Little People with Gary Bist - January 11th, 2025
The city provides many scenes for sumi-e painting. Gary Bist based his workshop on a painting of a familiar scene: children crossing a road under the supervision of watchful teachers.
Think blobs when you first paint people, especially children, said Gary Bist.
Using a side brush, a building with large window panes was created.
With a single stroke create boys and girls by thinking of boys as shoulders and girls as hips; that is, start the tip of the brush stroke at the bottom for boys and start the tip of the brush stroke at the top for girls.
The idea with children is to create the spontaneity of a group of children. Children come in a variety of sizes and are usually sub grouped into clusters of friends.
The background on a city street is filled with common elements like trucks and cars.
Trees, the curb of the sidewalk, and other city elements like birds perched on ledges and recycling bins add to an effective urban scene.
Each building has a story tied to the time it was built. An older building with a clock and a peaked roof is found in many cities.
Street lights, balconies, windows, street level stores bring vital details to your street scene.
Painting children leads to smiles in artists.
Take a moment to think about your particular scene.
This group of people captured the variety of motion, sizes and jumble of humanity found at street crosswalks.
Gary Bist returned to work with more detailed figures.
Create detailed people with a small fine brush.
Colour added to the coats of the children and the teachers guiding them makes them stand out.
Additions to the children make them unique such as hats with ears and cell phones.
Painting people can be a humorous experience.
Street lights, cars, windows, flying birds, pigeons on the ground create a painting in the city. Don't forget other distant people in small clusters on the street scurrying to work and stores.
A hake brush is one way to paint tall buildings. Consider tapping a brush with coloured ink to add blowing leaves or garbage. The side brush with a wash of light gray ink can add fog or smog.
Creating small yet defined people against a larger panorama can be found in Sesshu's long scroll, painted in 1486.
A Christmas card showed how a townhouse can be distinguished by some observations like a wreath, bird house, squirrel and decorations.
The artists worked on their second more detailed city scene.
Sketching people with a pencil or charcoal stick lets you experiment with an interactive group.
The artists posted their creations on a wall.
Lots of small yet dynamic characters amid common city elements we see every day made this workshop a compelling look at our surroundings.
The city landscape can be as fascinating and challenging as the natural one.