how to draw 3d buildings using gridded paper

The Filigree Method

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

The filigree method is an cheap, low-tech way to reproduce and/or enlarge an image that you lot want to paint or draw. The grid method tin exist a fairly time-intensive procedure, depending on how large and detailed your painting volition be. While the process is not every bit quick as using a projector or transfer paper, information technology does have the added benefit of helping to improve your cartoon and observational skills.

In a nutshell, the filigree method involves drawing a grid over your reference photo, and so drawing a grid of equal ratio on your work surface (paper, sail, wood panel, etc). Then you draw the image on your canvas, focusing on 1 square at a time, until the entire image has been transferred. Once you're finished, you simply erase or paint over the filigree lines, and kickoff working on your painting, which will be at present be in perfect proportion! Yay.

To use the grid method, you need to have a ruler, a paper copy of your reference paradigm, and a pencil to draw lines on the paradigm. You lot volition also need a work surface upon which y'all will be transferring the photograph, such every bit paper, canvas, wood panel, etc.

To draw the grid lines on paper, I would recommend using a mechanical pencil, so that you can go a sparse, precise line. Be sure to depict the filigree very lightly, and then that you can easily erase it when you are finished.

To draw the grid lines on canvas or woods, I would advise using a sparse piece of sharpened charcoal. Again, make sure you make the grid lines as light every bit possible, and so that they are easy to erase when you are finished. The benefit of using charcoal on canvass or forest, instead of using pencil, is that charcoal tin be hands wiped off with a paper towel or rag, whereas pencil can exist more difficult to erase.

The important thing to remember when cartoon the grids is that they must have a 1:1 ratio. This is very important - otherwise your cartoon volition be distorted! Basically, a i:1 ratio means that you will take the exact aforementioned number of lines on your canvas every bit you volition on your reference photograph, and that in both cases, the lines must be every bit spaced apart - perfect squares.

Confused? It'due south quite piece of cake in one case you get the hang of it. Let's run into the filigree method in action, and it will brand more sense.

Allow'due south say you want to paint the following epitome:

This reference photo is 5" ten 7". As luck would have it, you want to brand a five" x vii" painting from this photograph. Then drawing the grid will be pretty straightforward. But if you desire to brand a large painting, you could also make a painting that is 10" x 14" or 15" x 21" or twenty" x 28". Why those sizes and non other sizes? Considering those sizes are the aforementioned ratio as the 5" x 7" reference photo. In other words:

Meet? It's bones math. The size of your artwork must always be equally proportionate to the size of the reference photo.

Because of this, it's of import to exist aware of what size canvases and wood panels are commercially available. If you stretch your own canvases, yous tin can get stretcher confined in merely near whatsoever size to accommodate your needs. Only if you're like about of us, you buy pre-stretched canvases, so you lot are express to the more popular sizes.

So, back to grid-making. Here is what you lot desire your grid to look like:

To draw the grid:

Each square is 1 square inch. To describe this grid, put your ruler at the top of the paper, and make a small mark at every inch. Place the ruler at the bottom of the paper and do the same affair. So use the ruler to make a directly line connecting each dot at the bottom with its partner at the meridian.

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

Voila, you've got a grid! Now repeat the aforementioned procedure on your paper or canvas:

Yous've now got a grid on your work surface that perfectly matches the filigree of your reference photo. Bravo!

Because this painting volition be the exact size as the reference photo, the squares on this sail are also i square inch. If this painting was going to be 10" x 14", then the squares would need to exist 2 square inches, considering:

See?

Basically, to enlarge the image, you'll need to do this kind of math (even if you hate math!). It's necessary in order to make sure the enlargement is exactly proportionate to the original. If you're not sure whether you lot've washed the math correctly, just count the number of squares in each row and in each column, and ask yourself:

• Are in that location an equal number of rows and columns on the canvas as there are on the reference photo?

• Are the squares on the sheet perfect squares, just similar the squares on the reference photo?

If you can answer yes to both of those questions, yous've got the gridding process downward pat!

Now, back to the 5" x 7" filigree higher up.

I find that it's sometimes easier to keep track of where I am amongst all those little squares by mark them numerically and alphabetically along the edges of the paper and canvas. This way if I go lost, particularly within a much larger painting with many more than squares, I can hands locate where I desire to be. I write the numbers and letters really small and lightly, and so that they can be hands erased. It looks something like this:

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

So at present your task is to transfer what you encounter in the reference photograph, block by cake, onto your sheet or paper. When I apply the grid method, I ever starting time at the top left corner, and work my way across and downwardly. Since Square A1 is blank in the reference photo, we'll move on to A2. Describe in A2 exactly every bit you see it:

The grid basically divides the original image into smaller blocks so that you tin more than hands see what belongs where. You tin can see that in the photo, the left side of the niggling bowl intersects the corner at the lesser left of Square A2. So yous draw the line from there to just below the middle of the line between A2 and A3.

That get-go block was easy! At present do the adjacent cake:

And so you run into that as you are transferring the prototype, you are only paying attending to one block at a fourth dimension. Don't worry about the other blocks - just focus on that one block. Attempt every bit much equally yous can to re-create exactly what you run into in that niggling square in the photo to the respective square on your paper or canvass. Focus on getting the placement of each line only correct! Hither we go:

And so the next square:

I think yous get the idea now. Basically y'all continue on in this manner, until all the squares are done and the image is completely transferred. By focusing on one square at a time, you end up drawing what you actually meet, and not what you think you lot see or even what you think you ought to see. Once finished, you now accept a pretty accurate rendition of your reference photo, ready for painting or drawing!

When you lot are washed transferring the image, gently erase the grid lines. Congratulations - you're fix to pigment!

Video demonstrations

If yous'd like to run into a video demonstration of the grid method, bank check out these courses on Skillshare. Get immediate access with their 14-mean solar day gratuitous trial or apply our code, ARTISFUN30, to get 30% off annual membership! If you sign up via any of these links, I get a committee 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, fifty-fifty the great Leonardo da Vinci, used the grid method! The grid method dates dorsum to the ancient Egyptians. Information technology is clearly a useful method for artists and aspiring artists alike. If you programme to use the grid method, keep the following tips in mind:

If you are planning to overstate your reference photo to create a bigger painting, please remember to keep the proportions right. Brand sure that everything is equal. For example, if your photo is 8" x x", and so you tin 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 as well. This is the but way that the enlargement will be proportionally correct!

If y'all want to pigment using a pre-stretched canvas, but your reference photo does not fit whatsoever of the standard canvass sizes, endeavor cropping your photo so that it does fit.

The filigree method is not but useful for photorealistic paintings, but tin also be applied to overstate or transfer drawings or sketches in any style, such as abstruse, cubist, whimsical, etc. Information technology's an effective fashion to transform that little putter in your sketchbook into a full-blown painting!

This is Page 9 of a 15-page guide explaining how to paint photorealistically.

An Introduction to Fine art Techniques

How to Draw with Photorealism

Realistic Drawing Secrets

Permit's Draw Class

Check out my in-depth review of the Let's Depict Course! It'southward a digital course – that y'all can access immediately – taught through videos and ebooks past two experienced instructors. Highly recommended!

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

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