One of the things that’s recommended is to read the course handbook all the way through before you start, so that’s what I’m doing; one section a day during my lunch hour at work.

After reading the first section, I was feeling quite positive but after the second section, with the incredible detail shown in some of the examples I’m all nervous again.

The thing is, I’m really nervous about drawing.  REALLY nervous.  And because I’m nervous, I don’t practice and so I don’t improve.  I really want to BE ALLOWED to proceed the bits of the course I want to do, but because I really want to work towards a degree (gotta get that external verification) I’ve got to do well in the drawing modules, which makes me nervous.

So: what to do?

I know from my work on the Portfolio Course at Bridgehouse Art that I can draw after a fashion and I did improve during that time, and I know that the secret is concentration.  Taking the time to look, taking the time to consider.  Getting into the headspace where there is you, your paper and pencil (or whatever) and whatever it is that you’re drawing.

A Zen place.

And that means allowing yourself the time to dedicate to the drawing.  No alarms, no phones, no distractions.  You can’t really do your homework on the bus on this course.  Unless, of course, you’re drawing the people on the bus…

In other news, the booklist is all on a wishlist on Amazon, just waiting to be ordered (apart from the one that’s out of print, of course!) and I’m planning on buying some really nice cartridge paper, but I’m waiting until the end of the course read through to see if I need anything special at any point (Bockingford is mentioned at one point in Section 2.