bob.txt

Hi, welcome back.
I'm sitting here playing with a couple of the cutest little characters that God has ever made.
These are a couple of little baby flying squirrels.
Tiny little rascals, they're about six weeks old.
Look at that.
Aren't they some of the most precious little things you've ever seen.
There, turn around here so we can see you.
We call them Slim and Trim.
There.
Say hello, guys.
As I say, these are little baby flying squirrels.
They might be the most numerous squirrel there is, but you don't see them very often because they're nocturnal, and they hide all the time.
Okay, guys.
You wanna sit in my pocket while we do this?
Here, you jump right in there.
That's what's so great about them, you can just put 'em in your pocket.
There, we'll let you sit right in there.
These are little baby pocket squirrels too.
Tell you what, let's start out and have them write all the colors across the screen that you need to paint along with us.
While they're doing that, let me show you what I've got done up here.
I have my standard old 18 by 24 inch pre-stretched double prime canvas, and I've just covered it with a very thin coat of liquid white.
So it's all wet and slick, and it's ready to go, and I thought today, we'd just do a fantastic little painting.
It's very easy, and think you'll enjoy it.
Let's start with a little Prussian blue on the old two inch brush, just a little bit.
Something like so.
And we'll go right up in here, and using our little crisscross strokes, we'll just do a quick little sky, just like so.
Now, the paint is continually mixing with the liquid white, and automatically, it'll get lighter and lighter in value as we work down toward the horizon.
And as you know, in a landscape, that's exactly what we're looking for.
There we are, something about like that.
Okay.
Now, we'll take a little bit more of the Prussian blue, and let's just put a little bit on the bottom.
We might end up with a little water down here.
I'm not really sure yet.
We'll make that decision in a little while.
Right now, we don't have to make any big decisions.
But just in case, we'll have something.
Hope you like those little flying squirrels.
I think they're sorta neat.
They are beautiful little creatures.
Okay.
And I borrowed those from the bird lady here in Muncie who's taking care of them and raising them.
Her name is Diana Shaffer, and she works with all kinds of animals, and when we come here to do the show, she loans them to me sometimes so I can share them with you.
So we'll have to send her a thank you card.
There we are.
Just beat the devil out of it.
I thought maybe today we'd do some, let's do some big mountains.
Great big old beautiful mountains.
I'm starting with midnight black.
And a little touch of Prussian blue in it, but mostly midnight black.
Cut off a little roll of paint.
Let's go right up in here, and we have to make our first major decision.
Maybe that old mountain lives right there.
We'll start out, put a little peak in there, it doesn't matter.
Just sort of make a decision in your world, put 'em in wherever you think they should live, then that's exactly where they should live.
Maybe something right along in there.
Tell you what, let's have some fun.
Let's take a little bit of the titanium white and just do something like that.
Just begin, maybe, I know, maybe there's a glacier up in here.
That easy, we'll begin laying that in.
Then we can put a few little highlights on the mountain, just like so.
There.
And big decisions, we'll make later.
We'll take a little white, put a little black with it, make a gray color, and with that gray color, gonna take, and with that, we'll add a few little highlights here and there on the old mountain.
Just a few little things, maybe there's one there.
We'll let it come right down to that glacier.
There we go.
Just put a highlight here and there.
This looks like some of the mountains that live in Alaska, where I used to live.
There.
Something about like that.
Back to our black, and we'll start right in here.
See? And we'll sort of just make a little bowl shape in that mountain to hold that glacier in so it doesn't get away.
Sometimes them rascals, they'll get away from you.
There.
That easy.
I like big old mountains like this.
As I say, I lived in Alaska for a long time, and you see sights like this just about on a daily basis.
And I think, when God made Alaska, he was having one of his better days.
It is the most gorgeous country.
(grunts) I get excited just thinking about it.
There.
Somebody told me I should work for the Department of Tourism in Alaska, as much as I talk about it.
That's true, I just think it was beautiful.
There we are, back to my black.
And let's come right up in here and maybe, shoot, we'll get a little crazier, it doesn't matter.
It's our world, we can do it any way that we want to.
Little duder there, maybe a little something in here.
And off we go.
Okay, a little bit of our gray and white.
Put a few little highlights on here, I don't want a lot of highlights on this, just a few.
Then maybe out here, have a few little highlights that live right up on top of this mountain.
Sort of bring that together.
Shoot, we're in business.
As I say, though, these are really fun mountains to do.
Try some of these.
So often we just do the mountains that have snow on 'em, but do mountains that have big glaciers in 'em.
There.
Little bit more of the titanium white, and we'll just let this just drip right around the base of those mountains.
That easy, no pressure.
No pressure at all.
Just sort of let it float right around there.
Maybe comes right on down in here somewhere.
And let's take our two inch brush, and I'm gonna begin tapping.
I wanna create the illusion of mist down at the base here.
The illusion of mist, little white on the brush.
We'll make some big misty areas that just float right there.
All right.
Something about like that.
Just bring 'em all together.
Little more of the titanium white, I'm just using titanium white right on the corner of the brush, and we'll make all those beautiful misty areas very lightly, very lightly.
Can blend it, bring it together.
Shoot, that's quite a little mountain we've got there today.
I like him.
Maybe a little mist right in here too.
It's a nice way of cleaning up the foots on this mountain.
'Kay, now then, I just wanna wash the brush.
As you know, we wash our brushes with just odorless paint thinner.
(chuckles) And beat the devil out of 'em.
Okay, my two little guys are still here, by the way.
I'm gonna take some black, some Prussian blue, be right back, get a little sap green.
Maybe my crimson or two, just touch.
Let's go up in here.
Let's have, in our world, maybe a little foothill that lives back here, and it's got trees and bushes growing on it, all those happy little things.
There.
Just to push all that back.
All right.
And you can do this with a two inch brush, or you could do it with a fan, it doesn't matter.
Two inch brush was handy, and it works wonderfully.
Now, let me grab the old knife, mix up some color here.
Let's have Prussian blue, black, get a little bit of that thalo green.
A little Alizarin crimson, and some brown, van Dyke type.
'Kay, let's wipe the knife off.
Try a fan brush, and we'll load it full of color, lot of paint on it, lot of paint.
Let's go up in here, and maybe back here in our world, there's a few little evergreen trees.
they're just poking their heads up.
There's one, and we'll give him a friend that lives right about there.
It doesn't matter.
You decide how many or how few trees live in your world.
About like that.
'Kay, maybe there's one there too.
Now sometimes, when you're painting over a lot of paint like this, it's sort of difficult to make it stick.
If you have that problem, add the least little touch of paint thinner to your brush.
Doesn't take much, just a little, and then it'll stick right on top of all that white, or whatever color you happen to have up there.
Always refer back to our golden rule, thin paint will stick to a thick paint, thin to thick.
Now, I'm gonna grab another old two inch brush here.
We'll go right into a little bit of that color, and then right into cadmium yellow.
I wanna make various shades of green, but I want 'em pretty dark, pretty dark.
'Kay, let's go right up in here.
We'll just use that same brush, and I'm just gonna tap an indication of a few highlights on some of the larger trees that live back here in our world.
There.
'Kay, maybe a little Indian yellow.
You decide, whatever you want.
But I want to keep 'em fairly dark, I don't want 'em to get too bright, too far away.
There we go, little bit more in there.
Isn't that neat?
And you can do this, you really and truly can do this.
I know, you're saying, "I could never paint, "never draw a straight line." You can, this is one style of painting that is for every person.
I've never seen anyone who couldn't do this.
There.
There's even a lady in Boston who paints this method, and she's blind.
If she can do it, whew, anyone can do it, 'cause she's wonderful.
She is wonderful.
I'ma take just a small amount of titanium white on a clean, I've got another little two inch brush here, I wanna create a little bit of mist floating down here at the base of this.
This is just straight titanium white, just tapping it right in there, have a good time.
About like that, see?
But it'll help create that illusion that it's very misty.
Maybe even a cloud fell out of the sky, and it's living down here now.
Well, it could happen.
(laughs) Maybe.
All right.
Can't ever tell.
There we go take a little bit of this dark color.
What do they say? You don't have to be crazy to do this, but it helps?
And let's go back up in here.
Maybe there're some little grassy areas that come right out of there.
Don't wanna cover up all the mist that we made.
That mist is a good friend, wanna save it.
Wanna save it.
Just happy little grassy areas.
Maybe we'll have water.
If you want water, all you have to do, just pull down a reflection, and go across, and almost instantly, you have water.
Now then, shoot, we're getting crazy here.
Maybe there's a little bush that lives right there.
About like that.
Take the two inch brush that has the greens on it, the little highlight colors, and we can highlight that rascal a little bit.
That easy.
Okay, now.
I'm gonna dip the brush into the least little amount of pain thinner.
Once again, if it's a little bit thinner, then it'll just go right on top of there without any problem.
All right, just tap a little color into the bristles, and off we go.
I just wanna put the indication of some little grassy areas here.
Too far away to have much detail, but a little bit.
Little bit.
Just some happy little things that are living right there.
All right.
You decide where they are, how many they are, where they live.
Okay, maybe, about in there.
And once in a while, maybe we'll pick up a little darker color.
Now, you could lift this sometime just to create the illusion of little things that are growing back in there.
Little upstanding rascals.
'Cause they exist.
You have 'em in nature.
All right.
Take a little of the liquid white, pull it out as flat as I can get it, cut across.
Then we can come back in here, and we'll put in a little water line, just a little water line.
This is just a light area between a couple of darks to break it up.
Something like so.
There we are.
Now what happens if you make one that you don't care for?
It's hard to get rid of, let's make one intentionally.
There's one I don't like.
Now, if you do that, take your brush, grab it, and just pull straight down, see?
It just works right out, don't worry about it.
There.
You know, in some of the series a long time ago, we did a couple of shows that just showed how to correct mistakes.
Maybe we'll do some more of those.
I did that because I've got several letters recently asking what happens if you do a water line that you're not happy with.
How can I fix it?
Now you know.
It's one of the easiest things there are to fix.
'Cause we don't make mistakes, we absolutely don't.
We have a happy accident every so often.
But that's it, that is it.
Scratch in a few little sticks, and twigs, and arms, and legs on some of these trees.
Shoot, we're in business.
You guys still in there?
Yeah, I see.
Some blue and some black, little more of the thalo green, a little crimson.
Absolutely adore those little flying squirrels.
They have to be some of the cutest creatures God's ever made.
They are precious.
And we'll see if Diana'll let me take these home back to Florida with me, but I know she won't.
It's a good thought though.
We'll load a lot of the dark color into the brush.
Something like so.
Let's make a big evergreen.
Whee, ready? How big?
Real big? That big?
It goes right off the canvas.
Maybe there's a little bit of the trunk showing right there.
Got a little naked part.
You can do that, you can do that.
There he comes.
Big old heavy tree.
Strong tree.
And in here, we could care less.
We'll separate all this with highlights, we don't care.
The only thing you're worried about is the basic shape, basic design of the old tree.
You know me, I think everybody needs a friend, so we'll give him a little friend that lives right here.
There, that's his friend.
They get along well together.
What a view.
They can look out over here at these beautiful mountains with the snow and the glaciers.
(grunts) I wanna live there too.
I'ma take a big brush, that's too slow.
Load it full of color.
What the heck, maybe there's a big old tree that lives here, and he's got a friend there.
Just make a decision.
Just make a decision, as I say, over and over, each of us will see nature through different eyes, and you should paint what you see.
Put a big one there.
And whatever you feel, that's what you should paint, 'cause a hundred years from now, somebody'll look at your painting, and they'd say, "Boy, he was having a good day today.
"He really felt good." All right, take a little white, little dark sienna, mix 'em together, maybe a little more.
You can put a little van Dyke in there too.
Oh, pretty color.
Little roll of paint.
And let's go up in here, let's put a little indication here and there, you don't have to put the whole thing in, of tree trunks.
Just indications.
Just a few little things, don't put too many, 'cause you're not gonna see the entire tree trunk.
I'ma make that a blue spruce.
In this series, I've made several blue spruce.
I'm gonna take some white, mixed with liquid white, a little touch of the thalo blue.
I like thalo blue, isn't that a beautiful color?
Whew.
(grunts) All right.
Let's go right up in here.
Now, with that thalo blue, let's just go right along in here, and put the indication in of a few highlights.
There, darker, darker, darker down toward the bottom.
And this little tree says, "Give me some highlights too," so we will.
The little squirrels have to live up here in these trees.
Now, we'll just take a one inch brush, what the heck, dip it into the liquid white, a little bit of that dark color, pull it in one direction, one direction only.
One direction, load a lot of color.
Let's go up here.
And with that, we can come back in here, and we can begin putting highlights on all these little bushes and trees.
Do one little bush and tree at a time, though.
Don't get greedy.
I know, a little yellow ochre.
I know, sometimes it gets working good, and it's hard to stop with just one.
Take your time.
You don't have a mean old director at home that's on your case.
You can take your time.
There.
Maybe a little touch of the bright red right there on the end of that one to make it look like maybe some little red flowers, they're just living right out here.
'Kay, a little touch of the paint, I'm gonna grab some sap green, some nice sap green.
There's a little bush.
I like to paint bushes and trees.
Think I told you the story in one of the earlier shows, in a different series, that years ago I studied portraits, and after a long time, my portrait teacher took me aside one night, he said, "Bob, I gotta tell you the truth." He said, "I want you to go paint bushes and trees, "'cause that's where your heart is.
"Leave portrait painting to someone else." And I have, I've taken his advice, and I get along much better with bushes and trees.
There.
And playing with little squirrels.
I like all these little animals.
They're my friends.
My house looks like a zoo sometime, I have so many of 'em.
And then as soon as they get big enough to make it on their own, off they go.
But you wouldn't believe the menagerie of animals that lives around my house that we've turned loose over the years.
And they come back, and I'm a soft touch.
Always have food out there for 'em, and that's okay.
Long as I have food, they will.
Let's take some van Dyke, some dark sienna, mix 'em together, get a little roll of paint on the knife.
We gotta have a way to get up here.
Maybe there's a big trout lives out here in this river.
We might want to come catch him.
But I think everybody should, when they catch a fish, they should just put a band-aid on him, wish him well, and put him back in the water.
Come back and catch him again.
Getting hard to find big fish anymore, they've all been caught.
So any time I catch one, I just sorta put him back in the water and wish him well, tell him I'll see him another day.
Little brown and white, off we go, little roll of paint again.
Barely touch, just graze, like that.
There.
Come back with our little brush that we were making bushes with, maybe I'll put a little more liquid white on it.
All right, make it very thin.
Grab a little sap green, there.
All right.
Then we go up in here, and we can begin picking out little individual bushes and trees that live right here.
There they come.
The path goes behind that one right there.
We don't know where it goes now, just sorta sneaks away.
Sneaks away.
Maybe there's another one here, like that.
Wherever you want 'em.
Hi, guys. (chuckles) Little squirrel just looked out of my pocket at me here.
There we go.
They are absolutely precious.
I'm gonna have to talk some more trash to Diana and see if I can take one home.
Doubt if they'd let me get on the airplane with it.
Do you want to go to Florida, huh?
No.
Okay.
That's a good thought anyway.
Okay, couple little ones here, just to sort of lay the path down into the painting.
That's all we're really doing at this point.
About like that.
All right.
And we can take the little script liner brush, put some paint thinner on it, and make the paint very thin.
Almost the consistency of ink, but not quite.
Turn the bristles in there to bring it to a nice, sharp point.
'Kay, let's go up in here, and here and there, and there and here, we can put in the indication of a few little sticks and twigs.
You decide where they live in your world.
However many you want, that's exactly the right number.
Exactly the right number.
Take our knife, just a clean knife, and you can scrape in as many sticks or twigs as you want.
Like that.
I think with that, we've about got a completed painting.
Let's take a little bright red, a little paint thinner.
I think we're ready for a signature on that one.
We'll just make the paint good and thin, and we'll come right up in here, and we'll sign that little rascal.
Really hope you've enjoyed this little painting.
Try these mountains.
They're fantastic, a lot of fun to do, and you can do 'em.
And after you finish, if you have time, take a photograph and send us.
All of us here at the station, we'd love to see your results.
Until then, we'd like to wish each and every one of you happy painting, and God bless, my friend.
(end theme music) Hi, welcome back.
Certainly glad you could join us today.
I thought today we'd do something that's really cold, so you better get out your big coat and put it on.
Let's start out and have 'em run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint along with us.
While they're doing that, let me show you what I've got going.
Have my standard ol' pre-stretched double-primed canvas up here, and I just covered the entire canvas with a very thin, even coat of liquid white.
So, it's all wet and ready to go, so let's do it.
Let's start out today with the ol', the ol' two-inch brush.
We'll go into a small amount of midnight black, a little Prussian blue, and just mix 'em together on the brush here, mostly black, through.
I just put the blue in there to flavor it a little bit.
Alright.
Let's just have some fun.
Very little color here.
I'm just going to go in here and just barely graze the canvas and put in a little background color.
Just a little.
Just a little.
I don't want this too be too dark 'cause I think I'll put some clouds in here.
This is my background color.
But the clouds will be the same color, only darker.
There we go.
Something about like that.
Just enough to flavor the canvas a little.
Before we get too dark, tell you what, let's have some water in this one.
If you've painted with me before, you know I'm crazy about water.
Probably just crazy, but I'm crazy about water.
Same color.
And, I'll go right down in here, and just pull from the outside in.
I'm gonna lay in a little color that eventually, if everything goes right, will be water.
There, about like that.
And, very lightly, we'll just go across the entire canvas.
That little light area stays in there, that's what we were looking for.
Now then, let's have some fun.
Black and blue, mostly black, though.
Once again, the blue is in there just to flavor it a little bit.
Alright, alright, let's go up in here.
Now then, let's have some big 'ol clouds and we're just gonna tap these in.
I'm just gonna use a whole two-inch brush and just tap in some very basic cloud shapes.
Maybe it comes down, goes up, I don't know.
Wherever you want 'em.
Just tap 'em in.
There, a little more color on the brush.
There we are, just tap it in.
Something about like that.
And, you make your own mind up where you think your cloud should live, because, we all see, we all see nature through different eyes.
So, I want you to paint what you see.
There, alright.
Something about like that.
Maybe, maybe a little more over here.
Okay.
Today, tell you what: gonna show you a new brush.
Today, I'm gonna introduce you to a little blender brush.
This is a very soft, little blender brush, and we can just blend right over the top of all of that.
Very, very soft brush.
It's much, much softer than the normal brushes we use.
There.
And, this one's fantastic, because it's thicker than most of 'em, and most important, it has a round handle.
And, a round handle allows you to actually paint with it and spin it.
There we go.
See how you can just blend right over all those beautiful little things?
Look at there.
Now then.
Now then, we'll just wipe that on a paper towel.
I'm gonna come back with a knife, take some pure titanium white, and I want a bright area right up in here.
So, I'm just gonna take that titanium white, and, as my son, Steve, says, we're just gonna smoosh it right into the canvas, like that.
Okay?
Like the sun's maybe behind that ol' dark cloud there.
So, we're just gonna smoosh it right in there, just really press it in there firmly.
There.
Then, we go back to our little blender brush, and this is where this brush is so fantastic.
You can just blend right over that, that easy.
And, we'll tap the corner of this brush into a little white, just a little bit of the titanium white.
So, we're actually going to paint with this blender in places.
And with that, then we can go up in here, and, just spinning it around, we can make the indication of very soft, little fluffy clouds that live in there.
There, it'll make it look like there's a few rays coming out through there, you can just pull it.
These might not show up very much, but, in your painting, you'll see 'em.
And, you can make them as distinct as you want.
And, that gives us a pretty good ol' winter sky, it looks sorta dreary and cold and, whew!
Looks like there's a storm coming already.
As I say, you better get out your heavy coat.
Let's take Prussian blue, midnight black, put some Alizarin crimson in it, maybe even a little Van Dyke, a good dark color, predominantly blue, though.
Pull it out as flat as you can get it, cut across, get a little roll of paint goes right on the edge of the knife.
And our world, maybe, yep.
We just put us a big ol' mountain lives right up here.
Just decide where you think it should live, and drop it in.
And, the only thing that we're worried about in this particular mountain is the top.
We could care less what's happening below it.
Just that nice edge, it's all we're looking for.
Take a two-inch brush, grab it and pull it.
'Cause we have liquid white on the canvas, we can move this color.
There, now see, the soup, let it go.
Make a big ol' mountain that just lives right in there like that.
Come back with our titanium white, pull it out as flat as we can get it, cut across, and we have a little roll of paint.
And we just go right in there.
And with that, just put some nice highlights on this mountain, big ol' snow-covered mountain, whew.
I lived in Alaska for almost a dozen years, and we saw a lot of this kind of scenery.
Gorgeous place, absolutely gorgeous.
There we go.
We'll take some white, a little Prussian blue, mix it together.
And with that, we'll make a nice little shadow color, just blue and white.
There, good cold color.
Cut off a little roll of paint again.
And, we go up here, touch, no pressure, whew, just let it flow.
Grab, now we're gonna push that little peak back, go right to it.
See, I pushed it right into the background.
There, no pressure, though.
You want the paint to break like that, to have those little holes in it.
That's what makes it so pretty.
Makes it actually look like something's happening in there.
Little white, let's break up this straight edge.
It bothers me that it's so straight.
There, we'll come right in here.
Put a little shadow in the hill.
Shoot, we got a little mountain going right there.
Clean, dry two-inch brush, we're gonna create a little mist.
Tap the base of it, lift upward.
Always follow those angles that are in the mountain.
There we go.
Now, let us have a little fun.
Let's do two ranges of mountains, just to show you how you can put one mountain in front of another.
Maybe over here we have a huge mountain, wherever you want it.
Big, strong ol' mountain, maybe there's a bump there.
Something about like that.
See, you have to make these big decisions in your world.
Where does all these things live?
You decide.
And then, just drop 'em in.
That's what's so fantastic about this style of painting.
You get an idea in your mind, and, before it escapes, you can just put it in.
You can drop it right in.
Back to our two-inch brush, we grab it, and we pull.
There we go.
This does two things.
First of all, maybe most important, it removes excess paint, so that it's easier to put the next layer on.
Secondly, it blends it downward, creates that soft, misty look at the base.
And, when you're painting mountains, that's what you're looking for.
Alright.
Back to our titanium white.
We'll put some highlights right up in here.
There it is, see, wherever you want 'em.
There, maybe right in here.
See, there's one.
Here comes one.
(makes swooshing sound) Just let it go right on through.
Just make big decisions, drop it in.
You have unlimited power here, 'cause, you know you can do anything that you believe you can do.
Anything that you believe you can do.
There we go.
Right up into here.
Shoot, look at that.
Big ol' strong mountain.
There.
Just wherever.
Something about like that.
I love mountains.
I think they're one of the most fun things there is to paint.
And, of course, none of us are interested in selling paintings, but if you are, it still seems to be the thing that sells better than anything else.
Just great, big ol' mountains.
People love 'em, they fit in almost any decor.
Don't think there's anybody that doesn't like mountains.
Well, maybe there is.
There we are.
Just bring it right on down.
And here and there, and there and here, you can go in, figure out where you want a little, little projection, put a little shadow behind it and automatically it'll stand right up in your world.
Okay, take your nice dry, clean two-inch brush.
And, we begin lifting, working, tapping, always follow those angles, though.
I want to create the illusion of distance here.
So, you create that misty effect down at the base.
Now then, sometimes, ♫ Sometimes, sometimes ♫ we'll just take that ol' brush, go right into some mountain color, a little bit of white.
Maybe a touch more white.
There, just a little bit of color.
There, see, let's go up in here.
Maybe there's some little areas right here that grow right up the side.
Just tap 'em in, wherever you think they should be.
In that, we're gonna lift upward, and make it look like little trees that are growing back there, little trees that grow right up the side of the mountain.
I like that, that's a neat, very easy way to put in an indication of a lot of little distant trees.
See 'em?
Shoot, that's where you'd ski, is right down between those.
Hopefully, not into 'em, but beside 'em.
Hmm, I'm not a very good skier.
I'd probably run right over 'em.
There.
That's the reason I took up painting, it's a lot safer.
There, just lift upward, like that.
Now then, while we got that ol' color on the brush, let's just come right in here, pull it straight down.
Same color, same color, just pull it straight down, like that.
And then, go across, and we can have instant reflections.
If you want to put a highlight, take a little titanium white here and there.
Don't overdo this though, it'll ruin the effect.
Just a little, here and there.
And then, go across, just enough to wiggle it a little.
See, it makes it look like light shining in there.
But, don't overdo it, don't overdo it.
It gets feeling good sometimes, you don't know when to stop.
Take a little of the liquid white, cut across it, and you go right up in here, and just put in a little, a little tiny, little tiny water line lives right there.
This is just a light area between the two darks, it sorta separates.
It also looks like little places where snow's laying out in the water.
There.
There we go.
That nice?
Maybe there's a big ol' thing out in here.
Whatever.
It's up to you.
Up to you.
Alright, let's have some fun.
Time to get crazy.
Let's mix up some Prussian blue, some back, crimson, whew, a lot of color there.
Dark, it should look black, but it has a blue base to it.
I'll even put a little brown in, to keep it dull.
There.
Let me wipe off the ol' knife.
And, we just wipe the knife on some paper towels.
Let's grab a fan brush.
Load it full of color, a lot of color.
And, let's do us a, let's do us a little evergreen tree.
Now, I'm gonna be going over a lot of snow here, so I'm gonna dip the brush into a little bit of paint thinner, just a small amount, because, you know, our golden rule, a thin paint will stick to a thick paint.
So, it'll make it a little easier when we go right over all this, it'll stick a little easier.
Here comes a nice tree.
There, see?
There he comes.
Maybe a little of his trunk showing right there.
I like to do trees that have a little, little bit of trunk showing, a little naked spot on 'em.
Sometimes, that's sorta neat looking in a painting, 'cause trees grow that way.
They're not all perfect, they're like us.
There.
Or, at least, like me.
I got a lot of flaws.
Whew, boy, do I have a lot of flaws, I'm not even gonna talk about 'em.
There we go.
Having a little tree right there.
And maybe, who knows, maybe there's a, another one that's hiding, maybe he's behind back there, I don't know.
Maybe, yup.
In your world, you decide how many or how few trees live there, and just drop 'em in.
Just drop 'em in, wherever you want 'em, that easy.
Let's give him a friend.
He's sitting over here by hisself, shoot.
He'll get lonely.
You know me.
I think everybody should have a friend.
Alright now.
If this is water, maybe we'll end up reflecting these down into the water, so I'll just sorta do a real, a real basic little shot here, backwards, just to put the indication of a little something in the water.
♫ Doo doo, doo doo ♫ See there?
We don't care if it's not perfect because we're gonna take a big brush and just sorta go right over it.
Let me find a nice, clean brush, very lightly, one hair and some air.
Just enough to disturb it a little bit.
See them ol' trees?
Now we gotta give 'em something to set on.
Right now, they're just sorta, hmm.
These are floating around out there in the water, so we have to put some land in there.
Tell you what, while we got the ol' tree brush goin', we don't want this side left out.
Let's put a big tree over here.
Just a big ol' tree.
I like this kind of painting because it'll give you a lot of practice, a lot of practice with a knife, and with the fan brush.
But the ol' knife, if you'll spend some time learning to use that son-of-a-gun, you can paint entire paintings with him.
On some of the earlier shows, we did paintings using nothing but the knife.
It's a little hard to do in the time frame we have, but try it.
It's a little slower than using brushes, but you can get some effects that you cannot get using a brush, absolutely cannot get.
I want another tree there.
There we go.
See, there he comes.
There.
And, if you learn to make one tree, shoot, you can make a million trees.
That's all it takes, just get 'em right out of your brush.
Tell you what, let's take a little, got a little blue and white here.
Since this is such a cold-looking painting, I'm gonna just use that color to make the indication of a few little trunks here and there.
There.
Normally, we'd use brown, but I want this painting to stay cold, real cold.
There.
Ahh, let's take another fan brush, we'll dip it into a little bit of the liquid white.
Titanium white, I put it in liquid white just to make it a little bit thinner, then a little bit of the, little bit of the Prussian blue.
I want a nice blue color.
A little darker.
See, you can make it any flavor you want.
I want it a little darker, okay, let's go up here.
Now, with this brush, we're gonna come in here, and put the indication here and there, not much, though, of some gorgeous little highlights that live right out on these trees.
Not much, not much, don't overdo.
Keep this dark.
It's contrast in this painting that makes it so pretty.
Keep 'em dark.
There, see?
Alright, on the other side over here, we'll do a little here.
Don't want this tree left out.
And, these threes will get mad if you forget 'em, ignore 'em.
Had one chase me all the way across the studio here one day.
Hah!
There.
I'm a little weird, huh?
I go out and talk to trees and animals and stuff like that.
But, that's okay.
That's okay.
I have more fun than most people, too.
Alright.
One-inch brush here.
Let's put in a little bush here and there.
I want some nice little snow-covered bushes, so, we'll just do this.
Alright.
Let's go over here and put one in here, too.
There, look at there, here it comes, here it comes.
Where's it going?
You knew, didn't you?
There we go, you decide where they live.
Nah, let me wash that ol' brush out.
Just shake it off.
(giggles) Beat the devil out of it, and off we go.
Let's see here.
Now, let's take a little bit of white, come right back into here.
Put the indication of little bits of snow onto here, just a little snow.
Gotta have something for all this to sit on, it's just sorta hanging out here on the lake right now, or stream, river, whatever it is.
Dip the brush into liquid white, and then, I'm gonna pull it in one direction through the titanium white.
The liquid white is there only to thin the titanium white.
Pull it in one direction, then we're gonna carefully turn it over.
Okay, let's go up in here, and, with that, then we're gonna come in here and put some gorgeous little highlights on these little rascals.
See 'em?
Little snow-covered bushes that live out here, whew, 'cause this is cold.
There they are.
Let's give 'em a little friend.
And, you put 'em wherever you think they should live.
There we go.
Go on the other side and put some over there, too.
Don't want them left out.
There's one.
But don't let the brush slide when you're doing this, just give it a little oomph, a little push, bend those bristles a tiny bit, tiny bit.
And, if you start picking up that base color excessively, you're always going to pick up a little, but if you pick it up excessively, then your paint on your brush is too thick.
Add a little touch more of the liquid white to it.
There, oh, it looks cold.
I think the temperature here where we're painting has dropped 10 or 15 degrees just since we started this.
I like to paint.
Paintings like this, gorgeous.
Alright, now then, tell you what.
Let's get crazy today.
Maybe in our world lives a little house out here, 'cause I, I'd like to live in a place like this.
So take your knife, scrape out a basic shape.
That just removes excess paint.
We'll take a little of Van Dyke brown, a little dark sienna mixed together.
We'll put the back roof in first, back eve, like that.
That's all there is to it.
Now we'll put the front in.
(makes swooping sounds) And, all we're doing here is blocking in color, it doesn't much matter.
You can do this any ol' way you wanted to.
Just blocking in color.
Then, we take some, little white, little dark sienna, little Van Dyke brown, mix 'em together so they're marbled.
Cut across, and very lightly, barely touch, just like you're putting snow on the mountain.
Barely touch, just touch it, pull.
Maybe a little more over here so it shows up.
Ooh, that's nice.
That's so nice.
Take a little dark color, just make it look like old boards.
Little of the Van Dyke.
Got a little door.
Little touch of light color, sorta outline it, so we know where the door's at.
Shoot.
Now, all we need is the other half of the roof, so he doesn't freeze.
So, we'll take a little bit of the titanium white, just put it on right there, ooh, like that.
Now, we need a little over here, so it looks like the snow's deep on the roof up here.
Okay, now.
We'll just take a little touch of snow, put it right down here, wherever.
Right on across.
See there?
But, pay attention to angles.
You want that to flow, 'cause chances are, if there's water out here, it's in a recessed area.
Normally, water always is in this recessed area.
So, alright.
We can come back when we find my brush that we was making bushes with.
Come back, a little liquid white, titanium white, and let's put some little bushes all around here.
Look at 'em, see?
They about to eat up right around the front door there.
Alright, a little bit, maybe this guy's like me, he didn't cut his yard very good in the summer, and now the bushes are growing right up, right up like that.
We could even take a little touch of, little touch of blue and white, let's make an indication of maybe a little path that comes right out here.
So, he's got a way to walk out.
Take the knife, scrape in a few little sticks and twigs here and there.
Something like so.
Little bit of the liquid white, put a water line into here.
Something about like that.
I like these kind of paintings.
They say, they give you a lot of practice with the ol' knife.
And, that's what you need.
That's what you need.
Few little sticks over here.
Just scrape right through the paint, let the canvas show through.
Alright, I think we got a finished painting here.
Hope you enjoyed this one.
Give it a try.
Send me a photo of what you do.
From all of us here, I'd like to wish you, happy painting.
May God bless, my friend.
(theme music plays) Hi, welcome back.
Certainly glad you could join us today.
I thought today we'd just do a little painting that's a lot of fun, and I think you'll enjoy it.
So let's start out and have them run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint along with us.
While they're doing that, let me show you what I got up here today.
Today I have my standard old, I'm using an 18 by 24 inch double-primed, pre-stretched canvas, but you use whatever size you'd like.
And I've taken some contact paper and just cut a little oval out.
And then we've covered the whole inside with a little liquid white, and that's all there is to it.
So without further ado, let's just have some fun.
I'm gonna start with a little two-inch brush.
We'll go into small amount, just a very small amount of the Indian yellow.
Don't need much, just a little.
Let's go right up in here.
Then we'll come right up in here.
Let's do a scene today that has a lot of earth tones in it, something that's very earthy.
There we are.
Start with a little Indian yellow.
We'll just throw a little in like that.
Without cleaning the brush, I'll just add a little touch of yellow ochre.
Just a little bit of yellow ochre, and we'll let those blend together.
Ochre is sort of a nice, gold color.
It's beautiful. I like it.
Now, then.
We're going to use nice earth tones today.
Tell you what, tell you what.
Gonna grab my little knife here.
Let's mix, today, some alizarin crimson and sap green, in about equal parts.
These two colors mixed together make a beautiful, beautiful brown.
Very warm, chocolate brown.
I like it.
And you could use your dark sienna and Van Dyke brown, but I thought today we'd use this warm brown.
Very nice. Okay?
Let me wipe off the old knife here.
And we mix these colors pretty good.
Sometimes we leave colors marbled, but these, I mixed them pretty good.
And we'll load up some color with the old two-inch brush.
I didn't even clean it.
Just right on top.
Let's go back up in here.
We'll start right at the tippy-top, and using little X's, little criss-cross strokes, we're gonna begin blending downward.
The color is continually mixing with the liquid white that's on the canvas, and it'll get lighter and lighter as you work down.
There.
Somewhere about like that.
We'll come back and blend all that out in just a second.
Right now we're just applying some color.
All right, now while I have that color going, maybe in our world shoot your hornet.
We'll just do something like that.
We can do anything we want in our world, and I think maybe we'll just put a little color down here.
We'll see what happens.
There.
Something about, like that.
All right.
The most fun part of this whole procedure.
(laughs) If you've painted with me before you know that's washing the brush.
We wash our brush with odorless paint thinner.
There's a screen in the bottom of the bucket that I'm scrubbing the brush against.
There we go.
Now then, we just shake off the excess.
(brush banging) (laughs) And beat the devil out of it.
That really is the fun part.
And then I'm gonna start in the light area with a clean brush, and just blend upward, about like that.
You wanna blend this until you can't tell where one color stops and the next color starts.
And then it's just right.
Just right.
There.
That's about all I'm gonna do for a little sky in this painting.
Okay.
Now then.
Let's use that same brown color we made out of the crimson and sap green.
Once again, in about equal parts.
I'll make a light brown here.
So I put some white and some of that brown together.
Now then.
Cut across, and get a little roll of paint lives right on the end of the knife.
Let's go up in here.
And maybe we'll put the indication.
I don't want a lot of detail.
Just an indication of a little mountain that lives way back in the distance here, far away.
Little quiet guy.
There he comes.
And all we're looking for is the top shape up here.
We could care less what's happening below.
We just want the top.
The rest of it will just happen.
There.
Hmm. Now then.
Take the ol' two-inch brush, go right up in there, and bend it firmly.
Pull it, and you can move this paint.
The canvas has liquid white on it.
It's wet, slick, and you can literally move the color...
and allow the base of it to just blend right out to nothing.
See?
Already it looks like a little mountain that's living, gosh, we don't even know how far away it's living.
Way back in the distance somewhere.
Quiet little guy.
All right.
Now, as you know, in a landscape, as things get closer to you, they should get darker in value.
So we use that same color, and I'm just adding a little more of the brown to it.
Maybe we'll have another range here of little distant mountains.
About like so.
Once again, cut off.
Get our little roll of paint.
That little roll of paint is very important.
It makes applying it up here much, much easier.
Another big decision.
Where does our little mountain live?
Or this is quite a big mountain.
Maybe he lives right there.
Something like that.
These are decisions that you have to make.
In your world, you have unlimited power.
Absolutely unlimited power.
You can change the course of mighty rivers.
You can build mountains.
Anything that you wanna do in this world, you can absolutely do.
There.
Now then, wipe the knife off.
And I'll just, I'll wipe the knife on just a paper towel.
There now.
Once again, I'm gonna grab this and pull.
Think about angles here.
Because of today, I'm only gonna use brush strokes to create all the highlights and shadows in these little mountains.
There we are.
Before this series is over, we'll do some mountains where we go in and paint.
Make a lot of detail.
But these I want to be far away.
And things that are far away, you don't see a lot of detail.
In fact, if you put too much detail, you lose that illusion of distance.
But just the brushstrokes will create enough illusion that it's sufficient for what we're doing.
See there?
It looks like mountains back here.
And it's all we need.
Hmm. Easy.
Can do, easy.
All right.
I like that brown.
I'm gonna keep using it here.
But we'll take and make it darker.
A little bit darker.
There.
Something about like that.
Each layer, once again, as it gets closer to you, should get darker in value.
Darker and darker.
We just grab a, I'm using a number six fan brush, but you can use number three.
Doesn't matter, doesn't matter.
You make the decision.
Load both sides of the bristles with a lot of paint, a lot of paint.
Let's go up here.
Now, let's have some little, some little distant trees.
Show you how easy they are to make.
If you've painted with me before, you've probably done this.
You know it works wonderfully.
Wonderfully.
We get letters everyday from fantastic people, all over the country, who'd never believe that they could create such beautiful masterpieces.
Get hundreds and hundreds of photographs from people.
I can't even believe what they're doing.
It's wonderful.
And my young friends, all over the country, are doing this.
And they're painting paintings.
I have young friends that are 12, 13, 14 years old, that are actually selling paintings and making a happy buck.
Isn't that fantastic?
What better thing to give young people confidence than do something like this, and people come along and are willing to pay 'em for their efforts.
It's not the money.
The money means nothing.
But what it does to a young person, or even an old person like me.
It's ego.
Is unreal that somebody would spend their hard-earned cash on something that you saw in your mind and you put on a piece of canvas with your hand.
I'm gonna create some mist down here at the bottom.
Two-inch brush, I'm using only the top corner.
When I tap it, strongly, severely.
Just really get in there and take out all your frustrations and hostilities.
Now gently, gently.
Enough hostility.
Now gently lift upward, see?
Takes out the tap marks and creates the illusion of mist, floating right down at the base.
I'm gonna wash my little fan brush off.
I just wanna, I wanna play a little more.
Little more.
And I'm gonna go into straight brown.
That brown we made with the crimson and the sap green.
Just straight.
I want this to be the darkest layer of background trees.
There we go.
Now, right under here.
Let's have another layer.
And in your world, you make as many layers as you want.
But each one of these little layers will help increase the illusion of distance in your painting, and to me, that's very desirable.
I like paintings that have great depth in them.
That's what some of the old masters were so good at.
You could look into their paintings and absolutely see into infinity.
There we go.
Now then.
I wanna create the illusion of a reflection.
Now, when I was a traditional painter, this was hard to do.
But watch here.
All you do is grab it.
(laughs) Look it there.
Grab it, pull down.
Straight down though.
And then gently go across.
Just enough to sorta give it a little watery feel.
And I'll lift up just a wee bit.
Little bit, little bit.
There.
Like that.
Now, I'm gonna go into Van Dyke brown.
I'll even put a little dark sienna in.
I want a very dark brown now.
Once again, cut off that little roll of paint.
And let's just put that little indication back here.
Maybe it is a little land mass that lives under there.
Holds the trees up so they don't fall in the water.
Something about like that.
I'm gonna lift upward here and there on it just there, to break up that top edge.
Now, let's take a little touch of the liquid white.
I'm gonna put a little brown in it too.
Just a little bit.
Pull it out very flat, and cut across.
Let me do it again so you can see it for sure.
Cut across.
And we go up here.
Take that.
And we can literally, we'll just cut us in a happy little water line, lives right in here.
Right in here, like that.
There.
All right.
And you could put a little ripple or two in the water if you want.
It's up to you.
Up to you.
There.
But all these lines need to go basically straight across.
If they don't, it'll look like the water's gonna run right out of your painting.
And you don't want that.
All right.
Ready to get brave with me?
(laughs) You know me.
If you've painted with me before, you know I have a love of big trees.
I'm gonna take some Van Dyke brown, dark sienna, and I'm just pushing the brush like so.
Let's go up in here.
Big tree time.
All right.
Why not right over in here?
Just use the corner of the two-inch brush.
Just the corner.
And let's begin putting in some basic shape and form.
of old giant tree that lives right here and overlooks this beautiful little scene.
About like that.
I don't wanna lose the top of my little mountain.
I wanna be able to see it, sort of through the branches.
So we'll sort of work diagonally to that.
There we are.
All right.
But now, when you're doing your tree...
you sort of, you decide, you decide, what shape you want it to be.
Big tree, maybe smaller than this one.
Or it could be bigger.
In your world, maybe the tree's stronger than this one.
There.
It's up to you.
Absolutely and completely up to you.
Painting offers you freedom.
Okay, now I'm gonna reload the brush.
But this time, I'm gonna load it a little different.
I'm gonna pull it.
Just go straight down, and pull it in one direction, right through the same colors.
Van Dyke.
I'm gonna reach over here and get a little black too.
Darken it.
I want this to be dark, dark.
So you have black, dark sienna, Van Dyke brown.
I'm just mixing them on the brush.
But notice, the brush is straight down, and I'm pulling it in one direction.
That'll create a curve.
And I'm gonna turn the brush over.
See that curve, right at the top?
You want it up.
Okay, let's go up in here.
With that rounded part of the brush to the top.
Watch here.
You can touch and push, and we'll start making all kinds of little bushes that live back here in our world.
Just push.
Try not to let the brush slide.
It's just a push and a bend, and then you come straight out.
Maybe, yep.
Right along in here.
I don't know.
You decide in your world where you want all these things to be.
Wherever.
Once again, on this piece of canvas, you have unlimited power.
So you make these big decisions.
You decide.
To me, that's probably one of the most fun parts of painting.
There.
All right.
Now.
Let's take, hmm, there's a fan brush.
It's already dirty.
I'll put some brown on it.
Grab my knife.
We'll have a little bit of fun here.
I mixed a little bit of the liquid white with some titanium white.
I wanna thin it down a little bit.
Grab a little touch of dark sienna.
I wanna make a light brown.
But this color is a little bit thinner than what it was originally, 'cause I put a little liquid white with it, intentionally, to thin it down.
Okay, wipe off the knife.
Now, I'm gonna dip the brush into a small amount, a small amount of paint thinner, and go right through Van Dyke brown.
Once again, we've thinned the color a little.
Now, take this.
See the light color that we made?
Pull one side through.
So now I have light on this side, dark on that.
Light, dark. 'Kay?
Now, you have to make a decision.
Which side is the light coming from?
I think we'll have it come from the left.
Touch, and pull down.
And in one stroke, you can make the highlight and the shadow of a nice tree trunk.
That easy.
Isn't that sneaky?
Maybe we'll have another one, to show you how to do it.
Straight down.
(woosh) There.
And that easy.
We have just a little tree trunk.
'Kay, I'm gonna use the ol' dirty brush here.
Has the brown on it.
I'm gonna go into some of my yellows, yellow ochre, predominantly.
Maybe, let's get crazy.
Take a little bright red and put it in here.
(gasp) Nice color.
But notice how we're loading this.
Put it on both sides, and then give it a little push.
That little push.
See that little ridge right there?
There's one just like it on the brush, and that's what we're gonna paint with.
'Kay. Let's go up in here.
Now, we go slightly above the dark, 'cause we want the shadows underneath.
And using just the corner of the brush.
That didn't show well enough.
I'm gonna add a little touch of liquid white.
I want that brighter, so you can see it.
Gonna reload the brush, same way.
That's a little better.
A little better.
Just want you to be able to see it.
Normally, when we're painting for television, we paint a little brighter than we would at home, so it shows up better.
There.
But now we get thinking about shape and form...
and put in all kinds of little leaves and stuff that live here on your tree.
These are the highlights.
This is the fun part.
Icing on the cake, whatever you wanna call it.
There we go.
There.
But you need a dark background to make these show up.
Light against light creates nothing.
Dark against dark creates nothing.
They just blend together.
So you need contrast.
Light against dark, dark against light.
Play with it.
You'll enjoy it.
It's what makes a painting interesting.
There we are.
Ooo, a little red there.
Looks like Jack Frost hit here a little.
I like that.
Darker, darker, darker down here toward the base, because at the base of the tree, there will be a nice shadow area.
That's where all my little friends, little Peapod, the pocket squirrel, and my little bunny rabbits, and all those live in there.
There.
Okay.
Let me find a little one-inch brush.
There.
And let's take, we'll go through a little cad yellow, we'll just use all the yellows.
Be right back.
I'm gonna get a little alizarin crimson.
If we're gonna have colors that sort of remind us of fall.
Once again, pulling that brush in one direction.
It's a beautiful close-up here.
You can see it.
Now, turn it over.
See that curve?
That's what we want toward the top.
Let's go up here.
Now, right above.
We can go right in here.
And we can begin putting some gorgeous little highlights on these individual bushes.
Work on one bush at a time.
One bush at a time.
Don't get greedy.
I know, I know, it gets good, (laughs) and you get greedy.
Maybe even though we talking about autumn, maybe a little sap green.
'Cause all bushes don't turn at the same time.
Maybe this one back here, maybe there's a little green left in there.
Maybe when Jack Frost was coloring all these, maybe he missed this one.
Something like that.
There.
There.
Just let your imagination take you to any world that you want to be in.
Any world.
It's what's so great about imagination.
To me, it's the greatest thing that an artist owns, is his imagination.
Because without imagination, it's hard to envision things and to paint 'em.
Let your imagination go.
It's like any other part of your body.
The more you use it, the better it becomes.
Just like exercising a muscle in your arm, your imagination gets better too.
There.
Now if you have trouble making your paint stick, add the least little touch of paint thinner or liquid white.
Now, liquid white will make your color a little brighter, and it'll change it a little.
Sometimes, sometimes that's very desirable.
Sometimes you wanna keep the color pretty close to being...
what you loaded on the brush.
Pure.
And in those cases...
you would use a little paint thinner.
But, let me reemphasize the word "little." You don't need much.
You need very, very little.
Okay.
Shoot, we're coming along here pretty good.
We need a path in there.
Just seems like a natural place.
Take a little of that Van Dyke brown.
Once again, get our little roll of paint.
That little roll is very important.
Let's go up in here.
Now then, just sort of go back and forth, gently, gently touching the canvas.
There.
And if you mess up a little bush like I did there, we'll just go back, and we'll drop it right back in.
In our world, we can change anything, whenever we want.
Whenever we want.
Now I'm gonna take a little brown, a little white, mix it together.
And we'll make just a little highlight color to put on there.
Maybe I'll even put a little touch of the crimson in there.
(gasps) Just to warm it up.
There.
Once again, cut it off, and that little roll of paint.
I'm gonna keep saying that over and over, 'cause it's so important.
I was talking about my little squirrel, Peapod, that lives up here.
Believe it or not, he's still with me.
I let him go, oh, more than a year ago.
And he still lives in my backyard, and he comes every single day...
and scratches on the back door, just like a little puppy.
And he'll scratch on the door, and if he sees me in the kitchen, until I pay attention to him.
And I'll open the door.
He'll come in the house.
He knows where I store all the goodies, and the nuts and everything.
And he'll go pick him out a nut, and out he goes.
But even after a year, he remembers, and he comes back.
And to me, that's very special, that one of God's little creatures would take the time to share their little world with me.
That's special to me.
I don't know, but I'm 'bout half-crazy, so.
There we are.
Okay, let's take a clean knife.
I just wanna put the indication, here and there, of some little sticks and bushes, in the bushes.
There.
Just some little things that live back here.
'Cause they're always here.
You always see 'em in the woods.
Yeah, there.
Okay, maybe over on this side.
The other little squirrel that I still keep, she has epilepsy.
And I've maintained her now for four or five years, 'cause, you know, the veterinarian told me she would die in six months.
But I didn't tell her, and she's been with me all these years.
And that's Squirrely Girly Brown.
You've seen her, I think, if you watch the show.
I've shown her many times in the past.
She's a neat little squirrel.
She still lives with me.
And I keep her in my basement in a great big cage.
The basement's where I paint.
So she's right next to where I practice painting.
I tell you what, let's bring the camera up here.
I'm gonna take the contact paper off.
It's time for the moment of truth here.
And let's take a look-see at what we have.
Pull that paper off.
There. There's your painting.
That easy.
And this is your last chance.
Now you have to come back and do any kind of little things that you wanna do.
And your painting is just about finished.
I'm gonna take a little bit of paint thinner, a little bit of brown.
Maybe we'll put a little stick out here.
Got a little time left.
So maybe in our world there lives, maybe there's a little ol' tree that pooped out right there.
Maybe he died.
But his little skeleton's still here.
And in nature...
you see little trees like this all over.
There.
See, but mix paint thinner with your paint, to make it thin, almost to the consistency of ink.
And then it'll flow right over the top of it.
That's all there is to it.
And you decide where they live.
Okay?
I think with that, we're gonna call this one done.
I'm gonna take a little bit of the bright red, a little paint thinner, and we'll sign this little rascal.
Hope you've enjoyed it.
We'll sign it right here.
This is a very simple little painting.
Don't think you'll have any trouble with it.
But if you paint it, if you have time, take a photograph of it and send it to us.
We would love to see it, and every once in a while, we put 'em together, and we like to show 'em on TV.
Until then, I'd like to wish you happy painting, and God bless, my friend.
(uplifting music) Welcome back, certainly glad you could join us today.
I thought today we'd just do a little scene that's a lot of fun, I believe you'll enjoy it.
Let's start out and have them run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint along with us.
While they're doing that, let me show you what I've got up here.
Have my regular old 18 by 24-inch pre-stretched double primed canvas but you use any size that's convenient.
And today I've just covered the entire canvas with a very thin coat of liquid white.
The liquid white is still wet.
We depend on that being wet through the entire painting.
So with that in mind, let's just go up here and just have some fun.
I tell you what, let's do a little winter scene today.
Maybe something that's nice and chilly.
Start with a little Prussian blue and midnight black.
More black than blue.
All right, a little two-inch brush, and let's just go in here and just begin dancing in some little shapes that hopefully will end up being clouds.
There we are.
But we'll just start and just dance in little things.
Don't worry about it.
Painting should make you happy.
And here, we try to paint in such a manner that anybody can do it and everyone can enjoy it whether you paint or you just watch or you just enjoy watching, we get letters from people, say they just sleep better when the show's on.
(chuckles) That's all right.
That's okay.
There we are.
Wherever you think maybe there should be a little color.
Now since this is a winter scene, I like to work in the grey hues a great deal because it gives the feeling of winter.
So that's why we're using mostly just blue and black in this painting.
We'll bring it down to about there.
It doesn't matter.
Anything that we're not crazy about, we'll just paint over it.
'Cause on this piece of canvas, you can create any world that you want.
Have unlimited power here, unlimited.
All you have to do is believe.
Okay.
Maybe down here on the bottom.
Let's take the same colors.
I don't really know what's gonna be down here yet so let's just put a little color.
If we put nothing down here but snow, this will end up being the shadows.
And if we have time maybe we'll put a little water in there it just sort of depends on however things go in this world.
There we are.
Something about like that and that's all we need for right now.
And we'll wash the old brush, 'cause that's the most fun part of this.
And we wash our brushes with odorless paint thinner.
There's this green in the bottom of this bucket that I scrub the bristles against.
That allows the solid materials to settle and the paint thinner remains pretty clean.
And then that's the fun part.
I usually wipe the brush on a little paper towel just to make it's as dry as we can possibly get it.
I'm gonna take a little titanium white.
Just plain titanium white, two-inch brush.
And let's go up in here and let's just begin dancing in some little things here and there.
Just some little pretty areas.
There, something about like that.
I'm just putting some white paint on the canvas.
Maybe we'll use a little blender brush, it's so soft and nice and does beautiful things.
We'll come back and just blend all this together and you'll be shocked at what you can achieve doing nothing more than this.
There.
Okay, let me grab a little blender.
Now these little blenders are just a soft, tender, tender as a mother's love as my father used to say.
There.
And with my mother, that was certainly true.
She certainly was a beautiful lady.
Miss her very much.
There we are.
And we can go back in here and pick up a little bit of color here and there.
And I'm just gonna take this little brush and begin defining some of these little shapes.
You can actually paint with this little blender.
And what makes this blender unique, it has a round handle.
You can spin it and it's fatter than most blender brushes.
There we go.
Can spin it, sometimes that's very important when you're painting to be able to turn the brush.
Most blender brushes have a flat handle and they're sort of a son of a gun to work with.
There we are.
See there, how easy that is?
And it begins creating that illusion of clouds.
Maybe there's a little floater that lives right here.
He just sort of floats around, has a good time all day.
There.
And we'll blend him a little.
But basically that's all we're trying to do.
Mostly black, mostly black.
A little bit of blue.
All right, something like that.
And that'll give us the impression of some gorgeous little clouds in a winter sky.
Okay.
Now then.
We'll wash the little blender.
And we wash it the same way.
Oops, hit the bucket.
There we are.
Now maybe back here in the background, we'll go back to our little two-inch brush we were using.
Same color, mostly black, a little bit of blue in it.
But I'm gonna tap it so we load the top bristles.
See how we're tapping there?
See the back of the brush is not hardly touching.
Just mainly the top.
And with that we can go in here and let's just begin deciding maybe there's some little bushes that live far back here in the background somewhere.
I wanna start at the base of the bush and then blend upwards so it'll get lighter and lighter toward the top.
That way the shadows are automatically on the bottom.
There, something about like so.
And sometimes you can take this little brush and just give it a little, see?
Just push.
It'll make the indication of a little tree that lives back here somewhere.
Speaking of trees, this is where my little squirrel Peapod would love to live.
I got a little bit of footage I wanna show you and share with you today.
I'll just put in this background while you're looking.
Isn't he the cutest little devil that you've ever seen?
This is Peapod, my little pocket squirrel.
He's been with me for a long time.
But isn't he precious?
Little rascals love fresh corn.
Tell you what, you could have a whole farm and feed these.
I must have 15 or 20 of them that I've probably raised and turned loose that live around the house and they expect me to continue to feed them and old Bobby's a soft touch.
How can you turn something like that down?
I'm telling you, how can you turn him down?
I would sit and play with them almost continually if I could.
I have four, five around the house that I'm raising right now.
By the time you see this, they'll probably be grown and released 'cause we don't keep them.
We don't keep wild animals.
All we do is raise them.
I work with a lot of the people who take care of injured and orphaned animals.
We just sort of help them out, then we turn the little rascals loose.
But they don't make very good pets.
They are better just to look at and enjoy.
All right.
That Peapod can eat up some corn, can't he?
There.
Okay, I'm just putting down a few little background trees here while you're watching Peapod there.
But look at that little rascal, I tell you he was only a couple of months old when that was made.
He really is gorgeous.
You know, we've had so many letters from, especially our young friends all over the country saying they want, they would like to see Peapod into a cartoon form so they could have coloring books and all that.
So recently I got a friend of mine who's a cartoonist to make us a little cartoon of Peapod.
So I'll show you.
Isn't that the cutest little thing?
But we'll have all kinds of little Peapod things here pretty soon.
All right.
There.
Okay so that gives us this nice little background and all we did was take the top corner of the brush and just tap it in something like so.
Now maybe in our world there lives a couple little evergreens.
Let's take some Prussian blue, crimson, black.
Mix them together.
Want a good dark color here, should look black.
Let me wipe off the old knife.
Let's take, we'll grab an old fan brush.
There's one.
Number six fan brush.
Load it full of color, both sides.
And let's decide in our world maybe where a little tree lives.
Big decision time.
Right there, see?
You just drop it in.
I'm gonna push sort of upward here, make a little, this tree will have some upward limbs on it.
There we go.
Sometimes we make them with old arms hanging down.
Sometimes with them up.
It's up to you.
You decide.
You decide, maybe, yeah.
Tell you what.
Got a friend who lives right there.
Got a friend, there.
I've lived in Alaska for over a dozen years and you become so impressed with the winter and all of the beautiful scenery in winter.
I know it sounds cold when you hear the temperature in Alaska but you become used to it very rapidly and it becomes interesting.
Tell you what, let's do maybe yeah, why not.
It's our world.
We'll put one over here too.
Just like so.
Just push upward.
Give it a little upward bend.
There.
We'll come back and put in a few highlights on these but all we're doing is putting the base color in now.
The back of the tree if you wanna call it that.
And we'll come back and we'll put then front of the tree in, or the highlights.
I need a little more paint here.
Didn't mix up enough.
Let's take a black, Prussian blue and Alizarin crimson.
All right.
There we are now.
I want another one right there too.
These two are really friendly.
There we are.
But you put as many trees in your world as you want.
Each one us will see nature through different eyes and that's the way you should paint it, is the way you see it.
Get a little two-inch brush, let's have some fun.
We'll take just plain titanium white.
Snow is one of the easier things to paint in this technique.
So all you gotta do is basically decide where your snow lives.
And put it in.
Allow it to pick up a little of that tree color because that makes a shadow for you automatically.
Automatically.
Allow the paint to work.
This is certainly the lazy man's way of painting.
There we go.
Maybe over here on the other side we'll have just a little bit right over here.
See there?
That easy.
There you go, you put it wherever you think it should be.
Now we can go back to our other two-inch brush with the dark color on it.
We'll just use that old tree color, it's sort of blueish.
Maybe, yeah.
Perfect place.
Perfect place here.
Let's pull down a little thing like so.
Maybe we'll have a little water in here.
All right, where does it go?
It just wanders around and has a good time in here.
We don't know exactly where it goes yet.
We'll decide that later.
There.
One thing that's so fantastic about this is that very quickly you learn to compose as you paint.
There.
That way you don't have to spend a lot of time trying to figure out what to paint before you start.
'Cause painting is quite easy, anybody can learn to paint very quickly.
What becomes difficult is not how to paint, but what to paint.
So learn to compose as you work.
That way you have total freedom.
You could do anything.
Anything.
Now I'm gonna go to a fan brush here.
And we'll take the old fan brush.
And we'll just pull that down.
Make a little bank right there.
That easy.
Winter scenes are probably the easiest ones to paint in this technique.
Probably easiest and maybe the most fun.
There we go.
We don't even know where that's gonna go yet.
Don't care.
We'll make that decision when the time comes.
Yeah, see there?
There's another little peninsula or whatever you wanna call it, pokes out there.
Has a good time.
You just put him wherever you want him.
And, here's your bravery test.
Let's put one right in here.
Right so you can make that little, maybe this little stream is all dried up or froze or something.
It goes way back into the distance there.
That easy.
That easy.
Shoot, I'll tell you what.
I know, I know.
(chuckles) You know Bob, if you've painted with me before this would be a perfect place to have a little cabin back here.
So I'm gonna have me a little cabin.
Let's just sort of scrape out a basic shape.
Maybe right there.
All I'm doing is removing excess paint and it sort of gives you an idea of what your little house is gonna look like by scraping it out first.
We'll take a little Van Dyke Brown.
Start right in here.
And all we're doing, little dark sienna in there too, all we're doing is blocking it in.
Just blocking in a little bit of color.
We're not worried about much of anything at this point.
Just blocking it in.
There we are.
We'll come back and highlight him in a minute.
Over in here.
And we'll take a little titanium white, dark sienna, Van Dyke Brown, mix it together and we'll make us a very nice little, little wood looking color here.
Don't over-mix the color though.
Don't over-mix it, leave it marbled like that.
So you have all kinds of things happening in there.
A little roll of paint, and we can go right up in here.
No pressure.
No pressure.
Want this to look like old wood.
It's old like me.
Tired.
There.
See there?
No pressure, absolutely no pressure at all.
Now over on this side not as much light would be hitting it.
Much darker.
Just enough that it shows up a little bit.
And take a little Van Dyke, make the indication here and there of a few little boards that you could just see the indication.
That's all we're looking for.
Need a door.
Gotta have a way to get in and out of this little cabin.
There we go, got us a door.
Cut around it a little bit so it stands out.
There, now we need a roof.
So, let's have snow on the roof.
There we go.
A little more paint.
Firm it up a little, there.
A little bit on this side.
Something about like that.
There we are.
Now let's do a cabinectomy.
I wanna chop this cabin off.
I know, you think I lost part of it there.
In reality, I've decided I'm gonna put a big tree right there on the side.
So there's no use putting paint there that we have to paint over.
There.
Just make it stand out a little more there.
Oh, yeah.
Okay.
Now then, let's go back to our big old fan brush that we had.
Bravery test.
This is it.
We have a big tree.
Goes right off the canvas.
Right off the canvas.
There it goes.
Just a big old evergreen tree that lives right here.
Man, this is a monster tree.
See, now we're gonna go right through the cabin.
Now sometimes going through all this paint that's already on here, you might need to add a little paint thinner to this dark color so it'll go over the top without mixing them together quite so bad.
Just a little paint thinner.
There we are.
Maybe it comes right on down like that.
Doesn't much matter.
Grab a fan brush that's got some white on it.
We'll go right in here.
There.
And we'll take my little Script Liner Brush.
A little touch of the liquid white.
And we'll just pull down some little icicles here and there.
There.
Boy that is cold, phew.
That one is cold.
Now, I'm gonna take white, a little touch of the phthalo blue.
Phthalo blue.
Just mix it on the fan brush here.
And let's go in here, maybe just a touch more, a little darker.
And let's put a few little highlights on some of these little evergreens.
I use phthalo blue just 'cause it's a warmer blue and it'll stand out.
It will stand out against that Prussian blue that's up there.
Other than that, no other reason.
There, a little more of the blue.
We'll come right in here.
Put a few highlights on this little tree.
We don't need him left out.
There.
Don't kill all your dark.
Sometimes it's almost a natural tendency.
It gets working so well that you just end up destroying all the dark.
Keep this basically dark in here.
Evergreens are quite dark in value.
All right, we could even...
Shoot, it's our world.
Maybe we can see the indication of a second tree here.
Just lives right behind there.
I really just wanna fill this edge up.
And we'll go back to our brush that has the phthalo blue in it.
A little touch of phthalo blue.
Put the indication of a few little highlights on him.
He lives in the background so we don't care much about him.
There.
All right.
Now then, we've gotta make some big decisions in here.
Let's take a one-inch brush.
We'll use some of that same dark color.
It really doesn't matter.
Doesn't matter.
And let's go in here and just pop in some little, some little duders right there.
Tell you what, while we've got that, let's go on the other side.
Maybe there's a few over here too.
It's our world, we can put them wherever we want them.
Another one-inch brush and I have several of each brush.
I'm gonna go right through, dip it into liquid white.
Go right through titanium white.
And with that, we'll just make the indication of some little, some little snow-covered bushes that live right in here.
Right in here.
See them?
There they are.
Few little duders here.
Then on the other side, we're gonna need to put a little snow on them.
A little liquid white, titanium white.
The liquid white's in here only to make the paint thinner 'cause as you know, a thin paint will stick to a thick paint.
Thin to thick.
So we start with the thickest paint possible and then we add layers of thinner paint.
Okay.
A little fan brush here.
Take a little white.
Allow it to pick up a little bit of that dark color.
And work down.
Down down, like that.
There we go.
And we can, here's a brush that's got a little dirty color on it.
There, see?
Just to give it a little lip on some of these little banks here.
Just to break it up.
Ain't that neat?
All kinds of little things happening.
Take a little liquid white.
There.
Put the least little touch of blue in it.
And here and there and there and here.
Just put in all kinds of little, some little water lines or indications here of something happening.
There.
Like that.
A few on the other side.
Don't want him left out.
There.
You know if you have time, after you try some of these paintings that we show you in the series, if you have time, take a photo and send us.
We would love to see what everybody is doing and share success stories.
Every once in a while when we have a moment or two, we take and put them on a big old board and display them so everyone can see what people all over the country are doing.
It's unreal. (chuckles) It's absolutely unreal.
A little bit of paint thinner, a little bit of the brown.
Maybe, maybe, maybe.
Yeah, why not?
Right in here.
Lives a big old tree.
Right there, wherever you want him.
There.
But if you paint doesn't flow, add more paint thinner.
If it's thin enough, it'll flow right off your brush.
It will literally just flow right off the brush.
Just very simple.
Very very simple.
There.
And let's go on the other side over here.
Maybe over in here there's a few little sticks and twigs.
Just some little things that live in here.
You decide.
You decide.
A few maybe back in here.
Maybe there's even a little tree that lives far away back here.
There.
He didn't have any leaves on him though 'cause it's, it's cold.
All right.
And we can just take the knife and scrape in a few indications here and there.
All kinds of little things.
These little evergreens here, I didn't put any highlights on so let's drop a little highlight on them.
We don't want them left out.
A little bit of the phthalo blue.
See there? That's all there is to it.
Shoot, I think we're about to the point we got a finished painting.
Let's take a little red and sign this one.
Hope you've enjoyed it.
And as I say, if you have time, send us a photograph of your attempts.
We would love to see them.
There.
I think we're gonna call that one done.
I really hope you've enjoyed this little painting.
From all us here, I'd like to wish you happy painting, and God bless, my friend.
(relaxed music) Welcome back.
Thought today we'd do a black canvas that has maybe a happy little waterfall and a bubbling little stream running down through it.
Now I went ahead and prepared the canvas to save a little bit of time.
If you're doing this at home, this is a black canvas that's painted with a flat, black acrylic and allowed to dry.
Then I've taken and made a circle here of Alizarin crimson.
The top is Prussian blue, and the bottom half of the canvas, I've covered with a layer of blue and Van Dyke brown, Prussian blue and Van Dyke brown, and then just wiped it all together.
So let's make some happy little clouds in the sky.
I'm gonna start with a fan brush and a little bit of titanium white.
Very small amount.
And we'll begin building some happy little clouds here.
Very little paint, because it's gonna pick up the colors underneath and just make all kind of happy little things happen.
There we go.
Just let it bounce through the sky and play.
See how it's picking up the blue?
There.
'Kay, now, maybe there's another little cloud right here.
Just let these clouds just float around wherever you think there should be one.
'Kay, there we go.
(brushing) And just let 'em feather back.
'Kay, now with a large brush, I'm gonna very gently blend the bottom of these clouds out.
(brushing) Mmkay.
Now, we'll do this one.
Just the bottom of the cloud.
We don't wanna touch the top yet.
And then we'll fluff it up a little bit.
And then just gently blend it.
(brushing) Super nice little way to make clouds.
Okay, we'll put a few more little clouds in here.
Maybe, maybe there's one right here, just floating around.
Now these black canvases are so much fun.
We've done quite a few of 'em on this series because we've had so many requests for 'em.
There we go.
Just let 'em float around the sky.
Blend it out, not touching the top of the cloud, just little circles, little tiny circles.
(brushing) Fluff it up a little bit.
(brushing) Then blend it out.
(brushing) 'Kay, and you do these clouds in layers.
(water splashing) Do the one that's farthest away first, and work toward yourself.
'Kay, little bit more of the titanium white.
And maybe there's a nice one here.
Keep your brush moving, keep it moving at all times.
You don't wanna end up with great, big cotton balls up in the sky.
There.
Here we go.
And with a large brush, we'll just blend that out, not touching the top edge.
(brushing) And here, it's beginning to touch the crimson, so we're getting a difference in values now, a difference in colors.
(brushing) Mmkay.
Maybe one more little cloud.
Little fluffy one right here.
Mmkay.
There we are, that gives us a nice little cloud.
We'll blend the bottom of it out.
(brushing) Okay.
(brushing) Then blend it out.
(brushing) Super simple, nice little way to make clouds.
And the black canvas works fantastic.
(water splashing) Now I'll clean the brushes.
(light tapping) (loud tapping) Mmkay.
(water splashing) There we go.
Now let's make some little evergreens back in the distance here.
And for that, I'll take some Van Dyke brown, and Alizarin crimson, and a little touch of Prussian blue.
(scraping) We're looking for a color that looks black here, very, very dark.
Load a lot of paint into the fan brush.
Just load it full.
There.
And we'll just make little indications of trees way back here in the distance.
Touch the canvas and go downward, (brushing) just so we have silhouettes.
There we go.
(brushing) This is a nice way to make a lot of little tree indications very rapidly.
Save you a lot of time.
(brushing) 'Kay, and we can put a little detail here and there on some of 'em.
Maybe they're a little larger.
But mostly just looking for indications.
(brushing) 'Kay.
Now let this come right down the hill here.
(brushing) Just like so.
(brushing) Mmkay, now maybe, maybe over here there's a nice one, bigger one.
Some little ones beside him.
(brushing) This is your world, so let your imagination go crazy.
Whatever makes you happy, you put in your world.
(brushing) 'Kay, just about got a nice indication of a tree line back here now.
There we go.
(brushing) And maybe, maybe here and there, you wanna put a little more detail in a few of these trees.
And that'll indicate they're a little bit closer to you.
(brushing) Mmkay.
And here I'm just putting a little color on.
(brushing) Okay now, now let's start and make a little, tiny waterfall that's far off in the distance.
I've added a very, very slight amount of magic white to the paint, just to thin it a little bit.
And maybe my waterfall'll be here, and we'll have a babbling little brook coming down.
So let's start right about here and go across and let it fall.
Just across and down.
Try to do that in one stroke so the lines come all the way down.
And then we'll begin putting some little foamy things where it's hitting here.
Let it begin working forward.
(brushing) There we go.
Just all these happy little things happening in here.
Mmkay.
And once again, I have a very small, small amount of magic white mixed with my titanium white, just to make it a tiny bit thinner.
There we go.
You know, when you have a babbling little brook running down through here, so a lot of times you have, have little tiny stones under the water where the water will hit and bounce and play.
There we go.
(brushing) Might not see that stone, but he's there.
(brushing) Just create some interesting little things in here.
(brushing) And the water hits and play and bounces around.
Maybe there's another little stone right here.
(brushing) Look at that son of a gun, isn't that fun?
I sincerely hope you're painting along with us today, because this is a fun picture, and it teaches you so many things.
Oh, maybe there's another one right there.
Just let your imagination take you wherever you wanna go.
(brushing) Mmkay.
(water splashing) Now, I'm gonna go back into my dark color here and put a few trees that are a little bit closer sitting down here on the hill.
There we are.
(brushing) Mmkay.
Now let's take (coughs) a little bit of cad yellow and sap green mixed together.
Maybe we'll put a tiny, tiny bit of ochre in it, too, just to dull it down a little bit.
There we go.
And let's have some grassy little areas coming down through here.
Just touch, push, make the fan brush bend upward.
I wanna create the illusion of a hill coming down.
(brushing) There we go.
Don't let it get too bright on you.
(brushing) All kind of little grassy things happening.
And maybe back here, maybe, tell you what, (scraping) let's, let's put a nice cliff back here in front of this little waterfall.
That'll push everything back quite a bit.
(tapping) Like so, there we are.
(tapping) And then we'll take just the tiniest amount of burnt umber, and just put a little highlight up here.
Just a tiny bit.
And angles are very important when you're doing rocks.
Watch the angles.
There, now that sort of pushes the waterfall back a little bit further, creates a little more distance, a little more depth in the painting.
And then we can put some happy little things going right up the side here.
And just let 'em fade right out to nothing.
(brushing) There we go.
(brushing) And maybe with a little bit of Van Dyke brown, (scraping) we'll put a few little stones and some banks and stuff right along in here.
Just wherever you want 'em.
(scraping) And I'm gonna highlight those with burnt umber, just a little bit.
'Kay, then we have to go back to our little grassy color here, and bring it all together.
(brushing) Mmkay.
Now let's come over on this side of the canvas.
And I'll use a one-inch brush.
That'll be a little bit faster.
And we'll take some Van Dyke brown, a little crimson, tiny bit of blue, (tapping) and we'll put some happy little things happening over here, and begin closing this little waterfall in.
(brushing) There.
(brushing) 'Kay.
(brushing) Bend that brush, really push it.
(brushing) 'Kay now, use a little tiny bit of magic white on the one-inch brush, and we'll go into some cad yellow, and back to the sap green.
(tapping) Little bit of ochre added to it, just to dull it down.
Don't want it to get too bright on us.
So I bet you never imagined you could paint a waterfall like this, and if you're painting along with us, you have a pretty good picture going already.
(brushing) There we go.
Now, let's drop in another little bush right here.
(tapping) And I'll go back to the fan brush now and begin laying in some little grassy areas, just going right up the hill here.
(brushing) Make that brush bend upward.
(brushing) There.
Now with a little bit of the Van Dyke brown, (scraping) we'll put some little banks in here.
There we go, just let 'em protrude right out into the water.
(scraping) Alright.
(scraping) We're beginning to have a waterfall here.
Bubbling little stream.
Aren't these black canvases fun, though?
We have an absolute ball teaching you how to do these.
(scraping) Mmkay, little tiny bit of the burnt umber, just to highlight a little.
'Kay.
Now, back to my fan brush, and we'll bring all this together.
(brushing) Got to get very dark back in here.
(brushing) (scraping) There.
'Kay now, bring this together, and we'll be ready to play some more here in the water.
(brushing) Okay.
Alrighty, let's get the old fan brush here, (water splashing) and finish up the stream, and then we can, we can play a little bit.
I think we have a few minutes here, and we can just, we can just have some fun.
A little touch of the magic white, firm white, mixed together.
And we can begin splashing water all up against the rocks and the stones and the banks here.
Let it splash.
Maybe once in a while, it runs up on there a little bit.
(imitates water splashing) There we go.
There's another one of those little stones under the water.
You knew it was there, didn't you?
You just wanted to see if I'd remember to put it in.
There.
(brushing) Look at all the actions happening in that water.
That's what makes this so much fun.
(imitates water splashing) There he went again, right up the side.
All the little actions in the water.
Moving water is something we avoid so often, and it's so much fun.
But it's like everything else, it takes a little bit of practice.
And turn your fan brush from one side to the other.
You'll find that one side bends better than the other one does.
And you'll have to experiment.
Every single fan brush in the world has its own personality, and you have to make friends with that little rascal.
Tell you what.
(scraping) Let's put a happy little stone right out here in the water.
At least one.
(scraping) If we have time, maybe we'll put a couple more in.
(scraping) That was Van Dyke brown, and now I go back to the umber.
Put some little highlights on it.
And we'll wrap some water right around that stone.
Splash a little bit up here and there, and then, (imitates water splashing) isn't it something?
There.
As I say after all these years of painting, it still fascinates me that this works like this, and works for people who have never painted.
(imitates water splashing) We see it every day in the classroom.
Okay.
Let's take the knife now, and just make a few little twigs and sticks here and there.
(scraping) All I'm doing is using a clean knife and scraping right through the paint.
Makes it look like little twigs and little sticks.
(scraping) Mmkay.
Well, you feeling brave today?
Let's do some crazies.
I think we have time here.
I'm gonna take some Van Dyke brown on the knife, get a lot of Van Dyke brown, and maybe, maybe there's a great big tree lives right here.
(scraping) Maybe this old tree, maybe he's tired, and maybe he's dead.
Let's do a dead tree.
He's fixing to fall over and make a natural bridge right across this little stream.
And the water'll play around him and have fun.
Just have a good time.
You know, probably, to me one of the nicest sounds in the world is listening to a little stream as it bubbles along, plays and (scraping) hits the rocks and stones.
In Alaska, I have a, have a great deal of fun going out in the woods and just sitting next to a stream and listen to it.
Mmkay.
(scraping) Now let's take, let's take a tiny bit of permanent red, (scraping) and some burnt umber mixed together.
(scraping) And we'll lay a little bit of highlight on this tree, just enough to get it to stand out.
There we go.
(scraping) Just here and there.
Just where you think light will strike this.
(scraping) 'Kay.
Now the other side, I'll use a little bit of (scraping) Prussian blue, (scraping) just to indicate a little reflected light.
(tapping) Just a little bit.
(scraping) And all we're doing here is touching the canvas and allowing it to pull the paint off the knife.
(scraping) It's like taking the bus and leaving the driving to us.
Let the knife do the work.
(scraping) And this is just a little Van Dyke brown.
I'm just sort of bringing it all together now, to give it a nice bark appearance.
All I'm doing is touching and pulling the knife straight out.
And let's take the fan brush, (water splashing) and let's take a little bit of the Van Dyke brown, little bit of umber mixed with it, just mix it on the brush.
And let's put a few, if this is a dead tree, let's put a few limbs hanging here and there on it, just touch and let the fan brush go.
Just touch straight on.
Maybe there's a big old limb, hangs way out like that.
Make it a little bit wider.
Gotta make him strong.
There we go.
And, oh here's one right here, I see him.
Maybe he sort of curls around like that.
Think when I was a little boy, that's the size limb my mother used to get to punish me when I was bad. (whistles) Actually, I was raised in Florida, and my mother used to use palmettos.
And if she sees this, she's gonna kill me for telling you.
But she knows that she's my favorite lady in the whole world, so I think she'll forgive me.
There.
Just a few little limbs here.
Maybe there's one we can't see.
It's on up here on the tree.
Can't see where it starts, but it just sorta hangs down here.
Give him a little arm.
Now, clean the brush.
(water splashing) And I'll take a little bit of the permanent red and burnt umber mixed together.
(tapping) There we go.
And we'll highlight the limbs a little.
Just touch, and follow your limb right on down, like so.
(light tapping) This burnt umber's a beautiful color.
There.
'Kay, just highlight it a little bit, just so it stands out a little.
Doesn't have to be real bright.
'Kay, little touch over here.
Alright.
(water splashing) Now, (coughs) just take a little tiny bit of the yellow and green and put some little grassy things around this tree's foots, just to bring him into the painting a little better.
Let him set up here.
Maybe we wanna put a little tree on the other side, too.
(scraping) Maybe there's just a tiny little tree way back here in the distance.
(scraping) There we go.
(scraping) Let's get brave, maybe there's two trees.
(scraping) And we'll take a little bit of white, and mix it with a little bit of umber.
(scraping) And just touch, just to give some little indications.
Don't want to get too bright.
There we go.
And with a liner brush, let's open oil here.
Take a little bit of the thin oil, Van Dyke brown, and a little umber.
Just mix it a little bit, then we'll just put some little indications of limbs on here.
Just here and there.
Like so.
Just here and there.
(tapping) (clears throat) Now, I'm gonna take a little of the magic white, a little yellow, little tiny bit of ochre mixed with it.
Load a lot of paint into the bristles, and we'll just drop a few little, few little leaf indications on there.
Just here and there.
There we go.
I think we got him there.
Mmkay, maybe a stick or two right here in front of the tree.
(scraping) I think we've about got this rascal finished.
So let me take a little bit of thin oil, a little permanent red, and we'll sign this almighty painting, call him done.
Fix your paint 'til it's almost thin as water, then you can just write with it.
Shoop, there we are.
Just let it go.
Next week, if you're painting along with us, we'll be doing a white canvas.
(water splashing) So have your canvas ready, your almighty easel set up, and we'll be waiting for you here.
Until then, from all of us here, happy painting.
(soothing music) Hi, welcome back. Certainly glad to see you today.
Today is the last show of the 30th series, so I thought today we'd do something that's just a lot of fun.
Let's start out and have them run all the colors across the screen that you'll need to paint along with us.
While they're doing that, let me show you what I've got up here today.
Have my standard oak canvas up here today, but I've taken a little bit of black gesso and a natural sponge.
I use a natural sponge because it has more design to it than a man-made sponge.
And I've just taken and tapped black gesso on the bottom part, like so.
We've allowed that to dry completely.
Then I went back and covered the entire canvas with liquid clear.
On top of the clear on the bottom part only, only on the bottom, the dark part, I've covered that with a very thin mixture of Sap green, Prussian blue, and a little Van Dyke brown.
And we just put a thin coat of that over the dark area, other than that, we're ready to go.
Let's start with a little two-inch brush today, and go run into a small amount of the Phthalo Blue.
I like Phthalo Blue.
It is a very warm, nice blue.
Okay, let's go up in here.
Maybe in our world here, let's just dance in the indication of a little sky here.
We don't care. We just sort of dance it in, let it go.
Something about like that. Wherever, wherever.
But I'm using little X's, little crisscross strokes.
Something about like that.
And that's all we're looking for, and I've intentionally left some light areas in here.
Just leave 'em in.
Don't just make your sky one ol' dead color.
Let it have some action in it.
But you can always go back, pick up a little Titanium White, as I just did, and just paint these in if you want to.
But I like to have some little light areas in the sky, makes it a little more interesting.
There we are.
Something about like that, and that's really all I'm looking for today.
And that's gonna be our sky.
Alright, go across just to take out the little brushstrokes, bring everything together.
Shoot, we're in business.
And that easy, we have a little sky.
Let's take...
We'll use a little Prussian blue, some Sap green, maybe a little black in it.
Some brown to dull it.
Now, take a little white and put in there and we'll find out what color we have.
Too bright, put a little more brown in it.
We just use brown to sort of dull it.
Maybe a little dark sienna, that's what I'm looking for.
Just sort of play around til you find a color that you like.
There, now I'll just use that same ol' brush, it's working pretty good.
Tap a little color into it, like this.
In our world, maybe there's a little...
Maybe there's a big mountain lives right here.
There, it just comes right down.
(swooshing sounds) I don't know, wherever it wants to go.
But little trees and things are growing on this mountain.
Maybe, comes down right over in here, too.
You decide. Just make a decision, drop it in.
Just drop it in.
Now I've got several brushes going, so I don't have to spend all my time just washing brushes.
I'm gonna take a clean, dry two-inch brush and tap the base of that, severely.
Really getting in there and tapping it.
I want to create the illusion of mist.
Right there.
See how misty that looks already?
Looks like little trees growing right up the side of the hill, alright.
Now going back to the same brush, same color.
Same ol' color.
And, maybe...
Maybe we'll put another little doo doo right there.
You can have as many or as few as you want in your world.
Just drop 'em in.
But once again, get the clean brush, and I want to create that illusion of mist down at the base of this, too.
And already, you see how that mist separates?
That's your separator.
That's what keeps them apart.
You need that little area in there, becomes a very good friend.
You can even tap a little Titanium white on your brush if you want to increase that.
And just tap it in, it look like little mist is just floating around down in- (gasps) Nice, I get excited.
I've probably painted 20, 30 thousand paintings in my life, and I still get excited when I see it work.
And it does work.
Alright, clean off a little spot to work.
Let's see, maybe today, let's get crazy.
Prussian blue, Midnight black, some browns, some crimson, and there's some Sap green.
Most of your dark colors, all your dark colors, it doesn't matter.
There, wipe off the knife.
Let's grab...
We'll use a number three fan brush.
Just mix some color on the brush, load both sides full of color.
Something about like that.
Maybe in our world, back in here lives a little tree.
Right there, see? There he is.
These little trees live right in your fan brush, just sort of shake them out, there.
Start with just a corner of the brush, don't go straight in, though.
I'll show you one more time.
Get another one right there.
Turn the brush way around and use just the corner.
And basically, we're using that same corner all the way down the tree, we're just applying more pressure to bend it.
Get tough with it.
And you can just go back, scrape in indication of some little trunks.
And you can turn a few trees into a lot of trees, just by doing that.
And maybe, touch right there and lift up, just wanna lift up.
I know that's hard to see, but we'll see it in a second.
Looks like little things that are happening way up in there.
Now, I just take that same brush, wipe off the excess, and I'll go right into the Cad yellow.
The color that's on there mixed with the yellow will make a gorgeous green color.
We just load both sides, like that.
And we can come back, put a few highlights on our little trees, and that way they'll stand out more.
There they go.
(swooshing sounds) And maybe in here, just give it a little upward push.
Look like little grassy areas that are growing around the foot of this tree.
Something like so. Let's have some fun today.
Shoot, let's get crazy already.
I'll take some black, some brown mixed together.
I'll be right back, I'm going over here and get some paint thinner in this.
I want to make this very thin.
So I'm just adding paint thinner, just dipping into my washer bucket there, put a little paint thinner on the palette.
Black and brown is all it is.
Okay, now I'm gonna take some white.
A little bit of white, brown, little black, making the same color only lighter, and I will also thin it down with paint thinner.
So we have two piles of thin paint.
Dark and light. Something like that.
Now then.
Let's take the filbert brush.
Make sure it's clean.
I'd like to paint some rocks, so let's do it by going through the dark, both sides.
Then I'll take one side only through the light.
So I have light on one side, dark on the other.
And up in here...
There lives a whole bunch of little happy rocks right up here, that easy.
That easy.
You can put rocks wherever you want them, and you can do it in a single stroke.
Ready to get crazy?
I'm a take a little, little bit of liquid clear and go into Titanium white, I want to thin the color.
Get a little Phthalo blue in there, too.
But this color is thinner, I put liquid clear with it.
And it's time to have some fun.
We going to do...
Maybe there's a little bit of water just running along right here underneath that, just having a good time.
It's a wonderful day.
♫ Just flowing along, singing a little song ♫ And then, all of a sudden somebody pulled the stopper out.
Oh my gosh.
Water just fell down.
There, see? That easy, though.
You can create the illusion of a beautiful little waterfall.
Isn't that fantastic?
There now, let's take our little...
I'm gonna use the little blender brush, it's very soft.
And we'll create the illusion of some mist down at the base of this.
Little blender brush, I'm tapping into a little touch of Titanium white.
Very soft, though. Very gentle brush.
It'll just create the misty illusion that easy.
Very soft.
Now, let's go back to...
We'll just use that little filbert.
Same thing, and we'll put dark and light on it.
We need something here.
We need to contain this water so it doesn't get away.
So we'll just start here, and just decide.
Maybe there's a big ol' rock that lives there.
And we'll let it disappear right down into the mist.
There, that easy.
And in our world maybe...
Yeah, big ol' rock lives right there.
He's got the best view of all.
And we'll have something over here just to contain it.
You just need something to contain your water, so it doesn't get away.
Alright, maybe.
You just put these ol' rocks and stones wherever you think they should live.
Little dark color right in there.
Then you turn the brush over and just put a little highlight on, it don't need a lot.
Do not need a lot.
Something about like that.
Okay, let me find...
We'll use a fan brush.
We have some dark color mixed up here.
Load the brush full of the dark color.
It's time to really get crazy here and have some fun.
Let's go up here and make some big decisions in our world.
You ready? This is your bravery test already.
Right there.
Big tree goes all the way off the canvas.
We use the dark first, just so we have something to put our light on, it's the only reason it's there.
There we go.
Just make a basic tree shape here.
Big tree, phew.
He lives right here right next to the waterfall.
What a view.
He would have it made.
I'm gonna add a little paint thinner on my brush just to make this flow over this other paint a little easier, and put one right in there, too.
We will have a whole forest today.
There he comes. Big ol' tree lives there.
And maybe we can see a little one that's hiding back in there somewhere.
Just a little quiet tree.
He didn't get much attention.
There's one, there's one.
And down here where the black gesso is, and we have color on top of the black gesso, it doesn't much matter.
The gesso does the work for us.
This black gesso is great.
It makes painting so much easier when you're doing areas that have a lot of dark in them.
I don't know why somebody didn't come up with that years ago.
It's logical.
I want one more tree.
I like a lot of trees.
He lives right there.
But once again, you don't have to mess with the bottom at all, you don't even know.
And if you do, don't tell nobody.
Shh, secret. Here's one here.
See all the stuff here with the black gesso?
I'm going to leave some of that showing through.
It'll look like background material, trees and bushes that are growing far away, and you did basically nothing.
It'll drive people crazy trying to figure out how you got all the detail in your painting.
Shh, it's our secret, don't tell 'em.
Just paint 'em a painting and give it to 'em.
That's better. There we are.
That's one thing I hear everyday from people all over the country.
Is that these paintings make some of the most fantastic gifts, and that friends and relatives appreciate them so much more then something they went out and just bought and handed them.
This is something that you created with your own hand, that came out of your imagination.
It's special.
It is special that you care enough about someone to do a painting for 'em.
And it may be about as close to immortality as any of us are gonna ever come.
'Cause we know that paintings last.
If you take care of them, shoot they can last hundreds of years.
I'm a tell you what, I'll go back to the same brush.
Put some highlights on them rascals.
Just that same color, we're going to the yellow ochre, Cad yellow.
Make a nice green color.
Let's go up in here.
Now we can come back, and we can begin highlighting some of these rascals.
Then they'll stand out a little better.
You have to make big decisions, though. Where do they live?
I want it to go right down here and disappear in the mist.
Disappearing tree. Here it comes, there's one.
You decide.
You decide where they are.
Disappear, disappear. Darker, darker, darker down in here.
Darker, darker.
This little tree over here, don't wanna leave left out.
Something like so.
This one here.
Just let it go.
Don't want this one to feel neglected, so we'll put something on him, too.
Darker, darker, darker as it works it's way down.
And we go to the other side.
And put a few over here.
We don't want any jealousy between trees.
So we'll take care of all these little rascals.
Take care of them all.
My little squirrel would like to live out here with all these trees.
There we go.
Hope you've enjoyed in this series, seeing all of our little animals, we've shown Pea Pod Jr. several times.
We even had a little flying squirrel.
Had one bird.
I really do like these little animals, they're so special to me and I hope you enjoy sharing 'em with me.
See, down here we sort of just let it go.
Maybe we can't even determine which tree belongs to which.
Doesn't matter.
Alright, now then let's get crazy.
Back to my little blender brush.
I want to create the illusion that this waterfall is crashing over here and it's making a lot of mist, and it's floating up way up here and amongst all these trees.
This brush is soft enough that you can literally paint right over the top of paint without destroying your mixing.
That's why we came out with the little blender brush, it really does work great.
Look at there, just sort of lay that mist right in between those.
Mm, I get excited when I see that.
I used to work myself to death just trying to create effects like this.
And now they're so easy.
So easy.
I think this style of painting has opened painting to every person who's ever wanted to put a dream on canvas.
Because everybody can do this.
You don't have to go to school half your life to paint like this, you can do it.
All you got to do is practice a little and just believe in yourself.
I know you can do it. If i know, you certainly do.
But, look at that mist, see it just sort of blowing up there between the trees.
I like that. I do like that.
Now, let me find my little fan brush, it's got the liquid clear, a little Phthalo blue and white on it.
And maybe back out here through the mist, just some little water sneaking back out.
(Breathes out) Here it comes, here it comes.
It's just wandering around.
Gonna be a rock there, let's do it.
Take some Van Dyke brown, midnight black, little dark sienna in it.
There he is.
I know it's hard to see, but I'll put some highlight on him, make him stand out a little better.
Little brown and white, and here we go.
Just a little highlight on that rascal.
Just enough to make him stand out.
Don't want it to get too bright, I want this to be pretty dark down in here.
But we know there's a happy little rock down in there.
Alright, something about like that.
I mentioned at the beginning of this show, this is the last show of the 30th Joy of Painting series.
It's almost unbelievable to me.
That in the past ten years, we've done basically four hundred Joy of Painting shows.
And it has become the most popular art show in the history of television, and it's your fault.
It is absolutely your fault.
You have invited us into your homes, you've made us feel like part of your family, and I appreciate that, more than you'll ever know.
So in case we don't have time, I'd like to say thank you.
Thank you very much for sharing the joy of painting with all of us here.
There we are, we're just making a little water that just, maybe it'll wander off over here.
About like that.
I really like these little waterfall things.
As you make rocks under the water, you can just make as many as you want and have them go anywhere that you want them to go.
Up to you.
On this piece of canvas, you can literally do anything that you want to do.
Take some black, Van Dyke brown, I'm gonna have a cliff, big ol' rock lives right here.
Big ol' rock.
Big rock.
There he is.
Something about like so.
Least little touch with the brown and white, just enough that you can see it a little bit.
Don't overdo it. Just a little bit on the edge.
Now let's take some of that nice dark color that we had just to cover up some of this mist.
I'm gonna have a little- Maybe there's a little bush lives up here with the tree.
It's getting bigger.
My bush became a tree.
Bushes do that sometimes, they just keep growing til they become trees and that's okay.
Let's take a little bit of that same color, a little the yellows, just mix them together.
Like so. Give a little tap, a little push.
Get a little ridge of paint, lives out here on the paintbrush.
You can do this with a one-inch brush or with a two-inch brush, it's up to you.
Thought today we'd just use the two-inch 'cause it's what we got going so we just keep using it.
There we go, just load a little more color on there.
If you have trouble making this stick, add a little tiny bit of paint thinner, small amount of paint thinner, to your brush then go through the paint.
The paint thinner will thin your brush. Thin your brush.
Thin your paint. (laughs) Old age is setting in here.
It'll thin the paint just enough that it'll go right on top of there without any problem.
There we are.
All kinds of little grassy things that live in there.
Maybe it comes right on down in here.
Wherever, wherever.
There we go.
But you can just make layer after layer after layer of these.
As many, or as few, as you desire in your world.
Alright.
Something about like that.
We just sort of let that wander off into nowhere.
We don't care, just don't care.
Here's a few that hang over the edge.
They don't just grow on the top, some of them hang over.
Big ol' mossy things, they hang over there and have a good time.
Going back to my little filbert brush, dark on one side, light on the other.
Try that, this works great.
Dark, go through the light.
Now you have light on one side, you can see it good, and dark on the other.
It's one of the neatest ways I've ever come up with of making a lot of little stones very easy.
You just put 'em wherever you want 'em.
And in one stroke, you can make both sides of the stone.
Maybe there's one lives out here in the water, jumped in when he was just a little one.
When he was just a little guy.
Maybe his mother wasn't watching him, he jumped in the water and he's lived there ever since.
Few little splashes right around the bottom here.
Got to cover up his foot or he won't look right.
Just have the water work right around that little rascal.
Now it sets in the water, and the water's going (swooshing sounds) This is a super place to come and fish for trout, I know there's one that lives right in here.
Big ol' trout.
There.
Add a little watery fall there.
You can get carried away making these things and just get a little bit crazy, but that's okay.
In your world, you make as many, or as few, as you want.
Once again, it's a very individual thing.
Little more of the green on the brush.
Notice that little ridge, I keep pointing it out.
Give it a little push and that will load the paint right on there for you, in the right way.
And then you go up here, use just the corner of the brush, tap in some little bushies that live right there at his foots.
I think we're about finished.
I'm gonna find my little script liner brush, and I think I'll sign this painting.
I really hope you've enjoyed this painting and this entire series with us.
We look forward to seeing you again in the very near future.
And once again, if you have a minute, let the station know that you like this program.
And maybe we'll be with you for many, many more years.
Until next time, on behalf of all the personnel here, my partners Walt and Annette Kowalski, I'd like to wish you happy painting.
God bless, my friend.
(upbeat banjo music) Welcome back. Glad to see ya today.
You know in every series, there has to be a crazy day, and this is our crazy day.
So, we thought we'd do a painting that's really far out and that maybe it'll excite the imagination.
We're gonna have a little campfire down here, and all the big trees around.
We'll just sort of see what happens.
And, I've taken a black canvas, that was painted with a flat, black acrylic, that was allowed to dry.
And then covered the entire canvas with alizarin crimson.
So, let's go.
Let's start out with cad yellow, on the one inch brush.
And decide where you want the little campfire to be here.
And we'll start, let's put it right there.
And just start making little x's or criss-cross strokes.
And working around, there we go.
And just let this go.
Go all the way out to the edges of the canvas, even if you can't see anything happening, let it go.
'Cause little things are happening, it's picking up the color.
There, just all the way out.
Just these little criss-cross, x type strokes.
There.
Now, you can make this as bright as you want it, but each time, clean and dry your brush, before you go back into the center.
You want that to be the brightest area in the painting.
So we'll clean the brush, beat it dry.
And add a little bit more of the cad yellow.
Go right back in here.
And just lay in some color.
And then begin working outward again.
That way, automatically, it gets darker as it goes farther away from the little campfire that's gonna be here.
All right.
There we go.
Now, clean this brush up, and we're ready to get serious with this.
Mm-kay, with a large brush, I'm just gonna begin blending this out.
There. Just very gently still making the little criss-cross strokes.
Working outward.
You don't want to bring a dirty brush back to the center.
Don't want to ruin the beautiful, bright color you have right there.
Mm-kay. And then very gently, we take the brush strokes out just by going across the canvas.
All right.
And we're gonna try to show you some things today that are a little different than anything we've done in the past.
So, hope you'll enjoy this one.
Let's take the fan brush, we'll put some Van Dyke brown on it, and a little bit of crimson.
Van Dyke brown, touch of crimson.
Just mix them on the brush.
And maybe way back here in the distance, we can just see the trunks of some trees, and just let 'em sort of disappear.
These are just some little trees in the background.
Just sort of let 'em disappear.
Maybe, right here, maybe there's a bigger one, so we just push a little harder, and just let it disappear.
And we can put a little limb out here on him.
He wants a little arm.
And all wherever you want 'em here, you can just put little indications.
Just far away.
All kinds of little things happening.
There we are.
Like so.
Now, let's take a one inch brush, and we'll put Van Dyke brown, and alizarin crimson on the one inch brush.
Load it full of paint.
And we can begin applying some little leaves back here.
And all we're doin' is just touching the canvas, bending the brush a little bit.
All we're looking for is just very basic, gentle shapes.
We're not looking for a lot of detail.
These are just little background trees that are far away.
So, just wherever you think there might be some leaves, just drop 'em in.
Don't really spend a lot of time worried about it.
Maybe there's a little bush right there, that just sort of graduates into nothing.
The glow of the fire, here, will take care of the bottom of all of these, so don't worry about 'em.
Mm-kay, now we can take, and let's add a little bit, then just a tiny bit here, a little yellow ochre, Indian yellow, mixed together.
And we can just highlight some of these, where the light's strikin' 'em from the fire.
And just picking out little individual things and drop some little highlights on 'em, here and there.
Don't overdo 'em.
Keep it quite subdued.
Little yellow ochre, Indian yellow, mixed together.
Once again, these are just gonna be background trees, far away.
So, we don't have to spend a lot of time worrying about 'em or trying to make 'em perfect.
Just a tiny bit over here.
Not as much.
Tiniest little bit.
Just some indications.
There we go.
Now we can have fun.
I'm gonna take the large brush, and very gently, I'm just gonna blend all of this in.
I want it to be very soft, and very far away.
So, let's go right up here and watch.
Very gently.
Just still making the little criss-cross strokes.
Just begin blending all of it.
Just let it blend away.
Mm-kay, now we just take the brush strokes out by just going across.
See how far away that looks already?
Hm, ain't that fantastic?
I didn't put any highlights on this one little bush that I laid right here.
So let's put a few little highlights on him.
Don't want him to get upset because we didn't have any.
And then we'll just very gently blend him also.
There.
Now, we can use this big brush and begin adding all kinds of little things that are happening around here.
Maybe right in here there's some nice little bushes that are growing.
And just drop in some basic shapes.
We're not too worried about detail yet.
There's one.
Just let 'em fall right off your brush.
Maybe as we get farther away here, maybe there's some great, big trees, that are going to be growing over in here.
Great big oaks. Just drop 'em in.
Still using just crimson and Van Dyke brown.
There we are.
Just give it some nice basic little shapes to work with.
Now, then, we can start playing a little bit.
Let's take Indian yellow and permanent red, and just mix it together.
And let's begin dropping some little highlights right up in here.
Just let 'em sparkle.
Think where the light would hit 'em.
There we go.
Maybe a little bit up in here.
There.
Mm-kay, that's Indian yellow and a touch of permanent red.
Right there.
'Kay, maybe right here there's another one.
Now, as they get farther away from the fire, less and less you're gonna see.
Back in here, we're just going to begin putting a little bit of stuff, but don't worry too much about highlights back in here.
Like so.
Just sort of let 'em disappear.
Little bit up here.
Then it just disappears.
Just enough to set 'em off a little bit, so you can see 'em.
There we go.
This little one lives right there.
There.
Let's go right up in here, and play with the fire a little bit.
Hm, I got in trouble for playing in fire when I was young.
Today we can do it.
Gonna take a little bit of Van Dyke brown and we'll just make some little indications of some wood here.
And, it's all burnt, it can be just about any old way that you want it.
There.
And then let's, maybe there's some ground area, right down through here that we can see.
Still Van Dyke brown.
And just pull it across.
Just pull it.
Like that.
Now, take a little bit of yellow ochre, and burnt umber, mixed together.
And we can put a little bit of highlight right out here.
And start here and work down, so it gets darker automatically, 'cause you're running out of paint.
And you're picking up more and more of the under color.
Let the canvas work for ya.
Now, tell you what, let's put a little fire right here.
I'm just using a little bit of cad yellow.
And just touch, and just give a indication of a little bit of fire.
Little small campfire.
There we go.
That's enough to convey what we're trying to show here.
Now, take the fan brush, and we'll use a little bit of the yellow ochre, Indian yellow, and permanent red, all mixed together on the fan brush.
And mix 'em on the brush.
And we can begin laying in some little grassy areas here.
Little bit brighter up here by the fire.
So start at the brightest area, and work downward.
Want these to be very soft.
Just where the light's striking 'em, get darker, darker, darker.
There, dark up here.
And we can just lay in all kinds of happy little things.
Maybe right along here.
There.
'Kay, there's one that comes way down.
It's your world, so you can put 'em anywhere you want 'em.
There we go.
Just down like so.
There's a good place for a couple more.
Now maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, we wanna take and add a little bit more of the Van Dyke brown right in here.
I know what we should do.
Maybe this is a little lake out here.
You know, if you're gonna build a little campfire, you need to have water close by.
So we put a little cad yellow on the large brush, go right here, touch, and pull straight down.
'Kay? Just a little.
Touch. Pull straight down.
And it's gonna pick up the crimson that's underneath and turn a beautiful reddish color.
Work from the lightest area, which would be directly under the fire, out.
That way automatically, as you go away from the fire, it gets darker and darker.
And very gently, come across.
Just very gently.
Don't want to kill all these nice lines that you put in there.
Just make 'em just look like water.
Maybe there's a little projection that comes right out through here.
We'll just add a little bit more of the brown.
Bring it right on out.
Drop a little bit of the highlight color on it.
There we go.
And we go back to our little fan brush.
Yellow ochre, Indian yellow and a touch of permanent red.
And we can just drop in some little grassy things that are growin' down this hill.
Now, I think I've mentioned it earlier, but in case you missed it, if you have questions or comments, or something we can help you with, please feel free to drop us a line.
We'd like to know what you want.
We'd like to know what you want in future series.
What type of things interest you.
A lot of the paintings in this series, have come from letters that people have wrote and told us what they wanted to see.
Mm-kay, let me clean up a big brush here.
And let's play a little bit.
(sloshing water) Mm-kay.
(thwacking) That's still fun.
Okay, I want to subdue all of this.
It's much too bright.
So with a large brush, very gently, I'm just gonna begin blending it.
Very gently.
Just let it barely touch.
Make it very quiet, push it way back.
'Cause you wouldn't see all this much brighten.
It's dark.
So we just want to subdue it here.
Very quiet. Subdued.
Very quietly, just blend it.
'Cause you know, when you have the little campfire out there at night, things almost, they almost look unreal.
You get all kind of weird colors and shapes.
They're beautiful.
There we go.
Clean up that reflection there a little bit.
I'm gonna take a tiny bit of the yellow, and put a little bit of reflection into this little projection right here.
Pull it straight down.
Just come across.
Like so.
But you see how quiet that makes that look.
It's very, very quiet.
Let's go right up in here, and maybe, maybe there's a big, great big tree, right here.
Right here, big son of a gun.
He just goes all the way off the canvas.
There we are.
And you can make your trees as big or as small as you want to.
Okay, this is just straight Van Dyke brown.
There we go.
Big strong tree.
I love to paint trees, they're one of the most fantastic things in nature to me.
'Kay, give him a little arm, or limb, up here.
There we go. Like so.
Now we can take a little bit of permanent red, and sort of highlight this tree.
This is permanent red with a little burnt umber in it.
And then we can lay some highlights on here.
Just where you think the light from the fire would strike the tree.
Use your imagination.
Let your heart take you wherever you want to go.
There we are.
Maybe a little highlight playing on this limb up here.
Maybe there's an old fella sittin' out here, warmin' his foots next to the fire.
Maybe we'll have a cowboy out here.
We'll put him a hat on.
So, we just start right here, with a little edge of the knife.
And just sort of come around, we can just sort of see part of him.
He's leanin' up against the tree.
There's his old...
the brim of his hat.
Little top of his hat.
And at home when you have unlimited time, you can take a lot more time and effort with this, and really go into some detail.
Maybe he's sort of slumped over and there's his shoulder comin' down.
And maybe there's an arm Okay, there we go.
Maybe he sort of got his foot stickin' up like that.
There's his leg.
And these are just very basic little things.
So I say at home, you can take your time and put a lot of detail into these.
Just want to give you ideas here.
Okay, now we can sort of straighten him out a little bit.
Better give him some buns to sit on.
There we go.
Give him a little foots.
Maybe his hand's just restin' on his knee.
See, I should have put him in before I put the highlights on the tree, I've messed my highlights up.
But that's easy.
We'll just go back and drop our highlights right back in.
There we are.
So the tree stands, stands away from the guy a little bit.
And we can take a little bit of the yellow ochre, and think where light would strike here.
Maybe a little bit on his hat right there, like so.
Maybe a little comin' around.
Just a little, right there.
Maybe a little bit across the top of the shoulder.
You know, I gotta tell a little story here.
We have a lot of requests that have came in wanting portraits.
And years ago, I studied with a super, super painter, and studied portraits, for oh, maybe a year and half, two years.
And he became a very dear friend.
And he took me aside one night and he says, "Bob," he says, "I've got to tell you the truth." He said, "I want you to go and paint bushes and trees, 'cause that's where your heart is, and give up portraits." So, that's why I'm here.
There we go.
Just maybe a little highlight bouncin' across there.
Little bit on his knee.
That really is a true story, too.
He really did tell me I should give up portraits.
Takes a special knack.
You know, we talk about that sometime, about talent.
What is talent?
Talent is nothing more than a pursued interest.
In other words, things that you're interested in, you'll spend a lot more time working at, than something you're not interested in.
So that's all talent is.
It's if you're willing to practice, spend the time to perfect something.
Let me clean up the brush a little bit.
(water sloshing) (thwacking) (chuckles) There we go.
We can just soften all this, just very gently.
Very, very gently.
And we can come down here, use a little bit of the dark color, and put a little tiny bit of a waterline indication in here.
Just a small amount.
This is really a fun little painting.
It should give you a lot of ideas for a lot of crazy things that you can do.
And this should make you happy.
We really want painting to make you happy.
That's what it's all about.
Okay, and I can just quiet this down a little bit over in the corner.
Like so.
Now if you want to create a little more depth here, then you can add maybe, maybe there's another little bush here, that comes in front of the tree.
And this will produce, every plane that you add into the painting, will produce a little bit more depth.
Mm-kay, we'll take a little bit of the Indian yellow, permanent red, and we can put some highlights on this little bush.
Push everything back a little farther.
I think we're about to get this one fixed up.
We might put a few little leaves right up here.
Just to show that this one goes into a nice, big tree.
Little bit of the color.
Indian yellow, permanent red.
And just drop it in.
Now if you really want to have some fun, you could take the liner brush, with a little bit of thin color on it, and sorta go over some of these little logs here, and make 'em stand out, just a little more, 'cause there'd be a lot of light hitting these.
And we can fix him up a little.
And all we want's an indication that there's an old fella, sittin' out here, warmin' his foots.
There we go.
All right, looks sort of like an old guy out here, just silhouetted against the campfire.
And I think this one's about ready for a signature.
So let's take, put a signature, right about here.
Yeah, there comes a time when you can just absolutely piddle a painting to death.
'Kay, there we are.
And we have that one all signed.
Now, next week, I wanna show ya a fantastic little painting that I think will just tickle you to death.
So have your canvas set up, we'll be doing a white canvas.
I think that you'll really enjoy it.
And, you know, talk for just a second.
We would really like to hear from you and know what type of paintings that you would like to see in the future.
So drop us a line, in care of, WIPB, Muncie, Indiana.
And we'll be glad to answer any question.
And we'll try to put together shows that supply you with the type paintings that you want to see.
We also would like to someday, put together a show where we bring on guest artists from all over the country.
And let them show you a multitude of different effects that you can try, that you can enjoy, that do good things to your heart.
So, we're looking forward to doing this for you, anything else that you would like to see.
On behalf of all of us here at the station, we'd like to wish each and every one of you happy painting.
We hope you have a super day.
God bless. Take care.
Bye bye.
(smooth jazz music) (light jazz music) Hi, welcome back.
Certainly glad you could join us today.
I thought today we'd just do a painting that's a lot of fun.
So I hope you got your paints and brushes out and you're all ready to paint along with us.
Let's start out and have them run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint along with us.
While they're doing that, let me show you what I've got today.
Got plain old double primed pre-stretched canvass up here, and I'm using 18x24 inch, but you use whatever size is convenient.
And I've just covered the entire canvass with a very thin coat of liquid white, so it's all wet and ready to go.
So let's just have some fun.
Once again.
Let's just enjoy today.
Maybe today we'll start with a little two inch brush and we'll go right into small amount of the pthalo blue.
Just a little.
Just a little.
Let's go up here.
Let's do this.
There we are.
Let's just take off and out some gorgeous colors in here.
Pthalo blue is such a beautiful warm blue.
I like it very much.
Very, very much.
There we go.
Just paint something about like that.
Little more of the paint.
Tell you what, maybe we'll just go on out a little further with it.
Doesn't really matter.
Absolutely doesn't matter here.
Because if you've painted with me before, you know we don't make mistakes.
We have happy accidents.
Anything that happens here, we can live with and we can turn it into something that looks pretty good most of the time.
And so can you.
Don't worry about it.
Painting should make you happy.
Alright.
I'm just gonna begin adding a little prussian blue.
Make it a little darker out here on the corners.
This is prussian blue and I did not clean the brush.
So there's a little pthalo blue still in the brush.
Doesn't matter.
Really, really doesn't matter.
Down in here, we'll just do the same thing.
Something like that.
Little more of the prussian blue.
Let's just fill up the whole canvass since we've about done that already.
There.
And then we just begin blending it a little.
Maybe in the corners just to darken it a little.
Add a little bit of midnight black.
So we have black, prussian blue working toward pthalo blue.
Alright.
Little bit over in the other corner too.
We don't want it left out.
There.
Okay.
So much fun, I'm gonna do the bottom too.
Don't want it left out.
And little bit over in here.
Okay.
Havin' fun time.
Let's wash the old brush.
That's what I look forward to in every painting.
Okay.
We wash our brush with odorless paint thinner.
Be sure it's odorless.
If it's not, you're gonna run everybody in your family out in the yard.
Be sure it's odorless.
Shake it off.
I kicked the bucket too.
Okay.
Now we'll go right into titanium white.
Let's go right up in here with the titanium white, and I'm gonna start right here.
This'll be our light source.
This'll be our lightest area in the sky.
Begin just blending outward.
There.
Alright.
And you can do this as many times as you want to make it as bright as you want.
Doesn't matter.
I would suggest though, if your brush picks up a lot of that blue, that you wash your brush before you go back into that light area.
And you can just look at the end of it and see if it's got a lot of blue on it.
Alright.
We just blend out any little brush strokes.
Just blend them out.
Just like that.
Easy as it can be.
Down here doesn't really matter.
Alright.
Now then.
Old brush workin' pretty good.
Just gonna go right into some more of the blue color.
Mainly the prussian blue.
And I'm just tapping.
Just the corner, see.
Just the corner.
Let's go up in here.
Maybe back here in our world lives some little trees and bushes.
Little things like this.
And I'm just gonna begin by putting in some very basic little shapes.
Just tapping with the top corner.
Just the top corner.
Something like so.
There.
Little bit more.
And you decide where they live.
Alright.
And, yeah, we'll have a big one over here.
Just sorta let this happen.
Don't worry about it.
Don't worry about it because the worst thing that could happen at this point is you just blend it in, make it part of the sky.
It's no big deal.
No big deal.
See, now as they get a little closer to us, we'll make them just a little darker so they stand out.
That's the reason we're just using the corner of the brush.
Automatically the bottom will be lighter than the top.
See?
Sneaky, huh?
And there we go.
You just decide where they are.
Drop them in.
Wherever.
And you could make as many layers as you want to.
Many, many, many, layers.
And I think that's what makes a painting look deep.
It gives it depth.
Is layers in it.
This is very simple to do.
Let's go back.
Same old brush.
I still haven't cleaned the brush.
Because it has blue on it, I'm gonna go into a little bit of the cad yellow.
A little ochre here and there.
And pick up a beautiful green color.
It will turn green automatically.
We can go back up in here and just using the top corner of the two inch brush, we can put the indication of some little highlights on some of these little trees and bushes that live back in here.
And I think I'll do that to all of these.
Shoot, we'll just sort of bury back and forth.
Something.
There we go.
That one's got a little more of the yellow ochre in it.
There.
You know, I talk all the time about all the fantastic letters we get from people all over the country who are doing beautiful, beautiful paintings and today I'd like to share a couple of those with you.
And we get letters from people in every walk of life, from every part of the country.
And look at some of the paintings they're doing.
A lot of these people have never had a lesson in their life.
They're painting strictly from watching this show.
But isn't that fantastic?
I'm always amazed at what people are doing.
And some of these are very, very young people.
Very young people.
My young friends, whoo, dynamite.
Absolutely dynamite.
And people are taking it further than I ever dreamed.
They're doing scenes that are just, whoo, they're gorgeous.
I'm just so proud of so many of these painters.
Absolutely wonderful.
They certainly amaze me.
Every day we get more and more.
Isn't that something.
Look at there.
And you can do this.
You can do this.
This is a paper mache sculpture that was sent to me by a beautiful lady named Rose McLachlan.
Isn't this something?
It's probably about 20 inches high.
As I said, it's a paper mache sculpture of guess who?
Oh, Bob, you can tell there by that wild hair style, I think.
But Rose did a gorgeous job on this.
In fact, I've sent that to our warehouse and it's gonna be on permanent display there.
Thank's Rose.
It was gorgeous.
There.
See?
I'm just putting in a few little highlights here and there.
While you were viewing all those beautiful, beautiful paintings.
They are something, aren't they?
It does fantastic things.
It makes all this worthwhile when I see what people are doing all over the country.
Take a little paint thinner, little bit of the dark color and let's go up in here.
And here and there and there and here.
Let's just put in indication, I don't want too many, just a few indications of some little tree trunks and some stems, limbs, whatever you wanna call them.
They live back here.
There.
Just very lightly touch the canvass.
Don't need much.
Just a few little duders.
There we are.
See there?
Just like so.
And you just decide where you think these little limbs live in your world and you put them in.
Wherever you want them is exactly, exactly where they should be.
Because painting is a very individual thing.
It's very free.
It's very loose.
There.
'Kay, great.
And that easy.
We've got a nice little background.
I thought maybe today, yeah.
Let's paint a barn today.
We film this show in the great town of Muncie, Indiana and around here, get a little sap green, there are a lot of beautiful, beautiful barns and covered bridges, so let's paint one.
Okay, take a little bit of that green.
That sap green, the yellows.
And let's just decide back here, yeah.
Maybe back in here.
Maybe there's a little hill right there, what the heck.
Alright.
We just begin working on that.
Think about shape and form of your land though.
Or as it's called, the lay of the land.
There.
Little bit more of the color.
Maybe I'll add a little bit more yellow.
I want that to stand out just a wee bit more.
If you have trouble making the paint stick, you can add the, yeah, that's it, the least little touch of paint thinner or liquid white.
Liquid white will change the color a little.
Make it brighter.
Paint thinner will just make it thinner.
It's probably why they call it thinner.
There we go.
Little background right in there.
Something like so.
Barn, we're gonna do a barn.
Maybe, what the heck.
You ready to get crazy?
Let's do a big barn.
I find that taking the knife and scraping out a basic shape when I'm doing a building helps me.
Maybe you don't need to do that, but it helps me a little bit just to have an idea of shape and where I'm gonna put everything, perspective, whatever.
All the big fancy words you're gonna use there.
Maybe this is one of them old barns that's got some arms that stick out on the sides.
Something like so.
All we're doing here is we're moving excess paint and giving us a basic shape to go by.
Let's take some van dyke brown on the knife, and we'll start back here with the back eave.
Something about like that.
And, sheeew, there's more.
And at this point, we're not committed.
We can change this any way we want.
We're absolutely not committed.
This is just blocking in a little color.
Just a basic shape.
You cannot make a mistake here.
The only thing that happens is maybe your barn gets a little bigger.
There.
But you can change it any way that you want.
Alright, we'll come down.
Does that begin to make sense?
I sorta see things in my mind.
And from there, off we go.
Because this painting technique allows you to visualize things and put them on canvass in a very short time.
Very short time.
I get letters from a lot of professional people who say they have very limited amounts of time and they love this technique because after a busy day they can come home, unwind, relax, set their easel up and in an hour or two they can have a nice little painting.
And that's wonderful.
Over here on this side we decided he was gonna have a little thing coming out here about to there.
Doesn't matter.
See?
This is gonna be a big barn.
I got carried away.
But that's okay.
It's our world and we can do anything in our world that we wanna do.
Anything that we wanna do.
Alright, this barn keeps growing here.
There.
Now.
Now we can begin putting in the goodies.
We've got some color blocked in.
Let's take some dark sienna, some white, and I'm gonna pick up a little bit of yellow ochre.
Just a little yellow ochre like that.
Sort of a gold color.
But notice the paint is very marbled.
There's all kinds of colors happening in there.
Pick up a little roll of paint and we can go back up here and very lightly touch and pull down.
Just touch it and pull it down.
And all those different colors that we saw on the palette are in that roll of paint so we get a variation.
It's not just one old dead color.
There's a lot of things happening in there.
Lot of gorgeous things.
Lights and darks.
You couldn't do that intentionally if you tried, but we know how to make happy accidents happen on a regular basis here.
There.
Now over here we'll put some more.
We'll get a little more of the dark sienna.
I want this side over here to be darker.
Something about like that.
Take a little of the van dyke, just plain van dyke.
And maybe here and there we can put the indication of a few old boards living there.
Just touch it allowing it to pull off what it wants.
There we go, see there?
That easy.
Good place for the old cow to live, right in here.
There.
I grew up with an old cow that lived with us.
She was a nice old cow.
Old milk cow.
I miss her.
We used to drink fresh milk right from the cow.
Unpasteurized and all that.
Guess that's not considered safe anymore.
But it was some of the most best tasting milk I've ever had.
Alright.
Now for the roof.
Let's take, we'll just use those same colors and brighten them.
Yellow ochre.
Dark sienna.
Some white.
Once again, don't over mix the color.
We want all those things happening so you can just sort of pick and choose wherever you want them.
Little roll of paint.
Go back up here and let's just take the knife touch and just sort of let it bounce.
Bup, bup, bup, bup.
Gotta make those noises though.
There we are.
Look at all the colors that happened in there.
I mean, think how long you'd have to work to try to come up with those colors, if you ever could.
Don't know that you ever could.
Just let it bounce.
There.
See, maybe brighten this edge just a wee bit.
Darker, darker, darker as it goes down.
And over here, coming out in this direction, there's some more.
Look at there.
Old, old barn.
And a little right along the edge.
Alright.
Now then, we can take, let's see, what will we use here?
Here's a little white with a touch of pthalo blue, just a touch.
Just enough to shade it a little bit.
Very small roll of paint.
With that, I just wanna sort of sparkle that edge so it stands out and you can see it.
Just enough to sparkle a little.
Maybe just indication that it goes back there.
See?
There.
But not much, not much.
You could overdo very quickly.
Just tiny, wee little bit around the barn door.
Just enough to outline it.
Now we can do a barnectomy.
We can just cut it off wherever we want it.
Think about perspective and all those little things.
Okay.
And, put me little boards there.
Just touch with the dark sienna.
Or the van dyke brown, either one.
Just enough to give some little indications right along in there.
And it will help make it look like it was made out of old boards there.
And that's basically all we have to do to have a little barn.
Now we go back to our brush with the sap green, the yellows, all the yellows.
Once in a while I'll touch the least little amount of the bright red.
I use that to dull color.
Believe it or not it will dull your greens.
Because green and yellow, or green and red make brown and brown will dull your color for you.
There.
Just tap in a few little grassy areas.
Something like so.
Alright.
Gonna put the least little touch of paint thinner on my brush just to thin the paint down so it'll slide on here a little easier.
If you have trouble making the paint stick, once again, add the least little touch of paint thinner.
Now then.
Pay very close attention to the lay of the land.
I sorta want this to look like a hill going down today.
There we are.
Something about like that.
Alright.
Little more of the paint.
See?
Just let it go, let it go.
There.
Alright.
We just sorta tapping in some basic little grassy area.
That's all we're doin'.
Little grassy area.
If a little of that blue shows through, that's wonderful.
That's wonderful.
The brighter you want this to be, the darker you make that.
So if you wanted the grass to be brighter, you make that a little darker, add a little more black to it.
It's up to you.
Totally and completely up to you.
Wasn't those photographs we showed of people's painting, weren't they fantastic?
You have to be proud when you do a painting like those.
Absolutely have to be.
And as I've mentioned over and over again, when you give a painting to someone as a gift, it is so much more special than something you just run down to the store and you buy for them.
This is something that came directly from your heart.
There's love in a painting.
And it will be cherished, more than likely, forever and ever.
Forever and ever.
We need a little path right here.
Little van dyke brown.
Let's bring it right on out.
Shoot, we gotta have a way for the old cow to walk up in there.
There.
There he goes.
This is just van dyke brown with a little dark sienna in it.
That's about all.
There.
Take a touch of alizarin crimson and put it in there too.
Down in this end.
Yeah, yeah, that's what I want.
That'll show when I put a highlight on there.
For highlight, we'll just use a little bit of the brown white with a little touch of crimson in it.
Wanna red it up a little bit.
There we go.
Isn't that neat?
Alright.
Now then.
Back to our brush we were making all the little grassy areas and we can go back in here and cover up some of these little edges.
Bring it all together.
There we are.
The more you tap this, the softer it becomes.
It just, we'll get where it look almost like velvet.
Almost like velvet.
It's gorgeous what you can do with a big old brush like that.
There.
Okay.
And we can just clean up our edges a little.
Something like that.
And off we go.
Hey, we've got an old barn.
Tell you what.
You know me, don't you?
You know what's gonna happen.
People who paint with me for a long time, they know what's happening here.
I'll use the fan brush and get a little bit of van dyke brown, dark sienna.
Just mixed together on the brush and we're gonna have a bravery test.
Yeah, you're right.
Big tree.
Shhoooo.
I'm telling ya, big tree.
Was not kidding when I said big tree.
Let's, yeah, let's give him another arm out here.
Let him get even bigger.
Trees will grow on you in a heartbeat.
I've started out with little tiny twigs and ended up with all mighty redwoods just that easy.
But that's alright because in this world you can do anything that you wanna do.
Take a little of that, let's work in some nice same color that I used there.
Touch.
Barely give it a little pull.
I'm barely touching.
If you've put snow on the mountains before, it's that light.
It's that light of a touch.
Just touch it, give it a little pull.
Maybe this is a dead old tree.
There.
Maybe the old farmer just hadn't got around to taking this tree down off the farm, but he will one day.
He will one day.
He's like me.
One day we're gonna do it.
One day.
I have a tendency to procrastinate.
There we are.
Old arm sticks out over there.
Wherever you think they should be.
Maybe there's some old limbs that are broke off hanging on the bottom here.
Okay, how about right there?
See, just drop them in wherever you think they should be.
Wherever.
There they go.
If you have trouble making this paint flow, add more paint thinner to it.
This is one of those old gnarly limbs.
Yeah, it had a hard life.
Really had a hard life.
I like trees and limbs with character.
Every tree is not gonna be a telephone pole.
Thank goodness.
Some of them are gonna have old wiggly arms and legs that hang out every which way.
And those are the trees, to me, that are the most interesting.
The absolute most interesting.
Yeah, a lot like that.
That'll give you an old tree there.
Alright.
Tell you what.
Maybe down here at the bottom, take a little bit of brown, maybe there's what remains, just a piece of an old fence down here that's still left.
Put in a couple little fence doers.
Take a little bit of highlight color.
Same brown that we've been using.
Has to be brighter, won't show.
There.
Like that.
Liner brush.
We'll use a little bit of the van dyke brown.
Maybe there's still a little bit of old wire hanging on there.
We just do something like that.
Take our big brush, tap a little grass around the foots.
We about have a finished painting.
There we go.
Think we'll call that one done.
That easy.
Hope you've enjoyed this little barn.
Give it a try.
From all of us here, I'd like to wish you happy painting and God bless my friend.
(light jazz music) Hi, welcome back, certainly glad you could join us today.
Thought today we'd just do a little painting that's a lot of fun, and I think you'll enjoy it.
So let's start out and have 'em run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint along with us.
While they're doing that, let me show you what I got today.
Today I have my regular old pre-stretched double-primed canvas up here, and I'm using 18 by 24, but you use whatever size is convenient.
And I've taken a piece of contact paper or sticky back paper, and I've just cut an oval in it.
Might not be able to see that too plain yet.
We will by the end of the show.
Just cut an oval in it, stuck it on the canvas, then I've covered this part with liquid white.
So it's all wet and slick and ready to go.
Let's start today with our little two-inch brush.
We'll go right into phthalo blue, I like phthalo blue.
Has such a beautiful, warm blue color.
Get a little bit on the bristles, and let's go right up in here.
And today, let's just do a happy little sky, just one that I think you'll like.
Just doing little crisscrosses, something about like that.
And we'll come right on down, oh, maybe right there.
I'll tell you what, while I got that blue going, I think we'll have some water in this one.
We'll just go across and put in some water.
If you've painted with me before, you know I'm an absolute fanatic for water, I love it.
I think it's so gorgeous in paintings.
There we are.
And anything we don't want to be water, we just paint right over it, doesn't matter.
Now then, I'm gonna go back into that phthalo blue, same identical color, but this time I'm gonna tap, I'm tapping the bristles into a very, very small amount of color.
See, there's not much paint there, I'm just tapping.
Now we'll go back up here.
I wanna make an indication of a big old fluffy cloud that just floats around up here in the sky and has fun all day.
So I'll just tap it in.
As I say, we're using the identical same color, only darker.
There.
Just gonna tap in some basic shapes.
Something about like that.
And tell you what, let me get the little blender brush.
This is a new brush we introduced in this series, but it'll get up here and you can blend all these colors without tearing 'em up, see?
You can go right over the top of that, just blend it.
Our regular brushes are a little bit too firm to blend like this.
So this is a super way of doing that.
All right, fluff it up a little.
You can just keep going over and over.
Each time you blend it though, it gets a little softer 'til it finally will just, it'll just go away and leave you.
All right, now then, maybe, maybe, maybe we'll take a little bit of black, little bit of blue.
And some white.
I wanna color this very close to the sky color.
About like that, a little roll of paint, and let's go up in here.
And maybe way back in the background, see, it just barely shows, that's what I'm looking for.
Back here somewhere, maybe there's a big old mountain that lives way back in there somewhere.
It's far away, far away.
Just looking for a little quiet one up here.
And we'll take two-inch brush and grab that.
I want to blend it to soften it even more 'til it just about disappears right up here in the sky.
We can just blend right over the entire mountain.
This little rascal, when we get done, it'll just barely, barely show back there.
Might not show at all, and that's all right.
Okay, now let's make a big mountain today.
For that, let's take some black.
Black, I wanna get alizarin crimson.
A little more crimson, there were are.
Black and alizarin crimson.
Maybe a little bit of prussian blue, not too much.
I want this to have sort of a lavendery flavor to it.
Pull it out, get our little roll of paint again.
There we go, let's go up in here.
Come right up in here, let's make a big mountain.
There it comes, lives right there.
Let's have it come down.
Just let your imagination go.
I think we'll just, let's do a big old crazy looking mountain today that give you a lot of practice using the knife, and it's a lot of fun.
Mountains are one of the best things going to give you practice with the knife.
And if you make friends with this knife, there's just no limit to what you can paint with it.
I think I've mentioned in some of the earlier series, we've done entire paintings using nothing but the knife.
Maybe we'll just have it come right out like that.
Whatever.
Pull it down.
(knife scraping) See, you can just change the shape however you want it 'cause this is your world right here.
Scrape off all the excess paint.
Really get in there and scrape it off.
Take a big brush.
Pull that paint down.
Once again, that removes excess paint, and it's continually blending with the liquid white that's on the canvas, so your mountain automatically will get lighter and lighter down here toward the base.
Right now it doesn't look like too much, but hopefully in a few minutes it'll get a little better looking.
All right, let's mix up some color to go on our mountain.
For that, today I think I'll use white and maybe a little black in it.
Gray it down some, maybe a little more.
There, just white with a little bit of black in it.
Something like that.
Cut off our little roll of paint.
Let's go back up here.
Maybe today, let's have a mountain that maybe is highlighted over here on this side.
Just let that, shoom, flow right on down.
Comes right up here, shoom, there.
Big old mountain that lives way back here.
Maybe, maybe, maybe, yeah, let's have it come right down.
I know, let's have it come right on out here, I don't care.
When you're doing your painting, you decide where your mountain lives, what it looks like, how the angles are, where the highlights and the shadows are.
It's totally and completely up to you.
I'll mix up a little more.
We'll take some white, little bit of the prussian blue, and put some black in there to dull it down.
Don't wanna over mix it.
I'm even gonna put a little brown into it, a little dark sienna, a little van dyke.
So see how marbled the color is, though?
I wanna keep that, 'cause that's right there in that roll of paint.
And with that, we can come up here and we can begin adding in a few little shadows.
Just a few little shadows, they live right in here.
There, just little sneaky things.
Pick up a little bit of the dark sienna.
Just let it bounce right along in here like you can see some of the mountain color.
There we go.
Just sorta let these little things play and bounce across here very gently.
I'm going back to the solid dark color that I used to make the mountain.
And we'll put a little bit of that here and there.
See, that makes deep, dark areas in there.
Just sort of separates everything.
Just a few of 'em here and there.
There, I'm going over in here, put a few little things to make that look very deep, dark.
Little area in between there.
Maybe, shoot, I tell you what, maybe there's a little peak in here, I don't know.
Come right along with a little bit of the highlight color, drop that in, then we could begin playing.
But I just want another little projection that lives right out there.
That easy.
Just to make it stand out, look rough and ragged.
All right, maybe where you wanna put little dark areas.
And at home, take your time and just really get in here and play and put all these little things in.
You'll be amazed at the kind of things that you can create in your world.
Just let 'em happen, let 'em happen.
There, just little things that live in there.
Let some of these dark colors just play through.
Mm, boy, a mountain climber would have a rough time on that one, even.
Okay, now then, I wanna create a misty effect (brush banging) down at the base of that.
Let's get a clean brush.
That one's not quite clean enough.
And just begin tapping.
There, then gently, gently, gently lift upward.
Now then, I'll go right into, let's get a little touch of the sap green, a little bit of that mountain color.
I'm just gonna mix 'em together on the brush here.
Just looking for some various colors.
Oh, that's right there.
Let's go up in here.
We'll put some little things right in here that eventually, hopefully will look like little trees that go right up the side of the mountain.
'Cause we're gonna lift 'em upward, just give 'em a little upward lift.
There, see 'em?
All kinds of little things that live in there.
Just pop 'em up.
That easy.
Just load a little more paint there, pop these up.
But see all the different planes that you can make in there?
Look at there, you'd have to track all the way up here to get clean up that mountain.
Whew, if we keep going here, we're gonna have Mount McKinley.
I used to live not far from Mount McKinley.
It's one of the most gorgeous places in the world.
Let's wash the old brush.
Shake it off.
(brush banging) (chuckles) Just beat the devil out of it.
All right, today maybe I'll use a little round brush.
And let's go in, we'll use a little bit of that mountain color, we'll put a little bit of sap green with it, be right back.
I'm gonna grab a little white over here.
Ooh, that's a nice color.
Little more green into it though.
All right, okay, let's go up in here.
Maybe in our world's a little footy hill that lives right here.
Like so, I don't know where it goes, don't know that we even care at this point.
It goes wherever you want it to go.
Then grab this and lift it up.
See there, just another layer.
Now I wanna create mist at the bottom of this, so I'll take a two-inch brush, just a clean two-inch brush, tap it.
That'll soften the bottom of it, make it very, very soft.
(brush tapping) Okay, and maybe let's have something a little darker in there now.
Let's have, yeah, maybe some little bushes that live right in here.
I want to put a dark area against the light.
Still using the little small round brush.
Just put the indication of some little things that live way, way back in the distance, far away.
Far away, there.
Then I'm gonna go back, and once again, mist this.
Just misting the base of it though.
And this little misty area, as you can see above there, that becomes your separator.
That separates the different planes in your painting or the different layers.
I'm gonna add a little bit of cadmium yellow to the same color that I did the back one with and maybe put another layer in.
A little yellow ochre, too.
There, that's much better, it stands out better now.
See, just lift it up.
But very gently, very gently.
And that'll give us all kinds of little things that live way back in there.
Lightly, lightly.
Just barely, barely touching.
Let's see here, let's take a little bit of green, a little bit of that black into it.
Let's just put something here.
See, we'll just lay a little color on.
And you can just take a fan brush and lift it up.
Look like little trees live way back here.
Just lay a little thick color on.
See, pop it up.
That easy.
Get a little touch of the liquid white, pull it out flat.
A little bit of that same color, that greenish color that we were using before, put it in the liquid white.
Then I get a little bit on the edge of the knife, and we can go right up in here and make it look like little grassy banks right along in there, something like that.
Okay, back to old brush that has all those colors on it we used, let me add a little more.
And while we have this here, let's pull that down.
Just make a happy little reflection lives right out here.
See, I probably should've done this before I put the water line in.
Would've made it easier.
But we can just go right back and put it in again.
It's easy to do.
'Cause as you know, we don't make any mistakes.
(chuckles) There we are.
Okay, good.
Now then, maybe...
Let's see what we got going.
I gotta clean off a spot to work.
Even with a palette this big, I run out of room sometime.
Let's take some black, prussian blue, alizarin crimson, put a little sap green in it.
Okay, maybe a little more green.
Let me wipe off the old knife.
We'll go in here with the, I'm using a number three fan brush today.
Okay, let's go up in here.
Maybe in our world there lives a few little evergreen trees right in here.
Something about like that.
Give him a little friend that lives there with him.
You know me, I think everybody should have a little friend.
There we go.
Shoot, why don't I have another one?
There, little rascals live everywhere.
Okay, find my brush there, I got too many brushes going.
Maybe right in front of here we'll put another little layer.
That'll help push those trees back a little bit farther.
Each layer causes more and more depth in your painting, and it just gets deeper and deeper.
Okay, now then, time for some big decisions.
I'm gonna find a bigger fan brush 'cause it's a little bit faster.
I'll go back into that same tree color.
I'm gonna make another tree.
That was so much fun.
Load it full of color, lot of paint.
Let's go up in here.
Maybe, you're right, there it is.
There he lives, little tree lives right there.
Hey, that's getting to be a pretty big tree.
That's all right, it's our world.
We can make a tree any size we want it.
Any size we want it.
Fact, let's make one even bigger.
There, use just the corner of the brush, and as you work down, push harder and harder, forcing the bristles to bend.
We'll separate 'em with highlights.
Right now, we're just looking for basic shapes, that's all.
Just take that same color, little round brush here.
And maybe there's a little peninsula that sticks right out like that.
And if we had all that, we'd need a reflection.
So we might as well just drop it in while we got the old brush going.
There we are.
Take a two-inch brush, grab that, pull it down.
Instant reflections, that easy.
Let's see here, here's on that's not too dirty.
(chuckles) Take a little bit of yellow, little bit of sap green, yellow ochre, indian yellow.
And occasionally, I'll probably hit a little bit of the bright red, okay?
Tap a little color on the brush.
And maybe up in here, we'll just have a few little highlights right in there.
Let me load a little more color on here so it shows up a little stronger.
There we go, that's nice.
That's nice, maybe just make a decision.
See there, there's a little bush that has little yellow flowers on it.
And that's just one of those happy accidents.
It works sometime, there, see?
We have all kinds of little things out here.
Take a little bit of van dyke brown.
Let's just come in here and put in the indication of a little land.
A little touch of brown and white.
Come right back, put in a little bit of...
highlight on there.
We'll take some liquid white, and with that, just cut in indication of a little water line, something like so.
Maybe I'm gonna get the small knife.
I'm gonna do, maybe come right up in here.
Maybe there's some little stones, see here?
Live right out here in the water.
Just some happy little stones.
Some of that little highlight color.
Just go across like that.
There we are, little touch of the liquid white.
Put some water lines around those little stones.
Look at there, there they come.
There they are.
We'll get the old two-inch brush here.
Maybe, yep, let's have some nice, big bushy things that live right up in here.
There, careful, I don't wanna cover up my little stones, I like 'em.
Looks like a little way to go across there.
All kinds of little things.
Just like that.
Maybe that comes all the way up there, I don't know.
It's up to you.
You make the big decisions, there.
Back to my brush that has the greens on it.
Let's come right in here, put the indication of all kinds of little highlights on there.
Vary your colors.
A little yellow ochre I added right there.
Ooh, nice one, nice one.
Don't kill all those dark areas, though.
Sometimes it gets good and you get carried away and you kill all those little dark areas.
That's what makes your painting deep.
Save those, treasure them.
They're your best friends when you're painting.
Your absolute best friends, take care of 'em.
Take care of 'em, 'cause you always have to take care of your friends.
There we go.
When Annette and I were traveling for many years, I don't travel and teach much anymore, I got too old.
We have too many instructors that do it now.
But Annette and I traveled for many years, and we met some of the most fantastic people in the whole world.
I still keep in touch with a lot of 'em after all these years.
Now, maybe we'll have some more water down here.
So we just grab this, choo, choo, choo, pull it down, and go across.
Look at there, see?
(chuckles) You just decide where you think water should be and drop it in.
We'll come back in here, put us in a little water line.
And we could take a small knife, put a few rocks here and there.
There's a rock.
Little bit of highlight on our rock.
Shoot, maybe pull that over a little, there.
Little more of the liquid white.
All right.
Come right along like that.
This painting has, whew, it's got a lot of planes in it.
It just goes back forever.
But that's good, I like that in paintings.
Let's put a little tree trunk in here.
A little brown, a little white.
Okay, find our fan brush, put some green on it.
And we'll come back in here.
Put a few highlights on our little evergreen tree so it stands out, don't put a whole bunch of highlights 'cause evergreens are normally pretty dark anyway.
Wanna keep 'em dark.
Especially down toward the base, want 'em to get darker and darker, darker down toward the base.
Now then, let's take bright red, oh, dark sienna, van dyke brown.
Making sort of a reddish brown color here.
Okay, maybe in our world, let's go up here. (chuckles) This is your bravery test.
In our world, there lives, boy, there does now, a big old tree, hangs right off the side of this canvas.
I'm just putting in some base color so that our lighter color will show.
Maybe he lives right there.
I know, I know, I know, I know, let's get crazy.
Maybe there's another tree over here.
There, I know that's scary after you worked so hard to put these things in, then you get up here and some fuzzy haired crazy guy tells you to (chuckles) drop a big old tree in.
I know that's scary.
And in your world, if you don't wanna put this tree in, you don't put it in, you don't put it in.
But if you want to, it's a lot of fun.
Let's see here.
I'm gonna take a little bit of brown.
A little brown, little brown, little brown.
Right there on the fan brush.
Put a little white on one side, then go shoo.
Gotta have some kind of tree trunk to hold all that up.
Like that.
On the other side here,maybe this is and old wiggly tree.
There we go, take our liner brush, a little bit of that same brown color.
And we can put an arm or two out here, wherever you think these old tree limbs should be, up to you, totally and completely up to you.
Here we go, there's some over here.
Maybe here's one that no leaves are on it.
It's sort of a naked one.
There.
All right, we can come back, and we'll go right into yellow ochre and bright red mixed together, whew, nice color.
And let's put, yeah, isn't that great?
Let's put some leaves up here on these trees just using the corner of the old brush, just like so.
Just like so.
If you have trouble making this stick, add a little bit of paint thinner.
There we are.
A few on the other side.
Look at that, isn't that fantastic?
I've painted thousands and thousands of paintings, and it still gets me excited to see this work.
I think it's a moment of truth.
Let's bring the camera up here, and let's take the contact paper off and see what we've got.
(ripping) Look at there, isn't that something?
I think we can sign this one.
Take a little of the paint thinner, a little bit of bright red, and we'll sign it.
Really hope you've enjoyed it.
This is quite a nice little painting.
Give you a lot of practice with all the equipment.
I think you'll enjoy it.
From all of us here, I'd like to wish you happy painting and God bless, my friend.
(light music) Hey, welcome back.
I'm certainly glad you could join us today.
I thought today we'd do a painting, it's very simple, I think you'll enjoy it.
Let's start out and have them run all the colors across the screen that you'll need to paint along with this.
While they're doing that, let me show you what I've got up here today.
I have my plain old 18 by 24 inch double prime pre-stretched canvas, and I've just covered it with a very thin coat of liquid white.
That's basically all.
We use 18 by 24 inch canvas, but you use any size that you like when you're doing yours.
I thought I'd start with a little, just a little two inch brush today.
I'm going to tap a little bit of Indian yellow into it.
Don't need a lot of color, something about like so.
Let's go up in here, and maybe right here we'll do that.
That's all there is to it.
Okay, got that one finished, it's that easy.
I'll go into a little bit of cad yellow.
Same way, just use a little two inch brush.
We don't have to even do anything, just go around the edges without cleaning it, touch a little bit of yellow ochre.
There, just working the yellows out here.
A little bit more of the yellow ochre, come right on around.
Something about like that.
If you put two eyes and a big smiley face in there, it'd look like little orphan Annie.
There we are.
Okay.
Sort of blend those together.
That's all we're looking for today, something about like that.
Still without cleaning the brush, go and touch a little bit of the alizarin crimson.
Don't need a whole bunch.
And just begin blending that together.
I want to make a sky that looks like there's a, maybe the sun's here, and it's shining out, and it's a beautiful day.
We'll do this painting mostly in brown tones.
Sometimes it's gorgeous to do paintings in just one tone.
There we are.
Mmm, all right.
Now, then, I want to mix up a color.
I like brown made from sap green and alizarin crimson.
That's one of my favorite colors.
There we are, and I'm going to mix it a little bit to the reddish side.
Just a small amount.
Normally we don't worry about mixing color too well.
Today, I want to mix this pretty good, because I don't want any green streaks up in the sky.
Okay.
That ought to do it.
Wipe the old knife, then we'll go right into that brown that we made.
There, and we'll go up in here, and let's begin using that.
See it?
It sort of matches all this, it sort of works together.
It's really a gorgeous brown.
All right.
And some on the other side, just right in there.
And then we'll finish the canvas up.
We'll just use a little vandyke brown.
Little bit on the other side.
And we're ready to wash the old brush.
As you know if you've painted with me before, that's really the fun part of this whole procedure, is just washing the brush.
This is the way, it's the way I get even with everybody here in the studio that picks on me.
All right.
(laughs) You can certainly change the decor of a room very rapidly if you're not careful.
I suggest when you do this at home, you get a little device called a brush beater rack.
It fits down in the bottom of a waste paper basket, it allows you to do all this without, without ruining a happy marriage, because you can certainly do that in a heartbeat if you cover the living room with paint.
I'm just blending all these colors together, like so.
All right, and then I'm going to wash the brush again.
I'm really just looking for excuses to wash the brush.
(laughs) There we are.
Now then, I want to brighten that a little more, so I'll go right into titanium white.
We just put a little on the two inch brush.
Go right up in here.
Start in the lightest area, and begin working outward.
We want this to be the lightest, brightest part of this whole painting, right here.
There.
And just begin blending that outward.
Now you can do this several times, to achieve a desire lightness.
You can make it as light or as bright as you want, but once you get our here in these dark colors, I suggest that you clean the brush before you bring it back into the center.
There we go.
Something about like so.
Once again, you can make it as light as you want it when you do your painting.
Or leave it as dark as you want.
It's really an individual thing.
Now, very lightly.
I just want to take out the brush strokes.
Now, then.
If you want to put the indication, knock off the excess paint, if you want to put the indication of a little sun, we can do a little finger painting right there, and just take your finger and make a little round sun.
Those square suns sort of bother people.
Make it sort of round.
Of course, then, you have to clean your finger, and you beat it against the easel the same way.
All right.
And just barely caress it, and the indication of a little sun will remain right there in your sky, that easy.
See there?
It's all you need.
Okay, let's have some fun.
We're still using the same old brush, a little white, a little bit of that brown color that we made out of the sap and the alizarin mixed together.
Maybe in our world, way back in the distance, there's some little foothills that live back there, so let's do them.
All you have to do is decide where they live in your world, and begin tapping them in.
You know, when you paint, tell little stories.
It makes painting easier, it makes you understand why things work in your painting.
Shoot, sometimes I get carried away and maybe talk about the old trapper that lived in the woods, maybe fell in the river, just crazy things like that.
But it gives you a reason for that old, abandoned cabin being there, or something like that.
But make up little stories.
I know, I know, you're going to say your friends and relatives will sort of laugh at you, standing around talking to yourself painting, but that's okay.
That's okay.
Now, then.
I'm going to lift gently upward, just to make it look like little trees are growing on those hills, far away.
Short, little strokes, tiny, little strokes.
There.
Just a little bit, don't need a lot.
Just a little bit.
There we are.
Maybe I'll even take a little of the titanium white, I'm going to put the least little touch of Indian yelllow in it, and just here and there, touch it a little bit, so it just stands out a little.
You can lighten it up a little.
There, lift upward.
But that's all I'm looking for, just enough to make it stand out, like the light's zinging across there.
There.
That's all we want.
Okay.
Now, we'll use this little number three fan brush, take a little white, a little more of that brown.
I want to be a little bit darker than what we have up there, but not a great deal yet.
All right, let's go up in here, maybe there's a little stand of trees that live right here.
Little group of trees.
Happy little family of trees, right there.
I don't know, you decide.
In your world, you put trees wherever you want them, as many as you want.
There, see?
And we can come back with our old two-inch brush, and we just tap a little bit.
That easy.
And create a whole other plane in our world.
I'm going to lift up, sort of bring it together, make it work.
That's all there is to it.
And back to our white, with a little bit of the Indian yellow in it, and we can begin just showing some little dooders that climb up the hill like this.
This'll just show different planes in your hill, and that's all we're trying to do, something about like that, lift it up.
There.
And maybe over in here, it just sort of disappears.
We don't know where it goes.
Don't know that we even care.
Doesn't matter.
I'm just going to cover all this up with that nice brown we made.
There.
As I say, I want this painting to have a sort of a brown flavor to it.
I love this color, and I like paintings that are almost monochromatic, just one basic color.
All right.
I'll tell you what, sometimes, sometimes you have to get a little crazy.
Let's take a little bit of that white, and get a little roll of paint, right on the edge of the knife there.
Let's go up in here, and maybe we'll just make the indication, just by doing this, that's all you have to do.
Just like this, just enough so that it separates, and we can begin putting little things like that.
If you just rub that very hard, and keep it pretty level, when this is all done, it'll look like, well, watch, it'll look like there's a, maybe a little river back in here somewhere.
But it's far away.
We don't want a lot of detail in it.
Far, far away.
Just something like that.
And we'll come along, and we'll put something in the foreground, but maybe there's some little rapids back here that are slowly running over.
And it's just to give an indication.
Too far away to have a lot of detail in it.
All right.
We don't know where it goes back here, don't know that we even care.
Doesn't matter in our world.
Something about like that.
Okay, now.
I'm going to grab a clean, clean two inch brush.
I'm going to take that same brown that I made, but this time I'm going to add a little bit of midnight black to it.
I want to start getting very dark.
We're getting into the foreground now, and we need to get much darker.
But we load it the same way, scooping here.
Okay, bravery test.
Maybe.
Let's put some nice, dark color in here.
Very dark.
You need dark in order to show light, and that's all we're putting this in here for right now.
The only reason we're putting it in here.
There, we'll just make a nice little hill.
See, and it pushes all that back very, very far.
That easy.
And you can just decide where you want this to live.
Now, you could really put this in any old way.
I suggest you practice this tapping, because we're going to put grass on top of this, and it gives you a chance to practice those strokes, and anytime you can practice, it'll make your life so much easier, and besides that, it's more fun than just painting it on there with a paint roller.
All right.
That's coming along pretty good there.
Something about like that.
That's really all we're looking for, it's just a dark area.
Then we'll come back, begin putting all the beautiful little lights in there.
All right.
This is interesting, this is the 30th series of "The Joy of Painting." Shoot, there's nearly 400 shows now.
If you hadn't got a chance to see them all in your area, give the station you're watching this on a call, because they're available to them, and if you'd like to see them, let them know.
That's the only way they know that you're interested.
There we go.
Something about like that.
Now, then.
Going back to my old two inch brush.
I'm going to take some sap green, a little bit of the cad yellow, yellow ochre, all those beautiful little colors, just tap.
Now, then.
Back in here, I want the indication of a little bit of grass area, that lives right along in here.
Something about like that, but just tap.
All you have to do is tap.
Just tap.
You decide.
About like that.
See how you can make all those little things?
And the more you tap it, the more it'll mix with the color that's already on the canvas, and it'll get darker and darker automatically.
Automatically.
You don't even have to worry about it.
If you want it to be bright, don't tap much.
If you want it to be darker, just get in there and tap the devil out of it.
There.
All right.
Now, let's get crazy. (laughs) You've painted with me before, you know I really like trees.
Let's take some vandyke brown, alizarin crimson, and midnight black, and mix them together.
All right.
Let me wipe the old knife.
Let's grab, I'm using a number six fan brush this time.
Number three would work okay, doesn't matter.
Whichever one you happen to pick up.
Load it full of color.
Maybe up here on the top of our little hill, lives, yeah, you guessed it, a happy little tree, right there.
I like little trees.
They're some of the nicest people in the country.
There, see?
There he lives.
I don't want him to be lonely.
Maybe there's a little family up here that lives together.
What a magnificent view to set up here and look at all day.
Mmm, I'm envious.
We'll even have a little one right there, then we got a whole family.
Three little trees on the hill.
Now, then.
I just want to scratch in the indication of a little tree trunk here and there, something about like that.
That's all we need.
Take that same brown color, maybe add a little bit of the bright red to it.
Not much, just a little bright red.
There, maybe even a little touch of titanium white, just to get it to stand out a little bit.
I don't want a lot of highlights on these.
Yeah, that's plenty.
Just enough so that you get the feeling there are some highlights.
But they don't distract.
There, this one next.
You have to decide which tree lives in the foreground, which tree lives back.
I think this one's right in the front.
So we do him last, so he's in front.
Hope that shows up.
Now, we can go back to our brush that has that sap green, a little Indian yellow, all those colors.
All the different greens, so we can begin bringing this together.
A few little dooders back there.
But isn't that neat?
See, got a little family of trees that sit here.
They look out over this beautiful view.
Mmm, it is gorgeous.
I'd like to live in a place, well, I'll tell you what, why not?
If I was going to live here, I'd need a house.
I'm not very good at sleeping on the dirt.
So, let's come right up in here, and let's build us a little, maybe it was a little house there.
We'll just scrape us out a basic shape, something like so.
I want it right in front of these trees.
We'll take a little vandyke, a little dark sienna mixed together, and let's just paint this in.
A quick little house.
This is just a happy little house up here on a hill.
Like that.
There.
Gives us a nice roof.
Got to have a roof to keep the water out.
There we go, something like that.
Now, when you do yours, maybe you want to have a house that's different, maybe you don't want to have a house.
Maybe you want to have a two story house.
You can do that.
Anything that you want to do.
Painting gives one almost total freedom, at least on this piece of canvas.
A little brown and white, no pressure.
I want this to be sort of an old, raggedy house.
There.
As we mentioned earlier, doing stories and stuff, maybe there's a trapper that lived here, and he went down to the river one day to check his beaver trap, and maybe he fell in.
Who knows?
Now we can do a cabin-ectomy.
In other words, just cut it off.
Get it the way we want it.
Better have a door in our cabin.
It's easier to get in and out if you got a door.
It's hard climbing through the window sometimes.
Here we go.
Take a little dark color, put the indication of a few boards and stuff on there if you want them.
And you could have made a log cabin just as easy.
Let's take a little red,a little white, a little dark sienna in it.
Let's see, maybe, yeah, why not?
Maybe this has got little red roof on there.
It's not in too good a shape either.
Not in too good a shape, the whole shingle's about fell off, it's got some holes in it.
Yeah, a few little highlights, right up here on top where the sun's really zinging across the top.
A few little dooders down the side here, so it stands out.
There.
Got us a little cabin.
All right, now we can go back to our brush with a grass color on it, and we can begin putting in all kinds of little grassy areas like this, right up here by the trees.
These trees remind me of my little squirrel.
What'd be a good place for him to live?
I want to show you my little squirrel one more time.
Shoot, I've showed him to you a couple of times in this series.
He's one of the cutest little devils that you've ever seen.
He's Pea Pod Junior.
He likes to live in my pocket.
Of course, by the time you get to see this, he'll already be turned lose, and he'll be free, probably living in my backyard, and he'll have a little condo back there in a tree.
I love these little old rascals.
I raise a bunch of them every year, turn them lose, and they go back to nature, where they're supposed to be.
Hope you enjoy seeing those little rascals, they're really special to me, and I like to share them with my friends.
All right, maybe over in here, okay, I see a thing happening here, it's a place for a path, right there.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I see it.
As you, (laughs), I'm sorry to get excited, as you paint, you begin seeing things here.
They just sort of happen.
Watch here, watch here.
We take a little brown, a little brown, and maybe, you see the indication of a little path coming out here, maybe sort of disappears, comes out here, around.
It just, these things happen.
Don't fight them when they happen.
Very quickly, you'll learn to use anything that happens in your painting, and it might make some of the most interesting compositions.
A little bit of brown and white, just a small amount, and we can highlight a little, just so it stands out here and there.
All right.
Tell you what we need here.
Let me find a liner brush.
Take a little paint thinner, and we need a few little sticks and twigs that live right along in here.
Maybe, maybe even something on out in here, old stick that lives there.
Might've been a little tree there that didn't have such a good time, things got rough on him.
Okay, let's get crazy.
We've got a minute left here.
Take a little bit of the midnight black, vandyke brown mixed together.
All right, bravery test.
Here it comes.
(whistling noise) Got to make those little weird noises.
We got a happy little tree that lives right there, and he's got a friend, too.
See?
Now we got two little trees that live there.
Now let's go back to our liner brush.
Need the paint thinner though, to make the paint very thin, so it'll literally flow right over the top of the paint that's already on the cavas.
Turn the bristles in there.
That brings it to a very sharp point.
There, you can see it?
See, just turn them, like that.
Now, Now, if it's thin enough, it'll just flow right over the top of that paint, without mixing together.
About like that, and you can put in all kinds of little arms on your trees.
Just wherever you want them.
You have to decide though, like, which one's in front?
Which one's behind?
These are decisions that you make in your own world.
Gives you a lot of power, doesn't it?
There we are.
Okay.
You know, every day we get letters from fantastic friends all over the country who are picking up their brush and trying this, and they're saying, "You told me I could do it, and I never believed it until I tried.
Now I have my whole family painting." That's so wonderful, when families do things together, because this is something you can do with your spouse, with your children, with friends, neighbors, or even people you want to be your friend.
It's a good way to meet new people, because people who paint just seem to be some of the nicest people.
There we are.
All kinds of little dooders.
And you decide, once again.
You must make these decisions.
We don't want to tell you how many limbs to put on your tree, or even what kind of tree to paint, because painting is a very individual thing.
There.
I'm going to take a little white, a little bit of the midnight black, paint thinner, just mix them together a little bit, black and white, or white and black, and I'm going to come right along here, put a little highlight right on the side of that tree.
There.
If the sun's up here, zing.
Just to make him a little sparkler on the side there.
Something about like that.
All right, go back to our brush that's got the sap green and all the yellows on it.
Tap a little color.
And let's just clean up the bottom of its foot here, bring all that together.
Maybe, maybe there's a little baby tree down here.
He's going to take over one day.
One day, he'll be the big tree, but now he's just a little baby, and I think with that, shoot, we've about got a finished painting.
Take a little paint thinner, a little bit of the bright red, and let's sign this little rascal.
Really hope you've enjoyed this little painting.
It's a very simple little painting.
It'll work for you.
If you have time, take a photograph and send to us.
All of us here at the station would love to see what you're doing.
So, until then, from all of us here, I'd like to wish you happy painting, and God bless, my friend.
(theme music) Hi, welcome back.
Certainly glad you could join me today.
Tell you what, today let's do a little scene that maybe is at night time in winter.
That'd be something a little different, and we get a lot of letters people asking how do you do a night time winter type scene, so I'll show you how easy that is to do.
Let's start out, have them run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint this little picture at home.
While they're doing that, let me show you what I've done up here.
As you can see, I have a black canvas today, and we make it black by painting it with black gesso, and that's an acrylic paint.
All you do is put it all the way over it, let it dry completely.
Then I've taken and covered it with a thin, let me repeat that word, thin coat of liquid clear.
And on top of that I've covered the entire canvas with a mixture of phthalo blue and midnight black.
More black than blue.
I just wanted sort of a blue gray color, OK?
That's all there is to it.
And we put the clear on there only to make it easy to apply this firm dry color over the top of it.
And that way we also don't have to put as much paint as you normally would on there.
OK, let's start off today with the old two-inch brush.
What the heck?
Be brave.
And we'll go right into a little titanium white.
We don't need a lot of color today, just a little titanium white.
Let's go right up here.
Have to make a decision right off.
If it's gonna be a night scene, maybe we wanna have a little moon up here, so you have to decide where that's gonna be because that's gonna be the lightest spot in your sky.
And we'll just start making little crisscross strokes like so.
(stroking) Start in that light area and blend outward.
Always blending outward, outward, outward.
There.
(stroking) And I want it to get darker and darker and darker as we move away from that light area.
See how it's picking up that color underneath though, and all these beautiful things happen.
As I've mentioned in several other series before, if you're painting for family or friends, and you're gonna do one of these black canvases with the black gesso on it, put the color on before you start doing your demonstration for your family or your friends, and when you touch it with white all these colors will appear.
My gosh, people think it's magic.
We do that a lot of times when we're doing demonstrations in public, and people are so excited when they see this happen, and it's so spectacular.
There.
Something about like so.
OK, and we wash the old brush off.
And as you know, we wash our brushes with odorless thinner.
Odorless thinner, and I really, really recommend you use odorless.
There, shake it off.
(banging) (laughing) There we go.
I get letters all the time from people, and they say I went to the hardware store and I bought some odorless thinner, or the art store, and I got home, I opened it, and it stunk bad.
Even if it says odorless I would suggest your take the lid off before you purchase it, and (sniff) give it a good sniff and see.
Now we can go back and make this as light as we want.
You can go back in here several times, if you wanted to, and make this as light as you want, or you could leave it as dark as you want, depending on what your mood is, or what you think it oughta look like.
There.
But always start with a clean brush in the light area and work outward.
There we go.
And I really don't want it much brighter than that.
If it gets much brighter than that, it's gonna look like it's high noon.
(stroking) OK, now I'm gonna wash the brush one more time.
One more time.
I just like to wash this brush.
There.
(banging) Be sure it's as dry as possible.
Now then, I just want to blend all this together.
Just blending.
(stroking) There.
So it's quite dark around the edges here.
OK, be sure your brush is dry.
If it's not, if you hit this with a wet brush, it's gonna cut right through your paint and expose all the black that's underneath.
Alright, we'll just take the brush strokes out like that.
(banging) Now right here in this light area let's just take our finger, and we'll just finger paint a little bit.
We'll come right up and just make a little circle like so.
There we are, that's all you have to do.
Then with a clean, dry brush very gently just go over that, and you can blend it once again to any degree of lightness or darkness that you want.
And that's good enough for today.
Now then, let's take our, we'll use a fan brush.
Let's go right in that same color we put on the canvas.
That's just a mixture of phthalo blue and midnight black, more black than blue.
And maybe we have some little clouds floating around here.
There he is, little cloud lives right about there.
And all we're doing is using the corner of the brush and making tiny little circles.
Tiniest little circles, or you can just do it like this.
See.
(stroking) Just make little rocking strokes, little chh chh strokes.
There.
Maybe the clouds will go all the way up in here somewhere.
We don't know where they go.
Don't know that we even care at this point.
This is just fun painting, so let it be fun, enjoy.
Painting should make you happy.
It should make you happy.
The other thing that's so fantastic about painting is it teaches you to see, teaches you to notice nature and to see the things that, I've had people write over and over again, they say, Bob, there's been a tree living out here in my front yard for 25 years, and I never paid any attention to it.
And I started painting a little bit, and son of a gun, now I notice that tree, and there's shape and there's form, and it's a whole new world that's opened up just because I've started painting.
Teaches you to really see things.
There.
Now then, we'll just take a clean dry brush, and just gonna sort of blend that a little.
Basically all we're doing here is taking off loose color and blending it together.
(stroking) Alright.
And you can pull and move that paint because it's wet.
It has the clear underneath and the wet paint underneath, and you can move it.
Now then, I have several old fan brushes goin', so we'll take another one here.
Take a little white, put a little of that blue and black on it.
Little more white.
Oh, something like so, nice.
Hey, let's go right up here.
Maybe wanna put a little highlight on some of these.
Now remember on these black canvases color shows up much, much stronger than it does on a white canvas, so don't overdo.
Be careful, be careful.
It'll just jump right up here and eat up your whole world.
There we are, little bit right in here.
Decide where you think a little light would strike on these clouds, and drop 'em in.
Little streaks here and there.
All kinds of little beautiful things happening.
Just follow your imagination.
There.
Maybe right into here.
Little lights under here, little highlights.
OK, shoot, maybe there's even a big old fluffer that lives up in here.
(stroking) But just by making these tiny little circles you can create all that.
That easy.
That easy.
This one here wants a little highlight on it, it needs to be a little brighter.
There it shows.
Just enough to get it to show.
That's all we're looking for.
OK.
Good clean dry brush, and we can go back, and we can stir this up a little bit.
Just stir it up.
OK, and then we'll blend it.
Blend it, blend it and blend it to any degree of darkness that you want, 'cause the more your blend this, the darker it's gonna get.
You can continue to blend it 'til it goes away, just leaves you.
There.
Alright.
There we go.
OK, now I give this just a pretty nice little evening sky.
And that's one of the easiest ways that I know to make a night time sky.
This is very effective using these black canvases.
Now then maybe back here let me find, huh, we'll use the old round brush today.
What the heck?
I'll go right into that dark color.
Maybe there's some little bushes and stuff that live right back here.
Just gonna tap right into the paint.
See, tap firmly, tap firmly.
This is my new gold brushes.
See that, nice gold hair in 'em.
They're beautiful, beautiful little devils.
Now then, let's just go right in here, and let's just put in some very basic little bush shapes.
A dark color will stand right out against that.
Maybe there's a little bush that lives, a little tree, he lives right here.
There we go.
(stroking) That easy.
That easy.
Hope you got to see all the paintings we've shown in a earlier show of this series that people have sent in.
I'm just, I'm always tickled to death to see what people are doing.
They send us some of the most fantastic photographs.
So if you're painting, if you have time, drop us a line.
Love to hear from you anyway, but send some photographs in of what you're doing.
I read every letter that comes in, and we answer every letter that requires an answer.
So if you have time, drop us a line.
It's nice to hear from people who are watching and who are enjoying some success with this.
We'll take a little bit of same black, blue, little white.
Got another brush going here.
I have several of these, see, but I'm just gonna tap, firmly tap some of that color right into the bristles.
Alright, let's reach over here and get a little more.
Alright, just tap it, that's all there is to it.
Now then, up in here, here's our light source, very gently go right above that dark, and begin laying in just little highlights.
Look at that son of a gun sparkle.
That easy, you could make a beautiful little tree.
Now I'm painting it a little bit brighter than I normally would so it shows up better.
So at home when you're doing this, you paint it any degree of lightness or dark that you want.
As I say, I want it to show up on your set, so I'm painting a little brighter than I normally would.
As we work away from the light area here, I'm gonna start adding more dark to that so it gets darker and darker.
Little individual speck here.
There we go.
This brown brush is fantastic though for making these little type of trees and little distant things.
Alright.
Then you can create the illusion of layers.
Let's go on the other side for a minute.
Right over in here.
There we go, we don't want this little tree left out.
He would get angry with us.
Nothing worse than a angry tree.
Got tree chased all over the yard one time with one.
There we are, see there, create layers.
See that tree is definitely in front of that one.
And you do that just be leaving little dark areas in between.
There maybe there's another little tree right there.
Looks like thousands of little snow covered leaves or ice fog, if you're from Alaska.
There we are.
Boy, that's a beautiful country.
Gotta go back and see all my friends there pretty soon.
See, just layer after layer after layer.
Look at the depth that's already in there just from doing that.
You could just take a knife and scrape through, let a little black show through if you wanna make the indication of a few little trunks here and there.
Just like so.
(scraping) Wherever you want 'em.
Maybe we find, yeah, we'll use a two-inch brush, what the heck?
Take a little titanium white.
Just pull the brush right through there and get a little white on it.
Doesn't matter if it even has a little of that blue and black in it.
Just like so.
OK, let's go up here.
Gotta make a big decision here.
Where does our snow live?
Let's just come right in here, put a little snow.
See, that's gonna pick up all of those fantastic colors that are on the canvas, and beautiful things will happen automatically.
Look at that.
And by starting out smaller and letting it disappear up in here, already it gives the impression of depth and distance in the painting.
Sneaky, huh?
There we go.
(stroking) And the more you work this, the darker it's gonna become, of course.
OK.
Now then, maybe there's a big tree in our world.
Let me find a round brush here.
Go right back into that dark color.
Yep, right here.
Just come right here, right up into the sky, there it lives in our world, a great big old tree.
There he is.
(stroking) Shoot, just drop them in wherever you think they should live.
There he is.
(stroking) Now then, let's go on the other side.
Maybe there's a bigger one over here, too.
This sorta bring everything in.
Maybe there's a nice one that lives right here.
Maybe he's not quite as big, but...
substantially bigger than the rest of 'em.
Now then, you know what we're gonna do?
Maybe, tell you what, I got an idea.
Got an idea.
Maybe back here, let's just do this.
Maybe there's a little cabin back here.
See here.
(scraping) Watch how easy you can do this on these canvases.
(scraping) I just scrape out a basic shape, and that removes that excess paint.
OK, now I'm gonna take a little brown, like the back edge, zup zup.
Like so.
Come straight down.
Gives us a front.
We'll just use that same blue white color.
Put a little highlight on there.
There, just a little highlight.
OK, now a little door.
Gotta have a place to get around.
There, and that's super simple little cabin.
Maybe there's a light on the window.
Little yellow, little cad yellow.
Put a little window in there, zup.
Little one over here, zup.
Now there's somebody at home.
Somebody's at home, maybe they got dinner cooking.
We don't know.
OK, little bit of titanium white.
Phew.
Put a little snow on the roof.
Little bit on the other side.
And that just gives us a very simple little cabin way back there.
And put a few little bushes right around the bottom there.
Little highlight on those bushes, and you push that cabin right back into the woods, that easy.
Little white, grab it, pull.
Bring a little snow right up to the cabin.
Look at that, see how easy you can just put your little house in there.
Wherever you want it.
(stroking) There we go.
(stroking) Now maybe, tell you what, let's have some fun.
I'm gonna take a little touch of the lizarin crimson, mix it with a little touch of the blue, little bit of blue.
We're just mixing on the brush, little white.
Crimson, white, blue.
I'm gonna make a very dark lavender color.
Little bit of the crimson, OK, just to change the flavor a little.
There, let's go right up here.
We'll put some highlights on this tree.
I want it to stay a little darker though, 'cause it's further away from the light source.
I want it to be darker.
There he is.
Big old tree.
He just hides back here and watches everything that's going on.
(stroking) Alright.
We can put, maybe there's a little snow behind back here.
But it's gonna be much darker.
Don't want it to get too bright on you.
Set that tree right down in the snow.
(stroking) OK, maybe over here on this one on the other side.
Maybe that's...
Oh, yeah, good.
Good.
See there, little rascals just live right there in that brush.
All you gotta do is just sorta tap 'em out.
Sometimes it's nice to take some of that dark color, just some black.
Let's put a little Prussian blue in there.
That'll really darken it up.
Maybe in our world, let's go right here.
Maybe in our world there lives a little evergreen tree.
There he comes.
Just push him upward with the corner of the fan brush.
There we go.
Just a very dark little evergreen.
(stroking) There.
Let's see, we take another fan brush, take a little white, little pthahlo blue, little black.
Go back in here and put in just an indication here and there.
Few little highlights on the tree.
I don't want a whole bunch.
Too dark.
There, something like so.
And you could put as many or as few trees in there as you want.
There.
And begin creating the lay of the land here.
(stroking) There.
As I say, as I mentioned earlier, I hope you got a chance to see all those pictures of the paintings that people had sent it that they've done at home just from watching the show.
Every once in a while we pick out a few of these and show 'em in our newsletter.
It's another way that you will get an opportunity to see what other people are painting.
Super, super job that a lot of people are doing.
(stroking) There.
Now if you wanna ever change the lay of land when you're painting show like this, all you gotta do is take a little bit of color, it's a little bit lighter, and maybe you want a little hill right here.
Just go huuummm, gotta make the noise, though.
You put a little hill.
Let it flow right off over there.
There, see, and that's all there is to it.
It creates another plane in your painting.
And it's that simple.
You wanna get crazy?
Tell you what.
Maybe this is a little old farm something setting out here.
And maybe back in here the old farmer has his barn.
Once again, I think I'll just scrape out a basic shape.
Like so.
Very, very basic.
Now this is much closer to you, so perspective-wise it's gonna look much bigger.
Much, much bigger.
OK, that'll give us enough paint removal so we can get this to stick.
And we'll put in little Van Dyke brown first of all.
Then we can begin just putting in the front of this barn.
Maybe this is old farmers like me.
He's not too good at keeping things up.
Not really keen on that maintenance stuff.
I let mine sort of get behind.
I don't have a barn, but I let my maintenance get behind.
There.
Then we take a little bit of dark sienna, a little titanium white, mix it together, and leave it marble.
Cut off our little role of paint.
Then we can go right up here.
No pressure, just allow that to just sort of graze it.
Just allow it to graze it.
Slide right down like that.
Now I'm gonna use some white with some of the blue and black in it, and very carefully come down, chumm.
Just begin putting in the basic shape for our roof.
Over and down.
Then over on this side.
Of course, we have to have a little snow showing over there.
Here we go.
Chuummm.
Just like so.
Maybe, tell you what, shoot, while we got that goin', let's get crazy.
Maybe there's a little shed out here.
That's all you have to do is just come right in there.
Put in a little white.
Go back to our brown, come underneath.
See how you can add onto buildings.
It's that easy, that easy.
You can do anything on this canvas.
(scraping) Really can, any old thing.
There, little of that highlight color.
And if you wanted to show a little indication over here, it'd be very little.
Be too dark to show much of anything.
Very, very dark.
Very dark.
OK.
Gonna make it look like old boards.
Just take a little dark sienna, go like so.
Create the illusion of boards.
Little bit over here, tt-tt-tt-tt-tt.
And we need a door.
Gotta have a place for the old cow to get in.
Maybe the door is, chuuuh, right there like so.
And we can just make out a little edge on that door.
There we are.
Outline it a little bit so it shows up.
Shoot, we're in business.
Now we can come right along here, do a barnectomy, cut it off where we want it.
Just where we want it.
Go back to our titanium white.
Go right up to the bottom and pull.
And then you just blend it, just blend it out.
(stroking) There.
See there.
Little bit right in here.
(stroking) Now once again, the more you blend this, the darker it'll become because it picks up the color that's underneath.
There we go.
Let's take a clean dry brush, and just blend that there.
(stroking) Well, that's a rough lookin' old barn.
They've had a bad winter here, I can tell.
Bad winter.
(stroking) Now then.
Maybe, maybe, maybe we get a little liquid white, put it right here.
I'm gonna take some of that dark sienna, maybe a little touch of the crimson in there.
Whew, too much crimson.
Let me start over.
The liquid white.
Little dark sienna.
That's better, just wanted a touch of the crimson.
As I've mentioned before, sometimes that crimson or red will just eat up your whole world in just a heartbeat.
OK, we'll take our liner brush.
Go right into here, and get a lot of that Van Dyke brown on the liner brush, so it's very dark.
Then I'm gonna go one side right through that thin color we made.
So we have dark on one side, light on the other.
Maybe right up here, maybe there's an old fence, part of an old fence.
So just touch and pull down.
And here's another rail, and another one.
How many you want?
Want to go over the hill?
We can do that.
We're just makin' 'em look like they're shorter.
It'll go, shoop, right over the hill.
Put some old rails across there.
Put a little more color on our brush.
And there we go.
See, just let 'em go.
Goes right on over somewhere.
We don't know where it goes.
Maybe here is one that's broke.
Who cares?
Cow broke that one one day when he was havin' a bad day.
Little touch of liquid white.
Put a little snow right up on top of these.
There.
Take a little dark sienna, little white.
Maybe there's a few little weeds that live right around the bottom here.
Something like so, just here and there.
Few around the old barn, and we about got a finished painting.
Think we'll sign that one, call it done.
Hope you've enjoyed this one.
It'll show you how to use a black canvas to create some very nice night scenes.
So try it, think you'll like it.
From all of us here, I'd like to wish you happy painting, and god bless, my friend.
If this is your first time with us, let me extend a personal invitation for you to get out your brushes and your paints and paint along with us each show and all.
I'll show you how to put some of nature's masterpieces right up here on canvas.
And if you've been with us before, please allow me to thank you for inviting us back for another series of painting shows.
So I'll tell you what, let's start out today and get right to it.
Let's have them run all the colors across the screen that you will need to paint along with us.
While they're doing that, let me show you what I've gotten done up here.
Today I have an 18 by 24 inch double prime, pre-stretch canvas up here, but you use any size that's desirable to ya.
I just picked this size because it seems to work well.
And all I've done today is cover the canvas with a very thin, very very thin coat of liquid clear.
And the clear is transparent of course and so it's very easy to put too much.
Very thin, very very small amount.
I thought today we'd just have some fun.
Let's do a little painting today that'll just make you feel good inside.
I'm going to start out and mix a brown color using alizarin crimson and sap green in about equal proportions.
I thought today I'd show ya how to make a painting that looks like it's on wood, but it's really on canvas.
It's very very simple.
And if you've never painted before, this is one that you can do, this is an easy one.
This one you'll have immediate success.
There, we just mixed the color up like so.
And as I say, this would make a beautiful beautiful warm brown.
And when you're mixing the green and the crimson together you can pick if you want it toward the greenish side or toward the reddish side.
Normally I sort of like it toward the reddish side, but that's just my personal preference.
Now we'll pick a little bit of titanium white and then mix it right into this brown color.
This is a very transparent color and I put a little white in there just to give it a little bit of opaqueness.
Alright.
Let's go up here and once again we have liquid clear up here, so I'm just going to try to make this look like old wood just about like so.
It really doesn't matter.
Just going to make so streaks up and down through here.
There and you can make them as dark or as light as you what them.
It's up to you by adding different amounts of white you can change the value of the color.
And just let it go.
Wherever, wherever.
Something about like that.
There.
Sometimes you might want to put a little more of the crimson in just to give it a little reddish tone, little reddish flavor.
Sometimes maybe even a little touch, little touch of black to make it look grey.
Just depends on what kind of wood you're trying to make here.
There.
That's continually mixing with the liquid clear that's already on the canvas.
There.
If this was not a wet canvas, you'd have a devil of a time trying to make this paint just slide on there.
But since it's wet with the clear, this is very easy.
And I'm sort of doing this in streaks so it looks like wood.
I want it to look like old boards that maybe somebody's just nailed together.
Alright.
There we go and that's really about all there is to it.
Once again, when you're doing yours, you change the flavor any way that you want it.
If you want it to be darker or more to the grey hue, it's up to you, any way that you want it.
Okay.
Now, the most fun part of this whole technique is washing the brush.
So let's do that.
We wash our brushes, since these are oil paints we wash them with odorless paint thinner.
I have a screen down here in the bottom of the bucket that I scrub the bristles against, shake it off.
And then just (wacks brushes) (laughs) just beat the devil of it.
I'd recommend if you do that in your living room you get some kind of protection because it'll change your whole decor in a matter of seconds.
Now let's have some fun, let's have some fun.
We'll take a fan brush, put in a little paint thinner, shake off the excess, and very lightly, very lightly, I'm just going to allow that thinner to work right down through here.
Just a little paint thinner, and it'll take a second for this to start working.
But paint thinner, and liquid clear have quite a violent little reaction and it'll make it look like wood grain as it begins to work.
And think about individual boards here.
And sort of change the grain a little bit.
There, and you can make this any old way that you want it.
This piece of canvas really is your world.
And on this piece of canvas, you have total and absolute power.
You can create any allusion that you want here.
See there, but just let that paint thinner work.
And if you have a little nervous twitch in your hand it'll pay you great dividends here.
Just let it wiggle and jiggle and carry on and it'll begin to look like old wood as it works.
Maybe over here, maybe this one sort of goes like it.
Wood grain is not always straight, it goes in every old direction.
Just sort of depends on how the old tree lived, if it had a good easy life or sometimes maybe the old tree had a rough life, and wood grain's all gnarly.
There.
Alright.
But you just do this til you have it the way you like it.
It's very very simple. There.
And it doesn't have to just be with brown.
You can do this with any color.
You may want it to match the decor of a certain room or something and maybe you need it done in blue.
You can certainly do that.
The secret is the liquid clear and the reaction that it has with paint thinner.
There we go.
That's all.
Maybe over in here, say there.
Isn't that fantastic?
So, so simple.
Alright.
And as I say, if you've never painted before, this you can do.
Okay, now we've got a canvas that's beginning to look like old wood.
And it'll take a few minutes for this to work.
But while that's working, let's just have some fun here.
Let me clean off a little spot to work.
Let's take some black, we'll use a little bit of the Prussian blue, some crimson, maybe even a little bit of Van Dyke brown, what the heck we don't care.
Pull it out as flat as we can get it, and then cut across and get a little roll of paint, see that little roll of paint, lives right out on the edge of your knife there.
Okay let's go up in here.
Maybe back here in our world, maybe let's get brave, maybe there lives a happy little mountain back here.
Just something very simple.
And I'm just going to let it sort of fade off of the edges.
Just wherever you want it.
And you decide how many little peaks and bumps live in your mountain because you can create any kind of mountain that you want in your world.
There.
And we'll take our two inch brush, be sure it's good and dry, and pull that paint.
Just let it move here, give it a little pull.
There, that's all there is to it.
What I'm doing here is removing excess paint, and I want it to be misty at the bottom of the mountain.
Something about like yeah.
Alright.
Now let's come back, take a little bit of the titanium white, I'll put the least little touch of bright red into it just to warm it up.
Be very careful, the bright red is unbelievably strong.
A little bit will set your whole world on fire.
Once again, our little roll of paint.
Let's go up in here.
Now then, you have to make a determination, where's your light coming from.
I'm right handed, so most right handed people find it easier to have the light come from the right.
Left handed people will find that it's different for each person because left handed people have been forced to do right handed things their whole life.
Most of them can do it either way.
Maybe they have an advantage on the rest of us.
My brother's left handed and he can do things with either hand.
I have trouble working with just one.
I'm going to take a little thalo blue now, I want a brighter blue, a little white, mix them together.
Something like that.
Now when you're doing your painting use any color that you want.
The only thing that we want to do here is just show you how to make these effects.
What you make is totally, completely up to you.
Little roll of paint once again, because as you know painting is a very individual thing.
Everybody sees nature through different eyes.
And what you see is what you should paint.
That's the representation you should try to put on canvas.
There.
There's no right or wrong here.
Just makes you feel good let's you be creative.
I think we all have a little creative being that lives within us here.
Go back to a little bit of the white.
Maybe just put a little, yeah, a little bump on the mountain there just to break up that edge.
He needs his own shadow though.
And allow it to pick up a little bit of that white and pull it down.
Looks like light sort of dripping over the side here.
It's a very nice little effect and it'll happen automatically for you, don't worry about it.
There.
Now then, we get a good clean dry two inch brush and I want to create the allusion of mist right down here at the base of this mountain.
So tap, but pay particular attention to angles, see the angles coming down?
follow those angles.
Over here, go in this direction, just like so.
There.
And then very gently, two hairs and some air, just lift upward like that.
So that it creates a nice soft misty area right down at the base.
Okay.
Now we've got to make some more big decisions, what lives back here.
And our world, let's just take a mountain color.
That was Prussian blue, black, some brown, some crimson, and we'll add sap green in there too.
We just basically have all the dark colors thrown in.
Mix them up, wipe off the old knife.
There.
Let's have the fan brush.
Gonna load a lot of color in there, and maybe let's go up here.
Maybe in our world lives, yep you're right, a happy little evergreen tree, right here.
Maybe there's several evergreen trees, they live right here in front of this mountain.
There we go. See?
That's all there is to it.
Give him a little friend.
Everybody needs a friend, even a little tree.
There.
Maybe, yep.
You decide. Just sort of look at your painting because each person's painting will be different and unique.
Different in every way.
We don't try to teach you how to copy here.
We try to teach you how to be creative in your own right.
We only want to show you how to make effects.
There. Because if you can paint one evergreen, you can paint a million.
It's up to you.
Maybe, oh what the heck, maybe there's a bigger one over here and that'll be the last tree.
We'll just sort of let this wander off on the edge.
There we go.
Maybe there's one there that's, he's not totally straight.
He didn't want to be a telephone pole when he grew up.
There.
He just wanted to be an individual.
You decide.
Where ever.
I didn't know I was going to do a forest, but that's okay.
You put as many trees in your world as you want.
As many as you want.
Let's get brave, over here on this side, big old tree.
We need a daddy tree here, there he is.
Big tall guy.
There strong tree.
Alright, maybe another one.
We really are going to do a forest here today.
Something about like it, it doesn't much matter.
We just want to put in some happy little indications of trees and bushes that live back in there.
Let's take some white, a little dark sienna, mix them together.
And we'll make a bass brown, cut off a little roll of paint once again.
Practice loading you knife with that little role of paint if you're just starting.
That little roll of paint works for everything.
and we'll put the indication here and there and there and here.
Lots of little tree trunks that live way back in there.
We don't know how many's there.
You can cut in the indication of some trunks.
Maybe the trees passed away.
Because that happens in the woods, and he just leaves his trunk hanging there.
There.
Now, we just use that same brush.
What the hay, we'll go right into some, oh cad yellow, yellow ochre, Indian yellow.
Just sort of mix them on the brush.
But since there was blue and black in these colors, then we're gonna automatically get beautiful greens.
Okay, load a lot of color in the brush, see both sides are full.
Let's go up in here.
Now, we said our light was coming from the right in this painting.
So place more emphasis on the right side of the tree then the left.
You knew that.
I know, there just a reminder.
And a little bit in here.
And each one doesn't have to be painted totally in.
Because you won't see each one, especially down toward the base here.
We just need little indications.
There.
See?
That's all there is to it.
And leave the base of the tree darker than the top.
There, because not as much light's gonna hit the bottom.
Not as much light.
It's dark and shadowy down there, that's where all my little animal friends live.
See my little squirrel Pea pod, he lives up here in the tree and then the little bunny rabbits and stuff, they live down here at the base.
Maybe we'll show you some little squirrels in the series.
I've got some little friends I'll show you.
Okay, let's go back and find a two inch brush.
Take a little bit of that color right there, and I'm going to pull it straight down.
Straight down.
Let's make a nice reflection down here.
Maybe this is water.
Pull it straight down.
That easy.
When I was traditional painting, painter, one of the hardest things to do was reflections.
Now it's one of the absolute easiest things there is to do.
That's all there is to.
Pull it down, go across, and it creates that little allusion.
And we can go back to our little fan brush.
Yellow ochre, the color that was on there, once in a while a little bright red.
And we can go back up in here and let's make some decisions.
Maybe there's some little bushy areas back at the base of these trees.
Wherever you want them, that's where they live.
Right there.
Just wherever.
Make it all jagged so you have little places that maybe you can take a canoe and sneak back in there and big 'ol trout live in there.
I like to fish, but I'm not a very good fisherman because I caught them and take them out of the water, take the hook out and put a band aid on them, give them a little CPR, pat them on the tootoo and put them back in there.
So they'll be there the next time I come.
Take a little of the liquid white on the knife.
And just cut in indication here and there of a little water line that just sort of floats around.
Just sort of a little light area just between these darks.
There.
That's all there is to it.
But act just like you're trying to cut a hole right through the canvas.
Right through the ol' canvas.
And canvas is tough.
Chances are you're not going to hurt it.
You'd have to take a running start and hit it to damage it.
Okay, let's get a small brush.
Now a small brush in our style of painting is a one inch. (laughs) That's all right.
I want to pull it through that same dark color in one direction.
Notice that the brush is straight down, pulled in one direction, load a lot of paint in it.
So then when you turn it, it has a rounded corner.
We want that rounded corner toward the top.
Let's go up here.
And maybe we'll have some little bushes and stuff that live back here in our world.
Just push in, don't let the brush slide.
Just give it little upward push, bend it, bend the bristles, just bend them.
See, and it'll help create that nice leafy looking effect.
Maybe comes out like it, we don't care.
Doesn't matter, anywhere that you want it.
Anywhere that you want.
Now then, one of our golden rules and if you've painted with us before, you certainly know this, a thin paint will stick to a thick paint.
The paints that we use here are very thick, they're very dry, they're not like normal oil paints that are soft and creamy. Very dry.
So then we can take and put layers of thinner paint right over the top of it without waiting for it to dry between each so layer.
So I've dipped the brush into liquid white.
Now I'm going to pull it through the green, so I've got a little sap green here.
Just pull it same way, one direction, lot of color.
See when you turn that brush over, then you have a rounded corner that goes toward the top.
Okay let's go up in here again.
Now let's pick out individual little bushes and stuff to live in here.
You don't have to push hard.
Do one little bush at a time, he's your friend, take care of him.
Vary the color a little bit here and there, little bit of the yellow ochre sometime, just to change the flavor.
There we go.
See? One little bush at a time though.
Think about these little rascals, they're your friends.
In a painting, these create depth.
So take care of them, you want them to work well.
There.
You can put a little bit and let me say that again, a little bit, of paint thinner on your brush and go into color if you don't want to change the value.
Because the liquid white, since it is white, needless to say, will change the value a little bit.
It'll make the paint brighter and a little lighter.
A little paint thinner will just keep it the same only make it thinner.
Okay.
Maybe, I'll tell you, I know, I know, I know.
Let's take a little Van Dyke brown, a little dark sienna mixed together.
Let's have a little path.
You need a way to get up in here to put your canoe in the water to catch that trout.
Make up little stories when you paint.
It really helps if you know in your mind what this world is like.
Then it's more personal to you.
You have a better time when you paint.
And painting should be relaxing.
It should take you to a world where there's no worries, there's no hassles.
Little brown and white just barely touch, just graze, just like you were laying snow on the mountain.
There, see there.
Now we have a little path.
Now we want to set that path down into the painting.
Take and put some bushes that come right over the path.
See how that pushes it right down in there?
We don't know where it goes back here, we don't care where it goes, it's just a happy little path, it takes us back into a part of our painting that's very special to us.
There.
Something about like that.
See, wherever you want them.
All kinds of little doers live back in here.
There we are.
Then we can come back, take our knife, and in bushes there's always little sticks and twigs and limbs and arms that hang out and through here.
You can take the knife and just scrape right through the paint.
And just allow the canvas to show through.
And it looks like all kinds of little sticks and twigs and just little things that live in there.
These show different layers or planes in your painting, and those planes, that's what creates the illusion of depth.
I know you've looked at paintings and they look flat to you.
That's the reason, because little things like this haven't been done.
So you can put little hanging down limbs on the evergreens back in here.
Wherever you want them.
All kinds of little things.
Maybe a little stick lives over here.
Just sort of let your imagination take you wherever you want to be, like that.
You can also take the script liner brush, that's our only small brush, put little thinner on it, we'll use a little bit of brown just to show you how.
But the big thing here is make the paint thin, it should get very thin and the liner brush has very long bristles on it, there you can see them against that, very long bristles that hold a lot of paint.
So, don't be bashful, fill it up full of paint.
And you can come back and you can put in little limbs and twigs and sticks and things that live here.
Wherever you want them.
Just let them go where it's dark and then you can use a lighter color so it shows up.
There. Because there's little twigs and sticks in the woods that are light colored.
Something about like that.
That's all there is to it, many or as few as you want.
Shoot I think we've about got to finish painting.
Let's sign this rascal.
For that we'll take paint thinner once again.
And I use bright red, but you use any color to sign your painting that you would like.
One of the things that I get a lot of letters, it's over and over say, how do I sign my painting, what do I use to sign my painting.
That's very individual.
Let's go up here.
Some people use initials, some use their entire name, some use last name, some use first name.
You come up with a way of signing your painting.
And however you sign it, make it consistent.
So that 100 years from now when collectors are looking for your paintings, they'll know what to look for.
And they'll know that on this day, you had a fantastic day and today you experienced the joy of painting.
And from all of us here until the next show, I'd like to wish you happy painting and god bless my friend.
(upbeat music) (soft music) Hello, I'm Bob Ross and I'd like to welcome you to the 23rd Joy of Painting series.
First of all, let me thank you for inviting me back for another series of painting shows.
And if this is your first time with us, let me extend a personal invitation for you to drag out your brushes and a few paints and paint along with us each show and I'll teach you how to put some of nature's masterpieces on canvas.
I tell you what, let's start out today and have them run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint along with us.
While they're doing that, come on up here and let me show you what I've got started already.
I have my standard old pre-stretched double primed canvas up here and today I've covered it with a thin, even coat of liquid clear and liquid white mixed together because I want somewhat of a semi-transparent sky in this one.
So I put a little clear in there just to, just so that will happen.
So I tell you what, let's just start out today and do a beautiful little, maybe we'll do a winter scene today.
And let's see what happens.
So let's start, we'll use a little two inch brush.
We'll go right into a very small amount of the phthalo blue, very small amount, don't need much.
Just pulling a bit out and tap the bristles into the color.
See, that assures a nice, even distribution of color all the way through the bristles and that's exactly what we're looking for.
So, let's go up here.
Maybe we'll have a nice, light area right up here in the sky and let's see what happens, Let's just take this and go right up in here with a little bit of the phthalo blue and we just do something, sort of like that.
Sort of like that.
We just do a very simple painting today but I think you'll find very effective and a great deal of fun to do.
There, maybe something like, like that.
That's all we need.
And I have it slightly off center, I don't want it directly in the center of the canvas.
Slightly off center.
But as you can see the paint continually mixes with the liquid white and liquid clear that we have on the canvas and automatically we get this beautiful blending effect.
If we were doing this on a dry canvas, we'd be in agony city already.
But this makes it work.
It's a lazy man's way of painting.
Okay, now then without cleaning the brush, we'll go right into a small amount and very small amount because it's strong of the prussian blue.
I want a little darker blue this time, I'm going from the phthalo right into the prussian.
So we have a graduation of color into darker, darker blues.
Then we can go right up in here and once again, we'll just add a little bit of that blue right around here.
Like so, and just let it blend outward.
We want this to be the lightest area and get progressively darker as we work outward.
Okay, add a little bit more of the prussian blue and we'll go to the other side here and do exactly the same thing.
Something about like so.
There we are.
But once again, this is mixing with a liquid white and the liquid clear that's on the canvas and this beautiful blending effect will happen automatically.
Now then, I want it to get even darker as it works outward.
So I'll take prussian blue and I'll mix that with a small amount of midnight black.
So we have blue and black or black and blue, whatever your preference.
There we go.
And back up to the canvas.
See how much darker that is because we put that little bit of black in there.
And we'll just finish filling up the sky.
Just like that, it didn't take long when you're using that big old two inch brush.
Doesn't take very long.
Okay, add a little bit more of the color, the blue and the black and we'll go to the other side and we'll fill it up.
Just like so.
Okay, now then, now comes the fun part.
Let me wash the old brush and if you've painted with me before you know this is the most exciting part of the whole technique because this is where I get even with everybody here in the studio.
We shake off the excess and just beat the devil out of it.
And that really, that's where you take out all your frustrations and hostilities and that's the fun part of it.
Now then, with a good, clean dry brush we can just begin blending this.
I just want to blend it so you can't tell where one color stops and the next color starts.
Just blend it til it's very, very soft.
There we go.
Now I beat the brush just to take off the excess paint you've picked up off the canvas.
It's easier than going through the whole cleaning procedure.
And it will clean your brush right off.
Alright, we can just wipe it down in here because if we have a little color down in here, I think I'll have a little snow down in here and that will just end up being shadows in the snow.
We're not really worried about it.
Cause you know, we don't make mistakes.
We just have happy accidents.
You learn to work with anything that happens in this technique.
We don't use any patterns, we don't do any drawing.
We just sort of let it happen.
We let it happen and very quickly you learn to create on canvas.
Okay, let me wash the old brush again.
I just like to wash the brush.
Now then, I'm going to go right into some titanium white with the old two inch brush here and just load a little color right on the brush here.
And let's go right up in here.
I want to make this very bright.
Right here, this is going to be our light area, let's start right in here putting in some of that titanium white and let it blend outward.
Let it blend outward, it will mix with all those beautiful blues, black colors that we have in there.
Start in the light area and work outward.
Outward, outward, outward.
Something like so.
I'm going to beat the brush.
Once again, just take off the excess paint and blend out this direction.
Now, like that.
Now then, sometimes, let me wash the old brush again.
I'll show you something that's really fun.
Sometimes it's nice to load a little white, little bit of the titanium white, then I'll reach right over here be right back, right back.
Get a least, I'll say it again least little touch of cadmium yellow.
Just want to sparkle this, maybe a touch more.
There, that's beautiful.
Just want to put a little bit of yellow right up in here.
Now, don't put too much yellow because of the yellow against the blue will turn green.
In this particular painting, we're not looking, we're not looking for a bring green sky.
I just want a little, a little yellow flavor right up in here.
There.
And we once again will blend that outward.
Now you can do this as many times as you desire to create a desired lightness.
You can go over it, and over it, and over it.
But I would recommend that each time you clean and dry the brush so you don't drag the dark color back into this beautiful light center here.
Okay, just knock off that exess paint once again and we'll blend out in the other direction.
There, that easy.
That easy.
That's all there is to it.
And then very lightly, two hairs and some air.
Just very gently, go right across it.
And we have a very nice little light area in here and that will be our light source in this particular painting.
Okay, there we go, get the old brush good and clean.
Now then, let's have some more fun.
Let's take a little white, little bit of the black, little bit of the prussian blue.
We'll just mix this color right on the brush.
Something I'm looking for a blue gray color.
Something about like so.
I'm going to tap the brush, so I'm sort of pushing forward like that and getting a little, little bit of color right out here on the end of the bristles.
Let's go up here.
Now maybe back in here there's some beautiful little footie heals that live in here.
In our world maybe, yup, you're right.
They live right along in here.
And by just using the corner of the brush and tapping we can put the indication of all kinds of little things back in here.
We just sort of let them blend right on out into, they just sort of fade away into nothing.
Very soft, very gentle, quiet, just beautiful little things that live back in here.
Right into the sun.
There we go.
Now then very lightly lift it up in little tiny, tiny short strokes, tiny little short strokes.
Just lifting upward, upward like that.
It will give the indication of little trees that live way back in the distance far, far away.
Now then, let me grab another brush.
I have several of each one.
We'll take a tiny, tiny bit of white.
I want to create the illusion of a nice misty area right in here.
Just a little white, titanium white and we'll just tap a little.
Just tap a little.
So we have a nice soft area in there.
Then I'll take the same color.
Just black with a little prussian blue in it, load it back on that brush just like we did before.
And maybe, right in here, yup.
Maybe there's another doer that lives right in here.
See.
But that little misty area right in between is what separates your layer, it's all it takes is a small misty area and as you know as things get closer to you in a landscape they should get darker and darker in value.
There, lift upward once again.
I'll tell you what, let me show you, let me show you.
I get carried away sometime.
Let's take a little more of the black, a little more of the prussian blue, a little touch of white, make that same color.
I'm just putting it on the fan brush.
As you paint like this you begin seeing things.
I just see a wonderful place here.
Maybe, maybe maybe.
There's some bigger trees, yeah, right there.
Just tap with the fan brush and pull downward.
Give it a little downward pull.
And we'll make the indication of a lot of little trees that live right up here on this hill.
That easy.
That easy.
Just tap them, it's all it takes.
It's all it takes, maybe they just sort of blend out over here into nothing, we don't know where it goes.
Don't know that we care.
There, back to my old two inch brush that had that color on it.
And we just sort of bring that down so it all comes together.
Very soft, there we are.
See how easy that is, don't be afraid of this brush because it's large.
It will do wonderful, wonderful things for you.
All you need is a little bit of practice, an idea in your mind and off you go.
It's really all it takes.
There are no secrets here that we don't give you.
You really can do this.
Everyday I get letters from people from all over the country that say you told me that I could do this and I tried it and you're right, I can do it, I really can do this.
Alright, now then.
Time to start making some big decision here.
Let me wash the old brush again.
I just like to wash the brush.
There.
Now then, maybe back in here we'll begin to have a little snow.
We said we's going to have a winter scene so I'll take white, just titanium white but maybe we'll put the least, least little touch of that cad yellow into it.
Since we had a little of that in the sky, maybe a little of that will be reflecting into the snow back there.
But see I just loaded the brush by pulling it through the paint.
So there's a little paint in both sides, let's go up here.
Now then, you have to make major decision.
Maybe our snow lives, yup, right there.
And all you do is pull.
When you're painting snow, angles are extremely, extremely important.
So, pay attention to the lay of the land here, how you want this snow to flow.
There now I want it to come slightly downward but not a great deal, just so it looks like there's a little incline there.
And by pulling those strokes in that direction, that will happen automatically.
Automatically, you don't have to worry about it, just think about the angle that you have in here.
There, a little shadow right in here.
Take a little of that gray color and pull in back in this direction and I'll show you why in just a second.
Let them blend together so you have a little shadow area.
There.
Now then.
Maybe in our world, go back to the plain white.
Maybe in our world we'll have.
Yup, how about right here.
We'll change the angle and let it come right through, see?
See, see, there it is.
Just pull it, you can do anything in your world that you want to do.
That easy.
By changing this angle, we have a whole different plain in that painting and it pushes that and that and that way back further.
And plains in a painting, different plains, each one of these is a plain.
Not an airplane going by.
Each one of these plains helps create that illusion of depth and distance in your painting.
And I like a lot of depth and distance in my paintings.
I think that's what makes painting spectacular.
Oh, I just had another idea.
This little hill here, let's do this.
Let's do this, let's do.
Take a little of the prussian blue with the black, mix it together, want this to be pretty dark, I'm only putting a small amount of white in this.
Maybe a little darker than the background color.
A little bit more white, there we go.
And you can just mix these colors on the brush once again, don't worry about it.
Just mix them on the brush.
Let's go up in here.
Maybe on this little hill there lives a happy little tree.
Right here, right there, there.
If you've painted with me before you know I have a lot of little squirrels and other animals that live with me and this will be a good place for my little squirrel he can sit up here and look all out over the countryside and see what was happening.
And my little squirrel certainly is nosy, he'd want to, he'd want to know.
Maybe later on in the show we'll show you those again.
Right now I have five of them that live with me.
There.
Sometimes that's worse than having five children.
We'll have another little tree over here, what the heck.
But all you're using is the corner of the fan brush and you just sort of push downward.
Just push downward like that.
And as you work down the tree, you push harder and harder because you want the branches and limbs to get larger and larger.
Now down here at the bottom, all you gotta do is take a little touch of this white on the two inch brush.
Grab a little of that color, intentionally grab the color because that will make a shadow.
Right underneath, see?
And just pull it.
It will give that little tree a place to sit on there.
You don't want him sitting on there just sort of floating.
There and once again begin thinking about angles in your snow, there we are.
See there, now you can take, maybe there's a little bush or two, maybe there's a grassy area just foots.
Take that same color and just sort of push upward a little bit.
That will help create that illusion.
And you can grab and clean up that little grassy area on the bottom there same way until you have it just as smooth as silk.
There.
And let's take our knife, we'll use the old knife here.
We'll just put the indication of a little trunk here.
I don't want a lot of detail, this is too far away in my world.
Just some indication, see we just pull through and we'll turn a few trees and the whole forest back here.
Scratch through the paint and it will give the indication of a little trunk here and there.
Maybe there's a little stick or twig, whatever, whatever.
Let's get crazy. You know me.
This will be a wonderful place if my little squirrels gonna live there.
I'd have to have a house too so let's come right in here, let's have us a cabin right here.
Now, one of the easiest ways, take your knife and I might not be able to see that but scrape out the basic shape.
That does two things, it allows you to lay out your little cabin without being committed and it removes excess paint so the next layer goes on easier.
See there but you can scrape out the whole basic little shape and you're still not committed at this point.
There we are, now then.
Let's take, let's take a little bandit brown.
We load that little bit of paint on the knife by pulling it out flat and cutting across it.
Let's do a back E back here.
Just bandit brown is all it is.
Pull down, here we go.
Give a nice little side there.
Over here, just pull down.
There.
And if you haven't painted with us before, one thing that I should mention, the paint that we use is extremely firm, it is much firmer than traditional oil paints.
Much, much firmer.
That's the only reason we can paint wet on wet.
In other words, do the whole painting while it's still wet.
If you put a very firm paint up here first, then you can put thinner colors right on the top of it without becoming a mud mixer.
If you've painted before, all of us have experienced a little mud mixing, it just comes with the territory.
Nobody has a monopoly on mud mixing.
We all get a chance at it.
Take a little vandike and white and mix it together.
See how flat you pull it out, as flat as you can get it.
Cut across, I mean we have a tiny roll of paint.
There you can see it wonderful, right on the edge of the knife there.
Lives right out there and very lightly touch and just let it float just so it's barely touching.
I want this side to be lighter than the backside back here.
Barely touch.
Maybe there's a, maybe there's some boards here.
We'll just take some vandike brown and just touch, make the indication of some little boards.
Over here we need a few, something like so.
There.
And maybe we have a little window or two here.
We'll just take the small edged knife and sort of scrape this out a little window indication.
Then I'll use a little of the midnight black, nobody's home today.
Or he didn't pay his electric bill.
Don't see any wires running to his house anyway, so.
There, I'll give him a little door so he can get in and out.
But when you're painting make up little stories like it.
You know you're family and friends will look at you like you're a little weird but that's alright.
Artists are expected to be a little, a little different.
But it really helps you, if you make up little stories then you can see these things in your mind.
And anything that you can see in your mind very quickly, you can learn to put on canvas.
Here we're just doing a cabinectomy.
In other words, we're cutting off whatever we don't want to get our perspective and everything right.
Now we have a roof that we need to put on.
So, we'll take the white, pull it out very flat.
Here's a little trick.
You're gonna get your edges nice and straight.
Just lay the edges all in first using the straight edge of the knife, excuse my arm for a second.
There, and this will make it a little easier when you pull down.
See now everything will be straight on the edges.
There, there are no firm rules in this.
I only want to show you ways that things will work.
As you paint everyday, you're going to find new ways that are much better than what I am showing you.
Use them, painting is an individual thing.
If it works for you, then it's wonderful.
That's really all that matters, if you're happy with it and it's what you wanted, that's the only rule.
The only rule is that you really should enjoy this.
Just take a little white, bring it right up to the cabin there.
Like so we'll bring a little right in here.
Like that.
Angle, alright.
Over in here a little touch of that shadow color, a little blue, a little black and just sort of blend them together.
There. Alright.
Let's really have some fun now.
I've got several little fan brushes going.
I want to mix up a crazy color here, I love this color.
We're going to take a little crimson and sap green.
In equal parts, mix them very well.
Normally we don't mix color too well.
For this color, mix it very, very well.
Very well and it makes a gorgeous brown.
Just absolutely a gorgeous brown.
Let me wipe the old knife off.
I just wipe the knife on a paper towel here.
Okay and we just run the old fanbrush right though it, load both sides.
Full of color, a lot of paint.
Now then maybe in our world there lives, let's start it, you know me, if you paint with me before I like these old big trees.
Something like so.
Maybe he's got another arm.
Comes right down, oh I said big tree.
We gonna have a big tree.
Maybe there's even an arm back here.
Like that.
Where do you think they should be.
This piece of canvas is totally your world and you can do anything here that you want to do.
Take a little of brown we made, mix it with some white.
That is just one of the most gorgeous brown colors.
It sounds horrible when you talk about green and red mixed together.
A little roll of paint.
There's our light and in our world maybe there's just a little light sitting in right through here like so.
I'm just touching the canvas with that little roll of paint.
Just touch the canvas will pull off what it wants and give you back what's left.
There, just where ever you think light will sing through here.
Something about like so.
Now you could make this entire tree with a knife if you wanted to, it's up to you.
It's a little faster with a fan brush.
There we go, a little bit over here.
Where ever, where ever.
Now then, let's firm up this dark edge and just let the knife bounce and graze and barely touch.
You want this to be rough, when it dries, this will actually feel like bark on there.
If you just let it boune and graze.
There.
Okay, something like so.
There we are.
Now then, let's go to our little liner brush.
Who will use a script liner brush.
Put some paint thinnner on the brush.
We want to thin this paint.
Quite a bit of paint thinnner.
I want this to be thin like ink.
And roll the bristles in there and pull it out so they come out very, very sharp.
Okay, now then let's go right in here and think about where some little tree limbs would live on this tree.
But your paint should literally flow on here.
Should literally just flow.
And if it doesn't, add a little more of the paint thinner.
If it's not flowing, normally that's the problem.
Normally that's the problem.
There.
Maybe there's a big ole worm here that comes right on across.
There we are.
But you let your tree go where ever you want it to go.
Just move it around and play and carry on.
Something like so.
There.
Now, we can just dip that clean brush right into a little bit of liquid white put a little snow right around the bottom here.
There, sort of fill that in.
Tell you what, let's do.
Let's take a little more of that brown color.
Maybe there's what remains of a little fence right here.
Something like so.
All we do is touch.
Come right across, put a little more, maybe there's a little thing there.
Little bit of that white right along the edge.
Put it right on there.
Okay, take a little touch, maybe a little shadow right there in the snow.
Something like so.
And we'll just put the indication of a little path here.
With that, I think this whole painting will be about finished.
Hope you try this one.
It's very simple, you'll enjoy it.
You'll have fantastic results.
So with that, I think we're gonna call this one finished.
And from all of us here, I'd like to wish you happy painting and God bless my friend.
(upbeat music) Hi, welcome back.
Certainly glad to see you again.
I thought today we'd just do a fantastic little winter scene, and I'll show you one that's very simple and easy to do.
But first, let's start out and have them run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint along with us.
While they're doing that, let me tell you what I've got done up here.
I have my standard old pre-stretched double-primed canvas.
And I've just applied a very thin, even coat of Liquid White.
So it's totally wet and slick, and it's all ready to go.
So let's just do a fantastic little painting together.
I thought today we'd just do a, something that's got a lot of blues in it.
So I'm gonna start with a little Phthalo Blue.
I'm gonna reach right up here.
Grab a little bit of the Midnight Black.
And maybe a tiny, tiny amount of Phthalo Green.
Just to change the flavor a little bit.
Not much green.
Not much green, I still want it to be blue.
But a little Phthalo Green sometimes will just...
Ooh, makes it pretty.
Let's go right up here.
And let's start in here.
Using little crisscross strokes, let's just begin putting in a happy little sky.
And we're just using crisscross strokes.
Little X's like that.
Just like so.
And we allow the paint to blend with the Liquid White that's already on the canvas.
If you were trying to do this on a dry canvas, all you will get is streaks.
But because this is wet, it blends continually.
It's always blending.
Very pretty.
Makes your life easy.
There.
Isn't that a pretty color with just that little tiny touch of Phthalo Green in it?
But once again, be very careful.
All you need is the tiniest, tiniest little touch.
Tiniest little touch.
Then we just blend it a little bit.
Like so.
But I would like for it to be darker on the edges than it is in the center.
That way it sort of leads your eye into the center of this painting.
There.
I'll tell you what.
Let's do that again.
What the heck.
What the heck, we'll take some black, some Phthalo Blue.
The least little touch of the Phthalo Green.
The least little touch.
Just enough to flavor it.
All right.
And let's do the same thing down here.
What the heck.
That was so much fun, let's just do the entire canvas that way.
There, still making the little crisscross strokes.
Little X's.
Like that.
There.
All right.
A little more of the color.
And we can sort of just bring it all together that way.
Maybe we'll do like a little vignette today.
Since I've painted the whole canvas.
That's sounds like it'd be fun.
I'll show you a very, very simple little winter scene that is exciting.
People will like it.
People will like it.
There.
Now sometimes, as I mentioned earlier, you really like to have these edges quite dark.
So I'm gonna take a little of the Prussian Blue.
It's a much darker blue.
And maybe we'll just put that right in the edge here.
Just in the edges.
I'll put a little bit in all four corners.
All four corners.
There we go.
Don't need a great deal.
I just wanna darken these corners.
If we're gonna do a vignette, I really want you to concentrate on the center of the painting.
And a little bit over here in this corner.
We don't want to leave him out.
Don't want to leave him out.
He'd be insulted and get mad.
There.
All right, now let me wash the brush, and we'll just blend that out.
As you know, we wash our brushes with odorless thinner.
And we have a lot of fun.
Just shake off the excess.
(loud tapping) (laughs) And beat the devil out of it.
All right, now with a clean, dry brush.
And be sure it's dry.
Be sure it's dry.
You don't want to dilute this color that's on the canvas or make it thinner.
You want to keep it as thick as possible now.
There we go.
All I'm doing is just blending this together.
All right.
And down here, the same thing.
There we go.
That's a pretty color already.
I like that.
Okay now.
And then we'll go all the way across.
And this just removes brush strokes and brings it all together.
And I think we're in business.
Okay.
I'll tell you what, maybe today let's use, let's use the little half-size round brush.
And I'm gonna mix up, I'm gonna mix up some black.
Some Phthalo Blue.
A little touch of the Phthalo Green into it.
Not much. Not much.
Once again, that green is, shoo, ooh.
It'll beat up your whole world in a heartbeat.
Be very careful with it.
Very careful.
Especially in a winter scene.
Okay, let me wipe the old knife.
'Cause in a winter scene, Phthalo Green is almost an emerald green, and you certainly don't want much of that in your winter scene.
I'm just gonna take this little round brush and just tap it right into that color.
Just a little.
Just tap it.
That's the way we load it.
Just tap.
Like so.
All right, let's go up here.
Maybe back here in our world, maybe we have some little trees that live in here.
So just decide where they live in your world.
And just begin tapping in some very, very basic shape.
I'm not looking for a lot of detail.
It's too far away.
Too far away.
Get a little more paint.
But I would suggest you start in the center, and we'll work in both directions, 'cause I want to get progressively lighter as we work outward.
There we go.
Just think about some little tiny shapes.
These are trees and bushes that live far back in the background.
And as they work out, lighter and lighter.
Not near as strong.
Not as much pressure.
More and more gentle.
Very soft, very gentle.
And over in here, see there, it just fades right out.
You can probably hear the difference in the amount of pressure that we're hitting the canvas with.
There we're really getting tough.
I want this to be very dark.
There, maybe there's another big old tree that lives.
Yep, you're right, there he is.
Right in there.
Wherever you think there should be one.
That's exactly where they should be.
There we go.
But now once again, over on this side, I'm gonna let it just sort of, just sort of poop out over here.
Just get weaker and weaker.
Till it runs right on out.
Basically into nothing.
There.
See how soft that is?
And that's exactly what we're looking for.
Now then, let's take old script liner brush.
And we'll use, maybe we'll use just a touch of Van Dyke Brown.
What the heck.
We don't need much, though.
But thin it with paint thinner till its literally just like ink or very, very thin.
You can see it running right there on the palette.
That's what we're looking for.
Very thin.
Let's go back up here.
Now here and there, and there and here, I'm just gonna put the indication, and I don't want it to be very strong, just very quiet little indications of a few little trunks and sticks, twigs.
Little things that live back here in the trees.
There.
And I don't want a lot of stuff.
Just a few. Just a few.
I don't want to overkill here.
Can't hardly see these.
Same over there.
Over in here, maybe we'll put a little one there, too.
All right.
But that's basically all we're looking for.
And you could take, you could take that same brush with that color on it.
I'm gonna put a little white out there.
And I'm just gonna tap that brush with that color on it right into this.
So all I'm doing is diluting the tree color a little bit.
I don't want it diluted much.
And you could come back in here and there.
Just put the indication of a little tiny bit of highlight.
I don't want much, once again.
Once again.
I'm really trying to keep this very quiet, very soft back in here.
Just a few little happy things that you can make out.
That's about all we need.
And these little dark spots, don't kill them all.
It makes deep, deep shadows back there.
There, maybe right in here just a little...
See, you can't hardly even see those.
But now when you do your painting, you'll be able to see them.
Let's go over to this tree.
We don't want him left out.
We'll give him just a tiny bit.
There.
And that's really about all that I want on this painting.
And that makes us a nice little background.
It's very simple, and even if you've never painted before, you can do that.
You can do that.
I know you can do that.
Let's take some Titanium White.
Shoot, let's put some snow back here.
Use the old two-inch brush.
We'll load some paint into it.
Just load some paint.
Now then.
Another major decision.
You have to decide where your snow is in this painting.
And I think it's right here.
Make a decision and begin pulling, pulling.
And just let it just sort of disappear into nothing.
If this is gonna be like a little vignette, then we want the edges just to sort of disappear back there.
But allow it to pick up some of that tree color.
It'll end up looking like shadows.
It is very pretty.
And it'll be your good friend.
Don't fight it.
Let it pick up some of that color.
I intentionally try to get up in there and let it pick up some of that.
And we're just gonna let it fade right into nothing on either side.
Like that.
That's all we're looking for right now.
Shoot, let's get crazy.
That would be a wonderful place to have a little house.
So come up here.
I'll show you an easy way to make a little house.
All you have to do is figure out basically where you want it.
Take your knife and scrape out a general shape.
All we're looking for here is just a general shape.
We're not committed at this point.
We can change it.
We can do anything that we want.
But the biggest thing this does is remove the excess paint so it's easier to get the next layer to stick.
Shoot, maybe we'll even put a little shed out there.
Let's scratch it out, too.
Now we can take a little Van Dyke Brown.
Just a little Van Dyke Brown.
Pull it out very flat.
Our little roll of paint as we always have.
And let's go right up in here and we'll make the back eave of the house first.
Just blip like that.
Now we're gonna mix Van Dyke Brown and Dark Sienna together.
And zoop!
There.
If you don't make those little noises it won't work.
(laughs) There we go.
And over here, we'll put just a little bit right in there.
Like that.
Just a tiny little bit.
And let me clean off the old knife.
Maybe there's a little snow up here on our roof.
Just pull it like that.
Just like that.
See there?
That's all there is to it.
Now we can put a little bit over here on the other side.
Zoop!
There.
Just a little roof.
Now put a little bit of dark right underneath here.
If we're gonna have a little shed out here, we need a little dark to show the division in there.
Looks like I got a little bit of brown in that roof.
That's the only thing worse than yellow snow (laughs).
All right.
I'll just go right over the top of it.
And we'll take that right out.
See there? Choo.
We don't make mistakes.
We have happy accidents.
Now then, if we're gonna have a little shed, certainly there will be a little bit of snow on its roof, too.
Back to our brown.
And we can just fill that in.
All we're doing right now is just blocking in a little bit of color.
That's all we're trying to do.
Now then, I'm gonna take a touch of Yellow Ochre.
A little Dark Sienna.
We just sort of mix them together about like that.
We don't want to overmix them.
I wanna cut across, and once again, our little roll of paint.
And it might be better here to use the small knife.
Just touch and barely let it graze.
That's all.
In fact, let me grab the small knife.
It'll sneak in these little places so much better.
Like that.
Now, I'm gonna darken that color.
It's the same color just darker.
We'll put a little bit over there.
And back to our Van Dyke Brown.
And let's just make the indication of some old boards in here just by touching a little bit of brown to that.
It makes it look very old and very weathered.
You know, like me.
There.
Then we come back with our knife.
Decide where everything is.
And we just do what I call a cabinectomy.
And you can work out your perspective and bring it all together.
That easy.
There.
And back to our brush that has the Titanium White on it.
This is just a two-inch brush I showed you with a little bit of Titanium White on it.
And we can come back in here now and just begin putting in some little things like that.
Just cover up anything that we don't want.
Shoot, you know what?
I didn't put a door in there.
We got that fella trapped in there.
So let's give him a door.
He may want to get out and see what's happening in his world.
There, give him a door.
Take a little light color and sort of outline it so it stands out.
There.
Now he can get out.
We had him locked in the house (laughs).
Had him locked in there.
And a little bit more of the snow right in there.
Okay.
Now.
I get a lot of letters that say I never put chimneys on my little cabins, so let's put a little chimney right there.
You can just use a small edge of the knife and a little brown.
And give him a little chimney.
I don't want him to freeze to death, either.
We locked him in there.
The least we can do is give him a chimney (laughs) There.
We'll take a little Titanium White and just touch it and let it slide.
Just let it break right across there.
Just let it slide.
See there?
Not much, though.
Just a little.
And let it break.
It's important to break.
I just want it to look like little things laying back in there.
There we go.
Now, I'm just gonna keep bringing snow on out here.
Something maybe like that.
And maybe this fella built his little cabin.
Maybe there was a little pond right there.
Let's go back to our original color.
That was black, Phthalo Blue, and a touch of Phthalo Green.
Just a touch.
If we're gonna have maybe a little pond, decide where it's at.
Just touch the canvas and pull downward.
Straight down.
Straight down.
There, see, that's all you have to do.
You make a decision and you can have a pond or a lake.
You can even have a river anywhere you want it.
Just like this.
On this piece of canvas you have total and absolute control.
Absolute power.
It's scary to have this much power.
There, now very lightly we go across.
Just go across.
Something like that.
And here and there, and there and here, maybe there's a little bush that's sticking up.
Just a little bush, and we'll use that same color.
I think I'll use that same color throughout the whole painting.
There.
And maybe, yeah, maybe our little bush lives right there.
There he is.
Just sort of push him in.
Like that.
And maybe he's got a little friend right there.
Wherever you want him.
I'll tell you what, maybe there's another one.
You just put as many little weed patches here and there as you want.
Drop them in.
Drop them in.
You can take the liner brush.
A little paint thinner on it.
Go into that same color.
And maybe we'll pull out a little twig and stick here and there.
Wherever.
A little over here, too.
We don't want this one left out.
Just some little things that are happening in there.
There.
And take another fan brush.
And we can grab right at the base of that and just sort of blend it in.
And get a little of the color and pull it.
And that way it'll look like shadows, once again, that are just living right under there.
There we go. See there?
You can make it look like it's setting up maybe on a little high spot.
Something like so.
Maybe in our world you just start seeing things.
Maybe there's an old stick that lives here.
Take a little of the Van Dyke Brown.
See, there he is.
Just an old stick that lives out there.
Now then.
I'm gonna take just Titanium White and load a little bit on the knife.
And once again, just let it sort of bounce along there.
I want this to set on top of the very smooth snow.
It makes an extremely interesting effect.
It's very nice when you do it that way.
Pay very close attention to angles, though.
There we go.
It's most important that you have angles that look right.
A little bit of the Liquid White, and I'm gonna mix that with Titanium White just to make it a little thinner.
Just a little, and then all we have to do is just touch.
Just touch.
And we'll make some little things around the edges here.
There we go.
A little bit over in here.
Like that.
Wherever you think they should be.
Wherever.
Back to my old two-inch brush.
Maybe we'll bring a little peninsula right in there.
Put it in first with the brush.
Maybe I'll just bring that right on down.
This is gonna be a little pond.
Let's start putting some borders over here.
We don't want it to get away and turn into a big river.
Just a tiny little pond.
Maybe in the summertime, this is where, the old fellow that lives here, maybe he has some ducks and they play in here.
Some kind of little creatures.
Back to a little of the Titanium White, and then once again, just sort of let it slide right over the top of that.
Barely touching.
Shoo, whisper light.
Whisper light.
And the same thing here.
Just choom.
But gentle, very gentle.
Very, very gentle.
And we'll just let it sort of blend back and disappear.
Just let it sort of disappear back in here.
We don't know where it goes.
There.
All right, let's have some fun over here on the other side.
And we'll take one of the little, little half-size oval brushes.
Round brush, I'm sorry.
I said oval.
A round brush.
A round one.
And they're not really totally round.
They're actually sort of oblong.
So you can bring it to a chisel edge.
See how sharp that is?
You can bring that rascal to a very sharp chisel edge.
Let's go up here.
Maybe, yep, right there.
Let's have just a little evergreen tree.
There.
Isn't it fantastic?
You can take that little brush, and you can actually do an entire painting using nothing but these little round brushes.
The big one or the little one, either one.
