Painting complex scenes with multiple characters requires compositional strategies that single-character work doesn't need. I want to document the strategies that work for me.

The first problem: visual priority. In a multi-character scene, the viewer needs to know who or what to look at first. I solve this with value contrast — the most important character or interaction gets the highest contrast in the composition. Everyone else gets less.

The second problem: depth relationships. Characters at different distances need to follow the atmospheric perspective rules individually. The character in front should have harder edges, higher saturation, and more local color variation than characters further back.

The third problem: pose relationships. Characters in a scene should respond to each other through pose and gaze direction, even if they're not directly interacting. Poses that face entirely away from the scene center make the scene feel disconnected.