How to Do Grid Drawings

Using a grid to create grid drawings will have you drawing and sketching like a pro in no time.

Among the many artistic talents in the world, one of the most popular is drawing and sketching. If you’re not artistically inclined but still want to try your hand at drawing, using a grid to create enlarged drawings will undoubtedly aid you in honing your technique.

Things You'll Need

• 4.5-by-6 inch original photo
• Adobe Photoshop
• Drawing pencils
• 12-inch ruler
• 18-by-24 inch drawing paper
• Eraser

Instructions

Preparation

1. Find a photo or image that you want to reproduce. Use Internet search engines to find an image or look through personal photos.

2. Open the photo using Adobe Photoshop or another image-editing software on your PC or laptop computer.

3. Click on the “Image” tab near the top of the screen. Scroll down and click on “Image size.” Take note of the size of the image in inches under “Document Size.”

4. Use the cropping tool on the left hand toolbar to crop your image until its dimensions are 4.5 by-6 inches (4.5-inch height and 6-inch width for a landscape-style photo or 6-inch height and 4.5-inch width for a portrait-style). To ensure the image is 4.5 inches by 6 inches, refer to the “Document Size” after each time you crop the image.

5. Save the image by going to the “File” tab and clicking on “Save.” Print out your resized image.

6. Draw a 1/2-by-1/2 inch square grid over the top of your image using a pencil and 12-inch ruler. Be careful when drawing the grid and make sure all of your grid lines are perfectly straight.

Drawing Your Image

1. Draw a 2-by-2 inch square grid onto your 18-by-24 inch drawing paper using a pencil and 12-inch ruler. In the end you should have the same number of grid squares on your drawing paper as you do on your image.

2. Sketch your drawing onto the drawing paper by replicating the contents of each square on the original image grid with that on the drawing paper. By using drawing pencils you will have a variety of shades to choose from which will help in making your drawing more lifelike and realistic.

3. Erase any remaining grid lines from the drawing paper once your drawing is completely finished.

Tips & Warnings

• Try the same technique to enlarge other size images, such as using a 3-by-5 inch image to draw a larger 12-by-20 inch image. As long as the larger image is equivalent in proportion to the original image , the griding technique will work.