Introducing...

From Reference to Reality

A live drawing masterclass for annual members on the craft of knowing when to reach for the photo, when to put it down, and what your drawing does differently when you do.
Exclusive to annual Scratch to Sketch Hub members...included in your membership
Wednesday 24th June 2026. 
6.30pm UK time

You've just spent ten days drawing from life.

A mug. Kitchen utensils. Glasses. Your own hand.
A Kilner jar catching light in a way no photo could predict.
A flower stem that changed as you drew it.

And something shifted. Maybe subtly. Maybe dramatically.

But if you compare your Day 1 drawing to your Day 10, something is different in the marks.

That difference has a name.

And this masterclass is about understanding it so you can choose it deliberately, rather than stumble into it by accident.

Let me guess...

You love to draw and are good at it.

BUT you've never actually been taught the key building blocks that make drawing effortless.


Your sketchbook is a constant companion, and you're full of ideas about what you want to draw and create.

You're ready to refine your practice. You have some of the skills to get you there but know you have gaps. 

You want guidance so that you can produce consistent drawings every time you pick up a pencil.

You don’t need hand-holding, but you crave structure that matches your ambition and provides you with a roadmap of steps to follow so that you can learn all you need to know to take you to your next creative level.

You wish you had a clear path to mastery, smart strategies, and expert feedback that helps you sharpen your skills and develop a distinct style.

This is about focus, consistency, and elevating your work, turning daily habits into lasting creative momentum.

You're not starting over, you're building on what works and learning how to create drawings better than the last.

With curiosity, and the right framework, you're ready to move forward, evolve your practice, and draw with true confidence.

If this sounds like you, this is why I created the Drawing Coaching Academy. 

Here's what most people don't realise about reference photos.

They're not the enemy. I use them. I teach with them. There are subjects and moments where a reference photo is not just helpful but essential.

But there's a cost that almost nobody talks about.

When you draw from a photo, you're not drawing the subject.

You're drawing the camera's interpretation of the subject.


Flattened depth. Frozen light. A moment already compressed

by a device that doesn't see the way your eye sees.

And when you copy that faithfully, even skillfully, the result often looks like what it is: a careful record of a photograph.

There's nothing wrong with that. But it's different from drawing.

The 10-day challenge gave you a glimpse of the difference.
This masterclass gives you the map.

The question we're going to answer together.

Across one live session, we're going to work through the question that the challenge raised and left open:

When does a reference photo actually serve your drawing
and when does it quietly replace the thinking you needed to do yourself?

This isn't a theoretical question.We'll answer it with pencils in hand, drawing live, making the gap between reference and reality visible on the page in real time.

You'll leave with something more useful than a technique. You'll leave with a decision-making framework — a way of knowing, in any drawing situation, which approach to reach for and why.


Inside the masterclass, you'll get:
  • A live drawing session with Emily: Not a lecture. A live session where Emily draws alongside you, making real-time decisions about when to use reference and when to observe from life, and explaining each one as it happens.
  • The reference-to-reality decision framework: A clear, practical guide to when reference genuinely helps (structure, composition, unavailable subjects), when it misleads (light behaviour, spatial depth, imperfect organic form), and how to move between the two in a single drawing session.
  • The neuroscience of what you just did: A light-touch explanation of what actually changed in your visual system across 10 days of observational drawing — and why committed marks from life carry something that referenced marks rarely do.
  • The "before and after the photo" exercise: A specific exercise you can use in any drawing session to test when your reference is serving you and when your eye has already moved beyond it. Takes five minutes. Changes how you draw indefinitely.
  • Full replay access: Can't make it live? The full session is available to replay on your own schedule...watch, pause, draw along, rewatch. Yours to keep as long as you're an annual member.

Let me guess where you are right now.

You've been drawing, properly drawing, from life,  for ten days. And something has shifted. Your marks are a little more confident. You're spending longer looking before you make them. The objects on the page feel like they have actual weight.

But you also have questions the challenge raised without answering.

When am I allowed to use a reference photo without it becoming a crutch?

How do I know when my eye is ready to work without one?

Why do some of my drawings feel alive and others feel copied,
even when I'm looking at the real thing?

This masterclass is the answer to those questions.

This masterclass is for you if:

  • You completed (or followed) the 10-day Reference to Reality challenge and want to go deeper on what you discovered
  • You rely on reference photos and sometimes wonder if they're helping you or doing your thinking for you
  • You've had the experience of a drawing from life feeling more alive than one drawn from a photo — and you want to understand why, so you can choose it deliberately
  • You want to move fluidly between reference and reality in a single session — using each one intelligently, not habitually
  • You're ready to take the next step in building a drawing practice that genuinely reflects your eye — not a camera's

About Emily

I started this challenge because I kept seeing the same pattern in students I work with — and in my own early drawing practice.

The reference photo feels like the responsible thing to do. It holds still. It doesn't judge you. It gives you something solid to hold onto before you start.

And then the drawing comes out looking like a photograph.

Not because the drawing isn't skillful. Because the camera already made all the decisions — the light, the depth, the moment — before the pencil ever touched the page.

Learning to work with reference intelligently — to use it where it genuinely helps and put it down where it gets in the way — changed how I draw. It changed what my drawings look like. And it changed how I feel about the practice.

That's what I want to pass on in this session.
"Emily has given me the mindset that I can draw, and it can only get better with practice. Your enthusiasm is infectious — for someone like me who was basically made to feel I couldn't draw during school years, your approach is truly inspirational."

Paula, Hub member
"I feel like you have changed my life because I really thought I would always be bad at drawing. Even I can see that I have improved. And if I keep going, I will get better still."

Annette, Hub member
"This is completely different to art courses I've taken before. I love how everything is broken down into bite-size chunks. From live demonstrations I can rewatch, to a set theme each week — I feel thoroughly grounded and inspired to draw."

Kathleen, Hub member
A note on what comes next.
This masterclass is one session. One live drawing together, one framework, one set of questions answered.

If after this session you find yourself wanting more — more depth, more structured development, more personal feedback on your specific drawing habits — the Drawing Coaching Academy is where that work happens.

But we start here. With a pencil, a subject, and the question the challenge spent 10 days raising.

What can your eye do without the photo?

Come and find out.
Annual members — included in your membership

Free

Exclusive to annual Scratch to Sketch Hub members
Wednesday 24th June 2026. 6:30pm UK time. 
Full replay included
Can't make it live? Watch on your schedule
Not yet an annual member?
 Upgrade here — £150/year, saving £30 on monthly, and this masterclass is included.

I read every post in the Hub. I draw alongside you every month.
I can't wait to draw with you in this session.
Emily x
I personally cannot wait to guide you over this 3 month course and to get to know you. All the resources will be yours to keep to come back to time and time again..

Keeping a daily drawing habit has literally transformed my life from how I view my world through to how I manage my well being!

I've experienced first hand what it feels like to go from not knowing how to draw to learning to motivate myself, learn new techniques, practise, and start to uncover my creative style! I'm still learning that one too! 
Write your awesome label here.
If you're someone who has always wanted to do this, you owe it to yourself to at least take a risk free plunge to experience the process filling a sketchbook can have on your confidence as well as well being. Just as it has done for me!

To experience firsthand the pleasure, sense of achievement, connection to your creative self, (a side to your character that you may never have fully explored before) and to build your drawing knowledge in order to bring new depth to your day, is something I can't wait to support you do! 

Should you choose to accept my invitation, I personally guarantee filling your sketchbook and drawing will be just the start of your creative journey. 

I personally look forward to meeting each and every single one of you! 

Keep Sketching and can't wait to meet you soon! 

Emily x