Grid drawing for portraits

Why portraits need a finer grid

A landscape forgives a small mistake in placement; a face does not. The gap between the eyes, the height of the top lip, and the tilt of the nose are what a viewer reads as the likeness, and they sit in small distances. A coarse eight-square grid leaves too much inside each box to judge by eye. For portraits, twelve to sixteen columns gives each feature its own small group of squares, so you can place the corner of an eye or the edge of a nostril accurately.

Turn on labels and keep the cells square. Labels matter more on a dense grid, because it is easy to lose your place among forty or fifty boxes. Being able to point at the square holding an eye keeps you oriented.

Place the features inside the squares

Block in the main landmarks first: the centre line of the face, the brow line, the base of the nose, the line of the mouth, and the hairline. Note which squares each one passes through and mark the same crossings on your paper. Only then draw the features themselves, again reading one square at a time.

Symmetry is where the grid helps most. Compare the square holding the left eye with the square holding the right. Are the inner corners on the same row and the same distance from the centre line? The grid shows a lopsided placement while it is still a faint pencil mark, rather than after an hour of shading.

Mistakes the grid catches

Beginners almost always draw the eyes too high. In most adult faces the eyes sit close to the vertical midpoint of the head, with more skull above the brow than people expect, and the grid shows this at a glance. The same goes for the ears, which sit roughly between the brow and the base of the nose, and for the width of the head, which is often drawn too narrow.