How to Draw Cool Things on Graph Paper

The Grid Method

how to use the grid method to enlarge or transfer an image

The filigree method is an inexpensive, low-tech way to reproduce and/or enlarge an image that you want to pigment or describe. The filigree method can be a fairly time-intensive process, depending on how large and detailed your painting will be. While the process is not as quick as using a projector or transfer paper, it does have the added benefit of helping to improve your cartoon and observational skills.

In a nutshell, the filigree method involves cartoon a grid over your reference photo, and and so cartoon a grid of equal ratio on your piece of work surface (paper, canvas, wood panel, etc). So you lot draw the image on your sheet, focusing on one foursquare at a time, until the entire epitome has been transferred. Once you're finished, you but erase or pigment over the grid lines, and kickoff working on your painting, which will exist now exist in perfect proportion! Yay.

To use the grid method, you need to take a ruler, a paper copy of your reference image, and a pencil to describe lines on the epitome. You will also need a work surface upon which you lot volition be transferring the photo, such every bit paper, canvas, wood panel, etc.

To describe the grid lines on paper, I would recommend using a mechanical pencil, so that you can get a sparse, precise line. Be sure to describe the grid very lightly, so that you can hands erase it when you are finished.

To draw the grid lines on sail or wood, I would suggest using a sparse piece of sharpened charcoal. Again, make sure you make the grid lines equally light as possible, so that they are easy to erase when you are finished. The benefit of using charcoal on sheet or wood, instead of using pencil, is that charcoal can exist easily wiped off with a paper towel or rag, whereas pencil can exist more hard to erase.

The important thing to recall when drawing the grids is that they must have a ane:1 ratio. This is very important - otherwise your cartoon will be distorted! Basically, a 1:ane ratio ways that y'all volition have the exact same number of lines on your canvass every bit you will on your reference photo, and that in both cases, the lines must be equally spaced autonomously - perfect squares.

Confused? It's quite easy once you go the hang of it. Let'southward meet the filigree method in activity, and information technology will make more than sense.

Permit'due south say you want to pigment the following prototype:

This reference photo is 5" x 7". Equally luck would have it, yous want to make a v" x 7" painting from this photograph. So cartoon the grid will be pretty straightforward. But if y'all want to make a large painting, yous could too make a painting that is 10" x 14" or 15" x 21" or 20" ten 28". Why those sizes and not other sizes? Considering those sizes are the same ratio as the five" ten 7" reference photo. In other words:

See? Information technology'south bones math. The size of your artwork must e'er be equally proportionate to the size of the reference photo.

Considering of this, it's important to be aware of what size canvases and forest panels are commercially available. If y'all stretch your ain canvases, you tin get stretcher bars in only about any size to arrange your needs. But if you're like nigh of u.s.a., you buy pre-stretched canvases, so yous are express to the more popular sizes.

So, dorsum to filigree-making. Here is what you want your filigree to wait like:

To draw the grid:

Each square is 1 foursquare inch. To depict this grid, put your ruler at the superlative of the newspaper, and make a small marker at every inch. Place the ruler at the bottom of the paper and do the same thing. Then apply the ruler to brand a direct line connecting each dot at the bottom with its partner at the peak.

Now place the ruler on the left side of your paper, and make a small mark at every inch. Then identify the ruler on the correct side of the newspaper, and do the same thing. Then, using your ruler, make a directly line connecting the dots on the left with their partners on the right.

Voila, you've got a grid! Now echo the aforementioned process on your paper or canvas:

You've at present got a grid on your piece of work surface that perfectly matches the grid of your reference photograph. Bravo!

Because this painting volition exist the verbal size as the reference photo, the squares on this canvas are also ane square inch. If this painting was going to be x" x xiv", then the squares would need to be 2 square inches, because:

See?

Basically, to enlarge the image, y'all'll demand to practice this kind of math (even if you hate math!). It'southward necessary in order to make sure the enlargement is exactly proportionate to the original. If you're not certain whether yous've done the math correctly, just count the number of squares in each row and in each column, and ask yourself:

• Are there an equal number of rows and columns on the canvas as at that place are on the reference photograph?

