Since I teach watercolor and sketching online, I see a lot of photos of student work. And sometimes it’s a pity to see an amazing piece that’s been photographed poorly. The same happens on social media from time to time, and it really feels like a missed opportunity.
That’s why I decided to put together a set of simple, practical tips on how to photograph your illustrations, paintings, drawings, and sketchbook pages. These tips work with any phone you already have because it’s not about the device, it’s about how you use it.
Your art deserves to be shown clearly and beautifully so people can genuinely connect with it and appreciate it. I’ve created a Skillshare class on this topic with lots of real-life examples and before/after images, and in this post let's briefly walk through the basic principles. At the end, you’ll also find two extra tips that didn’t make it into the class but came up later in student questions.
So, here are six simple tips to take photos that really represent your work:
1. Find the best available light
This is probably the most important tip. In good light, almost any camera or phone can give you a decent photo.
The best light is natural daylight. The ideal weather is when it’s mostly sunny, but the sun is behind a cloud. In this case you get soft, diffused light without harsh shadows.
If the sun is very bright and there are no clouds, I usually see two options:
- Use it as a feature and take a sunlit photo (just make sure shadows don’t fall across important parts of your picture).
- Or soften it: close the curtains a bit, or move further into the room away from direct sunlight.
If it’s gloomy and dark, things get more challenging. My personal rule: avoid photographing artwork under artificial light if you can. If it’s too dark indoors, go outside. If you create at night, wait until the next day or the weekend to take the photo at daylight. I often shoot outdoors or on a bright windowsill.
Basically, place your artwork where it catches the best natural light you can find.
2. Keep your phone parallel to the paper
There are two main ways to do it:
- from above, when your artwork lies flat on a desk, floor, or any other surface.
- from the side, when it’s hanging on the wall or you hold in your hand.
In both cases your phone should stay parallel to your artwork. This helps you avoid perspective distortion, so the artwork stays rectangular and doesn’t look “skewed.”
The edges of the paper should be parallel to the edges of the phone screen.
3. Choose a good background
This topic really needs lots of examples, you can find them in the class. But the main idea is simple: an artwork looks different on different backgrounds, so try various options to find the best one.
The most obvious choice is to photograph your work as it is. For photos, I usually rearrange my art supplies a bit to make everything look more appealing.
But what if the weather is cloudy, the light is poor, and the artwork looks so-so against the table? I try to find a spot with better light and a background that enhances the illustration.
Look how different the same illustration appears. Both photos have no color correction, just shot as is.
Here’s another example: the gray-blue background suits the illustration’s colour palette much better than a neutral one. It was a painted old wooden fence. Outdoors almost always gives great photos, you just need to try different backgrounds and pick the best one.
4. Use extra stuff to support composition and tell a story
Basically, there are two main ways to photograph your work: with a styled environment around it to create a composition, or as a simple, clean shot of just the artwork itself.
Most of the time, when I photograph sketchbook pages, I like to include surroundings and art materials in the frame. It helps show the atmosphere and mood, which is important for a sketch. But for standalone artworks, I often keep just the piece itself, so nothing distracts from it.
Let’s see why this photo works so well?
First, the lighting is good. Second, the artwork isn’t distorted - the sides are parallel. The bright colours of the sketch are enhanced by the surrounding objects. Plus, I painted mimosa from observation, so I added a real fresh flower. I also often include watercolour pans and my ceramic palette, as they’re an essential part of the process.
5. Photographing artworks without surroundings
Sometimes you need to photograph just the artwork itself, without any surroundings. For example, for printing cards, submitting to open calls, or simply showcasing the piece cleanly, with nothing to distract the viewer.
The basic principles are the same: find the best possible light and keep the phone in the correct position, parallel to the paper surface. Carefully crop along the edges of the artwork. If you do everything right, the crop frame will nearly match the edges of the paper. The result you get will depend hugely on how good the lighting is. You might still need a bit of color correction.
Another way to create a digital image of your artwork is to use a scanner. If you like to show your illustrations without any surroundings, or you need a high-resolution image, you might find scanning way easier. It’s also more predictable: the result doesn’t depend on light conditions, and the quality is often better. I use Epson Perfection V39 II, it’s affordable, compact, and gives very good results, often without any need for color correction.
6. Color correction
I should mention that the less adjustment you need to make your photo look good, the better. Ideally, with good natural lighting, your photo looks great as it is. But that’s not always possible.
I usually use a simple built-in photo editor for adjustments. It works well enough on both my phones, new and old. Because I keep the corrections very basic.
The main parameters I personally adjust for color correction are:
- Exposure
- Brilliance
- Highlights
- Contrast
- Brightness
- Black Point
- Saturation
- Warmth
But most of the time, I don’t touch all of them, I just use a few.
What I definitely don’t recommend is using filters. You created your artwork and planned the color palette carefully, worked on it , so please not to slap a filter on it later. I prefer to aim for the most accurate colors possible. Try not to overdo.
If you found these tips helpful, I warmly invite you to watch the full class. If you’re new to Skillshare, you can join free for one month and then decide whether to stay or cancel.
It’s a warm, supportive community there, I’d love for you to be part of it!
Two more little tips (which are not in the class, but might be helpful)
- To check those parallel lines from Tip 2, use the on-screen grid while shooting. It's perfect for lining things up. On an iPhone, you can go to Settings - Camera - in the Composition section, switch Grid on. On Android phones, open the Camera app, tap the settings icon, and look for Grid, Grid lines or Assistive grid, then turn it on.
- If at the exact moment you press the button your phone moves slightly and ruin your position/focus/lines, a simple trick is to set a short timer, so the photo is taken automatically after 3-5-10 seconds. This way you can hold the phone steady, make sure everything is aligned with the grid.
I really hope some of my tips and examples have been helpful, and you’ll add them to your routine. Enjoy your creativity, cherish it, and show your work beautifully.
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Happy creating! ✨
Olya