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

36K

Mark as Completed

Course In Progress

Assignments 57Lesson 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!

Smithies

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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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12h

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

Shayan Shahbazi

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”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.

Jay Nightshade

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I just wanted to point out Marshall's beanie. It suits him! Very 'beatnik' with the dark gray beanie and the black shirt. :)

@vange

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Focused more on shape and foreshortening and not on proportions.

@rupertdddd

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Real brain twister with the different angles on this damed plane!

Randy Pontillo

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Looks like you nailed it though!

@dantheanimator

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My simple plane

Sita Rabeling

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Great example and very helpful, thank you!

Rick B

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looks excellent way better than mine.

Anke Mols

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wow, looks perfect!!

Dermot

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Marshall, I've started looking at the many grids you uploaded, thanks. How to you decide which grid you want to use as a guide. If I want to draw something how do I choose between all these grids? How would I design these grids from the ground up and what decisions would I need to make to achieve the perspective I seek? Am I missing the point of this exercise ? I'd like to create a Grid to draw the 9 Basic Position Cubes. Any advise would be great.

Marshall Vandruff

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Get the big point of the video — a grid reminds us of line directions. It’s not to make it more complicated, it’s to make it easier — the training wheels of perspective drawing. Look at the form studies you did from blobs. Did all the lines go in the correct directions? Probably not. Even masters run into that loss of orientation for exactly where all three axes aim. This takes care of that. Choose a grid. Any grid. Use your instinct. Draw form studies on it. You can redraw your old ones, or create new ones, and you won’t have to worry about how to position the lines. Now you can put your attention onto our current difficult challenge: proportion! Regarding making up your own grids: do it if you’ve got an idea for one, and know where you want the lines to go, and if you don’t mind that they aren’t “scientifically accurate. These printed ones are. But if you’re having trouble with ready-made grids, wait. Inventing grids requires you to make decisions which seem to be confusing you — though it may help sell you on the pre-made grids. Falling off the bike a few times might prompt a new appreciation for training wheels. I hope this helps.

Charlie Nicholson

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Hi Dermot, if you look at the versions of the grids that have cubes on them, you can use that as a hint for how you would use the grids for your own drawings. Using these grids locks you into the perspective of the grids- they won't help you if there's a specific perspective you're looking to draw unless it happens to line up. The point of this lesson is to get used to eye-balling proportions when going from an ortho to a grid. If you want to design your own grids for specific perspectives, that's getting more advanced.

Michael Longhurst

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From what I can tell, you have to look at each grid and analyze what the vanishing points are doing. For example, on grid one, blue is vanishing in the top middle of the page. The way I looked at it, I saw that as looking at something from below, as you look up the line converge the higher up you get. The green point is in the lower right, but still on the page, so if you’re drawing a cube, the side that vanishes into the green point is going to be foreshortened or you’re looking at it from the side rather than straight on. The red point is a little off the left side of the page, so that side of the cube is going to be the side that you see more of, or that you’re looking at closer to straight on. Hopefully that helps.

Randy Pontillo

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NOW WERE COOKIN'

@ashfin613

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Michael Giff

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Has anyone had any luck printing out the downloadable graphs? Lines are too faint in default, I tried changing the contrast and switching the colors to black and white in a photo editor but have had no luck getting anything usable.

Jay Nightshade

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I printed a couple out to help ya. They look normal. I can see the lines just fine. Printed one from the low res and one from hi res folders. I don't know how much this helps though, lol.

Dermot

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Marshall, I made the Stacked Cards photo transparent and then drew blobs around them to figure out how the XYZ lines would sit. I notice now that the bottom pack blob is smaller (I think) as it's further away. The 3D illusion plays havoc with my eyes ! Am I alone? The top blob being bigger. I had it in my head the blobs would be similar size thinking "Pack of Cards". I didn't intend to sabotage this topic with blobs as I thought I understood. Any further input would be great, as again I'm not certain if I should be think about blob size or if this approach is even a good one, as it's not really from imagination, you may even consider it copying?