Either one, it makes no difference.
Either one.
Tell you what, maybe there's, maybe there's a nice land mass that lives right here.
Just goes right on out.
Choo, choo, choo, something like that.
I don't know.
Wherever you think it should be.
All right.
Now, I'm just gonna take that same color and go through a little bit of white just to lighten it.
Just like we did with the little trees back in the back.
And here and there, put the indication of a few little highlights.
I don't want many, 'cause I don't wanna lose this darkness here.
I don't wanna lose that.
And very quickly, it'll go away and leave you.
There.
Let me wash off the old brush.
This one's not as much fun to wash as the big one, though, 'cause it doesn't splatter all over.
(loud tapping) Though it does pretty good.
It does pretty good.
And today, I'm gonna take some of the Liquid Clear and put out.
Liquid Clear.
And to that, I'm gonna add just Titanium White.
I'm gonna mix it till it's very thin.
It's very, very thin paint.
There, all right, let me wipe the old knife off here.
Very thin.
And here and there, I'm gonna add just a little bit of that to the bristles, and let's come right in here.
And I'm sort of pushing it sidewards.
I wanna make the indication of all kinds of little doers that are hanging out here.
See them?
Little snow-covered things.
But give it a little push so you get those little edges on it.
Looks like all kinds of little bushes.
Ooh, I see something.
I see something.
Watch here, watch here, watch here.
Let's take a little of the Titanium White.
Bring it right out here.
Choom.
Like that.
Just Titanium White.
Bring it right on out.
A little bit of the dark color.
And maybe there's a little, little area like that.
Then we'll bring that out.
There, isn't that neat?
Just so there's a little doer there.
And back to our white.
Maybe it comes right on around.
Choom!
Like that.
A few little things in here.
And then just let them disappear.
This is such a gentle touch.
Practice this touch a little bit.
Because you're just barely, barely grazing the canvas.
Just wanna create the illusion of a little doer in here.
A little recessed area.
I'm gonna take some of that same blue color with a little Van Dyke Brown in it.
And maybe (laughs), you know me, I think there oughta be a big old tree right about there.
Put a big wiggle in him.
Ruhh, ruhh, ruhh.
Let's give him a friend.
Everybody needs a friend.
There.
Something about like that.
Take our liner brush.
A little bit of that same color.
And let's put the indication here and there of a limb or two, and it's just growing right out of there.
Wherever, wherever.
There.
I want a few here.
I'm gonna put some little snow-covered leaves and stuff on here.
So we don't have to do a whole bunch.
Don't have to do a whole bunch.
Just a few little indications.
While I have that going, maybe there's an old (grunts) lives right there.
Old stick that just grows right out.
Might even be an old small tree in there.
Just put all these little things in that you want.
Wherever you want them.
Okay.
Let's go back our little round brush that has, that has white on it.
I'm gonna dip it in a little bit of dark color first, and then we'll go right over here to this very thin color we made and just tip the tips of the bristle.
Just the tips.
We can go up here and just sort of tap down and do both the highlight and the shadow at one time.
I want that to just drop right in there like that.
There we go.
See, we put all kinds of little things.
This is a thin paint.
It's about like Liquid White, or maybe just a little thicker than Liquid White.
But it'll make nice highlights that easy on your trees.
But in the wintertime, you have all of these gorgeous little things that all the Jack Frost just plays on them and off they go.
There.
Wherever.
Something like so.
Then down here at his foots, I'll put in a few little bushes and twigs and sticks.
And shoot, we about have a finished painting.
Something about like so.
There.
You could take a tiny bit of white and just highlight this tree a little bit.
And we'll call this one done.
The old clock on the wall tells me it's time to go.
So I hope you've enjoyed this one.
And from all of us here, happy painting, and God bless, my friend.
(gentle music) Hi, welcome back.
I'm certainly glad you could join us today.
I thought today we'd just do a painting that's a lotta fun, so let's start out and have them run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint along with us.
While they're doing that, let me show you what I've got done up here.
Today, I have my standard old canvas, and I've taken a little black gesso on a paper towel, and I've just sorta gobbed it all over, except right in here and there, I've just sort of pulled it.
I want to have a big waterfall today, so just a basic idea.
We let the black gesso dry completely.
Then we go back, and I've covered the entire canvas with a very, very thin coat of Liquid Clear, and over the Clear, I've taken a little Thalo Blue and Thalo Green mixed together, and painted up to here.
Then here, I've just used a little Thalo Blue and black, and very little paint on top of the Liquid Clear.
I just want enough so it sorta stains the canvas a little.
That's really all we're looking for.
So, we have the black gesso, the Clear, and then a little bit of color on top.
Let's go and just have some fun.
I'll show you how fantastic this can be.
Let's start with our old two-inch brush today, and a small amount of the Titanium White.
Right up here above the waterfall, I wanna have a nice little soft, light area coming out, so we take the white and we go right up in here.
We just begin making little Xs, little criss-cross strokes right above the waterfall, something about like so.
Just let it blend back into what's going to end up being big trees and stuff back in here, like that.
See all the little black gesso things still show through, and it looks like you've worked yourself to death, and you've done very, very little.
That's the beauty of this black gesso.
It may be one of the neatest things that we've ever come up with.
There, and you can make that as bright as you want it.
Maybe you want it a little brighter right in there.
You can take and several times.
It's up to you.
You can add just a little more of the Titanium White and work it out, something like so, to whatever degree that you want.
There, now then, tell you what.
The fun part of this painting is the old waterfall, so why don't we jump right in and do that?
Let's do that right off.
Let me wash the old brush.
That's the fun part of this.
It also keeps our crew on its toes.
Shake it off. (laughter) On one of the earlier shows, I showed you the cameraman over here, that he wears a raincoat behind the camera.
That way, we're sure not to get him too wet.
Okay now, let's do the waterall.
For that today, I'm gonna just use the old fan brush.
I'm gonna dip the fan brush into a little bit of the Liquid Clear.
I don't need a great deal.
Then, with the Clear on the brush, go right into a little Titanium White.
Don't go away, I'll be right back.
I'm gonna get the least little touch of Thalo Blue and put in there, just to flavor it a little.
So, we have a little Liquid Clear, white, and the least little touch of Thalo Blue.
Let's go up here.
Now, I wanna make a stroke that comes across and then down.
It'll give the impression that the water's sort of flowing, and then somebody pulled the stopper out, and (swoop) down it went.
So, we go over and we go (shoom).
Try to do it fast.
If you do it slow, your hand's gonna wiggle and you get a waterfall that, do it fast.
It really works better if you do it fast.
You decide how big you want that waterfall to be, maybe like that.
Now, we have this nice waterfall.
Now, we're gonna push it way back into the background.
Also, let's do it with a two-inch brush.
Take the two-inch brush and pull upward, and blend it in.
It'll soften and bring all that together.
See, you can look right through that waterfall and see stones and rocks that are behind it.
There, that's sorta sneaky, isn't it?
All right, let's mix up, let's mix up some black, a little bit of the Prussian Blue, a little Van Dyke Brown, Alizarin Crimson, maybe a little Sap Green, too.
What the heck, whatever good dark color you can come up with.
Okay, let me wipe off the old knife.
Now, we'll just continue to use the old two-inch brush.
I'm gonna load a little bit of this color into the two-inch brush by just pushing.
See how that brush is sort of sliding?
See, there's a little ridge of paint.
There's one just like it on the brush, and that's what we paint with.
Now then, maybe in our world, there's some big trees.
Here they come.
There they come.
Just use the corner of the brush, and begin forming some basic shapes for some nice big trees.
They just sorta hang out here, just sorta hang out here, like that.
There, all right, and right along in here.
I don't know.
Maybe on this side over here, here comes some big old doers hanging out.
All I'm looking for right now is some basic shapes to give me some ideas of where all these trees will end up being.
We're not committed yet.
All we're looking for are just basic shapes, just little basic shapes, so don't be too concerned.
You can even take the black gesso and mix it with white gesso and make all kinds of gorgeous effects before you ever paint the first stroke.
There.
And people, they'll go crazy trying to figure out how you made some of these effects.
Shh, that's our secret.
Now then, we need something to contain our waterfall.
We've got an idea where the trees are gonna be, so we'll use a little Van Dyke Brown, a little Dark Sienna mixed together.
Pull that flat, cut across, and we get our little row of paint that lives right on the edge of the knife.
Now, I'm gonna put a big old rock that lives right there.
That gives us some boundaries on that waterfall so it doesn't just hang there.
There we go, and this rock is in front of that rock, because I want that rock there to be behind, back behind the waterfall.
There, something like that.
There we are, all right.
All right, now we'll take a little touch of white, a little bit of Dark Sienna, Van Dyke Brown into it, maybe the least little touch of Yellow Ocher.
Oh, maybe a little more, I like that, just enough to flavor it a little.
Cut across, our little row of paint.
Then, we'll come right up here, on the top of this big stone, rock, cliff, whatever you wanna call it, and just barely touch him.
We wanna make this look flat on top because this is where maybe there's a little fox that lives out here in these woods.
He sits right here, and he watches everything, so he needs a little flat spot.
It doesn't hurt to make up little stories like that, to give a reason for things being the way they are.
There, now, no paint, just grab the edges and pull down.
I want this to remain quite dark, maybe the least little, there we go, the least little touch of paint, almost no paint.
I'm gonna put a lot of grassy things in here that's gonna cover that and push it back, so don't worry about it at this point.
Don't even worry about it.
Maybe a little will show through here and there, so we'll just put some spots here and there that, maybe, some of the little grassy areas will show through.
All right, see there.
It looks like little stones showing through already.
As I say, this black gesso is just so neat, and it makes your painting life so much easier.
Now then, let's go back to our old two-inch brush.
Maybe over here, let's decide where these big branches hang.
Maybe they hang right over in front of the waterfall.
That's scary, isn't it, after you do such a waterfall?
It's so nice, then, you start dragging all these big tree limbs right over the front of it.
But, that's all right, you know it's back there, and if you learn, your time is not wasted.
It also helps create that illusion of distance, because it looks like the waterfall is way back behind these trees, and that's what we wanna do.
There.
It takes very little paint.
Once again, the black gesso has done most of the work for you.
Let it work for you.
Shoot, be lazy.
Maybe there's something that comes out over here even, wherever you think it should be.
I don't wanna cover up all these little areas here.
I wanna leave some of them showing through, so when it's done, it'll look like you can look through there and once again, see some of the little stones.
Of course, it you cover them up, we can always go back and add them right back in very easy.
Now then, I'm gonna grab another clean two-inch brush.
I have several of them going.
I wanna take the least little bit of Titanium White, tapped right on the corner, just a little teeny, teeny, teeny bit right there.
Down here at the base of the waterfall, if water fell this far, it would churn and create a tremendous amount of mist, so let's just do the same thing.
We'll take the top corner of that brush and begin tapping, just tap.
It's just basically Titanium White, and you start tapping here.
I wanna create a nice misty effect, right down here.
There, something about like so.
All right, just by tapping, and you can fluff it a little bit, very gently.
Now, the water hits, and you have that nice area down in there.
Back to my brush with the old tree color on it, tree limb color.
I want some of these limbs to be in front of the mist.
Think about what's in the foreground, and what's behind.
Try to paint the thing that's the farthest away first, and work forward.
I know, you say it sounds logical, and it is.
It's really just common sense painting.
You paint the thing that's farthest away first, and work forward.
There, wherever.
Now, let's take our little liner brush, little liner brush, little liner brush, little liner brush.
We'll use that same color.
I wanna make this paint thin, like ink, very thin.
Turn the bristles into the paint.
That brings it to a nice sharp point.
We'll go up in here, and here and there, and there and here, we'll just put the indication of a few little sticks and twigs, and all kinds of little things that we can see sticking out through there.
There, see there?
Already, it gives the impression that there's all kinds of little limbs and things happening, and you've done very, very little, very little.
There, wherever, wherever, wherever.
Maybe on the other side, we'll put a couple, so we don't want him left out.
He'll get mad at you.
There.
Maybe there's even some old wiggly ones that hang right over here.
There they are.
If you have trouble making the paint flow, just add a little more paint thinner to it.
It just means that it's not quite thin enough.
There, sometimes there's some, there he is, right out over the waterfall.
All these little things that are in front of the waterfall help give that illusion that it's behind.
That's what we're trying to do.
We want to make it way back in there today.
I'll just use that same old brush, and go right into a little Cad Yellow, Indian yellow, Yellow Ocher.
Once in a while, I'm gonna bump a little of that Bright Red.
Let me grab a little black on the brush.
There, okay, just tap, push.
See how that brush pushes that little ridge of paint up?
That's what we're looking for.
Let's go up in here.
Now, let's begin putting in the sparkles, the icing on the cake right here.
This is it, all the little highlights.
Think about shape and form, and how all these little limbs grow in clumps, little branches.
These are just a collection of bushes that got together and grew big to make a big tree.
Think about little individual bushes that live in here.
There we go.
There, a little more color.
There they go.
See, you can do fantastic things with a great big old two-inch brush, if you just give it a little chance.
That's all it needs, a little chance.
Okay, right on over our waterfall.
All right, there.
Maybe here's another happy little tree.
He lives right there.
Well, he has some view, doesn't he?
Wouldn't that be a nice place if you were a tree to live?
It would always be nice and damp.
You'd have plenty of water.
I'd like to have a little house here.
I think a waterfall is one of the most beautiful sounds.
There we go.
My mother used to love to listen to the waterfalls.
That was one of her favorite things.
You might have noticed on the shows, I dedicated this series to her.
Since the last show, I lost my mother, and my brother Jim and I miss her very much.
But this is the kind of scenes that she liked.
There, all right, all kinds of gooders.
We have to decide what's gonna be down here at the bottom.
We can get crazy and just keep going.
Let's put a little bit, just a few little things on the other side over here, too.
There we go.
I really like these kind of paintings.
I really like them, and they're so easy to do with the black gesso.
Before we had the black gesso, this was something that I wanted to paint but I couldn't figure out how to do it in the time frame that they give us for television, because actual painting time is only about 26-and-a-half minutes or something like that, and I have a mean old director.
Boy, if I don't stop right on the money, she gets mad and comes out here and yells and screams, and treats me rough.
Not really, not really.
I made that up.
There we go.
See all those little things?
You can just make layer after layer after layer.
Each one of these will help push that waterfall farther and farther back into the background.
There we are.
Okay, there.
A little bit right in there.
We better make some decisions what's down at the bottom of this waterfall pretty soon, or I'm gonna fill the whole canvas up full of beautiful little trees, 'cause I like to do these little trees like this.
Make them darker and darker down in here.
It's a nice shadow area down here.
You don't want a lotta light down in there.
Okay, let's make some decisions.
Let's go with Van Dyke Brown and a little Dark Sienna mixed together Maybe in our world, there lives, there lives, maybe there's a stone right there.
I don't know, so you just sorta look, and everybody's painting will be different.
Don't just try to copy what we've done here.
Look at your painting.
Painting should not just be copying.
It should be doing your own thing.
That's really what makes it fun, and that's the person you need to please is yourself.
If you're happy with what you've done, that's what's important.
That's really what's important.
It's not what somebody else tells you should be done, not in painting, anyway.
Maybe there's a big cliff over here (choo).
There, just fill all of that.
Because it's dark there, we don't have to put much color.
We'll take some of our brown and white, a little tiny row of paint on the knife, and just sort of let it bounce along here and play.
There, wherever we want it.
Clean your knife off and you can come back and just sorta bring all that together.
There.
Make a big old mean stone right there, and all kinds of little things that live back in here.
Okay, mix up a little touch of color.
I almost ran out of color.
There we go.
Just take the other colors and bounce them around.
Let the knife just touch, bounce, jump, move, carry on like that.
It'll make all of these beautiful rough, rough places.
That's what my doggie says, "Rough." Bounce it across there, just bounce it.
Put a spring on the end of your knife.
Just let it play (zoom).
Over here, there, same old thing, maybe there's a big cliff that ends right out through here.
We don't know where it goes, and comes down.
Maybe this is sorta washed out underneath.
There we go.
See how you can see things, though.
Maybe it's sorta washed out.
Light's just zinging through there.
(choo) There.
Okay, good.
Now, let's get crazy.
I'm gonna take my fan brush.
Take my fan brush and a little bit of the Liquid Clear, go back into Titanium White, and get a little Thalo Blue and Thalo Green on there.
Get them both, not much.
It's very strong.
A little tiny bit of Liquid Clear, just to soften it up and make it slide across here a little easier.
Back in here, maybe the water's coming along here, and goes (ploom).
See there, it fell over.
Look at there.
Maybe there's a little stone back in there, and a little splash (choo).
You don't have to make those noises, but it helps. (laughs) It does help.
Maybe (choo), maybe there's another little thing.
There may be stones all over the place here.
See there?
We don't know, but the color underneath is constantly coming through, also.
We had Thalo Green, Thalo Blue underneath, and all that comes through.
Maybe (choo), I like all these little watery falls.
There.
Isn't that fantastic that you can make water just move like that, any way that you want it to.
It just pours right outta there, and off it goes on a long journey.
We don't know where it's gonna go.
Well, we do know where it's gonna go.
It's gonna end up in the ocean.
We just don't know which one.
There we go.
Now, tell you what.
This will be a super, yeah, mm hmm.
I think maybe, I don't do this very often, but in nature, you always have old trees that have fell off into the water.
Sometimes, we avoid putting them in here, but why not have one?
Here's an old tree.
I'm just using Van Dyke Brown right now, a little brown and a little white here, mixed together.
Come right back in here and just touch, just touch, put a little highlight on that rascal.
This old tree's just fell off into the water, and it's laying here (choo).
Some of the bark's still left on it.
Take our little straight liner brush, and go right into our Van Dyke Brown.
Maybe there's a big old limb here.
Put it on with brown.
Maybe there's some little ones out in here, like that, wherever, a little brown and white, so we have a little highlight.
I want that old limb to show up.
You never even know, maybe, maybe this is real low right here, and the water is literally coming over that (choo).
This paint, I thinned it with a little bit of Liquid White, so it's very thin, almost the consistency of Liquid White.
That way, you can go right over the top of that thick brown, without it all mixing together.
Now, we have a little place where the water just comes right over the old tree that's laying out there.
There, and maybe, shoot, we're having so much fun, let's get a little crazier here.
Maybe there's a big old tree here.
(choo) Once again, you gotta make those little noises.
I'm just using a liner brush, but you can do this with a fan brush or whatever.
It doesn't much matter.
It doesn't much matter, whatever, whatever you're comfortable with.
Put a few little arms on him, just a few little arms.
Somebody wrote a while back, "You've really lost it now, Bob.
"You've given the trees arms." In the next series, we're gonna give them legs.
What the heck?
I think in your world, you can do anything.
If you want your trees to have arms or toes, it doesn't matter.
There.
Right out here, maybe there's just a little grass that grows right around his little foots.
There, see, grass right out, coming on there like that.
Maybe there's a few leaves on that little tree still.
Use a little Yellow Ocher.
You just put the indication here and there, just a couple of little highlights.
I don't want a whole bunch on that tree.
Don't want it to cover up all the fantastic things that are behind it, but just a few little things.
There we go.
See there?
Now, dip the brush into the least little amount of the paint thinner.
I just want to thin this.
We're getting quite a few layers of paint now, so we need to keep the last layer the thinnest.
A little green, made by Sap Green and a little yellow.
Down in here, we can put the indication of a few little bushes and stuff that live right along here at the water's edge.
They set up here on these big rocks.
There, just like that.
See that, and sorta have them hang over.
We can take a little brown and white, and here and there.
You know, if you have something that hangs over like this, there's always little roots and stuff that hang over the edge, and you can make all kinds of little doers that hang off like that.
It helps give a little realism to your painting.
There we are.
There's all kinds of little things.
All right, I think we're about to the point we have a painting that's about finished.
I'm gonna take a little paint thinner, a little Bright Red, and I think we'll sign this one.
Once again, when you're signing your painting, make this paint, look at there, it's literally running.
You can see it dripping.
It's that thin.
Over and over, I have letters from people who say it's hard to sign.
Keep it thin.
Let's sign that rascal.
Luckily, I have a very small name, and can do it very quickly.
I hope you've enjoyed this one, and from all of us here, I'd like to wish you happy painting and God bless, my friend.
(mellow music) (slow funky intro music) Hello, I'm Bob Ross and I'd like to welcome you to the 24th Joy of Painting series.
If this is your first time with us please allow me to extend a personal invitation for you to drag out your brushes and some paints and paint along with us each show.
And if you've been with us before, allow me to thank you for inviting us back for another series of painting shows.
Tell you what, lets get started today and have them run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint along with us at home.
And while they're doing that, let me show you what I've got up here.
I have my standard old 18 by 24 inch canvas but you use any sizes you want.
This is a pre-stretched double primed canvas.
And I've covered the entire canvas with just a very thin even coat of liquid white.
Now, liquid white is an oil-based paint that allows us to actually blend color up here on the canvas rather than working ourselves to death on the palette.
Just makes painting easy.
So, it's a fantastic day here, I thought we'd just do a very warm little scene that makes you feel good in here.
So let's start out with the old two inch brush.
The little tiny one.
Take a little bit of the indian yellow.
Just a very small amount on the two inch brush.
Load a little color on the brush, let's go right up here.
Maybe we'l have a beautiful little sky that's just full of warm colors that sort of makes you feel good when you look at it.
You you're making little x's, little criss-cross strokes.
Go all the way across the canvas like so.
Just about like so.
Maybe we'll have a little water in here.
I love water, I think it's so gorgeous.
And it's very easy to paint in this technique.
And we'll reflect a little of that color right down into the water.
And then, then...
I'll tell you what, without cleaning the brush let's just go into a little bit of the yellow ochre.
Once again, we do not need a great deal of paint here.
Just a little paint.
Go right above the yellow.
Still making our little criss-cross strokes.
The little x's.
And, just like that We'll lay down a little bit of the yellow ochre.
There, yellow ochre is sort of a nice gold color.
It's beautiful, beautiful little color.
And, we'll reflect a little of that into our water.
There, hmm, shoot.
Time to get crazy.
Time to get crazy, let's go right into the bright red.
And still we haven't washed the brush.
Just a little bit of the bright red.
And right up here, making our little x's, our little criss-cross strokes we'll add a little bit of that.
And we have such a warm color.
Just makes you feel good when you look at it.
Makes you happy.
You almost can't help it.
Just warms up your whole day.
But too much of it will set your world on fire.
So all we want is just a nice pinkish redish glow up here in the sky.
That's all we're looking for today.
And while I have that on the brush We'll just add a little of that down here too.
And the water is gonna reflect the same basic colors that we have in our sky.
Something about like that there.
Now there.
Still haven't washed the brush.
I look for ways that are easy.
In technical terms that's known as laziness.
There.
Take a little bit of the blue and a little crimson and mix them together right on the brush.
And let's go right up in here.
And with that color, sort of a lavender color, we'll just fill in the top of the sky.
Phthalo blue and Alizarin crimson.
And you can take this to the blue side or the red side.
Just sort of depends on your mood and how you feel.
That's strictly and completely up to you.
Maybe...
Maybe, I'll tell you what, look here.
Add a little more color to my brush.
Maybe in our world there lives...
Yep, you're right.
Just a happy little cloud up here.
We can make the indication of a little cloud just by tapping.
There he is, there he is.
Little cloud, little cloud, oh big cloud.
See, you can just let it go.
Let your imagination take you wherever you want to go.
But all we're doing is just tapping in some basic little shapes here.
Maybe we'll put one on the other side.
We don't want him left out.
something like that.
now that we have that lavender color on the brush.
The blue and the crimson.
We'll just come in down here and fill in the whole bottom of this.
Once again, all we're doing here is just reflecting the colors from the sky into the water.
There we are, now then.
Let's take and wash the old brush.
We wash our brushes with odorless paint thinner.
I really suggest that you use odorless thinner.
Or you'll become very unpopular around the home front.
There's a screen down here in the bottom of the bucket that I scrub the brush against.
Then we'll shake it off.
(laughter) And just beat the devil out of it.
That really is the fun part of this whole technique.
Just cleaning the brush.
Very lightly, three hairs and some air.
We'll go right over those, just blend them.
And it will make instant clouds.
And the more you blend them, the softer they'll become.
And you can continue to blend them until they absolutely just disappear.
It's up to you, up to you.
All right.
I think maybe today in this little painting let's build us a little mountain.
For that we'll use some black, a little Prussian blue, a little Alizarin crimson, maybe some VanDyke brown.
So we have black, Prussian blue, Alizarin crimson, a little VanDyke brown.
Pull the paint down as flat as you can get it.
Really get tough with it.
Cut across, get a little roll of paint, lives right on the edge of the knife.
Now you have to make your first major decision.
Where does your mountain live?
Maybe in our world.
Yep, does now.
Our mountain lives right there.
With a very firm pressure Just literally push the paint right into the fabric.
Right into the fabric.
This is a chance to really get tough.
Take out all your frustrations and hostilities and whatever.
Maybe there's another little peak right there.
Wherever you want.
Wherever you want 'em.
This technique is so fantastic because it allows you individuality.
We use no patterns, no tracings.
We just want to show you technique.
And turn you loose on the world.
Because the canvas is wet you can move this paint.
You can pull it, it'll slide right on top of there.
Just like so.
Now if we had a dry canvas, at this point you'd be in Agony City because the paint will not move like it does on this wet surface.
And that's what the liquid white does.
It allows us to actually blend color right up here.
Blend color.
And it's also an excellent way here of laying out your whole mountain.
Pulling it in the direction like this.
Downward, you can begin laying out all different ideas for highlights and shadows in your mountain without being committed.
There we go.
Let's put a little highlight on that mountain.
Today, let's take Titanium white.
I'll reach up here and I'll get a little of the Midnight black, I want a greyish color.
So, just black and white like that.
There, just mix it a little.
I want to leave it sort of marble so there's a lot of things happening in there.
Pull the paint out.
And once again, our little roll of paint right on the edge of the knife Touch, no pressure, zoom.
And just follow right down the mountain there.
But no pressure.
Absolutely no pressure.
There, you've painted with us before you've probably heard me talk about when I was teaching my son Steve to paint.
I used to tell him just to pretend that he was a whisper that just floated right across the mountain.
And that way he understood how delicate of a touch.
So maybe that's a good analogy.
Good way to remember.
Just be a whisper that floats across here.
Very delicate.
And by applying no pressure it allows this paint to break.
In other words, it leaves all these little holes in it.
And that's what really makes it look neat.
Makes it look like a mountain.
And it's very simple.
There.
Now let's make us a shadow color for that.
We'll use a little white.
A little bit of the Prussian blue.
Maybe just a touch more.
Add a little VanDyke brown, maybe even a little black.
What the heck?
Even put a little crimson, ooh I like it.
That's a nice color.
Just sort of decide what color you want your shadows to be.
And that's what they should be.
Our little roll of paint.
We can go right up in here.
And now we can begin putting in the indication of all kinds of little shadows in there.
I'll add just a touch more blue in there, just so it shows up a little better.
And you can see it there.
A little touch in here.
Every highlight needs it's own individual shadow.
If it doesn't have it's own shadow it just sort of lays there dead.
It won't play with you.
There.
Something like that.
And you can sort of play back and forth.
You might want to go back in here and just change the shape of this a little bit.
So it has a little more character to it.
You can do that because on this piece of canvas You have total and complete power.
You can literally do anything here.
You have ultimate power.
On this piece of canvas.
Shoot, when I go home I don't have power over anything but the garbage.
But here, this is my world.
And I can do anything here.
I can move mountains.
Change the course of rivers.
Anything that I want to do.
There, put a little shadow right underneath there.
Okay.
Maybe here and there a little something like that.
Now we take a clean, dry brush And just tap, I want to diffuse the base of this mountain so it looks like it's laying in the mist down here.
But always follow the angles.
Follow those angles.
There, and then lift upward.
Just enough to take out the tap marks and to blend everything together.
Like so.
There, see there?
That's all we need.
Tell you what.
Sometimes it's a lot of fun.
Let's do this.
You begin seeing things here.
I like to have a lot of depth in my paintings.
We'll just put another little range of mountains right here.
Just drop 'em in, same way, and watch how it pushes that first range back.
That simple.
Just put 'em in same exact way as we did the others.
Scrape off the excess paint, blend 'em out, there we go.
Something about like that.
Back to our little highlight colors, the grey color.
(whooshing sound) Same thing.
Follow those angles.
(groaning) You gotta make those little noises or it just doesn't work.
Maybe this one comes right down like yeah.
See, we can pull it over here and blend it together.
But notice the angles.
Angles are very important if light's coming through here it's only gonna strike at a given angle.
So most of your highlights will be in the same basic angle.
And most of your shadows will be in the same basic angle.
Depending on where your light's coming from.
There.
Something like so.
Clean dry brush.
And once again, just tap this a little to create the illusion of mist down at the base.
And lift upward.
All right, let's have some fun, shoot.
Tell you what let's do.
we'll use that same old brush.
I'm a take a little of the white, little bit of that mountain color.
Mix 'em together, and I'm just sort of pushing the brush.
Get a little color on it.
Maybe way back here in the background there are some little foothills.
And the little foothills can be made just by doing something as simple as this.
Just tapping downward.
There, that's all there is to it.
Gently.
Little quarter inch strokes.
Very small, lift upward.
It'll make it look like little trees way back here in the distance, Far, far away.
Pulling straight down, straight down.
It's most important to come straight down.
And then gently coming across.
Will make the indication of instant reflections.
Sometimes it's fun to have several layers here.
And you can do that just by doing it the same way.
There, tap in some basic little shapes.
Pop it up, make it look like little things far away.
And then we'll put in another little reflection.
As you come forward, every layer should get a little bit darker.
A little bit darker, shoot, I tell you what.
Let's have some real fun here.
Maybe there's another one that comes way out there.
Something like that.
Once again, we need our little reflections so just give it a little downward pull.
Go across.
Wherever, I don't know.
You sort of have to make up your mind.
Each one of these will create another plane on your painting and help that illusion of distance and depth.
I'm a take a little sap green, a little yellow, just tap the brush the same way.
And as things get closer to us we begin to see a little color.
Using the same old dirty brush, just add a little yellow to it and sap green and we can just begin tapping in the indication of little colors that you can see.
And things are far away from you.
It's difficult to see color.
Maybe just a hint of green back here.
There we go.
Now, take a little touch of the liquid white, put it on here, pull it out very flat and I wanna add a small amount of the bright red.
Very small amount.
Cut across.
And you wanna go right up in here.
Just act like you're trying to cut a hole right in the canvas.
Take out all your hostilities here.
Just really get tough with it.
Back and forth like you're trying to saw a hole through there.
This will create the illusion of a little water line.
It's also a nice light area between the darks.
It separates, makes everything stand out and really look good, okay.
Maybe, let's have some fun.
Clean off a spot to work here.
Let's take some black.
We'll use some Prussian blue, a little green, Alizarin crimson.
There we go, we just mix up a pile of color.
Let me grab an old brush here.
Maybe we'll just use a little fan brush.
You can do this with a one inch brush, fan brush, whatever.
Just use a little fan brush today.
Load a lot of color onto the bristles.
And let's have in our world some happy little evergreen trees.
Just use the corner of the brush as you work down the tree.
Push harder and harder.
bending the bristles.
Down here we're really getting tough.
Bending it all the way down to the furrow, get tough Show it who's boss.
These little evergreens live right in your fan brush.
You gotta sometimes really get forceful and push 'em out.
There they go, here comes the other one.
And you decide how many trees you want.
You decide, really all we're trying to do here is show you technique.
We use no patterns or no tracings.
Strictly up to you because you can learn to compose as you paint if you'll just practice.
If you'll just practice a little.
But if you like to use patterns there's certainly nothing wrong with it and you can trace your pattern on here put liquid white over it and the liquid white is still transparent enough that you can see the tracing through it if you like to do that.
Personally, I enjoy the freedom that comes with not having a pattern because you can literally, as I mentioned earlier, you can learn to compose and create your paintings as you go.
And you look at 'em.
You begin to see things.
And with practise you'll be able to see more and more.
After you've done a dozen paintings or so you won't believe what you can do.
Every day I get letters from fantastic people all over the United States and several foreign countries and they're sending us pictures of paintings that you wouldn't believe.
And they've never had an art lesson.
All they've done is they've watched the TV series and they've learned.
And you can too.
Okay.
Let's grab an old one inch brush.
Maybe we'll have some bushes down here at the base of these trees.
Just sort of push upward with the brush and make the indication of some happy little bushes that live right down here.
Watch here, turn the brush over.
We'll tap in a little color underneath.
(whooshing sound) I know, you're saying "Bob, you've really messed it up this time." But you watch.
One of the most fantastic things about this whole technique is the fact that we don't make mistakes.
We have happy accidents.
Because very soon you learn to work with anything that happens.
And it takes all the fear out of painting.
There.
We'll just tap some of that into there too.
As you've probably figured out by now, this is going to end up being some gorgeous reflections that live right underneath that tree.
So we just take a two inch brush.
Grab and pull straight down.
Very gently, just pull it straight down.
Over here, straight down.
And then go across.
And we have instant reflections.
That easy.
Now.
I have several of each brush going so I don't have to spend all my time just washing brushes.
Dip the brush into a little liquid white.
Be right back, grab a little sap green, little yellow.
Let's go right up in here and let's just put some sparkles out here on these bushes.
Look at the sun's playing through there and it's just a zinging through.
A little yellow ochre here and a little Indian yellow.
Occasionally the least little touch of the bright red.
And just vary your colors.
Vary your colors, doom, there we go.
And work in layers.
Do one little bush at a time.
Don't get greedy.
(chuckles) Sometimes it starts working so well we decide to do all our bushes at once.
And then there's no separation between them.
No depth.
Poor little bush just gets lost there.
A little heavier on the yellow ochre.
Just enough to change the flavor a little bit.
Make it stand out as an individual.
There we go.
Now on the other side we'll do the same basic thing.
Sap green, Caddy yellow, Indian yellow, yellow ochre.
There, grab a little bit more of the green.
Doom, look at that.
Did you ever think you could make all these gorgeous bushes that easy?
You really can.
You really and truly can.
There.
Tell you what, let's have some fun.
Let's just reflect a little of that down into the water.
I don't want a lot of reflection but just a little.
Just tap a little of that color right down to the water.
On the other side same thing.
There.
You can make some of the most beautiful reflections in this technique that you've ever seen.
And when I was a traditional painter reflections were one of those things that absolutely drove me crazy.
And this technique it may be one of the easiest things that happens.
Just come across.
But when you pull this down, oh, so gentle, one hair and some air, that gentle, easy, caress it lightly, very, very gently.
Let's put a few little trunks in our trees.
We'll take some white, little dark sienna, mix 'em together.
Tiny little roll of paint on the knife.
And we go up in here, decide where your trunk lives in the tree.
Just touch.
Now, we're not gonna see the entire trunk because we're gonna have some limbs that protrude out in front of the trunk.
So just here and there.
And you can scratch in the indication, Makes it look like there's a lot of trees there instead of just a few.
Hmm, there we go.
See.
There.
And you can just take a scrape right through the paint and make it look like little sticks and twigs and all kinds of little things that live back in the woods there.
That's where all my little friends live.
The little rabbits and the squirrels and all those little characters.
If you've painted with me before you know I have a lot of animal friends.
A lot of times we show them on the program.
I'll show you some before the series is over.
I get a lot of letters and one of the earlier series I showed a little squirrel that lived with me.
Named Peapod the pocket squirrel.
He's something else.
And now he's an old squirrel.
He's just about ready to turn loose.
We turn all our animals back to the wild.
We don't keep 'em, we don't try to make pets out of 'em.
Okay, let's take a little sap green.
A little yellow, make a dark green here.
And let's just begin putting some highlights on some of these trees.
As you work down the tree I like to get darker and darker 'til it just fades right of into the very dark color.
Remember that your light's coming predominantly from the right in this painting.
Your mountain tells you so, right there.
So a little more color on the right.
Then on the left.
We'll give that indication in the trees.
There.
See, down in here keep it very dark because you need a nice shadow area in there.
It makes 'em look deep.
Very deep.
There we go.
A few over here.
Something about like that.
This old tree needs some.
There we go, just drop 'em right on.
Darker, darker, darker down here toward the base.
We got some nice highlights on the evergreens.
All this needs something to stand on so it doesn't fall over in the lake there...
Might be a river, whatever you want it to be.
Take some VanDyke brown and let's put some land under all this Pull sort of the angle you think the land would flow.
Remember that water always sits in a recessed area.
So chances are it's sort of an angle coming down like this.
There we go.
Chances are that's not 100% true but most of the time.
A little brown and white.
Come right back in here.
No pressure, just like putting snow on the mountain.
Just like putting snow on the mountain, there.
The angles are very important.
You wouldn't want to bring these straight down, It would look like cliffs hanging there.
There we go.
Little bit of our liquid white.
That will give us a water line.
Clean the bottom up.
Sort of bring it all together.
There we go.
There.
And a little back in here.
Maybe a little ripple here and there, there and here.
Wherever.
Painting is a very individual thing.
So when you're doing your painting you change it any way that makes you feel good.
'Cause we each see nature through different eyes.
And the way I see it may not be the way, necessarily, that you see it.
I only want to show you a technique.
A technique that makes painting very easy.
And that you can do, anybody can do.
I've absolutely never met anyone who could not paint.
There.
Just take the point of the knife and we'll cut a few little sticks and twigs and things in here.
Tis also helps show different layers.
Shows depth in your painting.
There are a few over on this side.
Something like that.
Sometimes there's a little bush or two that grows down the edges.
You can drop them in.
Just sort of helps fill everything in.
Shoot, I think we're about to the point where we can sign this one.
Take a little paint thinner.
Little bit of the bright red.
Make the paint very thin.
Almost like ink.
And let's go right up in here.
And we'll sign this one.
I really hope you've enjoyed this painting.
It's one that'll bring you a lot of pleasure because of all the colors.
Makes you feel good in here.
And from all of us here I'd like to wish you happy painting and God bless, my friend.
(slow funky theme music) Hi, welcome back.
Certainly glad you could join us today.
You sort of caught me there.
Tell you what, let's start out today and have 'em run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint along with us.
While they're doing that, let me show you what you caught me doing.
Today, I have my standard old pre-stretched double primed canvas.
And I'm just covering the entire canvas with a very thin coat of phthalo blue.
And that's all we're doing, we just take a two inch brush and scrub it in.
The canvas is dry.
Just want to cover the entire canvas with this very thin coat.
And I'm really, really scrubbing it in.
There's not a lot of paint here.
All I want to do is just stain the, just stain the canvas, that's all.
That's all it takes, just scrub it in.
There, I suggest you use one of your old brushes to do this 'cause it'll sort of wear a brush out.
There we are.
But that's all it takes.
Then right off the bat, we get to wash our brush first thing this time.
There.
Okay.
We just wash our brush with odorless paint thinner as you know.
Shake it off.
(laughs) And just beat the devil out of it.
Alright.
Grab another two inch brush.
I have several of them going here.
Thought today, we'd just do a little scene that's very simple that I hope you'll like.
And we're gonna start off with a little bit of the midnight black, and just tap one corner, and you can see it good, one corner.
Right there.
Okay let's go up in here.
Now maybe, maybe in our world, there's just a happy little cloud that lives up here.
This is pure midnight black, pure black.
This is gonna be sort of like an evening or early night scene.
Guess that sounds right.
I want it dark.
This is our world so we can create all kind of illusions in it.
There we are.
Maybe big old floaty cloud that lives right up through here somewhere.
Just using the corner of the brush, little more paint.
And we'll just begin applying this however we want it.
Think about little forms and shapes in your clouds, and just let 'em happen.
Clouds are interesting.
You see all kinds of things in 'em.
Shoot, when we were kids, my brother Jim and I, we used to sort of lay on our back out in the field and look up at clouds and see all kinds of crazy shapes in 'em.
I bet you've done that, too, whether you'll admit it or not.
There you go.
But you see all kinds of shapes in there.
There.
Wherever, wherever, wherever, it doesn't matter.
There we go.
This is the last show of the 28th Joy of Paining series.
So I'm certainly glad you're with us today.
Certainly glad you're with us.
There.
'Cause this is really the highlight of my whole life, is to make these shows and to join you in your home, or wherever you happen to be, and paint along with you.
There.
That's what I think every artist craves and needs, is for people to accept his work.
And through television, you have done that.
This has become the most popular art show in the history of television, and it's your fault.
And I thank you very, very much for your support, for all the calls and the letters that have went to stations all over the country, literally all over the world now.
That's what keeps us on the air.
So if you have time, give 'em a call.
Give 'em a call, they need your support anyway.
Alright, and we can put just a couple over here somewhere.
Now then, tell you what let's do.
I'm gonna get one of my little blender brushes and just tap one little corner into the least little bit of titanium white, tiny little bit, we can always add more.
And maybe right here behind this cloud, there's a little light coming out.
So we're just gonna paint with the blender brush 'cause I want it to be very soft, very gentle.
This takes very little paint, very little paint.
And it's gonna mix with the blue, and we'll just have a light source coming from right behind that cloud.
There we go.
See, looks like it.
Maybe the moon's back here.
Maybe it's coming out of this side, too.
We don't know.
See, in your world, you can create any illusion that you want.
Any illusion.
That's what's so great about this.
I like painting because it gives me total freedom.
And it's the only place in my whole life that I've had total freedom to do anything that I wanted to do, to create any illusion that I needed, to go to any world that was desirable.
There, and you could do that.
You can do that.
There we are.
But isn't that neat, the way it looks like now light's coming from behind that little rascal?
And that's all there is to it.
There, firm that cloud up just a little bit with the old two inch brush.
That's basically all I'm gonna do for this sky.
When you're doing yours, you may want to put a little more detail in it, it's up to you.
Up to you.
But this will certainly show you how to do it.
What you do is up to you.
There, see there?
We got old cloud hiding up there, looking out.
Got the moon behind him and he's watching everything.
Let's have some fun.
I'm gonna take, might as well mix up a pretty good pile, alizarin crimson and sap green.
The two of them together make a gorgeous, gorgeous brown.
Sort of, I'm gonna mix it sort of to the reddish side.
That's my favorite.
But you may like it more to the green side, it's up to you, up to you.
We'll just put that pile up there.
Wipe the knife off.
Today, let's use the little small round brush.
Go right into that nice brown color that we just made.
Just tap the brush into it.
That's all, no big deal, just tap it right into it.
Okay, let's go up in here.
Maybe in our world, there's this...
Does now.
Some little trees back here in the background, wherever.
All we're doing is putting in some dark color, sort of like _____ Just a little bit of dark, there it comes.
There.
All I'm looking for is just very basic little shapes.
Like little trees that are far away.
Far away back here, like so.
There.
We don't care.
Tell you what, I've got several of these brushes going.
I'm gonna grab another one.
And with that one, I'm gonna put a little bit of yellow, bright red, I'll just mix 'em on the brush here, the yellow ochre, and tap.
Just tap it to load it.
A little more bright red, maybe.
That's nice.
I'm making an orange color 'cause orange when put against blue is striking.
Let's go up here.
Oh, isn't that gorgeous?
I like it, I like colors like it They do nice things for you.
And of course none of us are interested in selling paintings, but if you're out there selling a painting now and then, these kind of colors sell.
People love 'em, they brighten up a dull room.
There.
Just sort of very back and forth between the reds and the yellows.
But notice they're brighter on the top than they are on the bottom.
Neat little shadow toward the bottom that makes 'em look real.
There we go.
Wherever, wherever, wherever.
Alright, I'm going back to the other side, right here.
Forgot that little rascal, don't want him left out.
Nothing worse than a mad tree.
They can really get upset with you sometime.
Don't want to upset him.
There, okay.
Back to my brush set.
Two inch brush has brown on it.
And let's put a little bit of brown under here.
Don't want to lose all that blue flavor.
See, that blue is still gonna show through.
I hope you can see that.
But it'll still show through, sort of.
This whole painting will have sort of a bluish cast to it because of the the phthalo blue that we put underneath, and that's exactly what I'm looking for.
It's exactly what I'm looking for.
And we can just literally, I'll tell you what let's do.
Let's just put a lot down here.
We'll decide where we're going with it later.
Why not?
We'll just keep going.
We'll just keep going.
But notice I'm intentionally not covering up all that blue.
I want it to show through.
See these areas in here where it's showing through?
I'm looking for that.
It's important to me in this particular painting.
There.
See now, anybody can do this.
Anybody can do this.
Nice and easy.
Maybe we'll bring it all the way down, what the heck.
If we want to change our mind, we can do that later, too.
It doesn't matter.
