Help with using glazes to blend colors and simulate translucency

[Ash Adler]

I was trying to do some stuff with glazing aside from just using it to smooth out transitions between layers, and I was getting so frustrated with it (along with a bad slip of my brush while doing some lining) that I had to just put this mini aside and work on another one.  I intend to go back and finish it at some point, though, so I'm hoping to get some advice on how I can get closer to the final results that I'm trying for.

 

1. On the skirt, I'd wanted to transition from red to purple.  I painted the whole thing red and did some highlighting/shading on all of it, since I figured that the differences in the brightness of the underlying coat would still carry through the purple similar to how different primer colors affect the final finish (I'd still want to highlight/shade the purple afterwards, when I go to do the further layers on the red).  I've spent hours going over it with a very thinned purple paint, doing more coats on the lower parts in order to have a more solid color there, but the whole thing still looks like red stained with purple rather than actually looking purple.  I'm fairly happy with the blending of the colors in the middle part of the skirt, but I just can't seem to get a solid color in the bottom quarter or so.  Is it just a matter of having more patience and sticking with it, or is there something that I'm missing?  Maybe I'm getting frustrated with it too quickly, but when I read stuff about people painting with glazes or juices or whatever you want to call them, I'm left with the impression that I shouldn't still have such a translucent result after 50+ coats.
2. For the shirt and the leg, I'd wanted to make it look like sheer cloth by doing a base of skin color and glazing with a dark brown.  I got something that looks like a decent start, but it seems too flat.  I tried to do less glazing in areas where the cloth would be stretched to make it look more see-through (tops of the breasts, bottom of the abdomen, middle of the quadriceps, knee cap), but the difference isn't pronounced enough to look right.  I'm not quite sure what to do about that.  I can't quite put my finger on it, but when I look at pictures of the sort of shirt that I'm trying for, it doesn't seem to just be a matter of having a more solid color for the cloth in places where it's not stretched as much.  Any tips?

[Inarah]

For sheer fabric I do skin, then fabric color glaze, then skin again where the fabric would be touching and it would show through. 

 

For the skirt, maybe start with a mid color base coat, then blend the red from the top and purple from the bottom. 

 

[Ash Adler]

13 minutes ago, Inarah said:

For sheer fabric I do skin, then fabric color glaze, then skin again where the fabric would be touching and it would show through. 

 

For the skirt, maybe start with a mid color base coat, then blend the red from the top and purple from the bottom. 

 

Thanks for the feedback.  Just to make sure that I'm understanding what you mean, do you mean to basically paint the fabric with normal highlights and shades, just all thinned into glazes so that there'll still be some skin color showing through it?  And by "mid color base coat", that'd be something between the red and purple that I'd want at the extremes?

[Inarah]

Yes, you understand correctly.  Let us know how it goes. 

[Ash Adler]

Final result is here: link

 

Many thanks again for the tips !  It ended up being so much better than what I was doing with my initial approach.