5 Techniques for Drawing Crowded Scenes
Courtney Jordan, a regular contributor to Artists Magazine, outlines five methods for depicting crowded scenes in art. These include capturing the crowd from behind to avoid faces, using silhouettes and shadow shapes, sketching the same location with and without people, abstracting the scene into four or five color shapes, and limiting marks to 20 or fewer. The article references artworks by Daud Aukriev, James Richards, Glen Maxion, Suhita Shirodkar, Baiqi Ma, and Joe Fig as examples. It also promotes digital editions of Artists Magazine, Southwest Art, and Pastel Journal.
Key facts
- Courtney Jordan is a regular contributor to Artists Magazine.
- Five techniques are presented for drawing or painting crowded scenes.
- Technique 1: Capture the crowd from behind, focusing on hair, headgear, clothing, and postures.
- Technique 2: Compose a scene using silhouettes and shadow shapes.
- Technique 3: Sketch the same place twice—once with people and once without.
- Technique 4: Turn a bustling scene into four or five abstracted color shapes.
- Technique 5: Sketch or paint a crowd using 20 marks or less.
- Artworks by Daud Aukriev, James Richards, Glen Maxion, Suhita Shirodkar, Baiqi Ma, and Joe Fig are featured.
Entities
Artists
- Courtney Jordan
- Daud Aukriev
- James Richards
- Glen Maxion
- Suhita Shirodkar
- Baiqi Ma
- Joe Fig
Institutions
- Artists Magazine
- Southwest Art
- Pastel Journal