Why You Need to be Drawing with Grids

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Why You Need to be Drawing with Grids

Lesson by

Marshall Vandruff

in The Perspective Course

43K

Mark as Completed

Course In Progress

Assignments 99Lesson NotesDownloads 9

Begin by pulling out your orthographic drawings from "Assignment - What is Zero Point Perspective?!". Your task is to redraw those same forms in new, more dynamic positions—like three-quarter views or angled perspectives.

If you’re confident, try drawing them freehand. If you need more structure, use a grid to help maintain accurate line directions and proportions. There are grid templates available in the downloads tab (included are blank grids and grids with example cubes to give you a better understanding of how objects fit in the space).

Focus on foreshortening: guess how the height, depth, and width appear when rotated in space. Don’t measure—estimate based on your understanding of how forms shrink in perspective. Aim to do this multiple times, keeping the drawings loose and simple. One perfect drawing isn't the goal here; repeated guessing sharpens your skills.

Use grids if needed
Prioritize structure over detail
Redraw the same forms in various angles

This is about training your visual intuition and comfort with spatial structure.

Deadline - submit by May 20, 2025 for a chance to be in the critique video!

Carlos Javier Roo Soto

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And here's my final batch for the assignment. I don't know why I have such a hard time doing cleaner sketches, but is a habit I have for years now. Any advice on how to break it easily? I also notice that I had a harder time doing this ones compare to my first time, maybe is because I took some short break from the assignment to give some rest to my hand. And my first go-to with the grids came shortly after two whole weeks grinding XYZs and the arrows in space. I realize too that the farther wheels on the final drawing are way off in size compare to the ones closest to us, even though I was certain I got the box right before building the buggy, and even though I didn't have an ortho view of the back I think I got pretty close, what do you guys think? Also, I forgot @Rachel Dawn Owens had give me some feedback on my first try and didn't keep that in mind while doing these ones. Sorry Rachel I'll try to pay more attention next time.

Stevie Roder

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I returned to re-draw my playdate, the object I chose from the Zero-Point Perspective Assignment. I may have concluded I had trouble doing this one, but I went freehanded to challenge myself and my thought process yet again. Also learned how to draw it using different perspective angles, best to use both third-quarter and angled viewed perspectives this time around. I noticed I made a bit of a mistake, I believe, with the first angled one, so I went back and redid that one. Then I think I have improved using my intuition this round regarding my structure work, which I believe I did pretty well, I believe? I would love some insights on whether I did anything wrong here and how I can improve with training my Visual Intuition when prioritizing structures within my drawings. Any Advice on how to train my thoughts on my visual Intuition?

Michael Giff

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10h

Sorry to double post. Promise all other work and question will be posted in the replies. I want to extrude the bottom rectangle (circled in the ortho) I know we did some of this in the Simple Forms exercise but I'm having trouble finding the lines. Lead is exterior lines, Blue is interior lines, and the red are my attempt find halves and thirds. Any advice? (I took this image off the graph so it would photograph a little bit clearer)

Michael Giff

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????

Jeremy Johnson

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I had difficulty designing my grids, so I freehanded my skull in several angles. I do wish I had streamlined my ortho first before attempting this assignment.

Sita Rabeling

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18h

Already very skullful :)

Michael Giff

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The struggle bus continues. If I follow the grids they force proportions that I don't want, when I tell the the grid lines to leave me alone the line directions don't work. Even if the odd chance of a happy accident happens and the base form looks okay-ish I get completely loss when I need to extrude a form from it.

Daniela

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I tried making the grid lines that go back a bit more obvious with blue. Rather than grids forcing you, I am noticing that there are part of the grid that you aren't following very closely. Maybe rather than leaving the grid lines alone, you could try following them until the end to see why they give you a different result than what you would expect.

