Square is where it's at for grid drawing

I've been a HUGE fan of grid drawing my entire career. Starting with my elementary kids I would introduce the concept of using grids to my students often with preprinted grids on cartoon characters as an early finisher activity. 

As students mature in their skills we transfer the responsibility of grid making to them. And you know who doesn't love a grid project? Every student who struggles with reading a ruler. Sure, there are workarounds. I can print the grid on it for them, they could work on gridded paper or worksheets. They can use a light box to trace a pre-drawn grid, we can place a grid on top digitally. When drawing isn't the main skill, like this printmaking lesson that is a great accommodation.

Most of those techniques require a lot of extra preparation from the teacher. They also take away what students need to use this technique again on their own: the ability to execute a grid, consistently on the reference photo and their own paper. Let's face it, if they can't make a good grid, it's not a helpful tool. In this case, the grid becomes a barrier to success.

This year I started using a NO MEASURE grid method. If students can draw a straight line from corner to corner, they don't need to measure a thing. The only limitation to this method are that you must either use a square or make sure the reference photo and the final paper are the same proportion. Both of these steps require no extra effort, time or resources from the teacher.  We tested this new format with a colored pencil leaf drawing. After seeing the boost in confidence for all of my students I decided to create some additional lessons that are ready to go for a sub at a moment's notice. You can find the whole bundle here.

In this resource I include a step by step video demo of not just how to set up the grid, but how to see implied lines in a photo to convert a photo into a line drawing. This is an important step to teach. Not all students can visualize what you are asking them to do. We start with a basic star shape to help them see the lines where there are none.

If you'd like to check out this method, you can download a FREE sample here