Notes on grids, overlays & the craft of composition — from the studio behind Grid Maker Pro.
Five ways in.
Technique
Studio-tested methods you can take straight to the canvas — construction adjustments, overlay stacking, and the craft behind a confident composition.
View all 4 →Case studies
Overlays reverse-engineered from finished work — logos, paintings, and photographs taken apart to show the grid underneath.
View all 1 →Q & A
Direct answers to the questions artists actually ask — which overlay, when, and why one beats another for the job in front of you.
View all 4 →Overlay of the month
One overlay, examined in depth — its history, the maths, where it earns its keep, and where it quietly misleads.
View all 3 →Release notes
What shipped, what changed, and what it means for your workflow — the running record of how the tool grows.
View all 1 →The overlays behind every note.
Every technique here is something you can switch on in the tool — all 82 overlays, across 11 families. Tap any one to read its guide.
Everything from the studio, newest first.
The rule of thirds is a guideline, not a law — what the research actually shows
Two published studies measured whether rule-of-thirds framing predicts how much people like a picture. The answer is not the one the rule's reputation implies.
25 May 2026 · 10 min readPhi vs thirds — how big is the 4.9-point difference, really
Thirds divides at 33.3%, phi at 38.2%. Here is that gap converted into pixels, inches and degrees of visual angle — and the one derived number that explains it.
25 May 2026 · 8 min readThe Loomis sphere at five angles — and how to read a pose
Front, three-quarter, near-profile, profile, tilted up — with the exact overlay settings for each, and the projection rule that lets you read turn and tilt off a photo.
25 May 2026 · 10 min readThe four-grid stack — a diagnostic, not a score
Stack thirds, phi, the diagonal method and the centre cross on one frame. Which grids agree tells you more about the picture than how many of them do.
25 May 2026 · 9 min readMay 2026 release notes — the overlay catalogue, twelve pillars, and the audit suite
The release that gave all 82 overlays a page of their own: category hubs, leaf pages, twelve long-form guides, E-E-A-T anchors and the first audit scripts.
16 May 2026 · 7 min readHow to use the Loomis head construction for tilted-angle reference photos
The brow ellipse opens with the sine of the pitch and the chin's drop shortens with the cosine. Get those two the right way round and tilted heads stop failing.
15 May 2026 · 10 min readThirds or golden ratio for landscape? Start with the horizon
A study of landscape photographs found a low horizon rated worse, not better. Which changes the question: place the horizon first, then pick the grid for the subject.
20 March 2026 · 8 min readLoomis head — sphere, jaw, planes, in that order
Loomis and Reilly learned from the same teacher at the Art Students League. Here is what the sphere-and-jaw method does better than its rivals, and where it stops.
1 March 2026 · 10 min read"When should I switch from Loomis to Reilly?"
Loomis and Reilly studied under the same two teachers at the Art Students League. That history explains why the methods stack instead of replacing each other.
20 February 2026 · 9 min readGolden ratio — what's real, what's myth, what works
Which golden-ratio claims survive measurement, which were debunked and by whom, and what remains of φ once the mysticism is removed — which is more than you'd think.
1 February 2026 · 10 min read"Should I use the grid method or a projector?"
One trains your eye and costs you time; the other buys accuracy and teaches nothing. Which is right depends on whether the deliverable is a drawing or a skill.
20 January 2026 · 9 min readRule of thirds — what Smith actually wrote in 1797
The original rule was about the proportion of dark mass to light, quoting Reynolds. The four power points are a photographic addition made a century later.
1 January 2026 · 9 min readOne brief every other Tuesday.
One overlay, one historical reference, one workflow note. Studio notes from working artists, photographers, and designers. No spam, unsubscribe in two clicks.
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