And the winner is ...

Liquin. I love this stuff and what it does to paint. In toning the three boards, I found the best painting experience working with Liquin. You mix your paint, you add some of the Liquin gel, and then mix some more. It doesn't change your color and it makes the paint a) go farther and b) go on like soft butter. The paint gets to be so smooth it's incredible. So, in the future, I will use Liquin to establish the underpaint unless I'm in a hurry - in which case I'll use acrylic. Actually, I like acrylic - it flows on much like the Liquin/oil paint mix. I used an extender for the acrylic that looks and works similarly to Liquin, which is probably why it flowed as well as it did while painting. I think I may try an acrylic painting at some point, but not now. Anyway, the next step is the study. Oh, and by the way - I figured out why my road looks so bad - the fact that it's blue notwithstanding. There is no perspective established in the current rendition of the road - there is no feeling of near going to far. In the picture, it's obvious, but somehow I missed that when I started to block in the color in the painting. So the study ought to look better, if for no other reason than I will establish that missing perspective right from the start.

Here's hoping.