"I drew our teapot every morning for a fortnight. It's still the same teapot. I'm not."Look at that ellipse! — M.
Online drawing course · from Leith, Edinburgh
Anyone canlearn to draw.
Ten weeks, twenty minutes a day, one sketchbook. Morven Innes teaches you to see the way artists do, from your first wobbly ellipse to a portrait in graphite and red chalk.
Every drawing is five easy drawings, one on top of the other.
Scroll slowly and watch Morven's week-nine demo build itself, layer by layer. Each layer is something you'll practise on its own first.
The method
Every drawing is five easy drawings, one on top of the other.
- 1
Construction, in blue pencil week 7
A ball for the skull, a slice off the side, a line down for the jaw. Blue is light and forgiving, so you can be wrong out loud. Measure in thirds: hairline to brow, brow to nose, nose to chin.
- 2
Gesture week 6
One long, loose line for the tilt of the head and the curve of the neck into the shoulder. It's about movement, not outline. Ten seconds, not ten minutes.
- 3
Contour weeks 2 + 8
Now commit: the eyelid, the wing of the nostril, the corner of the mouth, hair flowing back to the bun. Press harder where a form turns away from the light, lighter where it faces it.
- 4
Tone, in graphite weeks 4 + 9
Hatch in one direction, cross it where it's darkest and leave the paper white for the light. It's the week-four sphere again, wearing a face.
- 5
A wash of sanguine week 9
Red chalk, softened with a fingertip, on the cheek, the ear and the lips, with a rub behind the profile to make the light edge sing. It's been flattering faces since the Renaissance.
Morven drew this in about forty minutes. Yours will take longer, and look like yours.
Ten weeks. Twenty minutes a day.
Each week is five short lessons and one homework page. Watch Morven draw, then draw along. Fridays are for catching up, or for drawing whatever you like.
- 62
- video lessons, 8 to 12 minutes each
- 9h 40m
- of video in total, all with captions
- 50
- printable exercise sheets
- 10
- homework pages, one a week
- Seeing
Lines and ellipses
Warm-ups that loosen your wrist and stay with you for life: ghosted lines between two dots, ellipses in tunnels, drawing from the shoulder.
- Ghosted lines
- Ellipse tunnels
- A page of mugs
- Seeing
Edges and contour
Blind contour and negative space. You'll draw your own hand without looking, laugh at it, then draw it again and notice twice as much.
- Blind contour hand
- The gaps in a chair
- Slow contour of a shoe
- Seeing
Boxes and perspective
One- and two-point perspective, from a sugar cube to the end of your street. Squint and almost everything is a box.
- Twenty boxes
- The kettle as a box
- A corner of your room
- Light
Light and value
Five values on a sphere, an egg and a pear: light, half-tone, core shadow, reflected light and cast shadow. Hatching, cross-hatching and when to smudge.
- Value scale
- Hatched sphere
- An egg by the window
- Light
Still life
Three objects and a tea towel. Six thumbnails to find the composition, then one unhurried forty-minute drawing.
- Six thumbnails
- Fruit bowl
- Your own still life
- People
Gesture
Thirty-second figures from Morven's model photos, then real people in a café or on the bus, who never, ever sit still.
- Fifty gestures
- The line of action
- A café page
- People
The head
The ball-and-plane method in blue pencil. Where the eyes really sit (halfway down, not near the top), and why the ear lines up with the nose.
- Twenty heads
- Heads at angles
- Yourself in a mirror
- People
Features
One a day: eyes, noses, mouths, ears and hair. Mostly, it turns out, about the shapes of the shadows around them.
- Eyes
- Noses
- Mouths
- Ears
- Hair as shapes
- People
A portrait in two colours
Graphite and sanguine: the five layers from the top of this page, on someone you love, or a photo of them.
- A master copy
- Two-colour portrait
- Chalk on toned paper
- Out into the world
The sketchbook walk
Rooftops, a street corner, a stranger on a bench. Your last homework page is drawn outside, standing up, in whatever the weather is doing.
- Rooftops
- A street in perspective
- The final spread
Day one, and week ten. Same people.
Three students from the autumn cohort let us show their first and last homework pages. None of them had drawn since school. Morven's notes are in red.
"I'd been putting eyes on foreheads for 34 years. They're halfway down. Who knew."Lovely hatching on the neck — M.
"Drawn on my break in Partick. Twenty minutes is exactly one cup of tea."Proper perspective! Window rhythm spot on — M.
Your day one:
Monday 11 January.
Sixty places with feedback, as many as you like self-paced. Bring a pencil and twenty minutes.
Save my placeStudent sketchbooks
Day one, and week ten. Same people.
