Artist Guide Overlays — every classical construction & transfer system, in one free tool.
Loomis Head, Portrait Face Guide, eight-head Figure Proportion, Proportional Transfer, Diagonal Cell, Cross-Diagonal, Fixed Measurement, Mural Scaling — the eight construction and transfer overlays that figurative and realist artists actually use, in one browser app you can load over any reference photo.
Artist Guides are measured construction or transfer scaffolds drawn over a reference image to help an artist place landmarks, scale a drawing, or copy proportions accurately. Grid Maker Pro ships eight in this category: Loomis Head (sphere + side-plane), Portrait Face Guide (canonical face thirds), Figure Proportion (eight head heights), Proportional Transfer (classic grid method), Diagonal Cell (per-cell diagonals), Cross-Diagonal (full cross-diagonals), Fixed Measurement (sight-size), and Mural Scaling. They cover beginner-to-advanced figurative practice, and they layer with each other.
- Overlays in this category
- 8
- Codified
- 1525–2004 (Dürer → Asaro)
- Dominant disciplines
- Portrait · figure · realist painting
- Beginner-friendly count
- 7 of 8
- Advanced count
- 0 of 8
- Cost
- Free forever · in browser
Decision wizard — which construction or transfer guide?
Pick by what you're drawing and the stage you're at. A full comparison table follows below.
Which overlay should I use?
Artists rarely need all eight at once. If you are asking which construction grid for portraits, or which proportional transfer grid scales a mural cleanly, pick by what you are drawing and what stage you are at.
| If you are… | Use this overlay | Why | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drawing your first portrait head | Loomis Head | Geometric, fast, internalised in 30 minutes | Beginner |
| Beginning portrait practice without head construction | Portrait Face Guide | Canonical face thirds + five-eye-width rule on a flat overlay | Beginner |
| Drawing or painting a full figure | Figure Proportion | Eight head heights, idealised proportions in one overlay | Beginner–intermediate |
| Copying a reference photo accurately | Proportional Transfer | The classic grid method (5–20×N cells) with labelled cells | Beginner |
| Transferring with extra precision (curves & angles) | Diagonal Cell | Adds diagonals through each cell so curves & angles snap | Beginner |
| Maximum transfer accuracy on every cell | Cross-Diagonal | Full cross-diagonals give each cell extra reference points | Beginner |
| Measuring directly from life at one-to-one | Fixed Measurement | Sight-size grid for measuring proportions against life | Intermediate |
| Scaling a small sketch to a wall or large canvas | Mural Scaling | Customisable cell ratios, large-canvas presets | All |
Loomis Head
Portrait Face Guide
Figure Proportion
Proportional Transfer
Diagonal Cell
Cross-Diagonal
All 8 artist guide overlays
Each has its own page with the full method, history, common mistakes, and a "Try this overlay" CTA that opens the live tool.
Loomis Head
Sphere + side-plane construction for any head angle.
Portrait Face Guide
Canonical face thirds & the five-eye-width rule.
Figure Proportion
Eight-head canonical figure proportions on a single overlay.
Mural Scaling
Scale small references up to wall or large-canvas dimensions.
Proportional Transfer
The classic grid method (Renaissance-era) with labelled cells.
Diagonal Cell
Cross-diagonals through each cell — curves and angles snap.
Cross-Diagonal
Full corner-to-corner diagonals for extra reference points.
Fixed Measurement
Sight-size grid for measuring proportions against life at one-to-one.
Loomis vs Reilly vs Asaro — at a glance
The three head-construction systems most often confused. They are not interchangeable; each emphasises a different priority.
| Method | Built from | Solves for | Difficulty | Time to first usable head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loomis | A sphere & side-plane | Three-dimensional structure at any angle | Beginner | ~30 minutes |
| Reilly | Interlocking rhythm curves | Painterly finish in academic tradition | Advanced | ~10 hours |
| Asaro | Flat planes | Light, shadow, & plane direction | Intermediate | ~3 hours |
For a long-form comparison including sample constructions and when to combine them, read Bargue vs Reilly vs Loomis vs Asaro: Choosing a Head Method or the full 13-step Loomis walkthrough.
A brief history of artist guide overlays
The eight overlays in this category span six centuries of figurative practice.
The grid transfer method is the oldest. Albrecht Dürer's 1525 woodcut Draftsman Drawing a Recumbent Woman shows a Renaissance artist tracing through a literal grid, with the same grid drawn at scale on the canvas.3 The Diagonal Cell variant — adding diagonals through each cell so curves snap to four reference points — is documented in 19th-century atelier teaching but probably predates it.
The Bargue plates (1866–1871) by Charles Bargue and Jean-Léon Gérôme codified the proportional transfer system into a teaching curriculum that swept European academies.2 The Bargue tradition still dominates atelier-style training at the Florence Academy of Art and the Grand Central Atelier in New York.
Andrew Loomis published Drawing the Head and Hands in 1956 with Viking Press.1 Loomis stripped head construction down to a sphere and a side-plane — geometric primitives a beginner could place in seconds — and the method spread through American illustration, comics, and advertising. The Loomis sphere is now the most widely recognised head-construction in the world.