Since this is our world, we can do anything that we want to do here.
Any old thing.
Alright, now we've got enough brown on here to get us started.
Going back to my little small round brush, little half-round brush.
Tap it a little more on that same brown color, and yep, you know, Bobby.
Gotta have a big tree in his world.
There.
Sometimes I get letters from people that say, "Your painting was just perfect "until you put that silly old big tree in it at the end." Please don't feel just because I put a tree in here that you have to.
If you don't want a tree in your world, don't put it in.
That's what makes painting so great.
It's a very individual thing.
Alright.
I want some on the other side, too.
What the heck.
We'll just sort of fill this in.
Well we could have actually done all this with a two inch brush, it wouldn't have mattered.
Would not have mattered.
There.
Now then, let's have some fun.
Gonna take a little touch of that same color that we used.
Tap a little onto the old two inch brush.
Okay, let's go up in here, and very gently, begin putting in just a little soft grassy areas back in here.
There we are.
See, that's all there is to it.
All there is to it.
I'm gonna take a little titanium white, put a little black with it and make a gray color, just like so.
There, a little white, a little black.
Make us a little gray, we'll play with that.
We'll use that as a highlight color once in a while.
We'll just touch a little of that...
Oh yeah, oh, that's nice, that's nice.
That's just what I was looking for, just exactly.
Exactly.
I get excited sometime, sorry.
There we are, that easy.
I'm just gonna sort of jump back and forth between all those little colors and every once in a while hit that gray color we made, just to highlight a little.
Sometimes maybe even a little bit of the, little touch of that phthalo blue, 'cause I want to keep this blue hint throughout this painting.
There, back and forth, forth and back.
There we are.
Alright.
A little more of the yellow ochre and red.
Okay.
Tell you what let's do.
I'm gonna take a little yellow, a little bit of the bright red, we'll mix them together right here.
I want to make a little pile of orange Oh, that's nice.
Orange to the red side.
Wipe the knife.
Take my little round brush and tap right in there.
Just tap it, that's all there is to it.
Okay, let's go back up here.
Now then, I want to come back-- Nice, I want to come up in here and begin putting some little highlights right up on those, all those little trees that we painted.
There, there they come.
Think about form and shape, and little arms sticking out in there.
That's what makes your tree special.
That's what makes it special.
There we go.
I like this.
Like to do paintings like this, a lot of fun.
And they're easy.
Even if you've never painted, these are simple little paintings.
In fact, we try to design all these paintings in this series for people who have painted a lot as well as people who are just beginning.
There.
And they work for everybody, we hope.
I'm gonna do that on the other side, too.
Maybe less distinct over here, just a little.
Just some indications.
Think I'll put some, maybe some more trees in front of this one.
So I don't want this one as distinct.
Just some little indications.
There.
Okay.
Now we can sort of come up in here and clean up the bottom of that a little, just by tapping in some little grassy areas.
Something about ____ Alright.
Let's take our little filbert.
I'm gonna go into that brown color I've made, take the little filbert brush, and in my world, I think here's a tree.
Yep, you're right.
It lives right there.
Happy little tree.
And he's got a little friend there.
We don't even know where he goes.
Got another arm there.
There's one.
However many trees we want in our world.
Take our liner brush, little bit of that same brown color, and we'll just put the indication here and there of a few limbs, something like so.
I'm gonna put leaves on these.
So we don't have to put a lot of detail in 'em, don't worry about 'em.
Don't worry about 'em.
A few of these little limbs will show, but the majority of them we'll cover up.
There we are, something like that.
We got the little brush going, I'm gonna go right into a little bit of that gray color we made with a little paint thinner.
And maybe down in here with the indication of a little fence that lives back here.
I don't want it to be very distinct, it's too far away.
Just like so, just a little indication, that's way back in the distance.
Now, back to our little brush.
We'll put few little leaves out here on this.
I decided I was gonna do that.
That's the reason I wasn't worried about what was behind it so much.
See.
Maybe even down in here.
See, you just put these wherever you think they should be.
And we'll take, I'm gonna put a little paint thinner on the brush because we're getting quite a buildup of paint.
And I'll go right into my orangey color that I've made.
Okay, and we'll have a few little highlights right up here on that rascal.
You just put 'em wherever you think they should be.
There.
I like it.
I do like it.
It's the colors that I like so well in this particular painting, I think.
They just get prettier the more we do.
Alright, something about like so.
That'sabout all we need.
Okay, ready to get crazy?
Let's do it.
Maybe right out here in our world.
We check it, this is your bravery test.
Maybe, yeah, what the heck.
Maybe there's a big old cabin out here.
Maybe it's got a big roof like that.
Just sort of lay it out in your mind.
Use the knife, maybe there's a little porch that sticks out here, I don't know.
Don't know that it even matters.
I'm just removing excess paint, that's all I'm doing.
And I didn't make quite enough of that brown color.
Crimson and sap green, just mixed together.
Just mix up a little more right here real quick.
Alright, now then.
Take a little of that brown, and we can begin blocking in our little house.
Just begin blocking it in like that.
See, you're not committed yet, you can still change your mind if you want to.
That's what's so great.
Over here, see, just pull that across, straight down.
There, it's a good way to see if you like your little house.
We were gonna have a little porch sticking out there.
We can do that.
That easy.
Right down the side.
There.
Over here, I noticed that didn't make any sense, but it will in just a second, it will, I hope.
(chuckles) We'll see.
We'll see.
Now, I'm gonna take some white, a little bit of that brown color, and a little black in it.
And I don't want to overmix it.
And let's start down here.
It's too bright.
I want it darker than that, so I'm gonna put a little more black in it.
It's too bright for this painting.
That's a little better.
Now we'll just begin putting like some shingles on there, some old shingles on the house.
Most of 'em have been blown off over the years, but there's still a few hanging up here still.
I'm using the small edge of the knife.
There we go.
There they come, there they come.
Something about like so.
Most of them have been blown away.
Take that same color.
Actually it's just brown and white, a little black in it.
There we go.
Pull that straight down like so.
And over on this side here, almost nothing.
Almost nothing.
Little post right out here to hold up our, gotta hold up our little porch.
There.
Little touch of highlight that runs right along there just to make that stand out.
There.
Little bit of brown, and we'll turn that into old boards or slabs, just by touching.
Making little streaks.
All this, we'll just cut off and do a cabinectomy later.
Let's have a big window, big picture window.
Take a little bit of the cad yellow with a little touch of yellow ochre in it.
There.
Now...
There, fix this little window all up.
Now we got a window right there so he can see out.
Now then, let's go back, take some of our, all of our colors, and let's just begin filling this in with little grassy areas all up through here.
There.
Alright, maybe a little of that gray color, just to put some little highlights here and there, wherever, wherever.
Isn't that something else?
You can do little paintings like this.
They're very easy and they work for you.
They work for you.
You have unlimited time at home, you can just piddle and play and have more fun.
If I take too much time here, they have no sense of humor.
None whatsoever.
There.
I'm using a little bit of the phthalo blue, once in a while a little bit of that gray, just to sort of mix it all together.
Whatever.
But that blue hint will come through in the entire painting, just because you underpainted it with blue.
There we go.
Alright, all kinds of little things living in here.
The lay of the land here is very important, the way the land flows.
So pay attention to that, don't just throw these in at random.
Don't just throw them in at random.
Alright.
Okay, we're coming right along here.
We'll just take this all the way down to the bottom.
It doesn't matter, wherever you want to go with it.
Wherever.
I want it to be a little darker down here so I'm going more into the browns.
Alright, same thing over in here.
About like that.
And you can take your time and as I was saying, you can really work at this and smooth it all out.
It's unbelievable what you can do, and I know you can do it.
I know you can do it.
There we go.
As I mentioned, this is the last show of the 28th Joy of Painting series.
And I want to thank you very much for being with us.
It really is your support that keeps us on the air.
And you're special, very, very special.
Without you we wouldn't be here.
So before we have to leave, I'm want to, on behalf of my partners Walt and Annette Kowalski, and all the fantastic people here at the station, we'd like to thank you for your support and for making us feel special.
I'm gonna take a little of that paint thinner, a little yellow ochre here and there.
Maybe there's some bushes that live down here.
We'll throw in a few little weeds.
We'll use a little yellow ochre, sometimes a little bit of cad yellow, a little red just mixed together, just to give the impression-- Oh, there's a nice one, some nice little bushes that live right here.
There, something about like that.
Shoot, I think we about have a finished painting.
Let's sign this rascal.
Take a little paint thinner and a little bit of red and we'll sign it.
Really hope you've enjoyed this painting and this entire series.
It's always our pleasure to be with you.
And from all of us here, I'd like to wish you happy painting.
Until next time, God bless, my friend.
(elevator music) Hi, welcome back.
Certainly glad to see you today.
Tell you what, let's get right on today, and have them run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint along with us at home.
While they're doing that, as usual, let me show you what I have.
Today I have my standard ol' pre-stretched double prime canvas, and I've just covered it with a very thin coat of liquit white.
That's all, it's wet and ready to go, so thought today maybe we'd do, let's do a little winter scene, something that's let's just see what happens.
Let's start with (chuckles), with black and blue, or blue and black, and we'll just sort of mix them together on the brush, more black than blue, though.
I thought we'd just play a little bit today.
It's such a wonderful day here, and I hope it is wherever you're at.
So, just have a good time with this, there we are.
We'll just, we'll just pop in a little sky here and there.
Something about like so.
I'm going to leave in some spots open, intentionally.
Just, little spots, I don't want this to be a flat ol' dead sky.
Want it to have some life, some action to it.
Shoot, tell you, why don't we get a little crazy here.
Oh, I've got several of these brushes going, grab another one, put a little touch, a little touch, not much, a little touch of alizarin crimson.
Maybe right along here, just so it's not too bleak.
Sometimes winter scenes can be very, very depressing.
We're gonna put just a little pink in there, just to give it a little warmth in the background, I don't want much.
Don't want much, I still want it to have a distinct winter taste to it.
There we are.
OK, we'll just play some of that right down to the edge of that pink.
And that's basically all it takes.
There, blend it a little bit.
And that's good enough.
That'll give us a sky that, as I said, has a little life in it, and some action is happening, it's not just a flat ol' dead sky, you can see it light areas.
And I like that in a sky.
Shoot, that's working pretty good.
Maybe we'll do the same thing down here, doesn't matter.
Anything that we don't, don't use, we just turn it into a shadow.
If this is a winter scene maybe we'll have some snow, you gotta have shadows in the snow.
Or maybe it'll turn out to be water.
Who knows, it doesn't matter.
Doesn't matter, because we can fix anything that can happen here, we don't, we don't concern ourselves with mistakes, we just have happy accidents.
There.
See? Something about like it.
And that's a good way to clean the excess paint off your brush.
M'kay, let's wash the ol' brush now.
If you've painted with me before you know that's really the fun part of this.
It's really the fun part, just washing the brush.
There.
(beating) (laughs) Isn't that fun?
I usually just wipe the brush on a paper towel to assure it's dry as I can possibly get it.
But, you'd be surprised at how dry it gets just from beating it like that.
Let's take black, Purssian blue, little touch of crimson.
Black, blue, crimson, and I'm going to get some white.
Just take a little bit of white.
I'm gonna mix up, hmm, put a little more blue in there.
Yeah.
Want it to have sort of a blue cast to it.
Ooo, I like it.
I like that, that's looking good.
Maybe a little more white.
You just mix it till it gets to the flavor you like.
And I think that's wonderful.
It's sort of a drab blue color, it's not real bright.
There, that's a nice winter color.
All right, let's grab an old brush and load it full of color.
We use the ol' fan brush today.
Maybe in our world, back here, somewhere in the background, see this color is not...
far away from the color that's already on the canvas.
Let's just push upward today and make us a little tree.
There, that's pretty close to the color that's on the canvas, and that's what we're looking for, I don't want it to be too much farther away.
Pretty close, pretty close.
All right.
There, maybe a little tree right there.
And you decide how many trees live in your world, it's up to you, totally and completely up to you.
As you've probably heard me say before, to me that's what's so fantastic about painting.
It's that each and every person will paint differently, and that's what makes it special.
If we all painted the same way, what a boring time it would be.
You would know what the finished painting was gonna be before you start.
But because people are different, paintings are different, that's the beauty of it.
That's what makes it very special.
It allows you to show your individuality.
There.
How many trees do we want here?
It's up to you, you decide.
You decide, maybe you wanna a whole forest, maybe you just want a few.
Maybe there's a little baby one right there.
He's not so big yet.
Make up little stories, you know, people look at you like you're a little strange, but that's all right.
Painters are expected to be different.
Let's have one more right there.
One more.
As I say painters are, painters are unique.
I take advantage of that all the time too.
Now then.
I'm gonna take the ol' two-inch brush, I wanna create the illusion of mist down here at the base of this.
The illusion of mist.
So just by tapping, and we're just going to softly, softly disappear over here.
I want these trees to just sorta look like they're just sitting in a little misty area.
Just breathing in the cold air.
There we go.
Something like that.
But now we have a whole bunch of trees in the background, it's very misty, cold looking, and already you have the impression of winter.
That easy.
All right.
Let's get a clean two-inch brush, time to have some fun.
Let's have us a little snow in here.
And to paint snow with a two-inch brush, very easy.
Load it full of color.
Full of titanium white.
And we have, we already have this grey color on the canvas, we, we put on and talked about it being like a shadow.
Now, it's gonna pick that up.
See there?
And we just let it sorta disappear over here.
We don't care.
We don't care.
That easy.
But isn't that fantastic?
Snow is one of the easier things to paint in this technique.
OK.
You ready for a little, a little fun today?
Maybe, tell you what, we film this show in Indian and there's a, there's a lot of old barns here that just fascinate me.
Let's paint an old barn today.
One of the easiest ways is to take a, scrape out a basic shape, just sorta scrape it out.
It doesn't have to be exact, and you're not committed.
You're not committed here.
So let's just decide what kind of old barn we want.
Maybe it comes down like that, maybe it has a place over here for the cow to sleep.
It doesn't matter, you decide, barns come in all kinds of shapes.
Farmers are like painters, they, they do it thier way.
Yeah, that's what's so great about being a farmer in this fantastic country.
You can do it your way.
All right.
Have a lot of friends here that are farmers.
Have to get a brownie point in with them, cause they got the best food, and I like to eat.
All right, on the other side, about the same distance here.
We'll just scrape out.
I hope you can see, there's just a basic, basic shape there.
And, as I mentioned earlier, you are not committed.
Van dyke brown, dark sienna.
You can change your mind at this point.
Little roll of paint.
Now let's begin picking out the little things in here.
There's the back eave.
see there? That easy.
OK, now then.
The ol' barn comes down, bloop-bloop-bloop-bloop.
Gotta make those noises.
There it is, see?
All we're doing here is blocking in a little color.
We'll come back and do a barnectomy after a while, and cut it off wherever we want it.
But right now all we're doing is putting in the dark.
Putting in some dark color.
There.
Here we go, bloop, bloop.
See there?
Sorry I make those little noises, I sorta forget, cause I really do make em' even when I'm by myself I make little noises.
Sorta makes things work better for me.
All right, and over here toop. There we go.
See?
That's really about all we're looking for to block it in.
And right in here would be a little dark paint.
OK, now, let's take, let's take, let's take some white, dark sienna, a little vandyke in there, maybe even a little crimson too, what the heck.
Give it a little warm feeling.
Don't over mix the paint.
Cut off a littl roll of paint, then we can go up in here and just barely touch, just let it graze, see?
Let it graze.
Looks like old, old wood.
If you've painted barns and cabins and stuff before, you know I, I really like to paint old things.
I'm an avid collector of antique glass, for example.
I like old things.
When you get to my age you have a tendency to like old things, you can relate to them.
(chuckles) There we are.
And I am old, older than dirt.
(laughing) Let's take a little, a little vandyke brown and I want to darken that color...
so that it's darker over here on the side, cause maybe not as much light's gonna hit over here.
See?
That's much darker.
Now then.
Let's put some boards in there, for that we'll just take some van dyke brown, and we'll just put the indication here and there of some little boards, some slabs that live in here.
There.
See there?
I wish the barn was this easy to build for real.
My father was a carpenter and I built a few barns, it's not this easy.
There.
It's not this easy.
There we are, something about like that.
Now then.
We need a roof on this barn, so the cow don't get cold.
Let's take some titanium white.
Since we said this was winter, maybe the snow is there.
Let's just outline it so that way you'll get a nice straight edge when you pull it down, watch.
(makes swooshing noise) See there?
There we go, now then.
Little more of the white.
(makes swooshing noise) Little touch more.
(makes swooshing noise) There.
There we go.
Ain't that neat?
Looks like snow's piled up on top of the ol' barn.
Little bit over there, cause you'd see some on that side too.
You would also see some here.
And, oh, we got a whole section to go here.
There, let me get some more white.
Same thing though.
I want to outline it a little bit so you'll have a nice, straight edge.
And then when you pull it some, nice straight edge.
There we go.
Something about like that.
M'kay.
There.
But you can just move it, pull it, work it any way that you want to.
All right, we need a door.
OK, always gotta have a way to get in and out there.
Let's take some van dyke, decide where your door lives and (makes swooshing noise) Once again, don't worry about the bottom, we're gonna do, we're gonna do a barnectomy, as I mentioned earlier.
we'll cut this rascal off wherever we want it to be.
Which is about time to do now.
Let's say the ol' barn, right along in there. See?
Didn't take too much cutting on that one, sometimes I paint em' where I have to cut a lot off the bottom, because I get carried away.
Get carried away, get telling stories and things begin just looking good and I don't know when to stop.
All right.
That gives us a pretty nice, little barn.
There it is.
Let's find our two-inch brush.
Ol' two inch brush.
It's got a little snow on it, a little snow.
Let's go up in here, and we'll put another plane, come right in there.
(makes swishing noise) There we are.
Watch that brown snow, you know what they say about it.
There we are.
Down in there.
Over here on the other side we'll just bring it right up.
Like that.
And got a little snow around his foots.
That easy.
Once again, snow is so easy to paint when you're using a big ol' two-inch brush.
So easy to paint.
Let me find a clean fan brush, there's one.
Looks pretty good.
Find us a place to work on the ol' palette.
Gotta have a big palette, big palette's very, very helpful.
It's almost as important as having a, well as having...
an easel that holds your paint firmly, your painting firmly.
When you're using the two-inch brushes...
you really need a good, firm...
easel, a large palette.
It'll pay you tremendous dividends.
Mix up some color here right on the brush.
Little Prussian blue, black, brown, a little crimson.
All them good colors.
Maybe.
OK.
(chuckles) Here we go.
Maybe right here.
I'm gonna put a little paint thinner, just to thin the paint, it's a little thick.
When you paint just a little bit, pretty soon you begin to get a feel for it when it touches, if it don't wanna...
pull just right, then you can add a little thinner.
But not, don't do that unless you have to.
I just knew the paint wasn't gonna come off the brush unless I did.
I'm gonna have a happy little tree, he lives right there, just a little guy.
A little guy.
Right on the side of the barn.
Let's go on the other side over here.
You know me (chuckles), bravery test, here we go.
Bigger tree, big ol' tree.
I like these evergreens.
They're so much fun to make.
And they're very simple, very, very simple.
Takes a little practice like anything else, everything in your life takes a little practice.
But you can learn to paint this technique faster than any painting technique that I have ever seen.
And I think I've tried just about all of them.
There.
And oils...
are so forgiving.
And they possess a richness that no other medium possesses.
I think that's why the old masters painted mostly in oils.
They just have a, a richness.
Other mediums to me are very flat when they're dry.
There.
And they're harder.
This is the easiest, because it's very forgiving, you can't make a mistake here.
All right, let's take, let's take some of that nice grey color we had.
Maybe right in here, maybe there's a little, maybe there's a little path that just works its way out.
Just works its way out here.
Something about like that.
We just put some grey in there so, (makes swooshing noise) can come right on, right on out.
Now then.
Put some highlights on our little evergreens.
Let me clean off another spot.
Running outta room today.
Running outta room.
There we go.
Now, I'll take...
liquid white, titanium white, and phthalo blue.
I change the blue, I've been using Prussian blue...
through the entire painting, now I want to use phthalo blue, because I want to highlight these trees and the phthalo blue will stand out a little bit.
Just want it to, to stand out.
This is a blue spruce, I just made a decision.
Command level decision, right here.
See?
You decide what kind of tree lives in your world.
All right.
Mix up a little more of that phthalo blue and white.
Don't want to have that little, don't want to have that little tree left out right there.
Hey, you have to decide which tree is in the foreground.
I think the small one here is.
So you do the one behind him first.
How's that?
See?
And (mumbles) little tree over here.
Don't forget him, he'll get sad.
He'll get sad.
We'll give him a little color on here.
There we are.
See? That easy.
That easy.
M'kay.
Let's try here, little bit of titanium white.
Allow it to pick up some of that color, allow it to pick it up intentionally.
So that way, you get all these different things happening.
There.
OK.
Isn't this neat?
These whole winter scenes are a lot of fun, and I really think they might be the easiest ones to do.
There we are.
And we just blend that a little bit till it looks nice and soft and...
pretty.
And this little tree over here.
I'm intentionally grabbing some of that dark color.
See? We'll put him up on a little hill, sorta.
That easy.
See? He sorta sits up high.
Isn't that neat?
That just by pulling some of that color that you can create that illusion?
It's unbelievable to have this kind of power.
Unbelievable.
There we go.
All right, see the little path?
It's coming right along there, maybe.
(makes swooshing noise) There we go.
You just decide where your little path is.
There we are.
And you can take your fan brush that has the grey on it...
and just polish the edges up a little bit, however you want them.
We can just go back and forth, work this until it, until it gets just what we consider perfect.
And sometimes it's nice to, we'll just pop in a little (mumbles) here, then lift up.
Lift it up.
Make it look like little bushes and weeds living there.
Maybe there's one coming right here, I don't know.
You decide.
You decide where they are.
But you have little patches of bushes and sticks, and wigs.
Limbs and twigs that grow everywhere.
There we go.
See?
All right.
We'll just use that same brush.
Ready to get crazy?
Let's take some van dyke brown , mostly van dyke brown, there's a little black on the brush, I think.
It doesn't matter.
In our world, in our world.
You ready for your bravery test?
OK, here it comes.
(makes swooshing noises) There.
OK, let's give him a friend.
Let's give him a friend.
(makes zooming noises) There.
Something about like it.
Or, maybe, maybe this is an old birch tree that lives out here.
It's up to you.
You could make him a birch or whatever.
You can have an old oak tree if you wanted to.
Doesn't matter.
There.
Something like so.
There we are.
You know, it's hard to believe, this is the 31st series of The Joy of Painting.
Good gosh, there's over 400 shows now, it's almost unreal.
Almost.
I want to thank you for...
allowing us to come to you for this long.
We've been doing this show now for well over 11 years.
11 years, and you've made me feel very special to invite me into your home and to let me be part of your family.
Thank you very much.
If you hadn't get to see all the shows in your area and you would like to, give your station a call, they're available to them.
They're available to them.
Or if you want to see some of them over again, let them know.
It's the only way they'd know.
Little brown with paint thinner here, and just gonna put on some little limbs.
It's too cold for there to be any leaves on here.
They went, they went to Florida for the winter.
No, leaves don't go to Florida, they just fall off the tree, I know, somebody'll write and tell me they're not there.
Hmm.
There we go.
Anywhere you want them to be.
Anywhere.
Just paint thinner, and off you go.
There, see?
And don't worry about what's behind it.
When you, when you paint it, just paint, don't worry about it.
Nature didn't worry, you don't worry.
OK, few more little limbs here.
Shoot, I think we're about, about to the point where we got this rascal...
looking pretty good.
Maybe, maybe there's a little stick right in there, I dunno.
Hmm.
Maybe, let's go right over in here.
Maybe over in here we can put the indication of just...
a few little twigs and sticks and things that are living everywhere.
Something about that that.
Shoot, I think with that we gone have a finished painting.
Let's take a little red, and we'll sign this rascal.
Really hope you've enjoyed this little painting, I hope you'll try it.
It'll give you a lot of experience using the equipment, and with experience comes confidence, and with confidence, you know you can do anything that you believe you can do.
From all of us here until next time, I'd like to wish you happy painting, and God bless my friend.
(mellow music) (mellow smooth jazz music) Hello, I'm Bob Ross and I'd like to welcome you to the 29th Joy of Painting series.
If this is your first time with us, allow me to extend a personal invitation for you to get your brushes and your paints and paint along with us each show.
And if you've been with us before, please allow me to thank you for inviting us back for another series of painting shows.
We'll use about a dozen colors, some unorthodox brushes, and each show I'll show you how to put some of nature's masterpieces right here on the canvas.
So, I'll tell you what, let's get started.
Today, we'll have 'em run all the colors across the screen, right there, that you need to paint along with us.
While they're doing that, let me tell you what I've got going on up here.
Today, I'm using an 18 by 24 inch, double-primed, pre-stretched canvas, but you use whatever size you'd like.
And I've just covered the entire canvas with a very thin coat of liquid white.
Liquid white is designed just to make the canvas wet, and to make it slick.
It allows us to actually blend color right here on the canvas.
Makes your whole painting life a lot easier.
So, let's get started.
Thought today we'd just do a very simple little scene that hope you'll enjoy.
Let's start with a little two inch brush and a touch of the alizarin crimson.
And we just load a little bit right into the bristles.
Pull a little paint out, tap the bristles firmly to assure nice even distribution of paint all the way through the bristles.
And let's go right up here.
And we'll take this old brush and just making little X's, little criss-cross strokes.
We'll just very quickly drop in just a little warm part in the sky, here.
Maybe we'll have a little pink in the sky.
I sorta like that.
And in our world, we can do anything that we want to do here, any old thing.
There. Doesn't take too long when you're using a brush that's two inches wide.
Okay, without even cleaning the brush, we'll go right into, right into a little phthalo blue.
(chuckles) I like phthalo blue.
It's a very warm blue, very nice.
Once again, just tap a little color into it and let's go back up here and still using our little criss-cross strokes, X's.
That's all they are, little X's.
We'll just apply a little bit of the phthalo blue.
Somethin' about like so.
Then we'll come back after we clean the brush and blend that together.
Now, the blue is many many times stronger than this little pink area.
It'll just eat it up, so be careful.
Be careful, all go away.
If you wanted to make the indication of a happy little cloud, all you do is just sorta tap.
Little stringy cloud just lives right there in the brush and that easy.
We'll blend him out, have a little stringer cloud there.
Let's see, while we have that on there, let's have some water in this painting.
I love water and it's very easy to paint in this style.
Still water is always level.
And I think today we'll have still water.
So, pull from the outside in, outside in.
Somethin' about like so. Alright.
While I have that old brush going, I wanna darken the corners a little bit.
I'ma take a little Prussian blue and just add in the corners here and there.
Little bit up there, and we'll go over to the other side and add a little more and then down toward the bottom, and we'll put a little down here too.
I'm just putting a little Prussian blue in each corner to darken it.
And then, the most fun part of this whole technique is washing the brushes.
Since these are oil paints, we're washing our brushes with odorless paint thinner.
Shake off the excess, (paint brush thumps) (giggles) and just beat the devil out of it.
That's really the most fun part of it.
Now, with a clean brush, and it's relatively dry from just beating it, we'll start in the light area, which is the pink, and we'll blend it all together.
Somethin' about like so.
That's all there is to it.
Okay, and down here, we'll just do the same thing.
There. But it's that easy, that easy.
What's so fantastic about this is that anybody, anybody can put a little masterpiece on canvas with just a little bit of practice, a vision in your mind, and off you go.
Alright, that's working so well.
Take a little white, little bit of the blue, grab a little more of the titanium white.
I wanna make a light blue color here, mostly phthalo blue, and let's just tap a little color into the bristles.
This old two inch brush'll do marvelous things.
Watch here, watch here, watch here.
It's fun. Take the corner of the brush and just pull down, somethin' about like so.
Straight down, straight down.
I wanna make it look like little distant trees live far back in the distance.
Little more color, and we'll just have it, we'll go, I don't know, right there.
In your world, you create any illusion that you want.
There, but I wanna keep the bottom light, so it looks like mist.
You could even take another two inch brush, I have several, and tap it.
Really get in there and tap it and then lift upward.
It'll help create that illusion of mist, right down at the bottom.
And sometimes, sometimes it's a lot of fun to put several layers.
It helps create depth in your painting and for that, we'll add a little more blue but we make it a little darker.
Add a little Prussian blue to it, make it a little darker, but the same thing.
And we'll come back and just put another little layer in here, just touching and pulling downward, that's all we're doing.
That's really all we're doing.
Somethin' about like that. There.
And we don't know where that goes.
It doesn't matter at this point.
And back to our other two inch brush, and we'll tap this.
I wanna create mist again.
Notice the separation.
It's caused because of the difference in color, difference in value, and that misty area turns out to be your very best friend.
Take care of it, treasure it. There.
Okay, let's have some more fun. (chuckles) Let's see, gonna take some black, some Prussian blue, and a little phthalo blue.
It doesn't matter, we'll just throw it on there.
Crimson too, what the heck. Be brave, be brave.
I'm gonna put a little satin green in there too.
It's getting close enough we should begin seeing some color. Little bit of white.
Don't want it totally dark yet.
There, perfect. 'Kay I'm gonna wipe the old knife off.
And let's get us fan brush, we'll use a fan brush.
Load it full of color, both sides, both sides.
'Kay, let's go up in here and maybe in our world there lives, does now, some little trees back in here.
Now, these are a little closer, you're seeing a little more detail, a little more distinct. There.
And we just drop 'em in.
We don't know where they go, wherever you want 'em.
That's exactly, exactly where they should live.
Don't put too much detail in here.
It's too far away, you're not gonna see a lot of detail.
You see detail when it's very close to you.
When things are far away, you make out form, shape, basic color, that's all.
Save the detail till the foreground.
The lack of detail helps also create that illusion of distance and depth in your painting.
It's very very important, very important.
M'kay, I'm gonna tap a little of that.
That'll help create that illusion of mist on there too.
There. Lift slightly upward, lightly.
Just a little bit, see? Now then.
You know, when I was a traditional painter one of the hardest things to make effectively was reflections.
Watch how easy, I'll take some of that same color, we'll take a two inch brush, touch and pull down.
Just pull straight down.
It's most important that we go straight down.
Somethin' like so, straight down.
(clicks tongue) make those little noises.
Then, very lightly, go across. There.
And instantly, we have some nice reflections, that simple.
Now, here somethin' is funny.
Take a little, I just use a little white.
If you wanna create another plane in your painting, take a little white and lift upward, and it'll make little areas back here that looks like a whole different plane and the white will look like little trunks in those trees.
There, that easy.
Let's put a little water line.
For that we use liquid white.
Pull it out very flat, flat as you can get it, cut across, 'kay?
And we can go right up in here and we can just drop in just a little water line.
Just a happy little water line lives back in here somewhere, we don't know where it is.
Don't know that we even care, just let your imagination take you anywhere you wanna go.
Lotta times I start a painting and have nothing in mind but the time of day and the time of year.
And from that, you can paint some fantastic little scenes.
Don't worry about it, you don't always have to have a perfect vision in your mind of what it is you're gonna paint.
Imagination is, it's like any other muscle in your body, or lack of muscle in your body.
The more you practice, the better it becomes.
Take some black, Prussian blue, I'ma put some phthalo green in there.
I like phthalo green, maybe a little crimson.
There we go.
Alright, let me wipe off the knife.
I just wipe the knife on a little, little paper towel.
I would just use that brush, little fan brush.
Load some color into it, both sides of the brush.
Both side, let's go up in here.
Let's have, let's have a little evergreen tree.
He lives right here, see?
Just make a line, take the corner of your brush, make a touch, make another one, and just sort of work from the center out.
There it goes. (clicks tongue) It's easier to do 'em fast than it is slow, though.
Here they come. (clicks tongue) Just sorta back and forth.
I had a lady in class one time tell me it was like makin' Z's, the letter Z.
She called 'em Z trees, so I guess that's as good of analogy as any.
From the center out, the center of the tree should be the thickest, darkest, strongest part of the tree 'cause you have leaves on the back, you have a trunk in the middle, and you have leaves on this side.
We'll have one more in there. There we go.
Have a little family of trees.
You know if you've painted with me before, I think everybody should have a friend, even a tree.
Even a tree needs a friend.
Now, if you wanted to reflect those, just pop in some general indications of where they are, no big deal.
'Cause we don't make mistakes here, we have happy accidents.
Very quickly, you learn to work with anything that happens.
Take the big brush, pull down. (clicks tongue) Straight down, once again, and then go across, and we have instant reflections.
I'ma just use that same fan brush.
It has that color we made the tree out of it and I'll go through cad yellow and a little yellow ochre.
Immediately, we have green.
There we are. Let's go up in here.
And we can take that green, let's go back and put some highlights on our little evergreen trees, there they go. (clicks tongue) Alright, this little tree here he's sayin, "Don't leave me out. I need some too." There we are, there we are, there we are.
Alright, now, gonna put a little liquid white right on that same brush, 'cause I wanna lighten the color and make it a little thinner.
A thin paint will stick to a thick paint.
We mix 'em back up again, just go back up here.
And we can just take this brush and let's just pop in the indication of some little bushes that live down here, right down in these little foots.
Somethin' about like that. How's that?
That looks like a little island.
Let's put some dirt there.
Let's take some white, little dark sienna, mix 'em together, cut off a little roll of paint.
Let's go up in here and we'll take this and we just put the indication here, a little bit of soil, some dirt, some kind.
Gotta have a little place, if this is a little island, for all this to sit on.
Alright. See there?
That's all there is to it.
M'kay, (sucks teeth), alright, we gotta figure out somethin' to do on the other side now.
Let's have some fun, let's have some fun.
You know if you've painted with me before, I like old big trees.
Let's take a little bit of that color right there, let's go right up in here.
This is your bravery test, take the corner of the old two inch brush and let's just begin laying in a basic shape here.
Tree it lives right there, right there.
Big old tree, but he's a nice tree.
There he is.
Alright, while I got that brush going, I tell you what, maybe let's do somethin' about like this. (clicks tongue) And we just tap in all kinds of little, little bushy lookin' areas.
You have to decide what lives here, how far it goes, how tall is it, how short is it, it's fat, skinny, in between, it's your world.
And in your world, you make all the decisions.
All the decisions. There we are.
See, we're just puttin' some dark in here so later on, our light color will show.
We'll just grab a-- (paint brush clatters) Oops, grab another one.
There's a fan brush right there.
Take a little white, a little bit of the dark sienna, just wanna make the indication here.
Maybe a little tree trunk, maybe a little more dark sienna.
(exhales quickly) That's nice.
'Kay, right here. (exhales) Just want some indications.
I'ma put some happy little leaves in there, so we're gonna cover most of those up.
Most of 'em won't show, we'll go right into that.
Need a little sap green, little bit of the yellow.
We'll just put it right on this two inch brush, give a little push.
Good shot there, you can see that well.
'Kay, let's go up in here.
Now, I wanna put some leaves on here.
Use just the corner of the brush, just the corner of the brush. There we go.
See? That's all there is to it, just the corner.
Think about shape and form, drop these little rascals in wherever you want 'em.
Wherever. You really are the creator on this piece of canvas.
You can do anything!
You can move rivers, mountains, create any illusion that you want here.
When I go home, the only power I have is over the garbage.
I can take it to the street all by myself, but here I can do anything, absolutely anything.
I decided I wanted a bush right there.
And, tell you what, let's get crazy.
You know me, if you've painted with me before.
I like big trees and we have one living in our world right there.
There he comes.
We should've done this with the two inch brush, it'd been a lot faster. There we go.
Just drop it in wherever you think it should be.
Alright. Boy, that's a big tree, I wasn't kiddin', this is a monster tree.
Huge tree and you could've done it with a two inch brush just as easy, but much quicker.
I like the old fan brush, it gives you a little more detail.
Here we go with a smaller tree, 'cause I think he needs a friend.
There. 'Kay, just drop it in.
All we're doing, once again, is putting in the background color.
You could put this in with a paint roller, it doesn't matter, long as the shape is right.
We'll come back and separate all of this with some nice highlights.
Here's a little brown and white.
We're gonna put the indication just here and there of a trunk, just what you can see, here and there.
There. You don't see it all 'cause you have leaves on this side.
We can go back to our little fan brush, go right through the cad yellow, yellow ochre.
We'll load some color into it.
Let's go back up in here.
Let's put a highlight or two on here.
Evergreens are normally darker than other trees, so don't kill all the dark here in your evergreen.
It happens sometime, get's ya' feeling good and you don't know when to stop.
There. And the base of the tree should be darker than the top, big shadow areas underneath.
And those shadow areas are where all my little friends live.
In previous shows we've had, like Peapod the pocket squirrel, my little squirrel that lives with me.
We've had him on the show.
But this is kinda the places that he likes.
Let's take a little bit of color, let's use the, let's use the one inch brush.
We'll go through some, get some sap green, some yellow, load a lotta color into the brush.
More sap green. (sharply exhales) That's nice.
Alright, then we can go up here, and we can begin picking out individual bushes, one at a time, one at a time.
There's a happy little bush, lives right there.
You knew he was there, didn't you?
And he's got a little friend named Clyde, lives right over here, there he is.
So you can give all these things names, personalities, it's okay.
We'll take the little oval brush, dipped in some paint thinner.
We'll go through some midnight black and some brown on one, wanna load it full of color again.
Then I'ma take, and with the other side, I got some light brown I made earlier.
I'm just gonna go through, see?
Like that, put a little black in it, make it a little dark, ooh that's nice.
Now, with that I guess we'll come up here and make the indication, we can't see too much of 'em, of some rocks that live up there.
Just some happy little rocks.
Maybe there's one (exhales) there, somethin'.
Wherever, just some indications.
Then we'll come back with our brush we were making the bushes with and we'll settle those right down into the painting.
There, now see?
Now they become part of the painting.
There we go, just like so.
And we'll make all kinds of little bushes and trees and happy little things that live here in our world.
Alright.
Okay. Shoot, if we had such a place as that, I'd have to go fishin' there.
I like to fish but I'm not a very good fisherman.
I catch a little fish and take the hook carefully out of his mouth and put a band-aid on him, little CPR, pat him on the toot toot, and put him back in the water, go back, catch him again another day.
But we'd have to have a way to get up here if we're gonna catch that fish.
We'll take a little of the van dyke brown and let's have us a little path.
We had to walk all through through these bushes, maskeeters would get us, so let's have us a little path that we can walk back in here, catch a big old trout or bass, whatever it is that lives in here. There.
Take a little bit, let's find some white, little dark sienna, mix it together, make a little highlight color.
Just barely touching, barely.
Let it graze, let it graze.
That easy, that easy.
'Bout like so.
M'kay. There.
Now then, let's put somethin' on this side.
Ya have somethin' on the other side the path, now let's go on this side.
Once again, I'ma take a one inch brush and I'm just settin' it straight down and I'm pulling it in one direction.
It's most, most important.
That loads a lot of paint, and see it rounds one edge.
You wanna turn it, put that rounded edge to the top.
It's most important.
Then we take that, we go right up in here, no pressure hardly, just enough to get the brush to touch the canvas, and we begin working on shape and form and we create a bush or tree that lives right there.
That's all there is to it.
And there's another one, but do one at a time.
I know, I know. Sometimes it starts working, you get greedy.
Do one at a time, one at a time.
I'ma put a little bright red on there.
Maybe here's one right here. Oh, yeah.
It's got little, I don't know if you can see 'em, I got little red flowers on the tip.
(chuckles) Sneaky. There.
Then we can go back over in here, and we can begin adding in just little things that come about here on the path.
'Bout like that. Alright, alright.
You got your brushes warmed up yet and you're ready, you can do this!
You can do this, I know you can.
I get letters every day from people all over the country that said they'd never believed they could paint and they're doing it.
Their friends and neighbors don't believe it when they look at their paintings but they are doing it.
There. I'ma put a little stick lives right there, little old tree.
Maybe, maybe, maybe this little tree died and he's naked now, just a skeleton hangin' out here.
And that happens in nature.
There. So, we can put little arms on him that are still hangin' out. Alright.
All kinds of little dooders.
Maybe over in here, and these little details are what'll make your painting look a little more finished.
Take your time when you're doing these and just drop 'em in here and there and there and wherever.
Take a little light brown with paint thinner on it and when you mix this, get it very thin.
This should be almost like, almost ink consistency.
Turn the bristles, that'll bring it to a very sharp point.
There you see it good against that dark, alright?
And where it's very dark, then we make little light trees.
Where it's light, we make dark trees because they both exist in nature.
So you can put little, see now there's a little tree lives back here, just has a good time, looks out over the water, talks to the fish.
That's all there is to it.
Another way of making little sticks and twigs, take your knife, just a clean knife and you can reach up in here and just scrape right through the paint, see?
And that'll make all kinda little sticks.
And let's come down here, we'll make a few more in here, wherever.
You decide where they live.
Sometimes, these old evergreens here have old dead limbs hangin' off of 'em and you can do that, just with a little flick of the knife.
And shoot, with that I think we 'bout have a finished painting.
It's that easy.
Let's take a little bit of the paint thinner, little bright red, and we'll sign this little rascal.
Really hope you've enjoyed it.
It's a very simple painting that you can do and if you try it, I'd love to see some photographs of what you're doing.
So if you have time, take a photograph, send it to us, let us hear from you.
Until then, from all of us here, I'd like to wish you happy painting and God bless, my friend.
(mellow smooth jazz music) Hi, welcome back.
Certainly glad you could join us today.
I thought today we'd just do a little painting that's very easy, a lot of fun.
I think you'll enjoy it.
So let's start out and have them run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint along with us.
While they're doing that, lemme show you what I got done today.
I have a little preparatory work already done, but this is very simple.
You'll have no problem doing.
I've taken, it's plain old canvas, and a little bit of black and gray gesso, and I've just, using a disposable foam brush, I've just painted in a basic little shape of some mountains.
And this one has more grey in it than this one does, so it looks a little farther away.
Then we've allowed the gesso here to dry completely.
After if was completely dry, then I've covered the entire canvas with a very, very thin coat of liquid clear.
And once again, it's a thin coat.
Probably because it's transparent, the biggest mistake made is putting too much on.
I recommend you put on the thinnest coat you can and take a paper towel maybe, and wipe it.
What's left will be just right.
Liquid clear is fantastic, it does wonderful things.
I'll show ya.
You take the gesso and clear and combine them, oh it makes your painting world so much easier.
Let's take a little bit of the phthalo blue, I love phthalo blue.
It's a beautiful color.
Let's go right up here at very tippy top and we're just gonna start out today and make little crisscross strokes.
Little Xs.
Just little Xs, like so.
The clear that's on the canvas makes it very slick.
It allows the paint to actually blend, right up on the canvas.
There.
And the black and the grey gesso will put a background in with very little work and it'll be gorgeous.
These color gessos is one of the neatest things we've ever come up with.
It's almost become a standard in the painting industry.
There we are.
Just like so.
I want this guy to be a little darker on the top than it is right here when he reaches the mountain.
Just a little darker and by starting at the top, making little crisscross strokes and working downward in layers, each time going across and coming down a little lower, it'll get lighter automatically.
Because you just use up the paint that's on the brush.
Now to make it even darker in the corners, 'cause I wanna make it dark on the corners so it makes your eye go toward the center of the canvas.
I'm gonna take prussian blue.
Just a little on the two inch brush.
Prussian blue is much stronger.
Woo, really strong.
Let's go back up here.
I'm gonna add a little of it right into the corners, just to make it dark.
It's a beautiful, beautiful blue.
There.
Add a little more, we'll do the other corner.
'Bout like that.
We just let that blend right on down till you can't tell where one color stops, next color starts.
There we are.
While we have that old blue going, I'm just gonna take a little more of the phthalo blue, a little prussian blue, it doesn't matter.
And I'm just gonna cover this part where it has gesso on it with a very thin coat.
Very thin coat, of blue.
Something about like that.
And we really don't have to even worry about it, just paint right over it.
There.
So there's a very, very thin coat of blue over the entire area here that we have the gesso on.
Okay, now the fun part of this whole painting procedure, let's wash the brush, heck.
That's the only reason I do this, so I can wash the brush.
That's where you take out all your frustrations and hostilities.
Shake off the excess.
(rapid slapping) (laugh) And just really beat the devil out of it.
One thing when you're working with clear be sure your brush is as dry as you can possibly get it.
I recommend you wipe it on a paper towel like I just did.
After you really beat it severely, I'm gonna take a little titanium white and I'm just adding some to one corner.
See? It's mainly on one corner.
Let's go up in here.
