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I said you try to paint what you see, but you also have to have an understanding of the object you're painting and be selective, not just register automatically, like a camera.
My point is that if you observe carefully, drapery shows a variety of values between light and shadow and like painting anything else, you simplify those values to a few ones. You also notice highlights, cast shadows and reflected light in every fold. The important thing is that you have to paint only those folds that convey the action and the form underneath. You should not attempt to paint every single fold that you see or paint those that do not help to understand the form underneath.
It's true that some painters have studied draperies intensely and were very skillful at painting it. Ingres was one of those, but if you paint drapery too well at the expense of the rest of the painting, you lose unity.
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Tito Champena
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