the grid - method and mischief (2024)

gridnoun(PATTERN/STRUCTURE):apatternorstructuremade fromhorizontalandverticallinescrossingeach other toformsquares

​This resource is presented in 5 parts: Part 1: 'Ancient Time-Lines' considers some of the earliest uses of grids for creative means; Part 2: 'The Measure Of Things' introduces the grid method as a Renaissance-devised (and seemingly 'traditional') drawing device; Part 3: 'A Modern Matrix' shares how grids became a framework for Modernist art and design; Part 4: 'The Grid, Bridged'looks at how some artists, inspired by Modernist approaches, have knowingly embraced the grid; and Part 5: Disrupting the Grid unpicks how some contemporary artists continue to extend on - and dismantle - grid ordered influences.

Each section contains a selection of images (in grids, obviously), followed with prompts for discussion, links for independent research, plus practical activities for the classroom.Click on the images to view larger.

• The Ochre carvings discovered in Blombos Cave, South Africa, are possibly some of the earliest evidence of human drawing.
  How/why do you think these marks were made? Do you think these were: for decorative purposes, for creative expression,representative of something? Alternatively, couldthey have served another purpose?
• The Ancient Egyptians used grid lines, but not to scale-up drawings. Grid lines were used to ensure that proportions were in line with 'Canonical Proportions'. These were a set of ideal, mathematical ratiosapplied by the Egyptians to measure the various parts of the human body in relation to each other.
  Why did Egyptians want to draw figures so strictly within fixed proportions? What might be the benefitsor problems with this?
• Ancient Romans and Greeks created large mosaics from small pre-cut pieces of glass, ceramic and stone.
  What were the advantages or disadvantages of this technique? What skills would a Roman craftspersonrequire to produce this work?
  How might this'pixelated' way of working be comparable to digital technologies and printing processes?
• A common feature of Islamic art is geometric patterns.This use of geometry is thought to reflect the language of the universe and help believers reflect on the greatness of creation - complex geometric designs create the impression of unending repetition, and this also helps to get an idea of the infinite nature of Allah. Repeating patterns also demonstrate that in the small you can find the infinite ... a single element of the pattern implies the infinite total.
  When/where within a typical day might you encounter various reoccurring patterns? What might be the origins of these, and to what to purposes did/canthey serve? What makes a pattern impressive, awe-inspiring or profound rather than simply decorative?

• Experiment withimaginative and playful ways of grid creation. This might include: free-hand grid drawing, drawing a grid with a continuous line (or attempting to),blind grid drawing, using your mouth, foot or cubital fossa to draw a grid. How accurate a grid can you create without measuring or using a straight-edge? How might you collage, print or construct a grid? Does a grid have to be made from lines? What other possibilities are there? Does a grid have to contain something - is it possible to appreciate it as a network of lines? What is the largest or smallest grid you can make, be it drawing in sand oron sand(!)? How might you make an ephemeral grid, one destined to disappear? How might you document it failing, falling, floating away, distorting as it fades ..?
• Recordgrids that you encounter in the everyday. Draw these ina sketchbook(divide your page into a grid for this!) or use a camera to record the grids you discover -from wire fencing, to patterns on clothes;from the potato waffle on your plate to the patio slabs in your garden ...
• Getting a measure of yourself/each other. Develop a series of experiments to playfully gather information on the proportions of the human form. This might include a series of life-size outlines within a large grid (for example, taped on the floor or a wall. These might be drawn in charcoal or tape over the grid). You couldtake/add measurements using traditional units (e.g. cm, inches) or you might invent your own (e.g. measure with a pencil, human foot, a banana ...).
• Shading squares within a grid -what is the least amount of grid squares you would need to create: a representation of a face; a recognisable self-portrait; an in-proportion representation/shape of a standing human figure?
• Inspired by Islamic Art and concepts of repetition within a grid structure ... draw a grid within which to developyour own non-representational/abstract design. This might be in response to something spiritual, personal, natural, musical, profound or sublime. Consider how repeated lines, marks, shapes, details and/or colours might add up to suggest or evoke associations, connections, thoughts or memories.

