About Pencil Camp

Rowan Pike Founder & Drawing Editor

Pencil Camp is a small independent project run by Rowan Pike, with one simple mission: teach any child to draw by breaking a picture into shapes they can actually copy, and keep every tutorial free.

There is no big company behind this site. One person plans every tutorial, draws every step and reads every message that arrives through the contact form. That is exactly why the lessons stay free, unwatermarked and pleasant to use.

How a tutorial is made

Every subject starts as two or three light guide shapes: a circle, an oval, a box. From there the drawing is built up one part at a time, and each step adds exactly one part. The lines you add in a step are drawn in red, so a child never has to guess what changed. The grey dashed shapes are scaffolding: sketch them lightly and rub them out at the end.

Before a lesson goes live it is drawn all the way through on paper, with one pencil, exactly as written. Every step is checked so that the words match the picture: if the text says "add the ear", the ear is what appears in red. The rule is simple. If a step cannot be followed by a child with one pencil, it gets rebuilt.

Who is this site for?

Kids, parents, grandparents, teachers and homeschoolers. Every tutorial can be followed on screen or printed as a free one page step sheet, and everything here is free for personal and classroom use (see our licensing policy). Teachers can find classroom notes on our for teachers page.

Pencil Camp is paid for by ads. There are no accounts, no newsletter and nothing to buy.

Last updated: July 2026.