How to Use the Grid Method for Drawing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNFIuVws5EA
How to Use the Grid Method for Drawing
Some of the people reading this page may have heard of the grid method and others may not have. A brief explanation of the grid method is that it is simply a way to help keep your drawing in proportion.

You can take a photo reference and place a grid over it and the grid will help you break a complex image down into small, more manageable pieces. You will also have a grid over your drawing paper and then your job is to simply observe what is in each box on your photo reference and transfer that to the corresponding box on your drawing paper.

It may sound a little bit complicated but in reality the grid method is quite simple. Having a grid of horizontal and vertical lines allows you to easily make sure you are drawing everything in the right place. On your photo reference, a line might go from one point of your grid to another, and you would simply replicate that on your drawing paper.

In addition to finding some points where lines in your drawing cross grid lines and simply connecting the dots, the grid method can also help you observe various shapes in your photo reference and transfer those shapes to your drawing. The grid method also helps you observe negative space, which is the space that you are not drawing. There are shapes created between your grid lines and spaces you are not drawing that will help you see the lines and shapes that you are drawing.

I hope that this explanation of how to use the grid method is not too complicated, but it's kind of difficult to explain without some visual aids. Perhaps I'll come back soon and post some photos or even a video so that I can give you a more thorough and easier to understand explanation.