Images from top left to right:
1. Abraham Bosse, a portrait artist using a grid (1737).
2.Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, 1882- within which he details his investment in, and use of, a drawing frame.
3 and 4. Photograph of Chuck Close as source material for 'Big Self Portrait' 1967

One of the distinguishing features of Renaissance art in the 15th Century is the development of linear perspective - a mathematical system used to create the illusion of space and distance on a flat surface.To use linear perspective an artist has to imagine the canvas as an "open window" through which he sees thesubject of the painting. This fascination with mathematical proportions, construction of space and accurate representation led to new advances in 'realistic' drawing techniques.

In 1506 the German artist Albrecht Dürer wrote “Treatise of Measurement”. This included illustrations of perspective devices such as 'the draftsman’s net' which consisted of a square wooden frame with a net of black threads forming a grid structure. The artist looks through the frame and copies the outlines of what he sees onto a piece of paper with a replica grid marked on it. This technique has been adapted and deployed by artists in numerous ways to aid observing, composing and drawing.

• Abraham Bosse's illustration of an artist using a grid - a'draughtsman's net' - might now appear antiquated and 'traditional'. But how do you think it was considered at that time? Which 'technologies' that aid and influence the way we see would have existed prior to this, and what has been invented since? How might you research anddevise a timeline of influential inventions and developments in seeing. For example, what came first a mirror or a magnifying lens?
• Is it important for an artist to be able to draw accurately or 'realistically'? Why or why not?
• Consider images 3 and 4, above. Chuck Close's work is often described as 'like a photograph'. How true is this really? Do you think that 'it looks like a photograph' is a compliment to Chuck Close? Why might it not be?

Painting and Pixels
The following notes and activities stem from thinking about Chuck Close's grid paintings and how they can also appear like pixelated images.

Perhaps one of the potential benefits of grid-use when painting a portrait is the concentrated focus it can give to noticing, mixing and matching colours. A common pitfall can be a presumption that things (hair, skin, trees, sky, anything) have a fixed colour. This, of course, is not the case. Colour is formed by light and light, therefore colour, is constantly changing. The simple exercise below can help to reveal this (and uses a grid to do so).
​

1. Draw a small square on your hand and photograph it at various times throughout the day. Do not use a flash, but do try to get a range of different light conditions.
2. Compile the results into a grid for reference.
3. Draw a grid with the same amount of squares and, using paint, attempt to accurately match each of the colours documented. For technical practice, aim to paint flat colour with crisp edges to each square.

Chuck Close's photo-realistic work might appear 'traditional' in it's preoccupation with representation, but it does knowingly play with our expectations of painting and photography. it can also canappear quite pixel-like (even though Close wasn't working with digital media until later in his career).

Some portrait artists, such as Jonathan Yeo, below, have embraced a grid structure for illusionary effect. His more 'realistic' or 'painterly' works can also retain a sense of grid-suggestive geometry via his blocky style of square-brushed painting.

• If painting a self-portrait in this square-brushed, 'blocky' style seems a bit daunting, a helpful introductory exercise is to simply have a go at noticing the range of colours within your face and, via careful scrutiny and colour mixing, build-up a reference grid of colours to use. Using a photograph can be helpful for this but it's potentially more challenging and rewarding to use a mirror.

Above are 3 examples that use Steve, from the block-based video game, Minecraft. Pixel art is perhaps comparable to traditional crafts such as counted-thread embroidery or knitting in that it uses a basic grid and sequences of blocks to build up imagery. Note how the above examples develop in complexity with increased tones suggesting form (3 dimensions). The last image breaks from the 2 dimensional grid into 3D modelling.

​Below are four different examples of pixel art figures/portraits that vary in detail and style. And yes, in comparison to Jonathan Yeo's work (for example), these might be lesser 'art', and perhaps better described as graphics, or sprites, or avatars, or something. The style IS simple because of its original 8-bit limitations and requirement to be animated/responsive to basic computer instructions. it's easy to dismiss this kind of thing as an art teacher but, as with most things, context is everything, and there is something to be said for creative constraints ...

