How to photograph a pencil drawing

At the end of every class you photograph your page and send it in for review. A good photo matters more than you'd think: pencil is subtle, and a shadow across the page or a tilted angle can hide exactly the lines we want to look at. Here's how to get it right in under a minute.

1. Use daylight if you can

Put the drawing near a window, but not in direct sunlight. Soft daylight shows the full range of pencil tones. If it's evening, use a lamp from one side rather than the ceiling light, which tends to cast your own shadow onto the page.

2. Lay it flat

Put the paper flat on a table, not propped up or held in your hand. If it curls, weigh the corners down with a couple of mugs.

3. Shoot from straight above

Hold your phone directly over the middle of the page, screen parallel to the table. Shooting at an angle squashes the drawing, which makes proportions look wrong even when they're right.

4. Watch for your shadow

Your phone and arm can throw a shadow across the page. Step a little to the side of the light, or zoom in slightly from further away.

5. Fill the frame

Get the whole drawing in, with a little margin around it. You don't need to crop it; we'll see it as it is.

Then send it

Upload it from the class page as soon as the lesson ends, or from your dashboard any time in the next seven days. Add a note if there's something particular you'd like us to look at, like "the nose always looks flat". The more specific your question, the more specific the answer.