Grid Drawing
Grid Drawing
This lesson is premium only. Join us in the full course!
29:07

Portrait Painting in Oil Without a Brain

Grid Method

Your assignment is to do this with me! Again, it may seem overly simple but learning how to do this is a great place to start for the rest of the course.

Download the reference from the downloads tab of this lesson.

Newest
@lipstiger
I am looking forward to this course, I am 67 years old and have tried to paint a portrait about 12 times, all horrible! I am not gonna lie the charcoal was difficult for me to use. You sir are an amazing artist and I am going to benefit GREATLY!
Morgan Weistling
looks like you got a good start on number 13 then. Just keep the grid thinking going when the paint goes on.
Michèle Girard
I am waiting for my material to be delivered, being new to oil paint, I had to buy everything. I did have a Fredix Canvas pad, so I am practicing on it. The coat of acrylic grey ended up drying a lot darker than the wet color, so I applied a second lighter coat. It makes the canvas feel like plastic. I probably used too thick of a coat. When the panels arrive I will be redoing this whole exercise. More practice definitely won't hurt. I noodled with this too much, but I did get a pretty good likeness.
Morgan Weistling
check the shapes on the over back of head and top. You've rounded it more than it is.
Léon Zunnebeld
Hello Morgan, Great video! It was very insightful regarding the thinking process. I often find myself getting stuck in the construction phase, trying to position everything correctly, but your approach was really helpful. I added some additional grids around the face to enhance accuracy. My printed version of the photo was quite dark, which made it a bit difficult to see certain shapes. Overall, the process was really enjoyable as I watched everything come together. I do feel that my natural grey is a bit too dark.
Morgan Weistling
double check the jaw line all the way up to the ear. I think it might be a bit off and could make a difference. Glad you enjoy it! Yes, the grey is too dark. but it will still work
Timothy Ridley
I hope you don't mind that I used my own image for this assignment. It doesn't have as much contrast but I'm hoping I can pull a beautiful painting out of this.
Morgan Weistling
That's fine. I wouldn't have picked a shot where her hair is covering so much of her face though.But you did a good job of plotting it out.
@jjlehmann
Hi, Morgan! Thanks for the assignment, the grid made it much easier than I was expecting. Looking forward to seeing how this leads to the next stages.
Morgan Weistling
If you can try to tap into this kind of thinking even when there is no grid, the world is your oyster. You did great. Ready for paint.
Jeff V
2d
Hi, Morgan. So far, this course has been exactly what I've been looking for. Like Leon below, I used a ruler instead of folding paper -- a two-inch grid for the larger areas and a 1-inch grid for the features.
Morgan Weistling
Okay good. That's going to be great start to take it further into paint now. The separating of shadow from light and creating nice light shapes as we go will be what I hope you pay most attention to. This is grid system is getting everyone a great placement of the main areas of the head. Now we need to dive in and hone it with good observation that got you this far. We may lose the grid as we apply paint but the mindset of looking at abstract shapes is never going away. We take it to the end.
Leon Calvert
Really enjoyed this exercise. Huge eye opener for me. I was confused by the folding paper method so I just used a ruler? I Hope that’s ok. I was a doubting my effort quite abit during this exercise but stuck to the basics and followed the shapes. never painted in my life but always wanted to learn. Thanks for taking the time and showing us your process 🤝
Morgan Weistling
yes, ruler is fine. I just have so much trouble with students and rulers I wanted to give a way without math involved. You did a great job!
@blackpegasus
First of all I didn't use gessoed oil paint panel. This is my sketch book. Also I used square grid. Not the same grid used here. (I prefer freehand drawing to be the one on oil paint panel) :)
@szokebarnabas
Hello! I just wanted to say what a great course this is. Thank you!
Morgan Weistling
Great job! The next step is identifying shadow and separating it from the light pattern.
@rdj8564
4d
Try one. My black and white was darker than yours. I’m going to sleep on it and see how it looks then. The under the lip part looks weird.
Morgan Weistling
overall placement is there. Maybe go back on the squares with the features and double check some of the smaller shapes that make up those areas. Do a lot of rapid eye movement back and forth between the drawing and your reference. You might see some spots to make more accurate.
Yuli Levy
First lesson and i already learnt something new :)
Gannon Beck
Well done!
Riku H
4d
Grid drawing. Used gessoed Arches oil painting paper. Have not used a grid for a long time and it's refreshing to draw like that. Somehow the face feels like its too wide, but I guess the grids don't lie. Now it's outside after the fixative waiting to be painted!
Rachel Dawn Owens
It doesn’t look too wide to me. Looks great! Good luck with the painting!
Full course
You will be given unexpiring access to watch the videos online .
View course details
Give a gift
Give a gift card for art students to use on anything in the Proko store.
Or gift this course:
About instructor
Award winning fine artist represented by @legacygalleryart in Scottsdale AZ
Help!
Browse the FAQs or our more detailed Documentation. If you still need help or to contact us for any reason, drop us a line and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible!