Allan,
A demo might take a while, but for now I'll try to get a couple of photos of me mixing paints so you can get the idea. It's really not that luscious. I wish it were more luscious. I'm working in that direction. (While I'm painting I always feel it is luscious, but then I'm always amazed and frustrated at how thin it really is!) When I first started painting as a teenager I think I was highly influenced by my parents' negative attitude toward waste. You couldn't waste a good piece of paper if you only needed a scrap. You couldn't throw out a small bit of leftover food. I was in awe of the expensive oil paints and I used them sparingly, plus I figured out how to stretch them out with medium. You get the idea. Anyway, this habit is taking me a long time to break.
I've noticed that when I paint totally from life I put more paint down. It's just so much easier to see what should be emphasized. I'm working on how to transfer that to working with digital photos. I would guess that working from a monitor as you do would be pretty close.
On my first layers when I'm painting really loosely, I mix in some Gamsol. Most areas get about three layers, and by the time I'm up to the last layer, the darks have a little Gamsol mixed in because they are thinner, and the light areas are just paint mixed from the tubes. That way I get a nice soft edge, or crisper (but still soft) accents.
Alex
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