About DrawBySight
DrawBySight helps adult beginners learn to draw realistically from photos with graphite pencil. Many people believe realistic drawing is a talent you either have or don’t. We think it is mostly a set of learnable skills: measuring proportions, seeing values and building tone patiently.
What we publish
- Step-by-step tutorials for eyes, noses, lips, teeth, ears, hair and skin
- Practical fixes for common problems: portraits that don’t look like the person, dirty shading, graphite shine
- Guides to the grid method, enlarging photos and transferring outlines
- Plain-English advice on pencils, erasers and paper
- Honest reviews of drawing courses, including their downsides
How we review
We explain who a course suits and who it does not, link to official pricing and guarantee terms, and never present affiliate offers as independent awards. See our Affiliate Disclosure.
How our content is made
Our articles are drafted with the help of AI writing tools and then reviewed, fact-checked and edited by a human editor before publication. Drawing steps are checked against established pencil-drawing practice, and we update articles when we find a better way to explain something. If you spot an error, please tell us via our contact page.
Meet the editor
Nora Ashby is the pen name of DrawBySight’s editor. She writes for adults who want to draw realistic portraits from photos: patient step-by-step guides to eyes, hair, skin and shading, practical fixes for drawings that "look off", and candid reviews of drawing courses.
We use a pen name so the focus stays on the lessons rather than on the person; every guide is still reviewed and updated by a real editor.