On various occasions people have asked me to film myself during the creative process. And on almost all of those occasions I totally forgot to get my phone and switch on the camera. But sometimes I remembered, even though it may have been halfway through a drawing. But I do have several different ways to approach my drawings. One of them is by using a grid. I place a picture behind a grid and then I draw a grid on my drawing paper. Cell by cell I sketch the major lines of the picture so I know what comes where. After that, I start the actual drawing process. Grid drawing is especially useful when you want to enlarge or slim down the size of the original picture. After all, what I see in a grid of 1×1 cm, I can draw into a grid of 2×2 cm, or 4×4. And vice versa.
Here’s a (speedy) video of me, sketching the old man in the header using a 2×2 cm grid, followed by some stills from various drawing sessions towards the final result: