It's not cheating to use a grid

Does it horrify you to think of using a grid, or a similar device, in drawing or painting? Do you think it's cheating?
Well, I don't think it's cheating, unless you're taking some kind of a test that requires you to work without any help other than your eyes and hands.
1) Introduction
2) My ideas about this subject
3) Some examples from the past of artists who have used grids
4) A free grid program for your computer
5) Links (where to buy a grid device; where to buy canvas already printed with grid lines; how to use a grid; how to make a very simple perspective device.)

An artist knows how to make a picture utilizing what they observe, whether they're using some kind of grid to help them lay out the picture or not -- The non-artist attempts only to copy what's in front of him; he (or she) doesn't know how to make it into "art" (it may be a very good likeness, but that in itself doesn't make it art; they might as well use a camera). So using such a device does has nothing to do with whether you are or are not a good artist.
It's not that there's anything wrong with creating an artwork without any such help (and in fact it's great if you can do that, and it should probably be a goal), but it seems to me that just because you need that help at times doesn't mean that you're a lousy artist. It means that you know what you need in order to help you get the picture you want. These things are tools, not tricks.
You have probably heard that Leonardo da Vinci used grids as an aid (be sure to click on the picture to see it in a larger size).
Albrecht Durer made pictures demonstrating the use of a grid for drawing.


Man Drawing a Lute, 1525
Artist: Albrecht Durer
Source: Wikimedia
There is a better (and different) picture by Durer of such a device being used, from a book published in 1675, here, at the National Portrait Gallery (U.K.) site, showing a man painting (or drawing) a portrait, with the use of a "drawing machine" (grid), and there is also an illustration showing how it is made. These things are explained in the text.
Here, at the Rare Book Room site there are some very clear, excellent photographs of pages of the book with the Durer woodcut prints in it. On this page is the picture of an artist looking through a grid at the subject (a nude woman) as he draws her on a grid he has lying flat on the table in front of him. You can click on the picture to see it closer. You can also move to the left and right.
Vincent van Gogh used a perspective frame. (Click on link to see a picture he drew of it and read what he wrote about it to his brother.)

The Harvest, 1888
Artist: Vincent van Gogh
Source: The Athenaeum
Nobody says that Da Vinci, Durer, and Van Gogh were lesser artists because they made use of these "tricks."


Cheater?
Leonardo da Vinci, self-portrait, 1512-15
Source: Wikimedia


Cheater?
Albrecht Durer, self-portrait, c. 1500
Source: Wikimedia


Cheater?
Vincent van Gogh, self-portrait, September 1889
Source: Source: The Athenaeum

A NICE -- AND FREE -- GRID PROGRAM (PHOTOFILTRE)
Here's something I came across the other day, and in fact it's what inspired this post. I have very seldom used a grid to help me draw (I once bought a program for $10 on the web, but it didn't allow me to make the grid the size I needed and so it was never really used at all), but I plan to try this one. I've already downloaded it and tried it out (though I haven't actually made a drawing from it yet). This is for use on your computer. It puts a grid right over whatever picture you want to use, and then you can save your picture with the grid on it, and open it up when you want to draw from it. I've known there were photo editing programs that had this feature, but this is the first I've come across that is free (not just for a trial period, but for as long as you have it).
How to use this program to make a grid: [NOTE: Before you try this, BE SURE TO MAKE AN EXTRA COPY OF THE PICTURE you're going to use, because once you've saved the picture with grid lines on it, you can't get them back off.]

Here's what my picture look like after I imported it from my computer into the PhotoFiltre program. To open a picture from your computer: Click on File, then Open to get to your picture. After you've imported the picture, click on Filter, and then Other, and then Grid Generator.

