Angharad Thomas – Creativity and Life Long Learning

I’m retired from a mixed career in teaching, youth work and textile design. I always intended to do more drawing but, without some sort of structure and deadlines, I never got round to it. In my mid 70s, I decided that a course would provide those incentives so I searched and found the OCA Foundation courses.

After a lot of thought, I decided that the Drawing for Textile Art, Design and Fashion would be ideal for me. I am happy with the idea of working over the internet and with the content provided by the OCA. I was also happy that the OCA is part of the Open University, as that has a long experience in distance teaching. I thought that the fee seemed reasonable for what you get.

My favourite part of the course were the drawing exercises, where you had to do things that you might not have thought of doing – like drawing with the opposite hand from your usual one, or drawing without looking at what you are drawing. I also liked having a sketch book and the opportunity to use a variety of materials, again, things that I might not have known about or different from my usual ones. And I have also very much enjoyed getting the monthly newsletters from the OCA about courses and exhibitions and online drawing sessions and classes and have joined in several of these at no extra cost!

I found the online aspects difficult at times, it felt complicated and time consuming to get to grips with things. Having said that, the teaching materials were easy to access and my tutor was great. I needed more time for the course as I had two replacement surgeries during it (knee and hip!) and was able to apply for extra time via student support, which was really helpful.

Samples of course exercises from Angharad Thomas. 

Hear more about studying with OCA through our Open Days resources here!