Draw or paint from a re-usable grid
by Grant
(Ahlden, Germany)
MY TIP FOR A QUICK & RE-USABLE GRID
When drawing portraits or scenery I personally find it difficult to get the proportions & positions of certain features correct and spend a lot of time rubbing out and starting again.
I saw a lesson on how to use a GRID system to help get things roughly in the right position. I then came up with the idea of a re-usable grid tool to save you time gridding the actual paper that you will be drawing / painting on and then removing it. Here's what to do...
You require:
1 x A4 sized plastic folder/envelope insert
3 x A4 sheets of normal printer paper
A ruler
A dark coloured permanent marker (thin tipped)
A dark coloured marker (slightly thicker nibbed)
A Clip board
Please refer to my diagrams during the explanation.
Step 1. Take an A4 sized plastic folder insert and on one side, using the width of the ruler (approx.30mm), 'grid' the side of the insert using the thin permanent/waterproof marker as seen in Diagram 2
Step 2. Turn the plastic folder/insert over and 'grid' again as in step 1 and this time half the squares again as in Diagram 3.
Step 3. Now insert a blank sheet of A4 printer paper into the plastic folder. You can now see you have a side with a large grid and on the other side, a small grid.
Step 4. Take a sheet of A4 paper and using the slightly thicker sized marker 'grid' the paper as in Diagram 4 (this should match your large grid on the plastic folder)
Step 5. Take another sheet of A4 paper and repeat Step 4, this time to match your smaller 'grid' on the plastic folder. See Diagram 6
Now to use your new griding tool you simply insert the picture or photo into the plastic folder. See Diagram 7.
Place the same size 'gridded' A4 sheet of paper on to your clip board. (for a 1:1size ratio)
Place the paper you are going to be drawing on, over the gridded sheet on the board and you should be able to see the lines of the grid showing through. See Diagram 5.
Another tip is that if you have a small photo and you are planning to draw it larger than it is, then place the photo in the side of the plastic folder with the small squares and place the A4 grid with the large squares on the clip board. This will increase the size ratio of the finished image but still keeping the dimensions in proportion.
If this tip helps at least one person then I'm happy! Thanks for reading. Regards, Grant.