• Are the squares on the canvass perfect squares, just like the squares on the reference photograph?

If you can respond yes to both of those questions, yous've got the gridding procedure downwards pat!

At present, dorsum to the v" ten 7" grid above.

I find that information technology's sometimes easier to keep track of where I am amongst all those piffling squares by marking them numerically and alphabetically forth the edges of the paper and canvas. This style if I go lost, especially within a much larger painting with many more squares, I can easily locate where I want to be. I write the numbers and letters actually pocket-sized and lightly, so that they can exist easily erased. Information technology looks something similar this:

And this is how it looks on the paper or canvas:

So now your task is to transfer what yous meet in the reference photo, cake by cake, onto your canvas or paper. When I employ the grid method, I always start at the pinnacle left corner, and piece of work my way across and down. Since Foursquare A1 is blank in the reference photo, we'll movement on to A2. Draw in A2 exactly equally you meet it:

The grid basically divides the original image into smaller blocks so that you lot can more easily see what belongs where. You tin see that in the photo, the left side of the little bowl intersects the corner at the bottom left of Square A2. So yous depict the line from there to just beneath the center of the line between A2 and A3.

That first block was easy! Now do the next block:

So you see that every bit y'all are transferring the image, you are only paying attention to one block at a time. Don't worry most the other blocks - only focus on that one block. Try as much as y'all can to copy exactly what you see in that little square in the photo to the corresponding foursquare on your paper or canvas. Focus on getting the placement of each line only right! Here nosotros go:

And then the side by side square:

I think y'all get the idea now. Basically you proceed on in this way, until all the squares are done and the paradigm is completely transferred. By focusing on one foursquare at a time, you end up cartoon what you actually come across, and non what y'all think you meet or fifty-fifty what y'all think you ought to see. Once finished, yous now have a pretty authentic rendition of your reference photo, ready for painting or drawing!

When you are done transferring the image, gently erase the grid lines. Congratulations - yous're ready to paint!

Video demonstrations

If yous'd like to come across a video demonstration of the grid method, bank check out these courses on Skillshare. Get immediate access with their 14-solar day gratuitous trial or utilize our code, ARTISFUN30, to get xxx% off almanac membership! If yous sign upwards via any of these links, I get a commission that helps support this site!

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In summary...

The grid method has been used by artists for centuries as a tool to creating right proportions. Renaissance artists, fifty-fifty the great Leonardo da Vinci, used the grid method! The grid method dates back to the ancient Egyptians. It is clearly a useful method for artists and aspiring artists alike. If you programme to use the grid method, keep the following tips in listen:

If y'all are planning to overstate your reference photo to create a bigger painting, please think to keep the proportions correct. Brand certain that everything is equal. For instance, if your photo is 8" x x", then you tin can easily create a painting that in this sizes:

These sizes work considering they are all equal to 8" x x". Basically, if y'all multiply one side by two, multiply the other side by two as well. This is the only manner that the enlargement will be proportionally correct!

If you want to paint using a pre-stretched sheet, simply your reference photo does not fit any of the standard canvas sizes, try cropping your photo so that information technology does fit.

The grid method is non just useful for photorealistic paintings, merely can also be practical to enlarge or transfer drawings or sketches in whatsoever style, such as abstruse, cubist, whimsical, etc. It's an effective fashion to transform that little doodle in your sketchbook into a full-blown painting!

This is Page 9 of a fifteen-page guide explaining how to paint photorealistically.

An Introduction to Art Techniques

How to Draw with Photorealism

Realistic Drawing Secrets

Let's Draw Form

Bank check out my in-depth review of the Let'southward Draw Grade! It's a digital course – that you can access immediately – taught through videos and ebooks by two experienced instructors. Highly recommended!

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Source: https://www.art-is-fun.com/grid-method

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