Frank J. Reilly taught at the Art Students League of New York for two decades. His rhythm-line method, which trades Loomis's geometric solids for interlocking curves, was passed down through students rather than published in a book until decades later; the broader Art Students League construction tradition was documented by Robert Beverly Hale.5 It dominates contemporary academic figurative painting.
The Asaro Head appeared in 2004 from John Asaro and the Asaro Brothers as a physical reference model. It reduces the head to about thirty flat planes and is used primarily for studying light and shadow rather than construction. The plane breakdown layered on top of a Loomis sphere is the standard "construction + lighting" combo for most contemporary digital portrait work.
Figure proportion using head-heights — the head canon that underpins every figure proportion grid — is much older. Polykleitos of Argos established the seven-and-a-half-head canon in the 5th century BC, a system of comparative measurement that compares every length to the height of the head.4 Loomis later popularised the eight-head proportion as an idealised standard for illustration.
Long-form guides
Frequently asked questions
What is an artist guide overlay?
An artist guide overlay is a measured construction or transfer scaffold drawn on top of a reference image to help an artist place landmarks, scale a drawing, or copy proportions accurately. Examples include the Loomis Head sphere, the Reilly rhythm-line system, plane breakdowns like the Asaro Head, the Portrait Face Guide, figure-proportion grids using head heights, and proportional transfer grids for enlarging a small reference to a large canvas or mural.
Which artist guide should a beginner start with?
For portrait work, start with the Loomis Head — it is geometric, fast to learn, and widely taught. For full-figure work, start with the Figure Proportion Grid (eight head heights). For copying or scaling existing references, start with the Proportional Transfer Grid. The Reilly Method, Asaro Head, and Bargue plates come later when you have a solid foundation.
Are these overlays free?
Yes. All eight artist guide overlays — and all 82 overlays across 11 categories in Grid Maker Pro — are free to use with no signup, no watermark, and no upload limit. Image processing happens locally in your browser.
Can I use multiple guide overlays at once?
Yes. Layer the Loomis Head sphere with the Asaro plane breakdown to see both geometric construction and lighting planes simultaneously. Or use the Proportional Transfer Grid alongside the Figure Proportion Grid to scale a figure study while preserving head-height proportions. Each overlay's opacity is independently adjustable.
Where do these methods come from?
Loomis Head from Andrew Loomis (1956). Reilly Method from Frank J. Reilly at the Art Students League of New York (1940s–1960s). Asaro Head from John Asaro and the Asaro Brothers (2004). The Bargue tradition from Charles Bargue (1866–1871). The grid transfer method dates back to the Renaissance — Albrecht Dürer's woodcuts depict it in the late 15th century.
How do you scale up a mural with a grid?
Divide your small reference into a proportional transfer grid of equal cells, then draw the same number of cells — at the larger ratio — across the wall or canvas. A two-centimetre cell on the reference becomes, say, a twenty-centimetre cell on the wall for a ten-times enlargement. Copy the contents of each cell one at a time. The Mural Scaling grid sets the cell ratio and large-canvas presets for you, and the Cross-Diagonal grid adds diagonal cell transfer points so curves and angles stay accurate at scale.
References
- Loomis, Andrew. Drawing the Head and Hands. Viking Press (1956); Titan Books reprint (2011). ISBN 978-0-85768-097-9. The ball-and-plane head construction.
- Bargue, Charles, & Gérôme, Jean-Léon. Drawing Course (Cours de dessin) (1866–1871). Reconstructed ed. Gerald M. Ackerman, ACR Édition (2003). ISBN 978-2-86770-145-3. The proportional-transfer atelier curriculum.
- Dürer, Albrecht. Underweysung der Messung (Instruction in Measurement). Nuremberg (1525). English ed. The Painter's Manual, trans. Walter L. Strauss, Abaris Books (1977). ISBN 978-0-913870-24-6. Earliest depiction of the grid-transfer method.
- Richer, Paul. Artistic Anatomy. Trans. & ed. Robert Beverly Hale, Watson-Guptill (1971). ISBN 978-0-8230-0297-3. The head-count figure-proportion canon, including the Polykleitos lineage.
- Hale, Robert Beverly. Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters. Watson-Guptill (1964); 45th-anniversary ed. (2009). ISBN 978-0-8230-1401-3. The Art Students League construction tradition behind the Reilly method.
Notes from the studio · Practitioners on the artist guides catalogue
Illustrative composites of how the tool gets used in practice — not quotes from named individuals.
Sphere first, every commission. Ten minutes on the construction overlay saves a day of repainting.
Loomis head, face guide, figure proportion — three construction methods, one tool. Students see all three on the same reference.
Even on rough thumbnails. The sphere + plane is fast to block in and tells me whether the angle reads three-quarter or near-profile.
Open the artist overlays
Loomis, face guide, figure proportion, grid transfer — every artist-construction reference free.
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