Grid technique - Cheating or Acceptable.

[prince_freeza]

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[Som1Lse]

why would i use a grid if i can produce a better result with free tracing?

Here's why:

gimme 5 mins and i will give you an exact replica of that image if u let me trace over it, even without the grid thing.. anyone can do this.

Because you specifically said that if you were given five minutes you could trace an exact replica. Now he is giving you five minutes to do so, and you don't.
Thus rendering your argument completely invalid. Don't make a claim if you can't support it.

Edit: I guess that I should also mention that I am inferring that by tracing you meant grid, since otherwise it has no relevance to this thread whatsoever.

[Silverthorn]

Basically, the grid-technique has been used widely for copying famous artists' works. To get the proportions exact, to place the details at precisely the same position. Without knowing they're replicas, one could easily mistake them for the original.

Which brings me to the downside of using that grid technique: you copy stuff. Yeah, cool, you manage to draw a picture that looks really close to the original with little amount of time. However, what if you want to turn the angle a little? Imagine you were given a portrait and are now asked to draw a sideview of it. Will the grid work? I am pretty sure it won't. Because your points of interest lay at different positions now, distorted by perspective.

Sure, for just copying and/or getting used to drawing something, it's all right but when you don't have an exact ref that you can copy, you're going to be in a fix. Therefore, it's better to understand what things identify an object and where they go in 3D-space. It's a lot harder but you learn a lot more as well.

I haven't read all posts so pardon me if that has already been mentioned

[betitngoan]

drawing basing in imagination , feeling about perspective is draw
grid is like " i have no idea what i'm doing "
even my cat can do it so well , it's copy and paste , easier for the small piece
and this thing

i hate it , but it's so important , i hate it because it's make me sleepy ( just think about how a asian close one of his eyes when it's actually closed )

[MnM]

So with that in mind forget about the guilt you are bearing within yourself.

Nope :P . I dont bear any guilt inside me. I made this one to actually ask you guys whether it is acceptable or not. I can very well say all my previous works were not based upon this technique.

Pencil and thumb technique

Yea I heard about it. I do it differently. I actually use only my pencil to check alignments for example, I hold my pencil along the line of nose , jaw and mouth and compare with original. Its all about relativity [EXACTLY as shown in the video link you mentioned] .

However, as we do final corrections, we can overlay with grids and ensure everything is right [we wont probably need it much if u use thumb-pencil technique, though].

[empirefantasy]

i think there is no cheating with these techniques (gird and pencil&thumb). Because there you are not stilling anything, while you are just copying and other know original.

As bp mentioned a lot of artists use this technique to copy pictures. And none have said that they are cheating.

but the problem with gird technique is that you dont produce anything new, you cant put another point of view, you can change just some details.

[Silverthorn]

As bp mentioned a lot of artists use this technique to copy pictures. And none have said that they are cheating.

That's probably because I was referring to those people that want to make big cash without revealing their identity. The dudes and dudettes that copy the Mona Lisa and sell on black market

[Lauli]

Meh, I don't mind any techniques that help you get the picture right, really depends on what idea you want to bring across.
If you want to show how technically accurate you can portray a person with... just a regular ballpoint pen; obviously you'd need grid lines and drafts and all that to get it right. Juan Francisco Casas is an artist who does that for example.
And nobody really questions wether he's cheating or not, because that's not the point.

And, of course on the other hand, if you're trying to portray people while still keeping an artistic touch (?), you probably shouldn't use too much techniques, but rather rely on your practice and understanding of the subject matter. But I guess other people mentioned that enough already.