Three students from the autumn cohort let us show their first and last homework pages. None of them had drawn since school. Morven's notes are in red.
Hello, I'm Morven. I'll be looking at your homework.
I spent nine years as a medical illustrator, drawing hands and hearts for surgical textbooks, then twelve years teaching evening classes in a draughty room above a bike shop in Leith. Sketchbook Society started in 2021, when the waiting list got longer than the room.
I've seen every kind of first drawing. I promise yours won't shock me. Feedback comes from me or one of the two tutors I trained: Struan Gill, a landscape painter in Fife, and Effie Lowrie, who paints portraits in Glasgow.
- Teaching since 2014about 2,000 beginners, and counting
- Medical illustrator, 2005–2014hence the ears. I love an ear.
- Left-handedso every hatching demo comes both ways
- Draws on the 22 busmost mornings, Leith to the West End
About £22 of supplies. You probably own half.
Buy cheap, buy once. This is exactly what we use, and nothing more. Tick off what's already in your kitchen drawer.
- 1A sketchbook£9
A4 or A5, 120–150 gsm cartridge paper, at least 80 pages. Spiral-bound lies flat on your knee.
- 2Graphite pencils: HB, 2B, 4B£4
One of each is plenty. You'll wear the 2B down to a stub.
- 3A light blue pencil£1.50
Any brand. Construction lines drawn in blue disappear under graphite.
- 4A sanguine pencil£2.50
Red chalk in a pencil, for week nine. Anything labelled "sanguine" works.
- 5A kneaded eraser£2
Lifts graphite without scuffing the paper. Also excellent for fidgeting.
- 6A metal sharpener£1.50
With spare blades. Or a craft knife, if you're brave and careful.
- 7Masking tape£2
Holds your page to the table, and masks a clean border in week five.
Still to buy£22.50
Skip for now: an iPad, a tin of 24 pencils, fixative spray, fancy paper and a light box. You can always add them in month three, if you still want them.
Two ways in. Both start with a blank page.
No subscription. No upsells.
No surprise "premium tier" in week six.
Prices include VAT.
Self-paced
start any day you like
£89
one payment, yours to keep
- All ten weeks: 62 lessons and 50 exercise sheets
- Lifetime access, including new lessons as we add them
- The student gallery and a friendly forum
- Captions and transcripts on every video
With feedback
the January cohort, sixty places
£189
or three monthly payments of £63
- Everything in Self-paced
- Drawn-over feedback on all ten homework pages, back within three working days
- Two live group critiques a month, Thursdays 7–8pm UK time, recorded
- Starts Monday 11 January; next cohort Monday 12 April
Thirty days to change your mind
Do the first two weeks. If it isn't for you, email us within thirty days for a full refund. No forms, no questions.
Twenty free places, every cohort
Scholarships with full feedback for anyone on a low income. One sentence about why you'd like to draw is plenty.
Teaching a group?
Licences for schools, libraries and care homes from £12 a learner, with a printed workbook for each person.
The things people ask before they start.
Still wondering? Call (555) 017-2954, Monday to Friday, 9am–5pm UK time. Morven picks up on Wednesdays.
I can't draw a straight line. Is this for me?
Yes. Nobody can, not even Morven: we ghost a line three times, then commit. The course assumes you've never drawn anything, and week one starts with lines and circles.
How much time does it really take?
Twenty minutes a day, five days a week. Lessons are 8 to 12 minutes and the rest is drawing. Fridays are catch-up days, and everything stays open, so a busy week just means a slower week.
Do I need an iPad or drawing software?
No. Everything is written for paper and pencil. The lessons work on a tablet if you prefer, but feedback is easiest on a photo of a real page.
How does the feedback work?
Photograph your homework page with your phone and upload it. Morven or a tutor draws over a copy in red, records a two-minute voice note and sends both back within three working days.
I'm left-handed. Will that be a problem?
Morven is too. Every tricky exercise has a left-handed demo, mostly about which way to hatch so you don't drag your hand through the graphite.
Is it suitable for children?
From about fourteen, or younger with a grown-up drawing alongside. All the figure lessons use clothed models.
What if I fall behind?
You keep the lessons for life, so falling behind is fine. Feedback places stay open for six months after your cohort ends, so late homework still gets drawn on.
Start here
Your first page is waiting.
Try week one free: a printable warm-up sheet and a nine-minute video. If you like it, the January cohort starts on Monday 11 January.
The free warm-up page
Ghosted lines and ellipse tunnels, ten minutes a day. We'll send it once, plus one email when enrolment opens.
Or call (555) 017-2954 · [email protected]