was! I must admit to not being a fan of Dickens, a lot of his humour is lost on me and the prospect of having to read Dombey and Son, a great big doorstopper of a book that is one of my set texts for an OU course to come, makes my heart sink!

But getting back to A210, the final of the novels is Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons. For some reason I thought I wasn’t going to like it, I had this preconceived idea that it was going to be some terribly serious poe-faced poliitical tract but I ended up really enjoying it. Although I have to point out that I didn’t like the translation, too many modern turns of phrases are used, very jarring coming from the mouths of 19th century Russians.

BUT and it’s a big BUT! I still have my exam for U211 to surmount, it’s a week and half away and I shall be putting A210 on the back burner for now as I will be spending all my time revising, revising, revising!