Drawing to Decorate

Anyone can draw art for their home.

It's simple to create artwork for your home. If you're good at drawing, you just need a little inspiration and some good supplies. If you're not very good at drawing, don't worry - you can also make your own artwork.

Grid Drawing - First, you will need to find a picture or other (disclaimer - it should not be copyrighted material) inspiration for your artwork. Tip: Silhouettes are great for beginners, as they are solid and don't require shading. Silhouettes can be created in any color. If your original is something that you don't want to write on, you will need to make a color copy of the item. You will need a good ruler and a pencil for the next step. Measure your original picture, and know the dimensions that you would like to make your final piece of art. For example, you would like to turn a 3"x5" image into a 12"x20" image. Tip: Even-sized images will be easier for beginners to work with.

After you have your measurements, you will need to decide on the size of the square you would like to start with (i.e. 1/2" or 1"). I suggest that you have a good writing pencil and a good eraser to begin your design. You will need to mark your original to divide it into squares of the appropriate size. This is easier to do if you make tic marks in the appropriate sized interval on both sides and use the ruler to connect them. Do this very lightly as you will need to go back and erase these lines for your finished product. This also allows for straighter lines. You will need to do this vertically and horizontally to create the squares. Next, you will need to do the same thing on your final piece of media. My personal favorite is a good watercolor or similar type paper. For example, in the above example, if you want to start with a 3x5 image and make it 12x20, you could use 1" squares on the original and 4" squares on the final product. You would have 15 squares to work with on each paper. Once you have done this you can get down to business and get started on your artwork. Using just your pencil to begin with, pick one square on your original and study it. Choose the corresponding square on your large paper and copy the outline and any major details of the original square on the larger paper, trying to get the image to look as close to possible as the original. Draw very lightly so that you can erase or cover over any lines. You will continue doing this, square by square until you have completed the outline and major details of the entire image. If you make any mistakes, erase them completely and try again. Do not get discouraged. It may take some time to get used to this technique. Once you have the entire outline, you can begin to color in the image to match the original. If you are using a silhouette, this should be fairly simple. If you decide to color and shade the larger image to match the original, this may take some time. Shading is often easier if you use pencils or other media that is easy to blend. Some types of pencils even come with a special blending pencil.

Once you have your final product, you will then need to go back in and erase all of the grid lines, being very careful to avoid the image that you have created. The best eraser for this is a white eraser. Your final step will be to find a good frame. You may choose to mat your creation or use a poster frame.

Anyone can create artwork for their home. This artwork is special, tailored to your likes and is something that you can be proud to display.