How to Plan and Do a Grid Drawing

For whatever artists working in realism, an authentic line cartoon is essential. At that place are many ways to produce accurate line drawings. Today, I'd like to share a few benefits of using a drawing grid.

The post is written in response to a reader, who asked:

I want to ask y'all about [the] grid technique, can you … explain the benefits of the grid technique in drawing humans?

I used the filigree method for years, and so tin happily describe just a few of the benefits for the portrait artist and any artist who wants accurate line drawings.

In that location are, of class, a number of ways to develop accurate line drawings. Tracing from a reference photo and drawing freehand are 2 common ways to create a line drawing.

Drawing directly from life is another way to create a line drawing, and you can too apply a more technical method of measuring with drafting tools.

And so what makes a drawing grid then groovy? Simply what are the benefits of using a drawing grid?

The Benefits of Using a Cartoon Grid

There are as many benefits to drawing grids as in that location are artists, so permit me focus on a few that take been of special help to me.

Composition & Blueprint Tool

Yous may non think of information technology this manner, merely a drawing filigree tin can be used as a design tool.

You've heard of the rule of thirds, right? That's the rule that divides any composition of any size and shape into horizontal and vertical thirds. The thought is that the centre of involvement should fall on or about one of the places where a horizontal and vertical line cross.

In this photo, the tree falls right on an intersection.

Likewise notice that the horizon is near the lower horizontal line. That'southward a skilful thing, too. The composition is not divided into ii equal halves, which can make for disjointed drawings.

Those lines course a very basic cartoon grid. So even if you don't utilize this filigree to sketch out the landscape, you are all the same using a grid.

Information technology doesn't thing what subject you lot're drawing, you tin pattern the best possible composition by using a simple grid every bit shown higher up.

Reference Points

The lines and intersections of the grid as well provide reference points for placing the features of the face and other details. If, for example, the subject'due south eye falls at the intersection of two lines on the reference photo, you can place it at the aforementioned intersection on the drawing paper.

Not only does a drawing filigree provide a map of sorts for placing the features of your subject'south confront and clothing; information technology provides a map for the position of your discipline inside the limerick.

Simplifies Drawing Complex Subjects

For me, using a cartoon grid was a good way to draw complicated subjects more accurately. Subsequently I'd drawn enough horses using the filigree method, I could draw them more than accurately freehand or from life. And so it's as well a grooming device.

Only when it comes to complex subjects, similar this one, a drawing filigree is a must!

(Personally speaking, a drawing filigree is a major help in drawing mechanical subjects, too.)

There'southward nothing wrong with using a drawing grid for all of your piece of work, though. Especially if portrait work is your specialty.

Accuracy

The filigree method of drawing allows you to produce an accurate line drawing by reducing your discipline to a series of pocket-size squares. You tin and then draw the shapes within each square, a technique that is oftentimes easier than trying to draw the unabridged subject field all at the aforementioned time.

ReadHow to Create an Accurate Drawing Using the Filigree Method, a tutorial I wrote for EmptyEasel.

Conclusion

Those are a few of the benefits of using a drawing grid. I'm sure there are others, but y'all get the point.

Now that you know some of the benefits of using a drawing grid, you might want to learn how to put a drawing grid on a digital photo. You're in the right place. I tin show that, as well, correct here.

Carrie 50. Lewis

Carrie Fifty. Lewis has been an artist longer than she can call back. An oil painter from her teens, she began using colored pencils because they were ideal for highly detailed piece of work, and were easier to transport and utilise at horse shows. She at present uses colored pencils near exclusively. From the offset, equus caballus were a favorite subject, and she's been an equine portrait artist for nearly of her career. When she began drawing with colored pencil (and after a move to Kansas,) she found special beauty in landscapes, and landscapes are at present what she draws nearly often. The rugged Flint Hills region of eastern Kansas is at the top of her listing of beautiful places to visit and draw.

johnsontrece1938.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.carrie-lewis.com/the-benefits-of-using-a-drawing-grid/

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