This is the Grid Generator. Try different settings, then click on Preview, and it will show you what your picture looks like with the grid you've chosen. If you don't like it, click on Edit, then Undo Grid Generator, and you can try another size of squares and different thicknesses of the lines. If you do like it, then save it ("save as") with the grid on it. The picture will be saved with that grid on it (be sure you have the picture saved without the grid, too).
Here's a grid I chose for this picture:

Here's the same picture with smaller squares:
You can make them larger, or any size you want, and you can also change the thickness of the lines.
Download the free PhotoFiltre program from here.
MORE LINKS
The Durer Grid - Blick Art Materials
Here you can buy a present-day equivalent of the Durer Grid. (If you're handy, you could make one yourself.)
Artist Grid Canvas. Blick Art Materials also sells canvas that is printed with blue grid lines.
The Grid Method, at paintbygrids.com, shows you just how you would draw from a picture with a grid on it.
How to make a very simple perspective device. This is a frame you make out of cardboard, which you look through when drawing or painting, along with an even simpler cardboard strip that provides your picture with the angles you need to get down right.

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Art, Gravity, Life, and the Cartesian Grid

I realize the title of this post is not very modest, but the post itself is, though I do touch on all of the subjects named. I don't presume to know everything there is to know about all of these subjects, but I want to introduce them and explain what they have to do with each other briefly. I will be writing more about these things, and related subjects, in later posts.

Here are a couple of pictures showing the Cartesian grid, so you'll have the grid in mind while reading what comes after.



The Cartesian Grid

"A co-ordinate system whose axes are straight lines intersecting at right angles"
(Ref: Ministry for the Environment, New Zealand)




3 Dimensional Cartesian Grid
Source: Wikipedia

Definition of a Cartesian grid: "A Cartesian grid is a special case [among grids] where the elements are unit squares or unit cubes, and the vertices are integer points." (Ref: Wikipedia Article on the Cartesian Grid)

Why is the Cartesian grid of any use to us? It doesn't look like much.

Awareness of the Cartesian grid is extremely useful to us, in our lives and in our art, because we live on Earth and so are very much under the influence of gravity (Gravity: The fundamental force of attraction that all objects with mass have for each other); it is gravity that makes those simple verticals and horizontals so necessary in order to understand and interpret our world (as viewed and experienced by inhabitants of our planet).

Gravity is a very strong force that pulls us, and everything we observe and live with, toward the center of the planet. In fact, it's what holds the planet itself together.

The artist who paints (or the sculptor who sculpts, etc.), if what they are depicting has to do with life as lived here on earth, has the effects of gravity in mind, whether he (or she) is consciously aware of it or not, as it is the dominant physical force in our lives. They might not plot their design on a Cartesian grid, yet they see and arrange and understand things as if they were doing so.

But the Cartesian grid looks so simple! (You say.) It's nothing more than vertical and horizontal lines! What do those lines have to do with life, and gravity, and art?

Let's start with the verticals.

The verticals in our lives

We live with gravity all our lives. We feel it as weight. Because we are constantly pulled from down below, we are very aware of what is "up" (pointing away from the center of the earth) and what is "down" (toward the center of the earth). Also, because we are aware (if only unconsciously) that everything on the surface of the earth is being pulled downward (or "has weight") we are inclined to infer that anything that's vertical (standing "up") has energy -- It is alive and alert and/or strong enough to resist the force of gravity.

The horizontals in our lives

Because we instinctively know how gravity works, things that are horizontal seem to us to be unthreatening, peaceful, meek, possibly even dead. They are not resisting gravity.



Photo Source: Wikipedia

When our energy is depleted, we lie down if possible, to sleep or just to rest. It requires no effort on our part to lie in a horizontal position.

The surfaces we walk and ride on are horizontal whenever it's possible to make them that way. Because of gravity, it's more difficult, and uses more energy (and is sometimes dangerous) to walk on or ride on an incline.

The places we live in (or prefer to live in) are usually as flat (i.e., horizontal) as possible because gravity makes it difficult for us to climb, or to descend with care (i.e., so that we will not fall). Even if the terrain is not flat, the floors of the buildings are; and, by the way, if we have flat floors the walls need to be vertical.