​Using free online pixel art software, such as Piskel, or a freeapp, such as Pixel Studio, experiment with creating your own pixel art self portraits. Aim to do these with growing complexity and in a range of ways, for example:

• create a grid of 4 pixel art self-portraits. With each one, multiply the amount of colours you use, for example from 3 to 6, to 12, to 24.
• create a grid of 4 pixel art self-portraits where each one shows a different view of your head.
• create a grid of 4 pixel art self-portraits where each one becomes increasingly abstracted.
• create a grid of 4 pixel art self-portraits that suggest different times of day/changing light conditions.
• create a grid of 4 (or more) pixel art self-portraits that also loop as an animated sequence.

• Why, in Europe (and subsequently, America)at the turnof the 20th Century, were artists increasingly driven to explore new ways of creating, against more established and'traditional' approaches? What world events, new inventions and experiences might have shaped this change?
• How do some art 'styles' and 'movements' become so well-established and appreciated? Who decides if a particular style, way of working or thinking is more important than another?

'Modernism', simply put, refers to the period of time from the very beginning of the 20th Century up until the late 1950s. It might be summarised as a period when creatives embraced new ways of looking, thinking and making (notably, but not solely, in abstract ways) and did this with relative amounts of optimism. In contrast, 'Post-Modernism', might be broadly summarised as following Modernism (obviously) and, post-1950s - marks a dent in the optimism, introducing increasing layers of complexity - not least: increased self-awareness and retrospective pondering, doubt, irony, humour ... 'knowingness' too - that might be a helpful word here.

'Knowingness' because - although it is not always easy (or necessary) to organise artworks and ideas of individuals into tidy categories (or grids, even) - these next 4 images or artists (at least to me) seem to bridge modernist principles to hint at - rely on, even - an existing awareness of the grid as an established device deployed for creative and/or scientific means. Which might sound a bit complicated but could be described as 'post-modern' thinking. Possibly...

• Develop a collection of studies - which might be observational drawings, photographs or sculpted or assembled forms. You might choose to study a type of something (biscuits, cornflakes, noses, discarded tissues ...) with subtle variations. Consider how this potential typology might be: recorded in a consistent way (or not) and displayed in a grid format to influence its 'reading'. How might you experiment with the grid - its line quality, form, shape etc. so that the work is cropped, distorted, divided, contained (or not) in less predictable ways? Consider how a grid might be comparable to a storyboard or comic book sequence. How might a sense of movement or narrative be introduced?

• Recent years have delivered unprecedented changes, disruptions and doubts to our lives. COVID-19, Black Lives Matter, Brexit, the Environmental Crisis... these are just some of the issues that young people have had to confront and contend with. Words such as 'uncertain', 'disrupted', 'unforeseen' and 'transient' can help describe this period. In contrast, a grid - a straightforward symmetrical structure of horizontal and vertical lines - might be described as 'ordered', 'structured' and 'predictable'.
  Experiment with how - via an artwork - you might (use a grid to) bring a sense of order toa global, national or personal challenge. Via art, how might you represent (e.g. draw, photograph, symbolise, write about, record ...)certain issues and then playfully re-organise, categorise, deconstruct, fix, order these?Alternatively, how might you (via a grid) represent something previously considered as stable and certain, and then radically, playfully disrupt and dismantle this?

NOTE: This, above, is a deliberately open-ended final challenge. The intention is to promote thinking about some of the complex themes that are touched upon in this resource - themes of representation and accuracy; order and disruption; artistic intentions and tensions - and new possibilities too. And then hand these over to you, to make your own authentic responses. This approach is always best at GCSE - much better than simply trying to tick an assessment grid!

• The History of Sight-Size- Sightsize.com
• The Grid as a Checkpoint of Modernity- Tate Resource
• The Grids before Modernism - Contemporary Art of Pakistan
• Grids Inspire Order and Rebellion - Artsy.net article