Artist Journal

Explore drawing techniques, painting methods, and artistic insights gathered from years of practice. Each article shares practical knowledge to help you master the grid method and improve your art.

Watercolour in three stages on one sheet: a square pencil grid on the left, the drawing with the grid erased in the middle, and the finished wash on the right with no grid lines showing.

Using Grids to Create Realistic Watercolor Illustrations

A pencil grid under watercolour works only if you erase it before painting. Which pencil, why the lines get sealed in, and what to do when one survives.

Finished rose illustration and half-drawn pencil copy side by side, both sheets carrying the identical 4x5 drawing grid

Using Grids to Create Detailed Botanical Drawings

Botanical illustration with the grid method: capture leaf venation, petal counts and true proportions from your reference photo, step by step.

Galloping horse in the gathered suspension phase, all four hooves off the ground and legs collected under the body, with a 6x4 drawing grid overlay

How to Draw Animals in Motion with the Grid Method

Draw animals in motion with a grid: what a horse's gallop actually does after Muybridge, plus 6x4 over the animal and 12x8 over head and shoulder.

Gridded sketchbook design being scaled square by square onto a large chalked wall mural

How to Scale a Sketch to a Wall Mural with the Grid Method

Scale a sketch to a wall mural with the grid method: two worked enlargement factors, choosing your wall square size, and squaring a wall before you mark it.

Detailed old-town street scene under a variable-density drawing grid: coarse cells overall, finer subdivision over the ornate central facade

How the Grid Method Can Help You Break Down Complex Drawings

Break a complex reference down with a grid: pick a cell size, subdivide only where the detail is, and work in three passes with a check at each.

Half-finished charcoal portrait on gridded paper with vine charcoal sticks, a compressed charcoal block and a kneaded eraser

Using Grid Drawing to Improve Your Charcoal Drawings

Charcoal with a grid: which of the four charcoals to use, how coarse the grid should be, mapping values before you start, and why fixative darkens lights.