Building under construction
Photo Source: Wikipedia

If we lived in a place where gravity had no influence on us, there would be no up, nor would there be a down. There would be no definite verticals, nor horizontals. The verticals and horizontals of the Cartesian grid constitute the basic framework of our lives; everything is seen in relation to this framework.

Diagonals

If something is diagonal, that has meaning for us, too. Diagonals wouldn't have that meaning without the Cartesian grid showing us how they deviate from verticals and horizontals. A diagonal could be something rising, or something descending. (A vertical has already risen; a horizontal appears lifeless and not likely to make any moves.) So, diagonals mean "action" to us; something is happening (yes, diagonals can also imply depth).



Photo Source: Wikipedia
These diagonals do not look stable. It's alarming to see them like this. They're not vertical, nor are they horizontal, but they look like they're in the process of becoming horizontal. These diagonals make us nervous.

Relating vertical and horizontals (and diagonals) in life to those on the Cartesian grid

Standing people, trees, buildings, fenceposts, etc. look to us to be parallel to each other, as the vertical lines in the Cartesian grid are. Horizontals are connected at equal distances from each other to the verticals in the grid to make squares (in two dimensions), or make cubes (in three dimensions), making it simple to locate anything that is overlaid or represented by the grid.

The Cartesian grid helps us make many things that we use. Think of a map, or a pattern for a woodworking project or the grid you might use for transferring a picture from one surface to another. Graph paper is a Cartesian grid.
Furthermore, "The right angles of our living spaces, of chests and sheets, afford a visual order that helps make our lives simpler than they would be, say, in a primordial forest," says Rudolf Arnheim. "And, for the sake of order the Cartesian grid also remains present, actually or implicitly, in our works of art." (Arnheim: The Power of the Center, 1982 edition, paperback, page viii)

So we find the Cartesian grid very useful in measuring, planning, understanding, adapting to, representing and negotiating the spaces around us and in comprehending the meaning of what we see.

Two good links

1) I'm so glad I found this one. It's called The Coordinate Plane. It clearly and simply explains, and shows, how the two-dimensional Cartesian grid is used. Be sure to check what you want to see in the little boxes to the right of the diagram. Click "Grid" first, and you'll see it as it looks in the picture of the Cartesian Grid near the top of this post. Click each of the boxes to see what shows up. Also, you can move that little red dot around with your mouse pointer. When you are completely confused, click "Reset"
(under Quadrant 4) and it goes back to the way it was at the beginning. Be sure to read the definitions and suggestions below the grid. Also, there are other pages listed below that have to do with this subject. Just click on a link to get to what you want to see.

2) Wikipedia article on gravity

Quotations

"In daily perceptual experience, visual orientation in space relates to the Cartesian coordinates of the gravitational field." (Rudolf Arnheim in The Power of the Center, 1983, paperback, p. 197)

"The structure of visual space relies upon the framework provided by the vertical and horizontal. This framework is the visual 'tonic,' the zero base at which tension is at a minimum." (Rudolf Arnheim in New Essays on the Psychology of Art, 1986, paperback, p. 215)

"In the parochial view of its small inhabitants, the curvature of the earth straightens into a plane surface, and the converging radii become parallels." Rudolf Arnheim in The Power of the Center, 1983, paperback, p.vii)

"Parallelism and right-angled relation yield the most convenient framework available for spatial organization, and we cannot be grateful enough for living in a world that, for practical purposes, can be laid out along a grid of vertical and horizontals." Rudolf Arnheim in The Power of the Center, 1983, paperback, p.vii-viii)

"Were it not for gravity one man might hurl another by a puff of his breath into the depths of space, beyond recall for all eternity." -- Roger Joseph Boscovich, Philosophiae Naturalis Theoria, 1758.

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