The Grid Technique — Draw Daily

LESSON ONE

THE GRID TECHNIQUE

Creating interesting designs, even if they are relatively simple, in our perspective work can be a huge aspect of the creative process. However manipulating these designs in perspective can be a major hurdle, especially early on. There are very few reference points to anchor onto when working with these simple tools, so we just have to make our own.

Now, what if I told you, you’ve already learned the secret formula?

In our previous exercises, we were able to break down our planes just enough to help us place our circles and ellipses properly. Now, we can simply tweak this technique to create even more points of reference wherever and whenever we might need them. We are going to look at three different planes to help illustrate the technique.

First we will look at this technique from head on, and then I will demonstrate how you can transfer your design onto other planes.  

A little later I will also illustrate how you can use this technique to not only transfer a design, but also to move the design around a corner, to cast the shape onto another surface, or transfer that design onto a completely different location.

THE DESIGN

I am going to create a very simple design on our first plane. I will draw in a curved line in the top right corner box, repeat that but mirrored in the first box of the second row, and then draw a horizontal line connecting this second box to the next column. I repeat this pattern until I hit the bottom of the plane.

Next I am going to repeat this design on the right hand side, doing everything just the same, but mirrored. Notice how easy it was to repeat this pattern thanks to the grid of reference points we created.

What is really amazing about this is that we can easily transfer this to our horizontal plane just by repeating the exact same pattern in the corresponding boxes. This pattern has been successfully transferred into our drawing with just the right amount of foreshortening and it is done with very little effort.

Watch as I repeat this pattern on our vertical plane. The vertical plane was wider than it was tall, but you can easily use this technique to rotate the design as well, so I turned the pattern just to show you how easy it is to do so.

You will be able to easily create your design and mirror, turn, or completely move your patterns freely with this technique.