Sita Rabeling

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Struggling and “Juggling with skulls”. This is probably just to help me to find a way to draw the skulls freehand.

Sita Rabeling

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A bit more details for skull no. 5. Am not sure I get it. Maybe.

Rick B

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What can I say. Looked deceptively easy. First tried a diametric plane. did not like the way it turned out. so I went with perspective. I have worked the grid before with simple objects. but the truth is I still have a hard time controlling how I keep the box in the picture plane. I do believe that the front wing was way past the picture plane. If we are going to be working more complicated objects. Will need to make the scale bigger for details. definitely will need bigger paper. I am not comfortable yet on my ability to control the drawing when we get technical with it. make sense?

Kelly Keuneke-Marts

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I did a timer on myself for this to keep myself loose and not focus so much on accuracy as much as intent. 1 minute (the small one), 10 minutes (medium), and the grid one with 2 hours (most of that time was spent going back and forth with my ortho and finding I'm still not capturing that side of the helmet correctly). I knew Kim Jung Gi had the secret/not-so-secret sauce of just keeping it loose. I thought those were more successful in the end. The grids just took me too long, but I can definitely see the benefits if one is looking to do some seriously detailed stuff. In summary? Blobs with contour lines are so fast. Grids are for accuracy. (I feel like a certain internet teacher said something like this once 🤔)

Randy Pontillo

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If i did a helmet i think it would've killed me! These all look great!

Dermot

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Blob Review Question What does, "counter angles" the rubber band mean? I thought I'd experiment with blobs and foreshortening. When cards are stacked the can bevel. I tried drawing this without the cards (Photo for after drawing reference) My view was more angled from above right. I'm not even sure this is a good use of the blob approach. Can anyone advise how you'd achieve this from the blobs?

Lin

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Not a native English speaker so someone correct if I am wrong but my understanding is this: XYZ axes are all perpendicular to each other, or counter to each other. The rubber band goes around the object - here around its short axis, let’s say width or x for simplicity, and counter angles the other long axis, depth or z. You’re deciding on a corner that divides the planes - saying this is the top of the box and this is the side of the box - you’re drawing that long axis (axis z) which counter angles the ellipses/rubber bands. (axis x) if you’re familiar with ellipses, it’s like when you have your ellipse (rubber band) and are drawing the minor axis of the ellipse which is perpendicular and counter to the major axis of the ellipse. tldr: the rubber band represents one of the axes and the other is inevitably counter or perpendicular to it

Dave Sakamoto

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Here are a few orthos I pulled from previous assignments.

Josh Drummond

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I'm currently studying Tom Fox's anatomy book and decided to apply the current chapter I'm on, Head Construction, to this assignment. The second page has some stacking and queing of a simplified head as well.

Carlos Javier Roo Soto

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Alright! Here's my first attempt to this assignment. I had drawn with grids before so the new element I dealt with was labeling the vanishing line as XYZ to keep them on the back of my mind as I eyeballed the orthos. It was hard drawing the lines that converge outside the page because I don't have a longer ruler and probably they are a little off, so when I had the money I'll buy a larger one and move stuff from my desk and attach more paper to make them more precise. Like Marshall said, I kept them simple with no details and just make them simple forms, but I am doing more so maybe for the last one I will add details. Or maybe I should let the detail for later on in the course? What do you think? Should I dare add details for future submits? Or instead of detail should I use secondary forms so it resembles more the buggy without details? What mayor errors can you see?

Rachel Dawn Owens

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These look awesome to me! The ellipses are angled the right way and the simplified forms are designed nicely. Only thing I might do is make the wheel bigger. The 4 wheels are the most important element. Then the seat, then the windshield area, then the smaller details. Work big to small and make your drawing as epic as you can.

Maria Bygrove

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I drew orthos of a pencil sharpener for the original assignment now and I struggled a lot with its slanting angles. Especially the one in the bottom right seems all twisted! So for a second attempt I went with the simple airplane model and I think I did better here. Not sure I'm confident enough to try freehanding anything yet :(