Mark Kennedy has an insightful post on drawing crowds so they don’t look like a jumbled mess. A few key points:

• Express one idea or mood. The crowd should be a single entity (Although possibly not in paintings?)
• Paint every character the same colour or tone.
• You can pull a main character out by making them different

My favourite point, however, was about creating a crowd as if it were one character in an animated sequence.

This panel from Tintin illustrates the point beautifully. From left to right it reads like one character getting up from the ground and retreating, but is actually obviously a squad of soldiers. The technique provides order and rhythm as well as selling the idea of movement. But more than just the movement, it sells a more complex idea: that the soldiers are getting up and retreating. This could well be my new favourite technique.

Full post is here.

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