I worried about the placement of the figures as the composition needed to be off-centre. Photos can have their focal point dead-centre and it works, but that won't necessarily be true for a painting. I used a
Derwent scale tool to get it from the photo, which I had framed years ago.
Funny how a little photo can be so out of focus and lacking in detail, but be so loaded in meaning that my mind fills it all in spontaneously, on sight. Still I squint at it from time to time. It's as if I could enter that photo and go on this adventure with them!
The pastels I'm using don't feel soft enough at times... and maybe the underpainting was too keyed-in to the surface colours. I think I can do better with this one.
