This article discusses the process of using a grid to establish accurate proportions in a drawing. Working with a grid can be time consuming and tedious. However, having a proportionately correct outline of your drawing subject is well worth the effort! As a matter of fact, many of the greatest masters of the Renaissance used a grid method to help them create accurate drawings and paintings.

This is a good lesson. I plan to make a reusable grid.

Excellent Lesson. Can't wait to try it.

You shouldn't rely on a grid. It will always be a crutch, if you never learn how to draw accurately without one. Draw from life, not photographs.

Yes Vinjouy, I agree with you, however the grid certainly has its place in professional drawing. Sure being able to draw from life is absolutely crucial to any artist who wishes to draw well (abstracted or otherwise.) The grid should not be seen as a crutch but it can become one as you say. The grid has its limitations just like any tool. It is great to use in some instances but is best used in conjuction with a full knowledge of the basic fundamental principles of art. The grid is a powerful, amazing and incredible drawing method that helps professional artists (not just beginners) to achieve highly accurate results in realism drawing when used along with a full understanding of these fundamental basics.

The grid method is used in many ways, and not limited to just helping aritsts copy from photographs. Sometimes an artist simply wishes to enlarge his/her own drawing from paper to canvas. In this case, just a simple halving of the area is all that is required - this is still a grid albeit a simplified one. In many cases it would be foolish not to use a grid. However, the grid is just one of many valuable professional artist techniques that help us to draw accurately.

To be able to select from any one of these methods that have been handed down to us from the great masters of art, will help you to achieve the best results. Art is all about expression, and to be really free to express yourself through art, you need to be able to choose whatever method will help you to fulfil that expression.

The great masters of art used the grid method and it was attributed to Albrecht Durer and was aptly named the 'Durers Device' at the time when some of the very best and most incredible art in history was ever created. The great masters used the grid regularly and would most probably be horified if we suggested otherwise to them. The grid is in fact a highly respected method of drawing and is best used with a complete knowledge of the fundamental principles of art. There are many other methods that can also be used too such as 'construction drawing' and 'sighting' to name a few.

A full understanding of the subject is a very important aspect of drawing. We can only gain this full understanding by intimately knowing our subject. This comes from investigating the object and drawing from life wherever possible. The ultimate reference source is the real thing, however this is not always possible. For instance, most of us are not fortunate enough to be in the position of Leonardo Da Vinci with the research he was able to do on human beings. He really studied the human form; muscles, skeletons etc right down to all the veins, he worked with deseased individuals so that he could do this. Imagine, he wouldn't have had xrays back then, what else was he to do?

To truly be able to draw comes from deep within the soul, realism drawing is only a means to the end and not the end in itself. Learning to draw well is a life-long pursuit of investigation, discovery, analysis, experiences and learning to use your mind as well as your eyes and hand. In my opinion, the grid is a wonderful and incredible invention and should not be discounted too easily, however it also has its limitations. The grid method is just one of the many valuable methods that we are fortunate our forebearers discovered for us. It certainly has its place in the wonderful world of art in my opinion.

I agree with Cindy's comments here. Our ability to express ourselves is key and some of us want to express accurately.

To show the benefits of a grid method, my brother (who is a successful illustrator, fine artist and art professor), was recently working toward his masters degree and was called out for inaccuracies in his work. He always considered he had a great ability to see correctly so this surprised him. He began using a grid method and over the last couple of years, not only is his work more accurate, but he says it's helped him to see better. He has shared his method--and the grid system he created to match his method--with his students and other faculty and the results have impressed the skeptics. Even some of the art-purist faculty now plan to use his grid system with all incoming freshmen art students to help teach them to see more accurately. Makes sense to me!

Yes, you hear about this situation time and again as even the grid method is often not used correctly. I would be very interested to know more about your brother's grid system to match the grid method but I suppose that would be his tightly kept intellectual property. Thankyou for sharing this information with us jthork, much appreciated. I have such a high level of respect for our great accurate illustrators.

I think that grid is very useful when you try to copy something from photo, but I dont suggest to use it when you draw a still-life or portret.

The grid is very useful i use it when i draw portrait and its nearly gave me the same feature of portrait , but I don't suggest to use always i think its will kill the creative and the skill development and the art should be free hand done

Balance is always the key, I agree, we don't need to use the grid all the time. After a while with using the grid you will find that your skills develop alot more and it easier to work with larger and larger squares too:) The grid is valuable but even better if you can also draw without one, using it just sometimes for example when you need to transfer one of your own drawings from very small to large. Or....when I am working on commissioned art from old photographs and it is often the only photograph the person has, in that instance I use a grid method for all the major placements of elements. It is also handy for drawing complex things such as the train I drew behind the engine driver in 'Old Rattler' which is in my gallery here on drawspace. I would be mad not use a grid in this case Lol!
cheers!
Cindy

i hav always needed some tecnique for using a grid but this realy helped!