Grid Drawing: Photorealism

Photorealism is a grid drawing app created by photorealist artist Dylan Eakin, who designed it after struggling to find a grid app that met his needs. It overlays a customizable drawing grid on any reference photo, sized to match your paper, so you can copy it by hand with accurate proportions.

What sets it apart is its tonal layering. The app splits your photo into shading, darks, lights, and brights, letting you draw one value at a time instead of trying to see the whole image at once. You can set grid size in inches or centimeters, choose squares, diagonals, or dots, label rows and columns, zoom in on fine detail, mark completed squares, track progress and time, and compare photos of your drawing against the reference. It also includes four high-resolution starter references, red-circle mistake tracking, and sync across phone, tablet, and computer. It suits portraits, pets, and landscapes in graphite, charcoal, or colored pencil, and the grid can be turned off for freehand drawing.