Getting Started (turning a photo into a drawing)

Hello Artists! ;-)

Today I will show you how to get started on turning a photo into a drawing! When drawing a portrait of a person or an animal, for example, it's important to get the proportions right from the start on your rough sketch. We can do this by means of a grid. But, first of all, we need to pick out a picture to draw.

1. Pick Out a Picture

If you don't already have a picture that you plan on drawing, there are quite a number of websites that have high quality copyright-free pictures that you can download. Copyright-free means you can use the pictures in any way you want, without paying for the picture, or giving credit to the owner. Some of my favorite websites to get picture are :
https://pixabay.com/

https://www.pexels.com/

https://freeimages.red/

http://freeuse.io/

2. Turn the Picture Black & White

Once you have a picture picked out, it is really helpful to turn the picture into black & white, since we are drawing in black and white. ;-) This way we can see the the highlights and shadows better, and the tones of gray we need to draw. You can do this with any kind of basic editing program. I did it on my computer with Microsoft Office Picture Manager, by removing all the color saturation.

From this point, you can either start drawing the picture freehand on the paper size of your choice, or go on to the next step of making a grid to make sure the proportions are exact.

3. Print Out the Picture

To make the grid,  you first need to print out the picture. I print it out in either 4x6 or 5x7 size, depending on what works best with the picture I picked out. 
From there, use a ruler to make lines 1 inch apart, going horizontally and vertically on the picture. 
Then, copy the grid onto your drawing paper. First, draw out a 4x6 or 5x7 rectangle, then make the 1 inch squares inside the rectangle. If you want your drawing to be double the size of the picture you printed out (10x12 or 10x14), simply double the grid measurements (2 inch squares instead of 1 inch).


4. Rough Sketch

The last step is to make the rough sketch (the outline) of the subject you are drawing. Look at the picture you printed out with the grid on it, to see exactly where you need to draw on the drawing paper. 

Once you have your rough sketch done, you are ready to fill in the rest! You can keep the grid on your paper, to help to see where the other elements of the picture need to be placed (eyes, nose, mouth, etc.). I usually draw right over the grid, and you cant even tell it was there in the finished product. Of course, if parts of the grid are going to show up through the drawing, you can erase those parts. ;-)

Hope this helps you with your future drawings! ;-) Thanks for reading!
~Laree