|

Gridding Technique

There are many ways to get an image accurately transferred to paper for drawing or painting. One which works well when you’re wanting to enlarge your image is the gridding method. This involves drawing equal numbers of rows and columns on your reference photo and your paper then accurately copying the contents of each square. It’s the method I use to draw my detailed pencil portraits.

I enjoy working out the dimensions of my proposed artwork and calculating the size of the squares etc but I realise not everyone gets as excited about maths as I do so I have devised a method which doesn’t require number crunching. All you need to be able to do is to accurately fold a strip of paper and draw a straight line with a ruler.

I wrote a blog 3 years ago describing this technique, but it can be a little confusing to put into words so I promised I would make a video clip to show how it works. It’s taken me a while but I’ve finally done it. I hope you find it helpful.

Similar Posts

  • |

    Happy Christmas 2019

    Here’s a speedy painting of this years Christmas card – Madonna and child (not newborn) so probably around the time the wise men were visiting. Everything started off fine, but went pear shaped around her chin just over half way through – goodness knows what I was doing! This is why I enjoy oils so…

  • New Year, New Goals

    Well it’s been a very productive start to the week, due mainly, I think, to the simple task of setting some goals for the first quarter of this year. As a result of this, I’ve scheduled various tasks in my diary to ensure I have time to paint. ‘Obvious’ you may say; ‘been doing that…

  • Christmas 2015

    Started my illustration for this year’s Christmas card prescrire le viagra. This is a monotone underpainting in acrylics, establishing the features and tones. The next layers will be oils.   I’m recording this so, hopefully, will have a YouTube clip with carols for you soon after I’ve finished it.

  • |

    Portrait Sketch

    Here we all are, self isolating and having to find ways to amuse ourselves. Unable to hold art classes, I’ve decided to try recording the painting of some portrait sketches. Practising these is something I’ve been wanting to do more of and this might just be the motivation I need. If you find this useful…

  • Loxley canvas – finally finished

    Adding more detail and colour to the flesh… …and finally finished. Some blue added to the shadows and details finished off. I’ve really enjoyed painting on these canvases and have bought more for my next subjects. Watch this space, I shall be posting more paintings in the near future. In the meantime, these 3 paintings…

One Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *