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 looking over 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 assist you to break a complex image down into small, more manageable pieces. You will also place a grid over your drawing paper and next your job is to simply discover what exactly is inside each box on your own photo reference and transfer that to the equivalent box on your drawing paper.

It may sound somewhat complicated but in fact the grid method is rather simple. Creating a grid of horizontal and vertical lines enables you to easily verify that you are drawing everything in the correct place. On your photo reference, a line might go from one point of your grid to another, and you would merely reproduce that on your drawing paper.

In addition to finding some points where lines in your drawing cross grid lines and merely connecting the dots, the grid method can likewise help you notice 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 aren't drawing. There are actually shapes created between your grid lines and places you're 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 somewhat difficult to explain without a few visual aids. Perhaps I'll come back soon and post some photos or possibly a video so that I can offer you a more thorough and easier to understand explanation.