My understanding of the lore after completing the game

Beware, full spoilers ahead!

World structure

So there is a 'real world' that resembles IRL with the only difference that it has some form of magic and at least two hostile clans: Painters and Writers. At some point Writers conpiracy killed Verso after which his painting started to decay. To prevent this his mother Aline decided to enter the painting hence starting the backstory inside the painting with all the expeditions and stuff. Shortly after the Renoir also jumped inside to make her quit and escape the painting.

As for the how humans transform inside the painting I think they naturally have two versions: Clair and Obscur.

Obscur version is the painted one. It's native to the world inside the painting and sometimes even born and raised inside naturally. Obscurs don't remember the events of real world unless they are explicitly reminded of them. Notable Obscur characters: Maelle, Verso, Monoco, Renoir.

Clair character is the vesion of a human that is formed when they enter the painting. Clairs remember real world events and most of the time have noticable white/bright elements in their look. Notable Clair characters: Curator (Renoir), the boy (piece of Verso's soul), Paintress (Aline) and Clea.

About Gommage

How the person might return to the real world? That's interesting because the game gives a lot of hints they have to be gommaged, hence 'erased from the canvas'. Which might be done only by another Painter. The only person who managed to do a self-gommage is Renoir at the very end os the story. And gommage has to be done for both versions: Clair and Obscur.

Yes, it basically means that Clea is also trapped in the canvas unless you defeat her and help her escape the painting.

The only true exclusion from all the rules is the boy. The true painter of the canvas. And the truth about him is revealed at the very end. As far as I understand he is a piece of possible Verso's Clair but smth subpar and less conscious since he was placed here when Verso finished the canvas in the real world. I think its a poetic and clever metaphor for the art itself, when author places a piece of their soul into the canvas.

Theoretically the boy could evolve if Verso would live and enter the painting but it never happens hence all the characters from the family portrait remain immortal. Yes, painterss was infact unessential for the painting to be maintained. It's self contained by the boy, the true painter. The fact that Alicia is inside only grants an additional guarantee the canvas will live.

Also when you meet Alicia in the Reacher tower Maelle doesn't merge with her as I read online in a couple of places. She kills her, erases her from the canvas, initiate her gommage if you will. That's exactly why Verso was so shocked. The other reason he couldn't percieve this move is because it doesn't solve anything: real life Alicia is still trapped inside the canvas and the conflict with Renoir is not resolved. All Maelle has done is removal of more tortured half of Alicia from the canvas. Which is a mercy in its own way but kind of conflicted one if you ask me.

The Endings

If you finish the epilogue as Maelle then you see Verso asking her to unpaint him, erase him because 'he doesn't want this life'. Later you see a creepy scene with the older version of Verso looking at dying Maelle. First I thought she was selfish and just ignored Verso's request to live another lifetime with him until she dies.

But then I replayed the other ending and understood the important thing. The boy is a piece of Verso's soul. He can't continue to repaint the canvas without repainting Verso inside. So I guess Maelle just asked the boy to continue and the boy automatically brought Verso back. The only thing that Maelle changed -- she made Verso able to age naturally so he has a more common 'realistic' life. So no, she wasn't so cruel to bring him back despite him asking her not to. She just couldn't stop the boy from repainting him back.

If you finish the epilogue as Verso, you see how Maelle is gommaged and then all other characters follow. Why it happens? That's a good question. This ending reveals that the boy is a piece of Verso's soul. And we he stops painting... Natural decay of the canvas shows its full power. All the characters quickly meet the consequences. There are no more painters to keep everything together. Canvas decays, everyone inside dies. All Obscurs meet the true death.

***

Well, that's all. I hope it helped. Remember: it's only my interpretion of the story =) Though I truly hope it's not so far from the intended message.

What ending have you chosen? Mine was Maelle's ending. There are a few people in my life with a traumas and disabilities who clearly stated a couple of times they will their on their own terms if their health gets worse to a certain point. I may not like it but I've lived long enough to learn how to respect their choices.

Maelle has made her own choice on the matter: she wishes to live inside the canvas. And everyone understands she lies about coming back from it. The absolutely genious part of the story is that Maelle is actually an underaged teenager who supposedly doesn't have enough life experience to make such choices and Renoir's attitude looks... justifiable in this case. Almost on all fronts.

That's why there is almost no right answer and people will discuss this beatiful world for years. Thank you, Sandfall. Tomorrow comes.