Cool Grid Paper to Draw on

The Grid Method

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

The filigree method is an cheap, low-tech way to reproduce and/or overstate an image that you want to pigment or describe. The filigree method can be a fairly time-intensive process, depending on how big and detailed your painting will be. While the process is not equally quick as using a projector or transfer newspaper, it does accept the added benefit of helping to ameliorate your drawing and observational skills.

In a nutshell, the grid method involves drawing a grid over your reference photograph, and and so drawing a grid of equal ratio on your work surface (paper, canvas, wood panel, etc). Then yous depict the epitome on your canvas, focusing on one square at a time, until the entire prototype has been transferred. Once you lot're finished, you simply erase or paint over the grid lines, and start working on your painting, which volition exist now be in perfect proportion! Yay.

To use the grid method, y'all need to have a ruler, a paper copy of your reference epitome, and a pencil to draw lines on the image. You will besides need a work surface upon which you volition be transferring the photo, such as paper, canvas, wood console, etc.

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

To depict the filigree lines on canvas or wood, I would suggest using a thin piece of sharpened charcoal. Again, make certain you make the grid lines equally light as possible, so that they are easy to erase when you are finished. The do good of using charcoal on sail or woods, instead of using pencil, is that charcoal can exist easily wiped off with a newspaper towel or rag, whereas pencil can exist more difficult to erase.

The important affair to call up when cartoon the grids is that they must have a 1:ane ratio. This is very important - otherwise your drawing will be distorted! Basically, a 1:1 ratio means that you lot will have the verbal same number of lines on your canvas as you lot will on your reference photograph, and that in both cases, the lines must be equally spaced apart - perfect squares.

Dislocated? It's quite easy one time y'all go the hang of it. Let's see the grid method in action, and it volition make more sense.

Let's say yous want to pigment the following prototype:

This reference photo is 5" x vii". As luck would have it, y'all desire to make a v" x 7" painting from this photo. So drawing the filigree will be pretty straightforward. Simply if y'all desire to make a large painting, you lot could also make a painting that is x" x 14" or xv" x 21" or 20" ten 28". Why those sizes and not other sizes? Considering those sizes are the same ratio every bit the v" x 7" reference photo. In other words:

See? It'south bones math. The size of your artwork must ever be equally proportionate to the size of the reference photo.

Considering of this, it's important to be aware of what size canvases and woods panels are commercially available. If you stretch your ain canvases, yous can get stretcher bars in just about any size to adjust your needs. But if you're like most of us, you buy pre-stretched canvases, so you are limited to the more popular sizes.

So, back to grid-making. Hither is what yous want your filigree to wait like:

To draw the grid:

Each square is i foursquare inch. To draw this grid, put your ruler at the top of the paper, and make a small mark at every inch. Place the ruler at the lesser of the paper and do the aforementioned thing. Then utilise the ruler to make a directly line connecting each dot at the lesser with its partner at the top.

At present place the ruler on the left side of your paper, and brand a small mark at every inch. So place the ruler on the right side of the paper, and do the same thing. Then, using your ruler, make a direct line connecting the dots on the left with their partners on the right.

Voila, yous've got a grid! At present repeat the same procedure on your paper or canvas:

You've now got a grid on your work surface that perfectly matches the grid of your reference photo. Bravo!

Considering this painting volition be the exact size as the reference photo, the squares on this sheet are likewise 1 foursquare inch. If this painting was going to be x" x 14", then the squares would demand to exist 2 square inches, because:

See?

Basically, to enlarge the paradigm, y'all'll need to practise this kind of math (fifty-fifty if you hate math!). It's necessary in order to make sure the enlargement is exactly proportionate to the original. If you're not sure whether you've washed 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 there are on the reference photo?

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

If you tin can answer yeah to both of those questions, yous've got the gridding process downwardly pat!

At present, back to the 5" x seven" grid to a higher place.

I discover that it's sometimes easier to keep track of where I am amongst all those little squares past marking them numerically and alphabetically along the edges of the paper and canvas. This manner if I get lost, especially inside a much larger painting with many more squares, I can easily locate where I want to be. I write the numbers and letters actually small and lightly, so that they can be easily erased. It looks something similar this:

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

So now your task is to transfer what you run across in the reference photograph, block by block, onto your canvas or paper. When I use the grid method, I always start at the top left corner, and work my way across and down. Since Foursquare A1 is bare in the reference photograph, we'll move on to A2. Draw in A2 exactly as you encounter it:

The grid basically divides the original image into smaller blocks so that you can more easily meet what belongs where. Y'all tin see that in the photo, the left side of the little bowl intersects the corner at the bottom left of Foursquare A2. And then you draw the line from there to but below the middle of the line between A2 and A3.

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

So yous meet that as you are transferring the image, yous are simply paying attention to ane cake at a time. Don't worry nearly the other blocks - merely focus on that i block. Try as much as you tin to copy exactly what you see in that piffling foursquare in the photo to the corresponding square on your newspaper or sheet. Focus on getting the placement of each line but right! Here we become:

And then the next square:

I think you lot go the idea at present. Basically yous proceed on in this fashion, until all the squares are done and the paradigm is completely transferred. Past focusing on ane square at a fourth dimension, you end upward drawing what y'all actually encounter, and not what you think you lot run across or even what yous recollect you ought to encounter. One time finished, you now have a pretty accurate rendition of your reference photo, ready for painting or drawing!

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

Video demonstrations

If yous'd like to see a video sit-in of the grid method, check out these courses on Skillshare. Become immediate access with their 14-solar day gratuitous trial or use our lawmaking, ARTISFUN30, to get 30% off annual membership! If yous sign up via any of these links, I get a commission that helps back up this site!

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In summary...

The grid method has been used by artists for centuries as a tool to creating correct proportions. Renaissance artists, even the keen Leonardo da Vinci, used the filigree method! The filigree method dates back to the ancient Egyptians. Information technology is clearly a useful method for artists and aspiring artists alike. If you program to use the grid method, go on the following tips in mind:

If you are planning to enlarge your reference photo to create a bigger painting, please remember to keep the proportions correct. Make certain that everything is equal. For instance, if your photo is 8" x 10", then you can easily create a painting that in this sizes:

These sizes work because they are all equal to 8" ten 10". Basically, if you lot multiply 1 side past 2, multiply the other side by ii every bit well. This is the only way that the enlargement will be proportionally right!

If y'all want to paint using a pre-stretched canvas, only 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 not only useful for photorealistic paintings, but tin can also exist applied to enlarge or transfer drawings or sketches in any way, such as abstruse, cubist, whimsical, etc. It'south an effective way to transform that little doodle in your sketchbook into a full-diddled painting!

This is Folio 9 of a xv-page guide explaining how to paint photorealistically.

An Introduction to Fine art Techniques

How to Draw with Photorealism

Realistic Drawing Secrets

Let'southward Depict Class

Check out my in-depth review of the Let's Draw Course! Information technology's a digital class – that you can admission immediately – taught through videos and ebooks past ii experienced instructors. Highly recommended!

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