May 3, 2009
The question was: What is the best $10 investment you ever made?" It was posed on another blog. I posted my response. As copied here:
My best $10 investment had to be the $9.95 I paid for “How to Draw the Human Figure.” A large table-type book. I was 19 years old, serving in the Army, stationed in Germany (1957). I came from a small Ozark town, I had long loved to draw, but I had never had a formal art class. (Such was not taught in the small school.) I had never paid more that 2 bucks or so for a book before. I couldn’t resist. I bought it. And started drawing - page by page -working my way through the book from start to finish.
When I was discharged I knew I wanted to study art. My family had moved to California and I enrolled that fall in a junior college. The first (and only) in my family to do so. The second semester I was introduced to figure drawing. I was nervous. I knew I would be in the midst of students who had studied art in high school - even before. I need not have worried. I did fine. I caught the teacher’s attention for my work. Thanks for that $9.95 investment I felt secure in pursuing my art.
