Scale

The 96"x96". How it ended up- It weighs a ton.
It takes up an entire wall in my studio.

Failed work

Sometimes pieces die.There's nothing that can be done. In that case a belt sander is not a bad idea.

Careful observation

To work on the painting of small weeds, I planted a little wildish garden in a glass bowl.
I started with a detailed observational pencil drawing. After fixing the drawing with workable fixative I built up thin glazes of paint.

Fine brushes for fine paintings

Brushes become a different issue depending on the work they are supposed to be doing. Obviously, on small paintings one uses small brushes. But not only that. I use flats only for blocking in large areas, mostly I work with rounds. It is not possible to keep the smaller brushes in a bucket of oil, the rounds will bend, and it does not work to have old paint still in the bristles. Streakyness is not noticeable on a large, thickly painted piece, but it becomes a real issue with small, carefully executed pieces.
So I do clean my precious small brushes in turpentine. And then I wash them with dishwashing soap. To get the abrasive turp residue out. And then I condition them with hair conditioner. And lay them out to try so they maintain their shape.
Keeping the points is key.

Palette Knives

A palette knife is NOT a palette knife. Just as with brushes, palette knives come in different shapes and sizes.They also have very different "spring" from each other. Useful to experiment with a variety and find one that is comfortable. I am notoriously bad about cleaning my favorite palette knife, but it doesn't matter very much. It is easy to scrape off the paint with a scraping knife, even if it's dry.

Blending brushes

I have a number of these, mainly because they only work well for soft blending of the paint before they get too saturated with paint. And that doesn't take very long. It is possible to wipe the brush, basically after every stroke, to keep the tips of the bristle soft, but eventually they clump together anyway. Then the brush needs to be cleaned- in turpentine- and left to dry out. That takes overnight. In the meantime it is useful to have extras handy!

Brushes brushes brushes

I use flat bristle brushes on bigger pieces, anything from about 1/2" to 2".
I don't buy cheap ones. Shedding is a nuisance and the quality of the bristle influences the quality of the brushstroke.
Turpentine is extremely destructive. Cleaning brushes destroys them, they wear out more from cleaning than from painting. So I don't clean my big brushes. I keep them in a bucket full of vegetable oil. I only wipe them off, squeezing out most of the paint, avoiding turpentine as much as I can...