Damian, Dave, first of all, many thanks for the kind words.
The tartan is painted as follows, You should be able to see in the images that I block out the basic pattern in acrylic paint to start with. In this case the disecting dark and light lines. once I start in with the oils, each of these individual "blocks" is painted seprately. I have a light, medium, dark and shadow color mixed up. I paint the darkest blocks with the dark color and shade them with the shadow tone (darker version of that color). I use the medium tone for the middle blocks, and shade it with the dark tone for shadows, and the light color for highlights. I used the light color for the lightest blocks and added white to highlight it and the medium color for shadows. WOW! I know that sounds confusing, I just hope it makes a little sense!
The fine lines (light and dark stripes) are each done with the light and dark colors from above. I have to wait for all of the base "blocks" to be painted and dry before I lay these in as I add these with a very thin brush (in oils) and that way I can go back in and correct with thinner if I make a mistake. The beauty of oils, they stay wet WAY long enough for me to be able to clean up my fine lines on a project such as this.
Dave, I didn't add a wash. I think what you may be seeing is the difference between the oils as wet, or at least prior to Dull Coating. GASP! Yes, I dull coat and I think it adds a nice over all tone and certainly a perfectly flat finish! Hope that answers your questions gentlemen! If not just let me know!
Jay H.
OKC