Darrell Williams 26 Jun 2008

I use the grid when I want proportions to be exact. I was taught that it is a tool to be used just the same as a pencil, brush or eraser. The grid is ment to speed things along.

On the other hand if it is used as a crutch because you don't know how to reproduce images for your work that could be thought of as wrong.

Use your judgement, if you feel it's wrong don't do it. If you don't have a problem with it the it is ok. If you aren't happy it will show in your work, so do what feels right to you.

Dominic Melfi 26 Jun 2008

I have used grid to enlarge/shrink a sketch I had done. Wouldnt make sense to recreate drawing if you were satisfied with it.

In fact, I made a canvas side grid with frame and string to facillitate the process.

Dan Ault 26 Jun 2008

It's only cheating if you can find it in the rule book.

Chas Sinklier 26 Jun 2008

Hmm, the grid... Is this the same grid system used by the "Old Masters" and every artist making a living over the past five thousand years???

You're using photographs... why aren't you working from live models?

How about the camera obscura... another tool used by the great masters - was it okay for them to use that?

Do you make your own paints... why aren't you grinding your own pigments from ancient and natural sources?

Do you use rabbit glue to prep your canvases?

Any working artist concerned with making a living will do what it takes to get the work done without unburdening to the charming and nice folks that hire our talents, skills and secrets.

I've heard that confession is good for the spirit, but I've never seen someone in my profession spilling to clients methods that have been "trade secret" for centuries...

Turn in Yer Union Card Cyndi and leave yer beret at the door...

You can keep the smock with the ribbon-bow at the neck...

Oh, and don't ever tell another one of the mundanes anything else about our little secrets - Ha! Cheating Indeed! ~:0)

Terry Harris 27 Jun 2008

Not cheating, just a tool. Most art books for learning to enlarge a work show you how to use a grid. It keeps your eye trained to getting it more accurate. You still have to have skill to do it right, & you have to paint it with some skill to finish your painting. When I do portraits I have to use a grid around the eye ares to get them to match.

A grid grid helped me when I used to plan out a wall mural. I had to keep stepping back to see if I'm in the right area and the grid helps. You maybe able to learn to do a grid sometimes in your mind after using them often enough. I can for some things if I use large mental grids.

You don't need to tell the buyer all your tricks & tools. Besides, anyone with some basic art training knows about using a grid to enlarge. Even kids art books have it in it. (I've a large number from teaching art to kids.) It's just planning out the work,, a layout of it. Think of it as enlarging or a blueprint of the composition. This takes it past a simple sketch to more detailed and accuracy.

I also seldom keep every little detail from a photo in a work, I leave out, change, add. I use photos for reference as models move, are available when I want to work on a work, and lighting changes. I have large stock files of photos I take and sort into files so when I need inspiration, I browse until some catch my eye & spur me to work. I usually like several photos for a portrait work even so I can get the feel, or get familiar more with a face. It also gives me more of a personality by studying the photos.

Also in defence of using photos here, I can blow up on my computer screen a photo to get tiny details I would miss with a live or still model. I like to take photos of subjects from different angles to study it. I can create realistic works with reference photos on hand. From memory, not so great at times.

I'd love to see what Dominic Melfi came up with. "I have used grid to enlarge/shrink a sketch I had done. Wouldn't make sense to recreate drawing if you were satisfied with it. In fact, I made a canvas side grid with frame and string to facillitate the process. Dominic Melfi "

Susan Epps Oliver 27 Jun 2008

What Dan said ! Doesn't matter how you arrive at the finished product as long as it's creative and yours !

kiddolucas lee 27 Jun 2008

Combination various of 'Geometrical shapes ' are helpful in executing huge size composition

I tell the Junior artists..' this act as Construction frames'

H.E. Drew 27 Jun 2008

Would Albrecht Dürer cheat;)

H.E. Drew 27 Jun 2008

Brunelleschi must be the biggest cheater of them all! LMAO!

cramer 28 Jun 2008

not cheating at all..tracing and over head projectors are viable tricks as well..i do it sometimes, usually just for transfering a complex drawing full of sloppy eraser marks to a clean sheet of paper....there is no cheating but doesnt it feel good to throw the grid out the window and freely express what u observe???

tony murray 28 Jun 2008

What is a "grid" anyway? is it like a transparency or something?

cramer 28 Jun 2008

the grid method is when u measure out say inch by inch squares on a piece of paper and squares in scale on your drawing or photograph and use it as a guide to draw what u see according to the squares

Betty Schwartz 30 Jun 2008

It is a time honored method for re-sizing one's OWN drawing or painting. It is self-defeating, however, when you use a grid on your own photo. It is better to develop your eye by using your photos for reference only - not something to be traced (or drawn from a grid). It's only cheating when you use it on the work of someone else and then calling the drawn result your own.

Betty Alford 01 Jul 2008

You said it Chas!

MH Heintz 01 Jul 2008

Do whatever it takes to get the job done; screw what other people think. A sidenote to gridding and tracing (I've tried both, the latter from pictures I often model for and take myself using a timer. SOAPBOX: FOUNDING FATHERS is actually just me sitting around a table with different outfits on); it's excruciatingly painstaking and time-consuming work if you're a perfectionist about it (I am) and yet people still turn their noses up at it like any five-year-old could do it. Those people should go for long walks in the rain...

jim rownd 01 Jul 2008

rule book..lol

H.E. Drew 02 Jul 2008

WOW! Da Vinci must have cheated TOO!

vivian sellers 18 Jul 2008

I haven't used a grid outside of the college class room,, but drawing all those lines would drive me crazy,,If I am doing a mural I just move around and sketch , sometimes I just paint it on the wall no sketch,, I think whatever works do it, with computer art, projectors , whatever ,, if it works do it , competion is fierce out there, do what you can to make it look the way you want it to,, no fear!

Leo Da's Artistic Promotions 19 Jul 2008

great tood Viv;)

Cyndi Brennan 21 Jul 2008

Thanks to everyone who replied to my question! (I forgot to say, this question concerns using only photos taken by myself, or with permission from the photographer.)

I really liked Darrell's answer...I agree that it can be useful, but I don't want to use it as a crutch. I will concentrate more on my drawing skills without the grid. I also like Dominic's reply about using the grid to enlarge or shrink sketches. It's true, when you really like that original sketch, it seems natural to duplicate it with the grid method. Thanks everyone!