New art student - need help making drawing larger than photo

[sheana2014]

Hi,

I am a new art student, and I am learning traditional mediums. I use Photoshop and Illustrator to help me see values, print out images a certain size, all kinds of things.

I am drawing the attached photo of a stuffed puppy and ball, in preparation for transfer to a physical canvas. The paper it is printed on is standard printer paper, 8.5 by 11.

The paper I'm drawing(not tracing) is 9 by 12. I would like to enlarge the picture by a little. I drew a box around the entire image and it measures 5 inches tall by 6.5 inches wide(cyan box). This does not include the background. The only measurement technique we've learned is to draw boxes around each object.

What technique(s) would you use to enlarge/do the math? This math thing is killing me. I saw a Youtube video where the artist put dots on strategic points and transfered them to a larger canvas, but I can't find it.

Also, some people use a a centered vertical and horizontal line and increase proportionally. Is there a way to do this mathematically?

Any techniques using PS or Illus are welcome. Thanks in advance.

[ScooterD76 · Accepted solution]

This is simple, i do it this way all the time... Just make a new PS document that is 9 x 12 ( 300 dpi is ideal but not necessary) Drop your image onto a new layer, and use free transform to enlarge/ or make smaller until the framing is where you like. Drag out guides from the rulers at 1 inch intervals ( or use view grid) and draw the same 1 inch grid on the target media ( your canvas ) Now you can use the screen to accurately scale your drawing onto the canvas.

[sheana2014]

This is really clever and helpful! Thanks very much!

[PECourtejoie]

HEllo, if you set your crop tool to given dimensions, you will see the result with greyed out areas outside.

You can also show rulers, or use the ruler tool (an alternate tool to the eyedropper), but this last one is more for scientific purposes.

[angie_taylor]

The easiest way would be to sketch it freehand. Just use a pencil and you can sketch directly on the canvas. If you use non-photo blue pencil it will be easy to cover and to get rid of in Photoshop if photographing it.

[sheana2014]

I know, I do sketch freehand. But the school wants us to use a measurement technique and I'm afraid if I don't learn some way I can depend upon, then I will have trouble later in the course.

[angie_taylor]

Ah, I see. Have you tried the measuring tools? Guides etc?

[sheana2014]

Hi, I am experimenting with using PS to aid in this math jungle. I was getting so frustrated trying to figure out something that would work that I just got the 12 x 9 inch paper, ticked off how high I wanted the puppy to be, and then compared measurements with my pencil(height, width, angles, etc.). But I think the method by ScooterD76 would really be very accurate. I could put dots on the x/y intersections for different points/landmarks, and then connect the dots.

I don't like the grids, as there are too many. But the rulers I love.

[angie_taylor]

In the old days we would use either a Pantograph;

Pantograph - Wikipedia

Or a Grant Projector to do this kind of thing 🙂

No 60: The Grant Projector