Kathrin

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tried it freehand

Rachel Dawn Owens

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11h

Cool Tetris shape. If you want to keep the sides straight, maybe move the vanishing points to the back. What part of the form is closest to the viewer? If it’s the bottom plane of the form, maybe the 3rd vanishing point would be on the top of the page. I did the reversed thing for the second drawing.

sara keyes

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sara keyes

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Smithies

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Had another go with this house box thing my kids dinosaur came in. I made some orthos and then did some angles from imagination. By 3/4 I was rushing and making mistakes, so I tried to really slow down and also try and go bigger because I keep going too small by accident. I think bigger allows more precision. By the end one I wasn't managing space well though and fell right off the page...

Amani Noor (Amu)

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Drawing with grids project!

Jacob Granillo

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Grids is basically Perspective made easy, but it does take awhile to place them down

Shayan Shahbazi

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”I TRIED TO MIX THE INGREDIENTS AND THIS HAPPENED!” A coin designed for one of my friends to represent a Million Dollar Mind. The bottom orthopedic view of the brain let me to set up a diamond Hypothalamus which contains the pilot of the brain. The other page is a mixture of arrows and blob approach and I used a graph paper as my grid.

Melanie Scearce

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So cool!

Jacob Granillo

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wow! Excellent job Shayan!

Sita Rabeling

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Air plane with grid no. 1 🤔

Sita Rabeling

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Learning process with grid no. 7

Daniela

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I feel like there are multiple problems with each and every one of them but it is what it is

Daniela

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Daniela

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C B

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Here's the Jimny yet again. The bonnet, door and trunk can be divided into thirds but I think in both instances it ended up a little elongated.

Melanie Scearce

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The grid drawing took significantly longer than the freehand drawing, I think because it was harder to hide where I hamfisted the curves into something that somewhat make sense. The distortions on the grid drawing made my brain go 🤯 Awesome exercise! I'm looking forward to doing more. Thanks Marshall!

Jyayasi (*Jay-o-she*)

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These look really tough. Great job!

Dedee Anderson Ganda

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To be honest, looking at the grids makes me more confused how to start the line and imagining the position of the object compared to blank canvas. I think its because the grids have too much lines. But after trying it I understood that this tool have the power to speed up our construction process. I prefer the intuitive way tho, makes the puzzle have a more... freedom of solution? It's like I can decide whatever I want, the world is mine to break apart. So then I tried to work on a blank space instead, and that same canvas destroyed, humiliated and reminded me how one single weird line not going properly going towards vanishing point will makes my head spinnnn. Also having difficulties with ellipses in perspective, even more so in extreme perspective. The other thing is, how to properly place a rounded ended object into a box? Measuring curved lines into a box seems like there's no way for it to be accurate other then guessing?

@ashfin613

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I've been having trouble with the ellipse myself, its not as easy as it looks. Lol

@odinnot

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Here is a blob ,I use to make a magnifying glass. I make the blob, then put it in box, then i use the middle line to divide The handle from the glass. I draw circles from the box .

Smithies

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10d

Here are loads of Duplo blocks. They are full of mistakes - I took Marshall at his word when he said lots and rough so these are not beautiful but it was starting to feel less daunting by the last ones. I chose my easiest ortho and I'm so glad I did haha Having said that, I am already feeling progress since the beginning of the course so thank you so much Marshall - these exercises have definitely built up my confidence and I can tell my skills are growing!

Dermot

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Duplo - I never though to draw Duplo - nice idea. I like the drawings. :)

Shayan Shahbazi

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10d

”I just couldn’t stop!” I wanted to draw the same space ship but I couldn’t help adding my own thoughts to it, I used the same grid paper that I used for the other assignment(which it was done by ruler and white paper). This time I drew the wheel and the remote for it as well.

Full course

Course in Parts

Understanding Perspective

63 Lessons

This part covers the fundamentals of learning perspective with a focus on understanding how it works.

Mastering the Skills

This part focuses on learning to draw any form in any position freehand, with lines that make it look 3D.

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Marshall Vandruff

I Write, I Draw, I Teach