Most of us painters should be familiar with the idea of using a grid to scale up and transfer a drawing to a painting surface. I've always just drawn the grid on my canvas in pencil. This usually works except that I am prone to using thin, transparent paint. And if the paint is too thin, the pencil line, however light, seems to show through in the final painting. Is there a better way?
Yes, there is! I recently used a ball of twine and a fistful of map pins to grid my canvas.
Using a pencil, I marked off regular intervals on each edge of the canvas, matching the grid points I'd overlaid on my drawing. At each of these interval marks, I stuck in a map pin. Then, using the twine, I went up and down and back and forth in a logical manner to connect these pins. The result was a beautiful grid that, when removed, left no visible mark on the canvas. (I used thinned paint and a small brush to sketch in my design.)
My grid was coarse, just four squares by four squares. If I'd needed a finer grid, I could have used string or even thread to make the grid lines.
Here are some images to show you how this works.
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| 3x3 thumbnail |
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| The gridded 36x36 canvas. Yes, this works on unsquares. |
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| One of the map pins at the edge. |
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| Closeup of the map pin. |
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| Side view showing placement of pins and how the grid is established. |
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| What I do with the ball of twine. Just let it dangle, and a piece of masking tape secures the twine. |
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| The scaled-up, transferred drawing--all without a grid of pencil lines! The drawing here is with thinned paint and a brush. |
