Thank you! 😊

@@angstyvivi3137 thanks!

@@InfiniteText thank you!

😆👍 Well hello there KZbin neighbor👋.

Thank you! Glad you like it. I've been enjoying seeing the kinglets this spring. :)

Saw some doing the wing-wiggle today!

I DO still really like them! I particularly like that the pack comes with a 12 and 8 round, which I use all the time. It's nice to have a travel set with full size brushes because I'm not painting miniatures. the smallest I paint plain air is 6x9", so it's very nice to be able to wet into wet and fill in quickly.

Right!? It’s taken months to dry paintings of snow/winter scenes. So much white! I have artist friends who use Liquin to speed dry time, but that medium gives me an instant headache. The water-I’m able oils I use now do have a medium that speeds dry time, but I’m not very experienced with it.

Acrylics are a big change from any other medium. Probably a great reason to explore a new style of painting!

Potentially, one hive can be enough to supply a family. I think two colonies might be ideal. You can rotate first and second year, and have one that should be harvest-able while the other builds up. Harvesting honey (in a cold climate) generally is a second year hive. First year to build up, second year to put up a lot of honey - with extra for you to harvest. For me, a good season nets me about 100lbs of honey from a strong colony (2 shallow "honey" supers). I'm very conservative with harvesting though. For my small family that's plenty, but we also combine with maple syrup/sugaring for our sugar. It varies widely depending on climate, the weather/bloom success of your nectar sources, and the strength of you colony. For example I've harvested zero honey this year. We've had extreme drought conditions in south/central MN. It's a new colony, and needs all its food for winter survival.

It’s very frightening how rapidly our invertebrates are declining. Honeybees, as a “livestock” insect will ultimately be ok, but all the native bees and allies are in trouble.

Thank you! A little watercolor can really bring things to life. :)

That’s great! I’ve had good luck with Daler-Rodney.

Daler-ROWNEY…haha. Autocorrect…

I'm so glad you're enjoying it and the "making-of" video!

If possible, clean them after each use, and try to keep paint from building up at the ferrule- the part where the bristles connect with the metal portion of the brush. If I can't clean right away I will wipe down my brushes and put them in my brush roll (protection) and put them in my freezer. Once I'm ready to clean them I use Master's brush soap. Ivory (bar) soap works well too. Then lay flat to dry. This will keep the glue holding the ferrule on the shaft in good shape. Hope this helps!

@@laurelsundbergstudio thankyou sister Laurel, I will try to clean them. Yesterday I use a dish soap and warm water to clean them, mainly because I wanted to save money but it didnt work out and damages the hair. But I tried using gum arabic later and it helps in getting the dirt off and shaping it. Today i might buy a bottle of daler rowney brush cleaner

@@abdulmuizchulan214 I should specify; when working with traditional oil paints, I use Gamsol Odorless Mineral Spirits to clean residual paint off first, then go ahead with a soap to finish cleaning. When working in Water-mixable oils, you can go straight to a brush soap of your choice.

@@laurelsundbergstudio hi there...i have just tested n tried brushing the brush toxuc free. I use a metal brushwasher filled with 3 parts safflower oil (recommended) 1 part of purified linseed (optional) and half part of spike oil. Rinse them thoroughly and i use the daler rowney brush liquid soap....it works alhamdulillah....i like it that my bruahes are soft after the wash...i recommend u try it, you"ll love it

The three rounds would be a great place to start. The 12, 8, and 4 are a great size range. You could get a lot of mileage out of them, see if you enjoy them, and expand later if you want. My kit only had a medium and small round, and an occasional mop brush in the studio. It worked just fine as a beginner. (But I’ll be honest, I do REALLY enjoy having all the sizes I could possibly need in the field at this point.) Good luck! Hope you like them if you give them a try.

I hope you like the Aspens! Mine have held up well and I'm still really enjoying painting with them.

Thank you Steve! I totally agree with you about the not using too much water and thin layers helping the dry time, and aiding it with a fan and/or sunlight. In this painting's case, I was really pushing the impasto layers in the white, and boy did it show with the super-long dry time, lol! I usually find things dry MUCH faster during the summer months. I'm curious what you think of the Cobra medium. I have the Winsor Newton and find it too tacky, just don't like the consistency.

Nice save, and great question! Unfortunately no, they can't be kept as pets. In the US all migratory birds including kinglets are prohibited from being taken from the wild. (This is to prevent kill, trade, capture, or sale.) If the bird has recovered, the best bet is to offer some food (mealworms perhaps, they are insect eaters) and then pick a release location that offers some good habitat - food/water/shelter. If the bird hasn't recovered it's time to seek a wildlife rehab center. These birds are tougher than they look, and can readily handle snowstorms if they have enough food. Good luck with Soldier! I look forward to seeing his/her buddies soon this spring!

Thank you! Glad it was helpful! I really like water mixable oils, but the brushes make a big difference. Once I got brushes figured out they felt more like traditional oils.