Illusion of many numbers?

[SweetPea]

hi guys i need to create an illusion of alot of people,horsemen specifically in an art project... theres supposed to be 200,000,000, yes 200 million, horsemen coming from a river, but i obviously cant put in that many, any suggestions on how i would give such an illusion?

[DavePalumbo]

edge to edge and back to the horizon with generous use of atmospheric perspective, though allowing environmental elements (trees, architecture, etc.) to protrude in places so as to have further sense of scale. Think of it like painting a tree. You don't paint every leaf, you get the shape and light right and then accent some focal areas and boom, it's a tree covered in thousands of leaves.

200 million is a ridiculous number. Even just 1000 is a massive massive amount of people in a scene, 200,000xthat = bonkers.

[SweetPea]

thanks loads dave! really makes sense about the edge to edge thing especially... im wondering though, not questioning, how putting in such things as trees would help it with scale, just having them as larger and in more detail up close and smaller w/ less detail farther back?

also, 200 mil wasnt my idea, though it is from what i picked for the assignment... Revelations 9:13 200,000,000 horsemen and 4 angels kill 1/3 of the human race... Thanks again!

[RyerOrdStar]

Well, if they're emerging from a river you don't actually have to put them all in at once.
You could just draw a 'lot' of horsemen just coming out of the water. Perhaps you can title it '200 million horsemen'.

[Ilaekae]

Draw ten guys with numbers on their uniforms, then just dupe them 20 million times. All you'll have to do is change the numbers...

[Grief]

hell the million man march was 13 years ago and no one can even give an honest answer of how many were actually at it.

but no. do not listen to dave or ryerordstar. Jesus does not want you to create shortcuts, God didnt say in the bible it as being 'a lot of dudes until you get the idea' he said an exact number dammit, and youre a heathen for questioning His DBZ~esque math.

Paint them all.

[Bowlin]

If there was ever a reason to use the hose tool in painter... this would be it :P

[SweetPea]

lol thanks for the help guys

[DSillustration]

One of my favorite paintings ever, and a great example of implying masses.

Painting by Craig Mullins:
http://www.goodbrush.com/cpg1418/albums/commercial_projects/empires/spanish.jpg

[SweetPea]

sweet thanks DS! helps alot!