Every overlay for the figurative practice.
Portrait, landscape, comic, concept, tattoo — Grid Maker Pro carries the whole atelier toolkit. Loomis, Reilly, and Asaro head construction. The figure-proportion canon. Golden ratio, the rule of thirds, and the Bouleau armature for composition. The square grid for classical reference transfer. Eighty-two overlays you can stack and transform over a reference image, all free in the browser — and the reference never leaves your device.
Artists — portrait, landscape, comic, concept, tattoo, students — use Grid Maker Pro for head construction (Loomis, Reilly, Asaro, Bargue-style), proportional grid transfer, composition systems (golden ratio, rule of thirds, the Bouleau armature, dynamic-symmetry root rectangles), perspective grids for backgrounds, and the 70+ specialty overlays for ornament, tattoo, comic, and concept work. The full atelier toolkit, plus everything beyond it.
Pick the discipline you work in.
Portrait, landscape, comic, concept, tattoo, students — each speciality leans on a different corner of the catalogue. Start where your work lives.
Portrait painters
Loomis, Reilly, Asaro, Bargue, golden ratio for facial proportion work.
Landscape painters
Rule of thirds, golden ratio, rabatment, root rectangles for plein-air work.
Comic & manga artists
Panel templates, perspective grids, Loomis heads for character sheets.
Concept artists
3-point perspective, isometric, Loomis + Asaro for character + environment.
Tattoo artists
Mandala, radial & sacred geometry, lettering grids, Loomis for portrait work.
Art students & teachers
Grid-method foundations, Bargue plates, atelier sighting, the core toolkit.
Four overlays that build the figure.
Before the likeness, before the rendering, the structure gets decided. The Loomis sphere builds a head at any angle. The planar Asaro head predicts where light breaks across the face. The eight-head canon seats a standing figure. The golden ratio settles where the figure lives in the frame. Construct first, and the observation has a scaffold to hang on.
Loomis head
The spherical method. Build a believable head from any angle, the daily-driver for portraits.
Asaro head
The planar head. Faceted planes predict how light reads across the form before you render.
Figure proportion
The eight-head canon. Seat a full standing figure with the proportions classical training relies on.
Golden ratio
Phi proportion and the spiral. Decide where the figure sits and the eye is led.
From reference to drawing in four moves.
A working session opens with a ten-to-thirty-minute pass, then one to three hours of pencil, paint, or pixel work. Because the reference stays on your device, the tool is usable for commission and NDA work where upload-based tools are not — the client's photograph never leaves the room.
Drop a reference photo
A model, a portrait sitting, a still-life setup. It loads locally and never uploads.
Activate a construction overlay
A head method for portraits, a composition system for landscape, a square grid for transfer.
Match it to the subject
Rotate, scale, and nudge until the brow line, centre line, and angles sit on the features.
Draw on your surface
Use the overlaid image as the working reference for hours of pencil, paint, or digital work.
The figurative artist's overlay set.
Loomis head
Spherical head construction for any angle — the daily-driver portrait method.
→The Reilly method
The rhythmic curves that integrate the portrait head with the body.
→The Asaro head
The planar head — how light breaks across facial planes.
→Figure proportion
The eight-head canon for full standing figures.
→Golden ratio
Phi-grid composition for serious figurative work.
→Rule of thirds
The everyday composition decision for placing a focal point.
→Armature 14-line
Bouleau's reverse-engineered Old Master composition system.
→Square grid
The classical grid-method workhorse for accurate reference transfer.
Plus 74 more — dynamic-symmetry root rectangles, perspective systems for architectural backgrounds, sacred-geometry figures for ornament and tattoo, and specialty craft grids — covering everything beyond the figurative core.
What artists actually use it for.
Loomis sphere first, every commission. I block the head construction in the first ten minutes — front, three-quarter, profile, whatever the client picked — and only then start the observational drawing. Saves a day of repainting later when the jaw is wrong.
For pages I lay the panel grid first, then drop a two-point perspective grid into each panel that needs depth. The trick is the perspective overlay stays separate from the panel borders — I can rotate or move it without re-jigging the page layout.
For environments I'm in 3-point perspective and the Asaro head all day. The thing that matters is the privacy is real — game concept reference is under NDA in most of the studios I freelance for, so the no-upload model is the only reason I can use it for client work.
The questions artists ask.
Which overlays does an artist actually use?
For most figurative artists: a head-construction method (Loomis, Reilly, or Asaro depending on training tradition), a basic grid (square or rectangular) for reference transfer, one composition system (golden ratio or rule of thirds), and a perspective grid (1pt, 2pt, or 3pt) for architectural backgrounds. Specialist work adds dynamic-symmetry root rectangles, the Bouleau armature, or the Bargue plates depending on the discipline.
Is Grid Maker Pro suitable for atelier training?
Yes — the catalogue ships the full atelier-tradition overlay set (Loomis, Reilly, Asaro, plus the square / rectangular / custom / diagonal-cell / cross-diagonal grids used in Bargue-style plate copying) plus the proportional measurement and fixed-measurement guides. Several classical-realist programmes use it as the digital companion to traditional pencil-and-paper instruction.
Can I work from photo reference or only from life?
Both. The grid-method overlays (square, rectangular, custom, diagonal-cell, cross-diagonal) work identically for photo reference and from-life sighting. The Loomis head construction works for either too — the construction is independent of whether you're observing or inventing the head.
How do I use a grid to draw a face?
Open the reference photo in the tool and lay a square grid over it, then draw the same grid lightly on your paper or canvas at the size you want. Copy what falls inside each cell, one cell at a time, so proportions stay accurate. For a head specifically you can switch to the Loomis head construction overlay instead, which gives you the cranial sphere, brow line, and centre line to build the face from, rather than copying square by square.
Is the grid method cheating?
No. The grid method is a centuries-old transfer technique — Albrecht Dürer's woodcuts document gridded drawing frames in use during the Renaissance. It scales and places a reference accurately, but it does not draw the values, edges, or marks for you; the observation and execution are still yours. If you would rather build form from understanding than copy cell by cell, the Loomis head and figure-proportion construction overlays are the alternative.
References
- Loomis, Andrew. Figure Drawing for All It’s Worth. Viking Press (1943). The foundational text on constructive figure drawing.
- Bouleau, Charles. The Painter’s Secret Geometry: A Study of Composition in Art. Harcourt, Brace & World (1963). The canonical study of compositional armatures.
- Edwards, Betty. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. Tarcher/Perigee (4th ed., 2012). ISBN 978-1-58542-920-2. On observational drawing and the grid method.
Eighty-two overlays, free in any browser.
No signup, no upload — the reference stays on your device. The full atelier set plus everything beyond it: Loomis, Reilly, Asaro, Bargue, golden ratio, dynamic symmetry, perspective grids, sacred geometry, comic panels, lettering grids.
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