Painting upgrades

I've got a project that I've been working on for awhile now and I am close to sharing it.  I've so far logged 51.7 hours and I estimate about 20 more hours to go.

In the meantime, for this project I wanted to make significant improvements, so for that goal I started using a wet palette finally, got some nice Raphael 8404s  and Winsor & Newton 7 series brushes, some brush cleaner, and a magnifying headset.  I am pretty sure they have all helped a lot.

While before I was using this very same palette (which is for water colors) I was only using it to mix paints with slow dry blending medium.  The paint would stay good for a few hours.  But now with the parchment paper and wet paper towels the paint can last many days.  I have had to get used to some of the new behaviors (for example it seems to separate so you have to mix it a bit, and I cant use the paperclip I used before as it will rip through, so I use an old brush to mix).

I got two types of Raphaels, the 8404s and an 8408.  I think the 8404s are much better, the 8408 is too pointed with a very long central hair and it doesn't work quite right.  The Winsors are even better than the 8404s!  I have a bunch of different sizes, but so far the 4/0 Raphael is working well and the 3/0 to a lesser degree.  I've only tried the 000 Winsor so far but with great results for getting thin lines into tight areas.  Now I just have to get better, since I've gotten the equipment recommended by the pros!

The brush cleaner is great, don't know how I was able to work without it before.

Finally, the magnifying glasses are amazing.  I searched and saw a recommendation for this brand and it comes with several lenses at different magnifications.  I started with 2.5x but have been able to go up to the max 3.5x and again I don't know what I did before.  It goes through batteries pretty quick though.

Hope to show my results very soon.