"PIECE OF THE PIE" TEAM BUILDING
The Artist's Grid Method
Grid Method of ReSizing - Early Times
"Almost every decision I've made as an artist is an outcome of my particular learning disorders. I'm overwhelmed by the whole. How do you make a big head? How do you make a nose? I'm not sure! But by breaking the image down into small units, I make each decision into a bite size decision. I don't have to reinvent the wheel everyday, it's an ongoing process. The system liberates and allows for intuition and eventually I have a painting" - Chuck Close
BIG IDEA: While working as a team and collaborating students will graph grid blocks from 2 inch squares to 12 inch squares to create a larger realistic composition.
ESSENTIAL QUESTION: How will using the grid system advance and improve my drawing skills over time to be more accurate?
Why might it be important to understand that one part is just as important as the whole? How will this be related to team building?
KEY KNOWLEDGE: Students will:
There is a simple method of ensuring that a finished work will have proper shape and perspective. Artists dating back to the ancient Egyptians knew of a technique to break down a painting into smaller "grids" to effectively divide the image they were painting into a number of smaller images, each of which has less detail than the whole. The "grid method" was even used by Leonardo Da Vinci in both his works and in teaching. Today the grid method is alive and well in many art schools, but the math that's required deters many would-be artists.
The grid method is nothing more than overlaying a grid onto an original image that you wish to draw or paint, and then placing a matching grid pattern on your paper or canvas. For example, if your original image is an 8" x 10" photograph, you could draw a one-inch grid onto the photograph to create a grid pattern with eighty squares (eight squares by ten squares). The original photograph or image is now divided nicely into eighty bite-sized pieces, each of which are much easier to sketch onto the canvas than the entire original (Fig. 1).
Gridding results in better artwork because each of the smaller squares gets sketched one at a time until the entire sketch is finished. Once the sketch is done, the student can then begin to paint, mixing paints as usual. But if the sketch isn't done well, the finished painting will be disappointing. Gridding allows the underlying sketch to almost perfectly match the original, which will result in a satisfying painting with perfect proportions and perspective.
Clearly this method is useful only when there is an original image to draw or paint. An imagined scene or abstract concept is difficult to grid, obviously, since the artist is not working from an original image or photograph. But most beginning artists--and certainly art students--learn by painting from an original photo, and the gridding method is an amazing aid in this regard.
MAGNET THEME CONNECTIONS:
BIG IDEA: While working as a team and collaborating students will graph grid blocks from 2 inch squares to 12 inch squares to create a larger realistic composition.
ESSENTIAL QUESTION: How will using the grid system advance and improve my drawing skills over time to be more accurate?
Why might it be important to understand that one part is just as important as the whole? How will this be related to team building?
KEY KNOWLEDGE: Students will:
- Learn about scale, ratio and proportion
- Understand the difference between shape and form.
- Use new media techniques and processes by looking at shapes instead of the subject as a whole to create artwork proportionally larger.
- Work together as a team to create artwork.
- Learn about artist Chuck Close, Da Vinci, M.C. Escher and other influential people while developing art.
There is a simple method of ensuring that a finished work will have proper shape and perspective. Artists dating back to the ancient Egyptians knew of a technique to break down a painting into smaller "grids" to effectively divide the image they were painting into a number of smaller images, each of which has less detail than the whole. The "grid method" was even used by Leonardo Da Vinci in both his works and in teaching. Today the grid method is alive and well in many art schools, but the math that's required deters many would-be artists.
The grid method is nothing more than overlaying a grid onto an original image that you wish to draw or paint, and then placing a matching grid pattern on your paper or canvas. For example, if your original image is an 8" x 10" photograph, you could draw a one-inch grid onto the photograph to create a grid pattern with eighty squares (eight squares by ten squares). The original photograph or image is now divided nicely into eighty bite-sized pieces, each of which are much easier to sketch onto the canvas than the entire original (Fig. 1).
Gridding results in better artwork because each of the smaller squares gets sketched one at a time until the entire sketch is finished. Once the sketch is done, the student can then begin to paint, mixing paints as usual. But if the sketch isn't done well, the finished painting will be disappointing. Gridding allows the underlying sketch to almost perfectly match the original, which will result in a satisfying painting with perfect proportions and perspective.
Clearly this method is useful only when there is an original image to draw or paint. An imagined scene or abstract concept is difficult to grid, obviously, since the artist is not working from an original image or photograph. But most beginning artists--and certainly art students--learn by painting from an original photo, and the gridding method is an amazing aid in this regard.
MAGNET THEME CONNECTIONS:
- When doctors operate on a patient they isolate the area to better concentrate on the part vs. the entire body. All parts are connected to a whole.
- Using a grid is beneficial in creating blueprints. Engineers must have skills in not only math but understanding the spatial relationships of shape. Drawing while using a grid system helps with these skills and also advances confidence and levels of understanding how to draw better.