If you have ever doodled during a long phone call, you already understand something about tribal art. A Gond painter fills a shape with dashes. A Bhil painter covers it in dots. A Warli painter builds a whole village out of circles, triangles and lines. None of it needs perspective drawing or years of anatomy classes. It needs patience, a steady hand and someone to show you how the pattern is meant to go.
That last part is the hard bit. Tribal art forms from central and western India were learned at home, from a mother or an uncle, on mud walls and floors. There was no textbook. Rooftop's answer was to record the painters themselves, the ones who first carried these forms from walls onto paper and canvas, and their families.
This guide compares three tribal art courses you can take online: Gond with Venkat Raman Singh Shyam, Bhil with Padma Shri Bhuri Bai, and Warli with the Mhase family. You will see what each one teaches, level by level, and which suits the way you like to work.
Why tribal art is a good first course
Most people who sign up for Indian art courses online have not painted since school. Tribal art forgives that.
The shapes are simple and flat. You are not trying to make a tiger look real. You are trying to make it look alive, which is a different job, and pattern does most of the work. If your line wobbles, the dashes and dots inside it pull the shape back together. Beginners usually finish a Gond bird or a Warli scene they are proud of within the first few lessons, and that early win matters.
There is a catch. Simple-looking art has rules, and copying a Warli figure from a tea towel is not the same as learning Warli. Each of these forms grew out of ritual, and the shapes carry meaning: which way a spiral turns, how many dots go in a row, why the sun and the moon appear together. A master teaching their own tradition explains all that as they paint, and the meaning is what makes your painting read as Gond or Bhil rather than "inspired by".
Gond art with Venkat Raman Singh Shyam
Porcupine and tree, a Gond painting by Sandip Dhurve
Gond painting comes from the Pardhan Gond community of Madhya Pradesh. For generations it lived on house walls and floors, until the 1980s, when the young Jangarh Singh Shyam began painting on paper and canvas and took it to galleries around the world. Gond painting is known for its patterns: animals, trees and spirits drawn in outline and then filled with dashes, dots, fish scales, waves and seeds. Each artist develops a signature fill, almost like handwriting.
Venkat Raman Singh Shyam is Jangarh's nephew and learned directly from him. He has been painting for more than four decades, and his work often looks at how people and nature live together, and what happens when that balance breaks. He has exhibited in India and abroad and won several awards for his contribution to Gond art.
From Rooftop's Gond course with Venkat Raman Singh Shyam
What the Gond course covers
The Gond art course online runs to about five and a half hours across three levels, from basic to advanced motifs. Venkat Ji starts with the history of the form and his own memories of the patterns he grew up with, including the curious links people have drawn between Gond and Aboriginal art.
Your first practical lesson is a bird. He sketches it, lays a first coat of colour, then a second, and only then begins the patterns. That order is the most useful thing a beginner can learn about Gond painting. The base colour decides how the pattern will look on top, and people who skip it end up with patterns that float.
From there the course moves through more complex animals and compositions, and you learn to build your own signature fill. If you want a preview, our walkthrough on how to make Gond art with the Maestro course covers the first lessons in detail.
Who it suits
Pick Gond if you like colour, animals and pattern, and if you are the kind of person who enjoys filling in the details on a colouring page. It is the friendliest of the three for complete beginners. Searching for "Gond art for beginners" or a quick Gond art tutorial will turn up plenty of shortcuts, but this course teaches you the logic behind the patterns, which is what lets you design your own.
Bhil art with Padma Shri Bhuri Bai
Padma Shri Bhuri Bai, the first Bhil artist to paint on paper and canvas
Bhil painting comes from the Bhil community of Jhabua and western Madhya Pradesh. Its signature is the dot. Animals, trees, gods and festivals are drawn in outline, then covered in rows of coloured dots that make the surface shimmer. Traditionally the dots were pressed on with fingertips or with the end of a neem twig.
Bhuri Bai started painting at the age of ten. As a young woman she worked as a daily wage labourer on a construction site in Bhopal, where the artist Jagdish Swaminathan saw her talent and invited her to paint at Bharat Bhavan. She became the first Bhil artist to paint on paper and canvas instead of walls, and she later received the Padma Shri. Her friend and fellow painter Lado Bai came to painting through Swaminathan too.
Lizard and frogs, a Bhil painting by Lado Bai. Every surface is built from rows of dots
What the Bhil course covers
The Bhil art course has more than seven hours of lessons and is available in Hindi and English. It opens with Bhuri Bai talking about the colours the Bhil used to paint with and the paints they use now, then moves through the main motifs.
The course has three levels:
- Basic: you draw the Galbapsi and Bharadi motifs. You sketch in pencil, go over the lines with a brush, then add the dots, including with your fingertips.
- Intermediate: you drop the pencil and draw straight with the brush. This feels scary at first and freeing by the end.
- Advanced: a more complex composition, sketched in pencil again, with dense dot patterns built over a peacock and other details.
Our post on learning Bhil art online goes through each level step by step.
Who it suits
Bhil suits people who find repetition calming. Dot painting is slow and rhythmic, and many learners say it feels close to meditation. It also works well with children, since dots are easy to make and hard to get badly wrong. If you have searched for Bhil art for kids or Bhil dot painting ideas, this course gives you the real thing to share with them.
Warli art with the Mhase family
The Warli Tree of Life by Pravin Mhase, grandson of Jivya Soma Mhase
Warli painting comes from the Warli community of Palghar and Thane in Maharashtra. It is painted in white on a dark earth ground, traditionally rice paste on mud walls, and it uses only three shapes: the circle, the triangle and the line. Two triangles joined at the tip make a human body. A spiral of dancers makes the Tarpa dance. A square chowk holds the mother goddess at weddings.
The Mhase family is the family most closely tied to Warli painting's modern life. Jivya Soma Mhase, who received the Padma Shri, was the artist who brought Warli from walls to paper and into museums worldwide. His elder son Sadashiv Mhase and grandsons Pravin and Vijay Mhase all teach on Rooftop's course.
What the Warli course covers
The Warli art course online begins with the family introducing themselves and the form: how it got its name, the part Jivya Soma Mhase played in its revival, and what Warli artists face today, including the flood of cheap commercial copies. Then the practical work starts.
You learn to make the materials, including the white paint, which is ground, sieved and mixed with water. You draw the basic motifs one by one: animals, plants, the sun and the moon, and the border designs. Then come human figures, and here the course is excellent. You learn to draw people standing, walking, running, dancing and playing instruments, all from two triangles and a few lines. Our post on learning Warli through the Maestro course has more on each stage.
The basic level ends with a simple Warli scene. The intermediate level takes on a busier theme with more figures and more going on.
Who it suits
Warli is for people who like drawing more than colouring. You work almost entirely in line, with one colour, so composition and movement do all the work. It is often listed as the easiest art form for beginners, and the first shapes are easy. Making a simple Warli painting look full of life is harder, and that is where learning from the Mhase family pays off.
If you want a feel for in-person learning too, read what happened when one of our writers sat in a Warli painting workshop with a Palghar artist.
A Warli painting workshop in progress
Gond, Bhil or Warli: a quick comparison
| Gond | Bhil | Warli | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Teacher | Venkat Raman Singh Shyam | Padma Shri Bhuri Bai | Mhase family |
| Region | Madhya Pradesh | Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh | Palghar, Maharashtra |
| Signature mark | Dashes and patterned fills | Rows of dots | Circle, triangle and line |
| Colour | Many colours | Many colours | White on earth |
| Course length | About 5.5 hours, three levels | 7+ hours, three levels, Hindi and English | Basic and intermediate levels |
| Best for | Colour and pattern lovers | Calm, repetitive work | People who love drawing |
Can you take more than one?
Yes, and the order matters a little.
Many learners start with Warli to get comfortable with line and composition, move to Gond to add colour and pattern, then try Bhil for the patience it builds. Going the other way works too. What you should avoid is mixing the forms on one painting before you know each one well. A Gond animal filled with Bhil dots is neither, and the artists notice.
If you want practice between lessons, Rooftop's Artventures books are a good companion. Look at Artventures of Gond and Artventures of Bhil for structured exercises, or the Warli art kit if you want everything in one box.
What comes with every course
All three are recorded courses that you take at your own pace. You can submit your artwork to the artist for feedback, you get a certificate when you finish, and Maestro courses include an art kit delivered to your door with an activity book, stickers, postcards and bookmarks to practise on.
And every enrolment pays a living artist for their knowledge. Tribal art forms have been copied and printed without credit for decades. Learning from the people who carry them is the simplest way to put that right.
When you are ready, browse all Rooftop courses, or see the original Gond, Bhil and Warli paintings these families make. If you are still weighing up different art forms, our guide to learning traditional Indian art online compares every course family on Rooftop.
Frequently asked questions
Which tribal art form is easiest for beginners?
Warli has the simplest shapes, and Gond is the most forgiving for people who like colour. Both are good first courses. Bhil is easy to start but takes patience to finish well.
Is there a Gond art course online taught by a Gond artist?
Yes. Rooftop's Gond course is taught by Venkat Raman Singh Shyam, who learned from his uncle Jangarh Singh Shyam, the artist who first took Gond painting onto paper and canvas.
Can I learn Bhil art in Hindi?
Yes. Bhuri Bai's Bhil course is available in Hindi and English.
Do I need special materials for Warli painting?
Traditionally Warli uses white rice paste on a mud or cow dung ground. The course shows you how to prepare the white paint and tools, and you can practise on dark paper or a painted board.
