Yes, well, you could see I was in a temper when I did the first drawing yesterday. I couldn’t leave the chair without having another go or I’d never have gone back to it. I wasn’t trying and the angle of the chair seat, in particular, was ludicrously wrong. It still wasn’t right next time – and AQ’s suggestion of tracing the outline of the chair and comparing it is a sensible one. It’s not cheating if it is a learning aid and it wouldn’t matter if it were.

I’ll look for something positive, all the same. The front left leg, the top part, is pretty good. It tails off at the foot, but there. And the right back leg has a confident sweep, though it’s wrong both at top and bottom. The fancy bit in the middle of the back would have a C for effort. Overall, dreadful though.

The second drawing shows some attempt at thought. I looked at the radiator, which was a horizontal line, and realised how little from the horizontal was the chair seat. I’d assumed a greater angle to give the idea of perspective and I hadn’t really looked, first time round. I did note that the curved line of the left back of the chair carried straight down to the front right leg. I found the relative lengths of the legs very difficult though. I also made the top of the chair too tall and the legs too short, though the top left curve of the chair back, if not entirely accurate, pleases me somewhat and I managed a bit of highlighting. Yes, there is too much clutter behind, which (because of the red wastepaper basket) made the detail in the centre of the back difficult to see, but I was sitting where I was comfortable and relaxed, which I wasn’t when, as suggested, I put the chair against a blank wall. I could tune out the rest of the background and didn’t find it a problem. As Scarlet says, the resizing and initial drawing on glass was really unhelpful. It was only suggested for one negative shape and I was absolutely unable to hold the glass still and draw accurately. I have no idea how to transfer a drawing when I’m only allowed a single crosshair, in any case. I’ve nothing to go by. I’ve read the chapter several times and it hasn’t helped at all. What was helpful was being told to look at the negative space and see it ‘pop’ into view. It does. I could feel my focus change.

I’ll try a different chair and give it another go. Then I’ll move swiftly on before I bore myself right out of my pants.