I use to draw when I was very little, I stopped because I guess I lost interest now i do fake pics, which is like art but in computer

i think gridding is a joke, i free hand everything i draw. occasionally, after i've completed a piece by hand, i might scan it and play around with it in photoshop just for fun. but everything i create is from scratch and if i need to measure something, i guesstimate it with my pencil or my finger or something of that nature if you know what i mean. gridding is like connecting the dots if you ask me.

I have never used gridding ever.
I don't draw much anyway, and I am not that great. I guess my opinion on this matter is practicaly useless with my "experiences" with drawing

Not to go too far off topic, but this thread seems pretty hypocritical to me - if you follow the thought about gridding taking the soul and human-ness out of a picture, seeing as most of you ( i realise fully it is not all people in every occasion) will just drastically edit, tone and color your picture on a computer afterwards, which to me is far more "cheating" than using guidelines you draw yourself. Anyway , i always associated gridding with copying/modelling pictures/poses, not drawing originals.

I don't grid, but I know that it's 'purpose' besides copying pictures is supposed to be to make you see a picture (you don't get caught up in details at that moment) as lines, spaces, and edges, which will theoretically make you draw better. Even though I think that this is a great approach, I myself would never grid unless I wanted to make something larger.

Deacon Wrote: Not to go too far off topic, but this thread seems pretty hypocritical to me - if you follow the thought about gridding taking the soul and human-ness out of a picture, seeing as most of you ( i realise fully it is not all people in every occasion) will just drastically edit, tone and color your picture on a computer afterwards, which to me is far more "cheating" than using guidelines you draw yourself. Anyway , i always associated gridding with copying/modelling pictures/poses, not drawing originals.

Yeah, that's sort of the way I see it. I always felt that gridding was the most justified for models, etc., that you are going to actually build later, and thus, need the accuracy. But I don't like it when doing an actual piece of art that you created yourself. If I am trying to express myself, I would be willing to see the inaccuracies that I end up with, and appreciate them for what they could teach me about perspective, and proportions.

Deacon Wrote: Not to go too far off topic, but this thread seems pretty hypocritical to me - if you follow the thought about gridding taking the soul and human-ness out of a picture, seeing as most of you ( i realise fully it is not all people in every occasion) will just drastically edit, tone and color your picture on a computer afterwards, which to me is far more "cheating" than using guidelines you draw yourself. Anyway , i always associated gridding with copying/modelling pictures/poses, not drawing originals.

ok, right now, im editing a pic that i drew on a whim months ago and submitted a few days ago without spending any real time on it. i myself see so many flaws in it that i can't stand it and i want to clean it up. Im using photoshop elements because i dont even have the original anymore. the only record of it is digital. The way i see it, using paint programs to create art is not cheating because it requires the same kind of artistic ability as it would if you were using paper and pencil. just because you use a digital art program doesn't mean you will come up with unbelievably awesome artwork. I've seen alot of digital work on this site that scored way to high than what it deserved. Someone posted a site a few days ago that had concept art for a fighting game on it. the guy who owns the site is a digital concept artist for hire. he does all of his work using stuff like photoshop and believe me, there is no way he could have "cheated" in some of those pictures. when it comes to gridding versus free hand in art. the bottom line is that gridding is just plagerism at best. there is nothing original about it. and it doesn't matter what medium you use, whether pencil, crayon, ink, paint, or mouse, an original piece is without question of much greater merit than anything done as a mere replica. sure, gridding has it's uses. but they're meak when compared to the abilities of imaginative creativity.

I was referring mainly to the "best fit" curve feature, and other features which could make drawing alot easier and cleaner, features such as sepia toning, coloring and things which don't drastically edit the pic are fine some are great fun to use ( i don't know many, i'm a noob at computer gfx).

There is no such thing as "cheating" when it comes to art. Use whatever means are necessary to achieve an output. Legal means of course. If I can be more realistic using 3-d software then I'll use that. If I need to capture some live action and use it as a template to get a walk cycle correct I will. Don't get into those goofy arguements about what is true art and what is not, what is a proper means for creation and what is not. If any of them were true we would still be scratchin on cave walls with a burnt stick.

Now anyway in regards to the question, "gridding" (if that's a proper name for it), I don't use it. Why, because I hate drawing that way. It feels more like homework or washing dishes than drawing. As for the results, here is an example I've done. The only one actually. You can still see some of the lines in it. I think it came out pretty well. That is an exact copy of scorpion from MK1. I elaborated a little for the eyes to look dead and the arm because most of it wasn't in the picture.

I would say if you use it to create your own work then more power to you, if you use it to deplicate something else (like I did) then that's really just tracing isn't it.

Wyatt