Using the grid in my painting studio

How I make grids on canvas

I now begin every custom pet painting with a grid as I learned from painting dog Nakita.
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The ruler is a quilting ruler, if you’re wondering. If you need straight lines for any project,
this type of ruler beats the school ruler hands down for ease of use!

​1. After adding my own layer of gesso, I take out my ruler and pencil in one-inch squares.

2. Using an app, I add a layer of squares onto the digital photo of the pet I’m painting.

3. Once the grid is penciled, I can draw the cats onto these canvases.

The unique part of these cat paintings are that they are going to be done in “goofy style,” not “realistically.” The lines will blur when I add the acrylic skins and papers. The grid will still help as I paint and collage in the cats. I’ll show you how I keep using grids in later blog post.

If you’d like to see some of the custom dog and cat paintings I’ve done, please visit my
webpage about them. Click on these sentences to see and get a free ebook of how to
work with me for your custom pet painting.
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Two custom pet paintings have their grids penciled on their canvases!

This is the 2nd quilt ruler I have because my blue one was in storage. As you can see, it doesn’t have the lines across in grid style, which makes using this particular ruler very difficult when measuring out smaller than an inch increments. It’s in my studio…but it will spend more time hanging out than being used. If you want a quilt ruler, try to find a version of my favorite one!

​Read more about why I began cheating by using a grid by clicking on this sentence.