One of the best books on drawing I believe is Betty Edwards 'Drawing on the Right side of the Brain'. It's a book I've used before, a long time ago in combination with 'The Natural Way to Draw' by Kimon Nicolaides. At the time my drawing improved dramatically and I'm hoping to see a similar improvement this time round. These 4 drawings are pre-instruction drawings as directed by the book and took me between 15 and 45 minutes each.