BETTER than the Grid Method: Scale up drawings faster and easier!

In this video drawing tutorial I show you a better, faster and easier way to scale up your photo for drawing. Make it bigger or smaller without drawing a traditional grid of squares. This method is suitable for beginners and involves no calculations or measuring. Learn how to draw more accurately with ease.

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TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Introduction, about this method
2:58 Prepare your photo
3:41 Check the proportions of your paper
7:16 Create your simple grid
10:00 Use your grid to draw your subject

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[peterreece]

To make your brain draw what it sees and not what it knows ( as in a bird here), do the grid as you do it and draw the image upside-down.

[kathyhall]

This is the best technique to draw from a photo. I'm always amazed how accurate it is.

[bbulliard]

absolutely better than grid or loumis for drawing heads. I found my drawings to really match up to the subject SO well. I also use drawing from the right side of the brain, so between that and this system, I have really increased my accuracy.. thank you so much...bob

[Joxmank]

If you have a difficult picture you can Bisect that grid once again, to give you even more of a layout. :) For example if the upper quadrant with the beak was giving you a headache you could once again draw the X pattern for that quadrant. This grid type allows you to bisect what you need and leave the rest alone saving time :)

Great video :D

[GratefulThird]

Great tutorial!
I use a light table and put the grid for my drawing underneath my paper so that I don’t have to erase the grid from my drawing paper.
I use a piece of transparent drafting film with the grid for the photo and lay it on top of the photo.

[annettefournier]

Thank you Michele. This is incredibly helpful for me. Another thing I like to incorporate is after I put the reference lines in to scale by ; I like to turn the reference photo and my paper upside-down. That way my brain doesn't interfere with what I think I see but just draw the lines where they actually are. Then I turn everything right-side up again to refine the details after I have the shape blocked in. I'm sure once I get more experience drawing that I will have to do this less as I will have better trained my seeing. If that makes sense. I don't know exactly why this works but it does for me.🥴💜

[jeremiahthompson]

Thank you so much. You British people are intelligent.

Innovative. Thank you.

[suspage]

I have been using this scaling method since you first introduced it, and it has made a huge difference. It has been especially helpful with the beginner’s drawing course. Traditional grids work fine, but I find this SO much faster and easier. Thank you!

[delphinewood]

I found every minute of this tutorial helpful. I can easily see myself practicing this, and then learning to visualize the grid on anything I want to draw. Thank you!🙏💙🌵

[tbm]

I definitely like this grid better than the standard. My new favorite drawing tool! ❤️❤️

[CarlWinter-oyuf]

Been painting /teaching for 58 yrs -cant beat the grid for ACCURACY!

[mondogenerator]

Good, It's good to hear the inner monolog of an artist

[Graham.Hanson]

Love you and your channel Michele. You have given me the inspiration to take up drawing again for the first time since O’level Art at school back in 1976.

[KWicksable]

I pride myself in being a trouble shooter, but I never in my wildest dreams thought 💭 to scale up using this method. I am blown away and will certainly use your method. Thank you so very much for making my life easier. This is by far a game changer for me. 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼😊😊😊

[dewindoethdwl]

This is a really nice use of ratios and so well explained. It does make changing the size when copying an image far more straightforward. A lot quicker than drawing squares.

[chammikaiser]

This is so well explained Michele. Thank you for all you do for budding artists.

[klarapetelei]

Hi Michele, your videos are fantastic. I watch lots of similar ones, but I always come back to yours, for they are very clear, well structured, professional, no blah-blah. I am very grateful that you help me and a lot of others too.

[rhonacohen]

Thank you for this information. I’ve always struggled with the regular squared off method finding it too pedantic and slow and usually I’ve not got the same proportions . This is going to be so helpful.

[sweetmelon]

One easy way to scale up is to export your image in to a power point presentation. Fit the image to the blank presentation. Then on the powerpoint menu go to insert and click table and add a table. Then scroll on the insert table grid and select the grid type from 2x2, 4x6, 5x8, any you desire. Then spread the created grid to cover the image and you are done. You may need to unfill or make transparent the fill color of the resulting "gridded" image. Then print this image and voila you can start working with scaling up.

[photographicamateur]

Great tutorial- no more calculator ☺️ Especially useful for me is the section on matching the proportion of the image to the drawing paper. Thanks