The drawing system we describe consists of a microscope, digital video camera, computer with a mouse or a pen tablet, and freely available software. The system uses an overlay technology that allows drawing with either raster or vector software, using a live image background that is translated either from the microscope via a digital camera or from previously captured images. With some practice, this system allows one to make high-quality illustrations directly from a microscope, omitting the time-consuming steps of drawing and inking pencil sketches or taking, combining and importing photo-stacks to drawing software for subsequent outlining.