How to Mak Art That Looks Like It Is Moving

The Grid Method

how to use the filigree method to enlarge or transfer an image

The filigree method is an inexpensive, low-tech fashion to reproduce and/or enlarge an image that you want to pigment or draw. The grid method tin can exist a fairly fourth dimension-intensive process, depending on how large and detailed your painting will be. While the process is not as quick as using a projector or transfer newspaper, it does have the added benefit of helping to meliorate your drawing and observational skills.

In a nutshell, the grid method involves drawing a filigree over your reference photograph, and then drawing a grid of equal ratio on your work surface (paper, canvas, forest console, etc). So you draw the paradigm on your canvas, focusing on one square at a fourth dimension, until the unabridged epitome has been transferred. In one case you're finished, you lot simply erase or pigment over the filigree lines, and beginning working on your painting, which will be now be in perfect proportion! Yay.

To use the grid method, you need to have a ruler, a newspaper copy of your reference image, and a pencil to describe lines on the image. Yous will also need a work surface upon which you will be transferring the photo, such as newspaper, canvas, wood console, etc.

To draw the filigree lines on newspaper, I would recommend using a mechanical pencil, then that you lot tin become a thin, precise line. Exist sure to draw the filigree very lightly, so that you can easily erase it when you are finished.

To depict the grid lines on canvas or woods, I would advise using a thin slice of sharpened charcoal. Once again, make certain you make the grid lines as light every bit possible, and then that they are piece of cake to erase when you are finished. The benefit of using charcoal on canvas or wood, instead of using pencil, is that charcoal can be easily wiped off with a paper towel or rag, whereas pencil can be more than difficult to erase.

The important thing to remember when cartoon the grids is that they must take a 1:ane ratio. This is very of import - otherwise your drawing will exist distorted! Basically, a 1:1 ratio ways that you lot will take the exact same number of lines on your canvas every bit you volition on your reference photograph, and that in both cases, the lines must exist as spaced apart - perfect squares.

Confused? It'south quite piece of cake once you get the hang of it. Let's see the grid method in activeness, and it volition make more sense.

Let's say y'all want to paint the post-obit image:

This reference photo is 5" x vii". Equally luck would take information technology, you want to make a 5" x 7" painting from this photo. So drawing the filigree volition be pretty straightforward. But if you desire to make a big painting, you could also make a painting that is x" 10 xiv" or 15" x 21" or 20" x 28". Why those sizes and not other sizes? Because those sizes are the same ratio as the five" x 7" reference photo. In other words:

See? Information technology's basic math. The size of your artwork must always be every bit proportionate to the size of the reference photo.

Because of this, it'southward important to exist enlightened of what size canvases and forest panels are commercially available. If you stretch your own canvases, you lot tin get stretcher bars in just most whatever size to suit your needs. Only if you lot're like most of u.s., you buy pre-stretched canvases, then you are limited to the more popular sizes.

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

To describe the grid:

Each square is i square inch. To depict this grid, put your ruler at the top of the paper, and brand a small marking at every inch. Place the ruler at the bottom of the newspaper and do the same affair. Then use the ruler to make a directly line connecting each dot at the bottom with its partner at the top.

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

Voila, you've got a filigree! Now repeat the same procedure on your paper or canvass:

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

Because this painting volition be the exact size every bit the reference photo, the squares on this canvas are likewise 1 square inch. If this painting was going to exist x" x fourteen", then the squares would need to be 2 square inches, because:

Encounter?

Basically, to enlarge the image, you'll need to do this kind of math (even if you hate math!). It's necessary in gild to make sure the enlargement is exactly proportionate to the original. If you're not certain whether yous've done 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 equally there are on the reference photo?

• Are the squares on the canvas perfect squares, just like the squares on the reference photo?

If you lot tin can answer yes to both of those questions, you've got the gridding process down pat!

At present, dorsum to the 5" 10 7" grid higher up.

I find that it's sometimes easier to keep track of where I am amongst all those little squares by marking them numerically and alphabetically along the edges of the paper and canvas. This way if I become lost, especially within a much larger painting with many more squares, I tin can easily locate where I desire to be. I write the numbers and letters really modest and lightly, so that they can exist easily erased. Information technology looks something like this:

And this is how information technology looks on the paper or canvas:

And then now your chore is to transfer what you lot see in the reference photo, block by cake, onto your canvass or paper. When I use the filigree method, I always start at the top left corner, and piece of work my mode across and downward. Since Square A1 is blank in the reference photograph, we'll move on to A2. Describe in A2 exactly as you see information technology:

The grid basically divides the original image into smaller blocks and so that you lot tin more than easily see what belongs where. You can come across that in the photograph, the left side of the little bowl intersects the corner at the lesser left of Square A2. And then y'all draw the line from there to just beneath the middle of the line between A2 and A3.

That first block was easy! Now practise the next cake:

And so you lot run across that as y'all are transferring the prototype, yous are simply paying attention to ane block at a fourth dimension. Don't worry virtually the other blocks - just focus on that one block. Endeavor as much as y'all tin to copy exactly what you see in that fiddling square in the photograph to the corresponding square on your paper or sheet. Focus on getting the placement of each line just right! Here we go:

And so the adjacent square:

I recollect you get the thought at present. Basically you go along on in this fashion, until all the squares are done and the image is completely transferred. Past focusing on 1 square at a fourth dimension, you lot cease up drawing what you really see, and not what you lot think y'all see or even what you recall you lot ought to see. Once finished, you now accept a pretty accurate rendition of your reference photo, set for painting or drawing!

When you are done transferring the image, gently erase the filigree lines. Congratulations - you're prepare to pigment!

Video demonstrations

If you'd like to meet a video sit-in of the filigree method, cheque out these courses on Skillshare. Get immediate access with their 14-day free trial or use our code, ARTISFUN30, to go 30% off almanac membership! If you sign up via any of these links, I get a commission that helps support 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 grid method dates back to the ancient Egyptians. It is conspicuously a useful method for artists and aspiring artists akin. If y'all plan to use the filigree method, keep the following tips in mind:

If you are planning to enlarge your reference photograph to create a bigger painting, please remember to keep the proportions right. Make sure 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" x 10". Basically, if you multiply one side by 2, multiply the other side past 2 equally well. This is the simply way that the enlargement volition be proportionally correct!

If yous want to paint using a pre-stretched sail, but your reference photo does not fit any of the standard sail sizes, endeavour cropping your photo so that it does fit.

The grid method is not only useful for photorealistic paintings, but tin too be applied to enlarge or transfer drawings or sketches in whatever style, such as abstract, cubist, whimsical, etc. It's an effective manner to transform that little putter in your sketchbook into a full-blown painting!

This is Page nine of a 15-page guide explaining how to pigment photorealistically.

An Introduction to Fine art Techniques

How to Draw with Photorealism

Realistic Cartoon Secrets

Permit's Describe Course

Check out my in-depth review of the Let's Draw Course! It's a digital form – that you tin can access immediately – taught through videos and ebooks by 2 experienced instructors. Highly recommended!

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