Technique Not Working

I have experimented here with the clothes, in that I have painted them with glazes rather than with opaque paint, so that the whiteness of the canvas might come through and give the forms an inner brilliance. I am not very happy with it! For example, the Reagan shirt just looks black, but if I add much more white I will simply muddy the shirt and it will look worse. I think I better go back and do it opaquely with a simple glaze at the end. Hopefully, I can still pull this off.