Hahaha I did think of you whilst blooding up the loin cloth John

thank you for your lovely comments mate, YOU are a legend. Always encouraging people, always preparied to share you techniques and knowledge and never a bad word to say about anybody. Gutted you live on the other side of the pond dude as I'd v Ray much like to break bread with you
this isn't going to be very helpful as I don't have the flair for words or knack at describing the process that Mr Powel does but I'll do my best
i use a combination of brushes the biggest being a 3 the smallest a 00. I use my 1 and 0 the most. I guess stippling is the wrong word it's more dot placement and 'dabbing' I tend to use quite thick paint as well so I get a nice blob of colour. My first priority is to set the base tone as normal, then I concentrate on creating texture. Then millions of sodding glazes to help tie everything together and create the colour I'm after. highlights and shadows followed by more glazing. For the highlights I use Ben's loaded brush. I find it gives a nice transition super quickly.
It feels weird explaining my process to someone as good as you :tremble!: