Hi Thomas—There is definitely indirect painting involved in my process. I didn’t mean to imply or communicate otherwise. I was just speaking to this particular scenario. My process is definitely a combination of both direct and indirect practices. I wish I had more WIP images of the painting you mentioned, Totem, but I only have one or two. But even here you can see that my initial pass is “mostly” direct with maximal useful information being deployed across the general form. This level of resolution cannot be done quickly so my initial pass takes some time (often weeks and weeks for complexity like this.) Subsequent indirect layers usually consist of larger-scale concerns like more global or sweeping gradations/transitions, color unifications or shifts, etc… (This may seem quite backward to most contemporary approaches.)
Here you can see a collection of WIP images from a more recent work (Scientia) that does have a very similar subject: https://www.smartermarx.com/t/a-waichulis-scientia-wip-images/1333
What information is carried out in a direct or indirect manner is a matter of context–in other words, what the situation may call for in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. I am sure that the same results could have been garnered by a far more indirect approach. It really depends on what the individual finds effective, efficient—and also fulfilling!