Greetings!!!
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ONE WAY OF PAINTING GROUPS OF PEOPLE
I've painted a lot from nature including many portraits. This helps a lot in understanding how colors behave depending on distance
and adjacent colors. You have to rely on sketches, notes, and photos. Before Covid-19, I often went to Placita Máximo Gómez to play
chess and enjoy the atmosphere there, often after midday. In addition to drawing a few sketches to fix the contrast of values in my
mind, which is almost always my concept of chiaroscuro, since that's what I like most, I took many photos. On days when the sunlight
was strongest, at more or less the same angle and time of day, I would take around 40 to 50 photos, perhaps with a maximum of 10 degrees
location difference between them, looking for the best projected shadow and some order in the arrangement of the figures.
Of course, no photo is perfect. Although I'm 81, I like to learn about modern technology. A few years ago, I would prepare the composition in a
notebook and had to use many pages. I had to stretch the canvas on 16" x 30" wooden stretchers because the format turned out to be in
a rectangular shape. Since I learned some Photoshop, I now do the composition by selecting pieces from the best photos. Of course,
this always results in an insufficient reference, and when working on the painting, my experience takes over, changing things according
to the problems that arise. Although the images look better on a computer screen, technology is always a poor imitation of what your
eyes can see in reality.
I have explained many times, photography should only be used when you have sufficient experience working
from nature. Well, I've described just one of my ways of working when it comes to groups of people. From what I've read, the Impressionists
included many of their friends in their group paintings, whose features they knew very well. Edgar Degas, in particular, used photography
a lot, but his experience working with nature gave his work that very natural, distinctive quality. Every time I go to New York City,
I learn more by seeing his paintings at the Metropolitan Museum. I hope all of this helps you in your practice.