In my world, I think today we'll have maybe the sun's right here, and it's very bright and it's just burning right through there.
(imitates rocket sound) Gotta make those little noises.
There.
But I want this to be very bright.
Sometimes when I look at the sun coming through it is so bright it almost washes out all the detail, and that's exactly what I want to do.
Titanium white is very opaque, but if you thin it, you get it thin enough on the canvas, it's still transparent enough that you can make out basic shape, and it's really all I'm looking for.
I wanna look like that sun's just burning through that valley, coming right through here, (imitates rocket sound) like so.
There.
You can do this several times if you want to to achieve a desired lightness or brightness in your painting.
Strictly and completely up to you.
You make the decision.
Totally up to you.
Maybe just a little touch more of that white, right there.
I want a nice eye burner, right there.
Something that'll just sparkle.
(sharp exhale) So you can still make out that there's mountains back there.
That's why we did them with the gesso.
We really don't care, we're just looking for a little shape that just zings through there.
That's 'bout all I'm gonna do for little mountains.
That easy.
The gesso has opened a lot of doors, the color gessos.
Once again, it makes painting so much easier.
You can create illusions that before were very difficult.
Little sap (sings) green, a little yellow, using cad yellow, yellow ochre, and a little Indian yellow here and there.
And I mix these on the brush 'cause that way you have a variety of things happening on the brush.
I'm gonna get a little more green, I want a little darker.
(sharp inhale) Ooh, I like it.
Sap green's gorgeous, isn't it?
Push.
Let's go up in here.
I gotta make some big decisions in our world, maybe, and all we're gonna do is just touch the canvas and begin thinking about maybe there's a little grassy meadow that lives way back in here somewhere, and some of that grass just gently, gently goes up the side of the mountain.
Very lightly.
Just want to disappear back here in that strong light.
Disappear.
Quiet.
Gentle.
Peaceful little place, and the more you tap this the more it's gonna pick up the color that's underneath, the blue that we put on, and it'll get darker and darker automatically.
Let the canvas work.
Shoot, this is the lazy man's way of painting, but it works.
Anybody can do this.
Anybody.
I get letters every day from youngsters in their 90s.
They tell me that they're doing paintings at friends', and neighbors', relatives', they don't even believe possible.
And you can do it, too.
You really can.
Really can.
All you need to do is believe that you can, practice a little bit, and let your imagination take you to any world that you wanna go to.
There.
Very, very soft, very gentle.
Maybe over in here, I'm gonna add a little more sap green.
(sharp inhale) Ooh.
Just like that green color.
Now I paint a little brighter for television than I normally would at home.
When you're painting, you decide if you want it to be more subdued or brighter, it's up to you.
Painting is a individual thing.
Each of us see nature through different eyes, and your perception of nature is exactly what you should paint.
There.
Isn't it wonderful that we do, it'd be terrible if we all saw exactly the same thing.
God was very smart when he gave us individual personalities.
There.
Or at least I think so, 'cause I like being different.
All right.
Now then.
So I say, the more you tap this the more subdued it would become.
It's totally up to you.
And you create the lay of the land.
You have to make decisions here how you want the land to flow.
(rapid slapping) Take a clean, dry brush and I'm just gonna tap this little bit.
I want it to pick up some of that color that's underneath and soften it even more.
Even more.
Till it just basically, just blends out on the edges.
There.
Isn't that fantastic?
And you can do it, I know you can.
And if I know you can, you certainly know.
There.
Okay.
I know, let's take a little Van Dyke brown, little dark sienna mixed with it, on the little ol' fan brush, I'm using number six fan brush today.
Number three would work just as well.
Whichever one you have, it's okay.
(singing) And maybe in our world, way back in here we can the indication maybe there's a little path, little road, whatever you wanna call it.
Just goes way back in there, somewhere.
Works forward, and forward, forward.
Let it get larger, wider as it comes forward.
There.
Now, without even cleaning that brush, pick up a little bit of the titanium white.
Just a small amount, and just mix it right on there so I have a little bit lighter color.
And with that, we just graze it, just graze it.
Don't cover up everything.
Just here and there, just graze it.
That's about all we want.
Just to give the indication of a few little highlights here and there.
And we can take our brush that has a little grass color, and here and there, put in.
See how it pushed that little thing back?
Sneaky, huh?
And here.
All there is to it.
There, that creates depth in your painting.
Fantastic.
Let's find a knife.
I'm gonna mix up a very dark color.
Black, prussian blue.
(quick low whistle) Put some crimson in it.
Maybe even a little bit of our sap green.
Black, prussian blue, crimson, and sap green, very dark in your palette.
Lemme wipe the knife.
On your palette it should look absolutely black, very dark.
Very dark.
Load a little bit into a two inch brush and maybe let's work on the foreground.
Maybe the's a little little place, right there.
You decide.
There it is.
Look at your path here.
That's what I'm gonna do.
That little path comes (sings) around.
There.
I'm just putting some dark in for the edges.
In here, it don't much matter because you have the dark underneath.
Doesn't much matter, I just wanna create nice, firm edges.
See already it looks like you can see back in there a thousand miles, isn't that sneaky?
Darken that a little bit so it fades right in while I have a dark on the brush, 'cause we don't wanna see where this ends, we just want it to blend right out into nothing.
There.
Back to the little brush I was using to put the highlight, the grassy colors on.
We'll load it up, I want this to be darker.
Gonna reach up in here.
Be right back, get a little black.
Black and yellow make a beautiful green color.
Push that brush, get a little ridge of paint, see it right there?
That's what you're after.
Now with that, let's go up in here.
I don't want this to be as bright as what's in the background.
Think I'll put some big trees in here, so maybe this is in shadow.
We begin picking out little individual things.
If you have any trouble at all making the paint stick, add the least little touch of paint thinner, just dip the tips of your bristles into a little paint thinner, and then go back through your color.
Adding a little yellow ochre just to change the flavor.
Maybe that comes on out there.
I donno, doesn't matter.
Just to change the flavor a little bit.
All right.
And when you're home and have unlimited time you can tap, tap, tap on this until it just blends together and it's gorgeous.
You can make beautiful grassy areas that are as soft looking as velvet.
There.
Think about the lay of the land, the way the land flows.
It's most important, give direction.
Give direction to your land.
There we are.
But isn't that neat, how you can take a big ol' brush that you'd normally paint the house with, shoot, you can just put all kinds of gorgeous little details in here.
It makes painting accessible to everyone.
When I was a traditional painter, I used to watch with admiration some of these fantastic traditional painters, but they had spent 50 years of their life or more, or whatever, learning their craft.
And I couldn't do it without years and years of practice.
This is so fantastic because you can do it without spending half your life practicing.
People who take classes with our instructors they find on the very first day, they go home with a completed painting.
Even people who never painted, isn't that fantastic?
Brighten that a little bit right there.
That's about all.
I'm gettin' ready to get crazy here, I know what's gonna happen.
I see it.
I want this path right here to just continue so I'm using some of the Van Dyke, dark sienna, put in a little color.
Go back to our little white and brown and very gently, once again, just let it sort of graze across the top, I don't want a lot of color.
Don't want a lot of color, just a little.
There.
Something like so.
You ready?
You know Bobby, he likes big trees, so today let's take some Van Dyke brown (hums), dark sienna, I'm just mixing them on the brush, and let's really get crazy.
The black gesso allowed us to do the background very quickly.
Here we go.
(low whistle) Yep.
There's one big monster.
Let's give him a friend, you know me.
I think everybody needs a friend, even a tree.
Even old tree deserves a friend.
And all your trees don't have to be straight.
(gentle grumbling) Trees are like people, they're different.
You have trees that are big and strong and heavy, and little skinny trees.
They're really like people, and each one is an individual.
Make up little stories about your trees.
It's okay if people look at you like you're a little crazy.
Tell 'em you're a painter.
Tell them you're an artist and you can do this, you can make up stories because this is your world, and in your world you can have any fantasy that you want.
And with a little paint and a little practice you can make that fantasy a reality.
Maybe this old tree, maybe he's leaning over.
He's leaning right out of the painting, that's okay, we can do that.
We can do that.
Let's take our knife, I'm gonna take a little titanium white, little bit of both browns, but I don't wanna overmix, see how the paint's marbled?
Cut off a little roll of paint, go up in here, and let's just touch right along the edge, there.
And we'll just put in indication of some highlights on some of these trees and sort of pull it 'round, (quick hiss) like that.
Over here, all I'm doing is just touching, the canvas is really pulling off what it wants.
There we are.
Just like a taxman does to my paycheck.
He just pulls off what he wants and what's left, which isn't much, he lets me hold for a few days.
Don't get to keep it, just get to hold it for a couple of days.
Same thing here, all you do is just touch, the canvas will pull off what it wants, leave you with a remaining amount, that easy.
Go back into a little bit of the dark color and just touch, just sort of play this back and forth.
The paint is quite thick here.
When this dry, you can actually feel the bark on the tree.
Actually feel it.
And it makes for a wonderful effect on oil paintings.
It's one of the things I like so much about oils they have a thickness that you can put on there.
I've seen some of the old paintings that, gosh, it must be a quarter of an inch thick in places.
I love that.
Absolutely love it.
Areas that are very thick, areas that are thin, areas that are basically just washes.
Wonderful.
Look at that.
Mm!
I've painted thousands of paintings and I still get excited about this.
Absolutely, it's wonderful.
There's our light, so it's gonna hit the other side of this tree over here.
(chittering) There you go.
And if you put a little too much highlight, you can go back with the dark with the dark or vice versa.
There is no mistakes here.
We have some happy accidents sometime, but we don't make any mistakes.
There.
Lemme find the liner brush.
A number two script liner, I'm gonna take paint thinner, might as well get quite a bit, I'm gonna put some branches on there.
I want this paint to be thin like ink.
Let's put a few arms on our trees, I'm gonna put some leaves on these so we don't have to get too detailed.
Most of them's gonna end up covered up.
If you have enough paint thinner on your brush that you mix with the paint, this will literally just flow.
It will just flow right across there.
We don't put leaves on there, we really don't care about most of them, we're just looking for indications.
Indications, that's all.
Little more paint thinner.
And over here maybe there's some old arms hanging off this (gentle grumbles) (chuckle) It helps to make little noises.
Steve's and I, Steve's my son, we both do that.
Maybe we'll talk ol' Steve into doin' a show in this series.
We've had such a fantastic response when he's worked with us in the past.
Maybe we'll just talk that little ol' rascal into doing a show.
Little rascal, he's over six now, I think.
And I think he's still growing.
Calls me Shorty.
But he is one dynamite painter.
I know, that's just an ol' prejudiced daddy talking.
But I think he's fantastic painter.
All right.
Time to have some fun.
Ah, we'll use this ol' two inch brush, it don't matter.
We'll go right into that dark color we was using for the bottom.
Let's put the indication of a few leaves on these trees.
I'm just using the corner of the brush and I'm just gonna tap in some very basic little shapes.
Now you see why I wasn't worried about the limbs, the few that show will be wonderful.
The ones that don't, we don't care about anyway.
Just the corner, you don't have to use the entire brush, just the corner.
There we are.
Now we can go right up in here.
You decide.
Maybe this tree is tilted over, maybe he's got some arms that are stickin' out through here.
Isn't it wonderful what you can do?
Just big ol' brush?
You can do it.
Take same brush, don't even change brushes, go into a little (sings) sap green, some yellow.
Cad yellow, yellow ochre, Indian yellow here and there.
Once in a while I'm gonna touch a little bit of the bright red.
The bright red acts as a duller, 'cause red and green are opposites, so they make brown when they're mixed together.
There we are.
And that'll dull the color.
And I don't want this as bright back in here.
There.
Over in this ol' tree just use the other corner.
Reason they put two corners on a brush.
Look at those leaves, see 'em?
Look, here they come.
You just pop 'em in wherever you want them.
Just add more paint any time the brush goes away, I'm just adding paint.
There.
Just bring 'em all together.
But don't kill all the dark, leave some of the dark show through, that's very important.
You need to have those shadows in there.
There.
Dip the brush into the least little touch of paint thinner.
As your paint begins to get thicker and thicker on the canvas, you need a thinner color to stick to it.
Sometimes you have to add a little touch of paint thinner, not much, doesn't take much.
It can get away from you in a heartbeat.
Maybe I'll brighten those just a little bit to separate the two trees, see?
That just snatches that tree right out in front.
Sneaky, huh?
We can do anything here.
Any old thing.
And we can clean up his foots a little.
Puttin' a few little things here and there.
Shoot, maybe there's a little bush lives right down here.
I donno.
Take a little filbert brush, little bit of brown, I'm gonna put a little what remains of a little fence right there.
See?
(quick low whistles) Maybe, fell down.
Little highlight color right across the top.
(quick low whistles) I think we can take our liner brush, sign this little rascal, and have a finished painting.
I hope you've enjoyed this one.
As I say, the black and the grey gesso mixed with a little clear will let you do things that are almost unreal, and you can do 'em very, very simply.
Send me a photo of what you do and I'd love to see it.
Until then, from all of us here, I'd like to wish you happy painting and God bless, my friend.
(peaceful guitar music) Hi, welcome back.
Hope you have your easel set up and you're ready to paint along with me this day.
So let's start out and have 'em run all the colors across the screen that you need to do this painting and let's go up to the canvas and get started.
Now I've already covered this canvas with a thin, even coat of Magic White so it's nice and wet and slick and ready to go.
Start a little bit of Thalo Blue, a little bit of Thalo Blue, and just work it into the bristles.
And let's just put a, let's just put a happy little sky up here.
Just making little crisscross strokes.
Just let your brush bounce around, play, have fun.
There we go.
Little more of the blue.
It's always simple to add more color but it's a son of a gun to take it out so use very little color on your brush.
You can always go back and put a little more in.
Mmk, and that quick we have we have a happy little sky.
There we go.
And you don't want to kill all these little spots here that happen, it ends up looking like little cloud indications and you really haven't done a thing.
Let the canvas work and the Magic White work.
And we wash our brush.
(paint brush bangs) (chuckles) Tell you what, let's just use this ol' big brush then.
I'll go right into some Titanium White.
I'm just gonna pull the brush right through the color.
Just pull it right through the color.
Go down here and get a little Permanent Red.
Put it right in there, too.
That'll make it make a little sunlight here.
Just pull it one direction and let's go up here.
Maybe, maybe, maybe there's a big ol' cloud that lives right there.
It's your cloud so you just put him wherever you want him.
Little tiny circles here.
And he just sort of floats across the sky.
And then he's got a friend that lives right there.
Clouds need friends, too.
We all need a friend.
Okay, now I'm gonna use just the same ol' brush here and just fill that in a little.
Okay, now with a clean dry brush, and I have several of 'em here, you can just blend this out a little.
Not touching the top at all yet.
Just blending, don't wanna kill all the little actions.
Just wanna blend them a little bit and I'm gonna lift it up, sort of fluff that cloud up.
We'll fluff this one up.
And very lightly, very lightly, we'll just blend it all together.
And that easy, we got a quick little sky.
That's all it takes.
Same ol' dirty brush I'll go right into some Sap Green.
Just load that brush full of Sap Green and let's go right up here to the canvas and maybe today we'll have, there it is, just a little, little hill like right here.
Just let it go.
This is just straight Sap Green and it's mixing with the Magic White just on the canvas so you get all the beautiful little things happening.
Okay.
And all we're doing here is applying some dark color so our light color will show later on.
You need the dark in order to show light.
But this is also where you begin deciding the lay of the land.
And in my mind, this is sort of roundish here.
So keep the strokes going that way.
Or however way you want.
Okay, just drop it in.
Now I want it darker in the foreground.
Landscapes should always be darker as they get closer to you so without cleaning the brush I'll go right into some Thalo Blue.
And down here on the bottom, we'll just drop that in.
Just to darken it up and then we'll work upward so that it gets lighter as we go toward the horizon.
Kinda gives us a nice dark background to play with.
And we're not worried about detail or shape or anything else at this point.
All I'm doing is applying the color to the canvas so we have something to work with.
Okay, while I got this ol' dirty brush I'll go back into, let's use some Sap Green, some Van Dyke Brown, a little Alizarin Crimson and maybe, maybe, maybe there's some little trees that live up here.
So we'll just drop in some basic shapes.
Still not looking for a lot of detail.
Just very, very basic shapes.
Very basic.
Once again, you need this dark coloring in order to show light.
Okay, now we have some little trees up here on top of our hill.
Now then, now then, I'm gonna take some Titanium White and a little Burnt Umber in it.
White with a little umber.
And pull that paint out very flat.
Gotta cross it, get a little roll of paint right on the edge of your knife and with that we can go up here and we'll make some little tree trunk indications.
We're not looking for detail yet, so just, just drop 'em in.
Most of these'll be covered up but a few of 'em will show.
Few of 'em will show and people will think you worked for long periods of time to put 'em in.
This is a little Van Dyke Brown here.
Maybe there's gonna be a few little trees that project right on up like this.
We'll put some leaves on 'em.
So we're not too worried right now.
All we're looking for is just some indications here and there.
Okay, let's get us a one inch brush and begin putting some highlight here.
Let's put a little Magic White on the brush.
The Magic White will thin your paint.
So into the Magic White I'll go into some Cad Yellow.
And get up some Sap Green.
So we have Cad Yellow and Sap Green.
Okay, pull that brush in one direction.
Load it full of paint, look at all that paint on that brush.
Just look right on the end.
You can see there's a tremendous amount of paint there.
Let's go up to the canvas.
Let's start right in here and very gently, we'll just drop in some nice little leaves on this tree.
Now we begin to worrying about a little detail.
And this is a very gentle touch.
Barely, barely touching the canvas.
That's a lot of paint on the brush so you don't have to push hard.
We'll add a little Yellow Ochre, just to change the color.
And maybe, there it is right there.
Another happy little tree.
Okay, I wanna go back and get a little more of the Sap Green in this.
And let's just drop a few little indications of some leaves out here on this little tree.
See how easy that is?
And maybe, maybe on this little tree here there's just a few little things happening.
Can start adding a little bit Permanent Red to our color.
Okay, maybe right here's another little tree.
You have to make these decisions in your world: How many trees are there?
It's up to you.
Just vary these colors, let them sort of go back and forth.
Play.
There's one over here.
Don't want him to be left out.
He'd cry if you leave him out.
Let's see, you still worried about the lay of the land?
Still wanna pay attention to that.
Let the land go in the direction you want it to go in.
Don't kill all your dark colors.
'Cause dark colors are needed to make the light color show.
Just go over to the other side of the canvas and we'll drop in some highlights right here on this one.
And sort of work in layers.
It really, it really makes your painting much, much deeper.
It makes all these things happen.
You need that depth in there.
We don't want flat paintings.
Okay, now, maybe, maybe, maybe we'll take just a point of the knife.
Cut in a few little sticks and twigs.
Just here and there, now if you want a twig that's a little wider turn the knife sideways and it'll make wider little sticks and trunks and stuff.
If you want 'em really skinny, use it straight on.
And I use just the point of the knife.
Okay.
Tell you what, let's have a little, let's have a little house right there, way back in the distance.
I'll start with some Van Dyke brown and, and we'll make a decision.
Maybe it lives right there.
And we'll do the eaves.
See that's sort of a nice way just to lay it out.
And here goes the roof, goes right over like that.
See and you just lay out a basic shape.
Pull it all together.
There, just barely, barely touching the canvas.
You need an overhang.
Okay, now right down through here.
There we go.
I don't want this to get too big.
I want it to be far away, far away.
Okay, let's take some Van Dyke brown, some white, little Burnt Umber.
And, we'll put some highlight on this old building here.
Barely, barley touch, barely touch.
Barely touch.
Just let it whisper through.
Now we have to make a decision: What kind of roof does it have?
Does it have a shingle roof?
Flat roof?
What do we want?
Okay, let's take some Permanent Red.
And we'll use a little edge of the knife and maybe we'll just drop a few little indications of some shingles.
Just touching, pulling at the top of this one overlap.
The other one, just let 'em overlap.
And you can put all the little shingles you want on here.
Some simple way to make very simple little shingle roofs.
We need a door.
Maybe this is an old barn type building.
We'll put a big door in it.
Maybe it's just an old barn the farmer had sitting out here.
Little bit of white and we can make that door stand out.
And when you're painting buildings, you know you can change your mind.
Maybe, maybe right out here there's an old shed on this building.
Maybe this old farmer here was like me, he ran out of room so he started putting additions onto it.
Need a front.
And a side.
Take just a little paint, we'll put some boards in there.
Just cut right through the paint.
Got just a tiny bit of white paint on the knife.
Okay, let's put some indication of, if he shingled the roof chances are he probably put some shingles over here on his little shed.
There we go.
Just like that.
Now then let's put some, let's put a little bit of grass around the bottom of this barn.
Just right here.
He hadn't been keeping his weeds mowed.
Nature's about to reclaim this one.
There we go, we just wash that brush and start with a nice clean brush.
Okay, let's go right here.
There, that stands out a little better.
Okay.
We about have us a little barn.
I'm gonna add the tiniest little bit of white right here, just to make that stand out so hopefully you can see it just a little better at home.
There.
Think that'll help make it stand out a little.
Alrighty, now we can start making some more decisions: What do we have here in the foreground?
And we'll just keep going with this one inch brush.
And, and, maybe there's a nice little bush that lives here.
And you're still concerned about the lay of the land.
Follow the lay of the land.
Most, most important.
There it comes, tell you what, maybe, maybe you can see what's left of an old path here.
I see maybe the trees and the bushes have just about taken it over but you can still make out a little indication here and there.
It used to be an old path there.
Take a little brown and white.
You can highlight that a little.
Just barely touching the canvas.
And we don't know where it goes.
Okay.
Now we need to bring some of these little grassy areas right up to the path.
That will set it down into the painting.
There.
And the path sort of gives you a nice perspective, pushes everything back.
And a little more of the color.
And, as I say, here the bushes and the trees have just about taken over again.
Not much of the path left.
So you just cover up whatever you don't want.
It just sort of, sort of fades out down here.
Okay, tell you what, maybe, maybe lives a big tree over here.
Let's make some black.
I'm gonna use some Thalo Green and Alizarin Crimson in about equal parts.
Thalo Green, Alizarin Crimson.
(paintbrush screeches on palette) Oooo.
That's one of them noises like pulling your finger down the chalkboard.
Make you shudder.
Okay, now then mix this up real good.
Little bit of paint and let's go up here.
Maybe we'll make a nice tree trunk.
There it is, there it is.
This'll help push everything back.
Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe there's a friend that lives right there.
Got two tree trunks.
Just let 'em go.
Right on up.
Where does it go?
Goes right on out of sight, right off the canvas.
Right off the canvas.
Good dark color.
Give him some little foots down here.
Tree needs some foots.
Okay.
Now then.
Put a few little indications of some limbs and then we can drop some leaves on this tree.
And it just helps push your little building back farther.
Gives you another plane.
Use a little brown and white and we'll just put some little indications and some highlight here.
Okay.
There, just enough to make it stand out.
Okay.
Good.
And I'll go right back and get this old big brush.
It's still dirty.
And let's just take and just very quickly drop in some, some general little leaf shapes here.
We're not looking for a lot of detail.
This is Sap Green, a little Van Dyke Brown, little Alizarin Crimson.
Just the same old dirty brush I was using earlier.
Got a little bit of everything on it.
As long as it's dark that's the big thing.
As long as it's dark.
And here we're pushing quite hard, really wanna push that color right into the canvas.
And I can go back to the one inch brush.
We'll put a little, use a little bit of Cad Yellow and Sap Green.
Pull that brush in one direction.
Load it full of paint.
Lot of paint.
Okay, let's go up to the canvas here.
And very lightly, very lightly, just begin touching and building in some basic little, little patterns and little shapes.
You don't want your tree to be all flat.
Remember that there's limbs projecting toward you.
They're not all just going off the sides.
So you need all these little patterns inside to make it have depth and shape.
Don't want it to be just an old flat tree.
Okay.
Now down here at his foots, you can put some little bushes and stuff down here.
And if your paint doesn't stick, add a little paint thinner to it and then it'll stick.
Okay, still following the lay of the land.
I tell you what, I tell you what, maybe, maybe we can see, maybe there's a little, little bit of a stream we can see.
Maybe it just sort of creeps along here and it lives right there.
I'm gonna touch a little Thalo Blue.
Maybe it just comes right down through here, wherever you want.
Or if you don't want a stream in your world, don't put it in.
Just pull straight down, you need that dark.
I'll touch a little of the black color that I made.
I want it very dark, very dark.
There we go, that's much better.
Much better.
And very lightly just go across.
Now we need a fan brush and we'll use a little Magic White and a little, little bit of the Titanium White.
Magic White and Titanium White.
I put the Magic White in there just to thin it a little.
And maybe the little stream comes right down through here and it just bounces and plays and has fun.
Let all these little things happen.
Okay it goes right on down.
Tell you what, maybe right here is a big stone, it hits, kaploosh!
And just falls over.
This is your stream so you make it go anywhere you want it to go.
Splashes down here and it works right on through.
There's another one.
And there's always stones that are underneath the water that you really can't even see 'em but they cause all kinds of beautiful little things to happen.
You know, when you buy your first tube of paint you get that artist license and it (chuckles), read it, it says, "You can do anything you wanna do." At least on this piece of canvas.
This piece of canvas is your world, anything that you wanna do.
Okay, we'll take a little Yellow Ochre, little Cad Yellow and I just wanna, just here and there, drop in a few more bushes.
Tell you what let's do, I'm gonna take another fan brush, let's put some land in here.
Use some Van Dyke Brown, Burnt Umber.
Lot of paint on the brush and maybe we'll just scrub in some dirt area here.
Put some borders on our little stream.
It comes right around and maybe it's right here.
Just to put some dirt in here.
Okay, now here's another little stone, wherever you want 'em.
Comes right on out here.
Okay, I'll just the same old brush, take some Yellow Ochre and a little white on it and let's just put in some little indications, little Permanent Red added to that.
That'll sparkle it up.
Make it just look like little stones here and there.
Wherever, wherever.
There we go.
And you can put as many little stones as you want in your world.
Okay, now I'll use the fan brush, a little bit of Cad Yellow and let's just drop in some happy little bushes here and there.
They come right down and this brings all this together.
Just bring it all together.
Okay.
That easy you can create a beautiful little painting and you really don't have to plan it.
Just sort of look at it, let it happen.
There we go.
Okay, then we can take our brush that had the watercolor on it, clean up these edges.
And this is where you bring it all together.
Just like so.
Take your brown, some of these stones here are very dark.
Want 'em very dark.
So they stand out better.
There's one right there.
Just let it go.
Okay.
Now then...
Tell you what, maybe there's a little stick, a little thing that lives right here.
All kind of little limbs.
And this is just, I'm using that black color.
Still using that Alizarin Crimson and Thalo Green.
Want it to stand out, nice dark color.
And little limb here and there, wherever you want 'em.
Wherever.
There we go.
And we can take our liner brush, I use a little thin oil or paint thinner, either one.
I use a little oil.
And we can put a few little limbs here and there.
I like the oil because it slides a little easier when you have a lot of paint here.
But paint thinner will work just as well if you don't have oil.
And just put an old dead stick out here.
There we go.
And maybe this some little things that live right there.
See, this thin paint, you can move it very easily on top of the other paint without becoming a mud mixer.
And wherever you want these little sticks, drop 'em in.
Drop 'em in.
Okay, tell you what let's do, let's take a little more of the oil, I'll go right into some Permanent Red here.
And let's sign this painting.
There we are.
And I hope you've enjoyed this one.
It's a lot of fun, give you some ideas.
And at home you can make some beautiful paintings also.
Until next week, God bless.
Happy painting.
Certainly glad you could join me because today is a very special day.
This is the last show of the 17th series.
And I thought today, we would devote this entire show to a question and answer period.
And for that, I've aked a very special friend to come in and help me today.
I'd like to introduce you to Dana Jester.
And Dana is one of our national certified instructors.
He travels all over the country and he teaches literally thousands of people the joy of painting.
Dana, welcome to us.
Thanks a lot Bob.
What I've done here Dana is I've taken just some of the basic questions that we get in.
We get a lot of letters from people all over the country and I've just sort of taken the basic problems that people are having and if you'll give me a little hand here, I'm gonna just sort of ask you these things and see if between the two of us, we can answer these questions.
Sure.
Dana teaches people every day and maybe since I don't teach as much as I used to anymore, maybe I've forgotten to explain some of these things and Dana can help us a little.
Dana, the first question, and I know this is a problem because I do it off-camera in order to save time, and that's applying the liquid white.
This question goes, "How do I apply the liquid white "and how much liquid white do I use?
"How do I know when I have enough on the canvas "or too much?" And, tell you what, if you would just show us basically how you put the liquid white on.
All righty.
We can handle that.
What I uually do is just dip your brush in there, get a small amount.
You're going to work it into the canvas.
And after you cover the entire canvas, I cheated a little bit today, I had all this area covered except for just a small portion here.
And I'll tell you what, you can give it the old fingerprint test.
After you coat the canvas, what I would do is just go up here, touch the canvas, and if you can still see your fingerprint, you're in good shape.
OK. so what you're looking for is just a nice, even distribution all over the end of the finger.
All right, let me ask you this then because I'm asked this over and over.
What would you do if you have too much liquid white on the canvas?
And that happens frequently.
Well, in that case what I do is clean my brush, dry it real good, go back and forth on the entire canvas, lifting.
It will help remove a lot of this liquid white that you have on there.
You can kind of rub that in and give it the fingerprint test.
And if that does not work, then you can go back and-- You can do this as many times as necessary.
Yeah, repeat it, yeah.
Very good.
All right, let me go to the next one here.
This is a question from a lady in Virginia.
She says she's having trouble with her clouds.
Her clouds are not coming out and looking very fluffy.
She wants to know basically what her problem is.
So I'll tell you what, would you just throw us in a little blue background up there maybe real quick.
Aw sure.
And let's do a couple of little clouds here.
What are you using?
Just a little Prussian Blue today?
[Dana] A little Prussian Blue.
Tell you what, if you don't have dark, it's kind of tough to show light.
So I always start out a little darker up here at the top of your sky.
You can always work this on down, and let it gradually lighten up into the liquid white there.
[Bob] OK, why don't you just put a little sky in there and we'll show everyone exactly how to do a happy little cloud today.
And it's fantastic that people take the time to write us.
We get literally hundreds of letters every week and we have a staff of people that try to answer each and every letter.
So, if you do have questions, please feel free to drop us a line.
We'd be glad to answer them if we can.
OK, how we coming there?
I think we're just about ready to drop in a cloud.
You know what?
I might sneak in just a little bit of water down here.
All right.
Why don't you.
Since I have blue on the brush already.
You never can tell, we may not even have water in.
It's just something nice to throw in.
[Bob] It's also a good way to clean the blue paint out of your brush.
That's for sure.
[Bob] All right.
All right.
Tell you what, Dana, would you make clouds maybe today with a...
Let's do one little cloud with a fan brush, say, and then show us one with a one-inch brush.
How's that?
All righty.
Let me get this large brush cleaned out.
I've been waiting for years to do this, Bob.
(Bob laughs) Really wanted to do this yet.
(Bob chuckles) All right, here we go.
The camera people are overjoyed.
[Dana] OK.
Because at long last, Bob has got all the splatters.
Well, what we're gonna do here is just pick up-- I'm just using Titanium White here.
[Bob] All right.
Loading the brush up pretty heavy, both sides.
Work in your dark sides and kind of press up and push.
Keep the brush moving, spin it.
[Bob] OK, but the big thing here is notice the circular patterns.
That's what gives you the little fluffy edges.
Dana, do one for me right up here where you just stay in one spot and keep grinding.
[Dana] Oh, you're wanting me to make some mud, aren't you?
[Bob] Right, that's exactly what I want you to see.
[Dana] OK.
[Bob] Because this is one of the biggest problems that we see over and over.
People will stay in one spot and keep making these little circles and what happens is you end up, it looks like big cotton balls hanging in the sky.
Now if this should happen to you, all you need to do is take your knife and do a cloud-ectomy.
Just zip it right off.
And put a little blue back on and go right back.
As you know, we don't make mistakes, we only have happy accidents.
So let's see how Dana's doing here.
OK, that's the old fan brush treatment.
Now, we'll try for a one-inch brush here.
OK, now this i just the basic shape.
You're going to come back and fluff.
Yeah, we'll work on those.
Now, when you're loading the one-inch brush, you can almost basically load it like you do when you're loading for a bush.
Takes quite a bit of paint.
[Bob] And I notice you're pulling it in just one direction.
[Dana] And then you have about that much paint on the brush.
It's quite a bit of paint.
[Bob] OK.
And you can work this brush in circles again just like when you're using a fan brush.
[Bob] You're doing basically the same thing.
[Dana] Same thing.
[Bob] Only with a larger brush.
[Dana] Only the big brush.
[Bob] This is good probably if you want to make big clouds.
And make them very fast.
[Dana] Go back and reload.
Oh yeah.
[Bob] OK.
There.
It's also worth mentioning that Dana, along with my son Steve, travel all over the country and they teach literally hundreds and hundreds of people how to instruct in this fantastic method of painting.
So as they say, Dana is in the field every day.
So if anyone can help us with corrections, I'm sure that he's the man that can do it.
So let's check him out.
All right Dana, what are you going to do now?
OK, I'm going to use this-- The top portion of this brush and work just with the corner of it and blend and soften this down into the canvas.
[Bob] OK, notice that he's not touching the top of the clouds.
He's only blending the base of the clouds.
You want the top of those clouds to remain nice and firm.
And he does the same thing with the ones that he did with the fan brush.
[Dana] Then I'll beat the excess paint out and lightly, you can fluff them up or lightly go across it here.
[Bob] Either way.
{Dana] Yeah, just set them down in the canvas a little bit.
But it is three hairs and some error just like you say.
[Bob] It's a very gentle touch.
OK, very good.
And that's one of the nicest, easiest, simplest ways of making very effective clouds.
So, I'll tell you what, there's the next question.
Basically here, "Why do you scrape the base coat "of the mountains off after you carefully..." We're gonna send this person a penmanship book.
"Carefully place it on the canvas," I believe it is.
Sounds like we better do some mountains then.
Well, I think what they're asking here is, you know, we put the base shape of the mountain and then we scrape off that excess paint.
Maybe we could show that.
All righty.
I'm gonna take Van Dyke Brown, Prussian Blue, Midnight Black and if you want to to just to see what value you had, you could put in a little Titanium White.
But if it's your very first round, I would stay with the real, real dark color.
[Bob] Keep it very dark.
[Dana] Yeah.
Now, I'll wipe off my knife and when you load the knife...
[Bob] Loading the knife is very important, yes.
[Dana] You can go into the paint like this and pick up a roll on the knife like that.
I don't know if you can see that little roll there.
Yeah.
[Bob] OK why don't you just lay us in a very basic little mountain shape and let's just play with it because I know there's another question coming up here about mountains.
I notice that you're pushing very, very hard.
[Dana] Yeah, you need to really remove the excess paint so you'll work that pigment of the paint into the grain of the canvas really.
[Bob] OK, so then what you're saying is you scrape this to remove excess paint.
[Dana] Mmm-hmmm.
[Bob] That's basically the reason we scrape it.
[Dana] Right.
And that nice dark color will help us in the long run.
Make your lights really pop out.
[Bob] It's also makes application of the highlight color much easier if you don't have a lot of paint up here on this mountain.
The more of that that you take off, the easier the next step will become.
Dana, won't you blend that out.
There you go, and that's...
Let's see here because I think the next question, if I remember correctly-- "How do I get snow to break on my mountain?
"I have difficulty making this work.
"Mine looks like icing on a cake." (Bob chuckles) Well.
OK, I think this is probably one of the most common problems that people have.
We hear this just about more than any other question that I can think of.
Just from reading the question, I can tell you normally the problem is one of two things: First off, the biggest problem is people try using a paint that's too thin.
If you use a very thin paint, it's very, very dificult to make this paint break.
And by break we mean it has all the little holes in it.
So, you need a very firm, dry paint.
I can't tell you how important that is.
The second thing is that people put too much pressure on the knife.
Let me hold the knife just a second if I might, Dana.
We can hold it right up here.
If we can get a close up right in here of this knife.
I'll hold it right up.
One of the big problems is that people put their finger on this blade when they're working with it.
They take and stick that finger on there and that finger applies a tremendous amount of pressure.
I would suggest holding the knife with just thumb and forefinger.
Just very loose.
And just sort of let it, just let it flop around in your finger.
These fingers lay on the handle and all they do is drive.
They just sort of guide the knife.
They move it from one direction to the other.
But avoid putting your finger up here on this blade.
It will cause you a lot of agony and you'll be upset with me.
So, I'll give you your knife back there.
All righty.
OK, why don't you show us how to put some now on the mountain here.
OK.
Little roll-on knife.
And if you're having trouble, you're maybe leaving a blob of paint up there at the top, raise the handle up a little bit more and then take off with it.
Working with the edge of the knife a little bit more, I think that might help you to getting started.
[Bob] Absolutely no pressure.
[Dana] No pressure whatsoever.
[Bob] This is just the weight of the knife.
It's sort of, in a way, think about maybe that the knife is really not even touching the canvas.
The only thing it's touching is that little roll of paint that you've loaded on there.
And it's turning, it's rotating underneath the blade.
And that's what creates this breaking.
And this breaking right in here, that's what gives it that beautiful, beautiful appearance.
To do this with a little brush would take you weeks.
And Dana can do it here in just a matter of a minute or two.
Very nice.
The other thing that we run into continually is people would have problems with their shadows when they put them on.
You'll find if you're righthanded, for example, you will find that it's much easier to highlight things on the right and then when you go to work on the left, you'll run into some difficulties.
But give it a little practice.
Some people find that it's easier at times to put the shadow on first and then put the highlight.
And there are basically no rules here.
If it works for you, it's right and it's good.
And that's really all we're trying to do is to get you to try it.
The big thing though is no pressure, no matter which way you start, with the shadow first and then highlights or highlights and then shadows.
Makes no difference.
The big thing is it's no pressure.
Let it float.
Pretend it's a feather just floating right across there.
The most gentle thing that you can think of.
Very, very light.
Very light.
OK, Dana's gonna put some shadows in here for us.
[Dana] It's really important to follow your angles.
If you put this knife down up here at the top and just pull straight down, you're gonna lose the contour or the shape of your mountains.
You need to remember to follow the angles.
I'm using Prussian Blue and a little bit of white for a shadow color.
[Bob] OK, another thing that I would suggest, if you're just starting with this, when you make your mountain shape, don't make a mountain shape that has 25 to 30 little, tiny peaks on it.
Have just a couple of major peaks and learn how to do those.
And then, with practice, and that is the secret to this technique or any other technique, is practice.
With practice and you will learn and you can put all those individual little peaks.
But when you first start, do very basic, little simple mountains and learn how it works.
Learn the feel of the paint.
And very quickly you'll know if it's breaking of if you're, like this lady says here, if you're icing a cake.
And then you need to create the illusion of mist out here.
Yeah now, you can take and lightly tap this and pull down at the same time.
The main thing is, not to start in the same place when you're going across here, you need to kind of have a little variation.
You don't want it to look like you planned out everything.
And it's important to follow the direction again.
And after you get through with that, you can always mist it right on into the canvas, work it in to the liquid white.
That liquid white really will help you out.
[Bob] And it looks like it's just sort of floating up there in the mist now.
All right, let's go on to the next question here.
You've built us a pretty nice mountain, Dana.
"Why do you always place so much emphasis "on having mist between each layer of foothills?" If you've watched the show, you know that I'm continually saying that mist is these little misty areas between any layer of things that you have in here can absolutely be your best friend.
That you should treat it like a friend and be careful with it.
And that mist is your separator.
it shows a space in between foothills or just different layers or different planes in your painting.
And that will really pay great dividends in your painting.
It gives it depth.
It gives it distance.
It's not just a flat old painting.
And it will make you happier with your work.
Let's see if we can get Dana maybe to demonstrate some here for us.
OK, I just took the base coat that I was using on the mountain and then I added a little Sap Green to it and what you want to load your brush is pretty important with this.
You can tap your brush into the paint like that and pick up a roll on the tip of the brush and then go up there and make your foothill.
[Bob] Now, do you always have to use a two-inch brush?
Oh no, not always, but this works out pretty handy.
It covers a lot of area quick.
[Bob] But you could do it with a one-inch brush.
[Dana] Oh yeah.
[Bob] Or a fan brush.
[Dana] Fan brush or whatever.
[Bob] Or your old shoe, it don't matter.
(chuckling) Now, the mist in between the foothills that you were asking about, I'll just put that on there like that and come back up here with a clean one-inch brush, you could use a two-inch, and just tap just like this and let this blend into your liquid white.
That will really help this one when we lay another foothill in here.
[Bob] Now what would happen if you were working on a dry canvas and tried that?
Without the liquid white on it?
Oh, that would be agony city, as you would say.
Exactly.
Now, we'll load a little more paint in here.
Now, you could put one in coming from the other side, or you could just add another one right here below this.
[Bob] This is the same identical color.
[Dana] Same color.
It just looks like we've darkened it, but we haven't.
[Bob] It's only that little bit of mist in between that creates that beautiful separation.
This on, today, it might even sneak all the way over off to the side here.
You never know.
[Bob] OK.
Ah, something like that.
take your one-inch again or like I said, a two-inch, and mist this on in.
OK, we'll let that set back in the painting just by creating a lot more mist there at the base of that foothill.
[Bob] But this is continually mixing with the liquid white and creates these effects almost automatically.
What are you doing now?
[Dana] Maybe I put a few distant trees back there.
A little evergreens or whatever on top of that hill.
[Bob] And all you're doing its just lifting upward?
[Dana] Mmm-hmm.
Just vertical brush stroke.
[Bob] Now, it looks like he's making very long strokes, but he's only allowing the brush to touch the canvas very short.
You don't want these to get too tall because very rapidly they can get so tall that they don't look right.
Maybe quarter-inch strokes is really all that he's touching and just, just giving it a little lift and that's all you need to do.
And work in layers.
Don't try to start at the bottom of a foothill and do it all.
Work in little tiny layers and it will create that depth even in each individual foothill.
OK, let me read the next one here, Dana.
Gentleman here in Colorado.
He says, "I'm still having trouble with water lines.
"Which side of the knife are you loading?" That does create problems for a lot of people.
Well...
Why don't you put us a little something in there so we can have us a little water line.
Just drop in a few little things.
OK. let's go ahead and get some land right in here.
Little closer, maybe middle ground.
I'm just using the same color I had there in the background, but applying a little more paint.
Now, that will help us out there with the land.
[Bob] And even here, he still has that misty area in there to create that separation.
That's so very, very important.
OK, I think I'm in trouble again.
Here he goes.
Real easy, real easy in here.
I'll get even with you one of these days.
Now, we can pull down a little bit for reflections here and then come back in here and get that fellow's water line in.
I'm jut gonna use the color I put on the canvas with the clean brush and pull straight down.
And then, go across it real lightly horizontal.
And, like I say, put in a water line.
You can take the liquid white and maybe just add a touch of Van Dyke Brown, Dark Sienna.
[Bob] But this paint is very thin.
[Dana] Very, very thin.
Compared to the pain that we have on the canvas.
And then I'm just gonna go through the paint just like this, pick up a fine roll on the knife.
OK, why don't you hold that knife up in front of the camera, let them see real close what you're doing there.
Can we do that?
Because a lot of people have this same problem.
[Dana] Fine roll.
It's on top of the blade, though.
That way when you go across here, just cut this in nice and horizontal with the canvas, or the bottom of the canvas.
Keep your knife straight even if you're land's dropping down just a little bit.
I'm just actually scraping into the paint that's on the canvas there to create this line here.
That look like we need some trees or bushes up the, Bob.
What do you think about that?
OK, we'll probably get to something like that in a minute here.
Let's see what we got going here.
Next letter comes from, uh oh, Martha, you oughta be ashamed for sending that.
We'll put that aside.
That was a little too personal.
"I watched you make evergreens..." See you wanted to make some trees, here it is.
"With a fan brush, can they be made with other brushes?" Why sure.
We can use the one-inch brush.
As a matter of fact, I may even like it just as well as anything.
I'm gonna take Sap Green and Midnight Black.
I'm just gonna brush mix this here.
And a little bit of Prussian Blue.
make life a lot easier when you go to highlight this.
Get a nice sharp chiseled edge by going through the pain like this.
[Bob] OK, can we show that brush?
There you go.
Show that up close so people can see exactly how sharp that is.
It will come to a-- [Dana] There you go.
Very, very sharp edge.
But one of the secrets to getting this to come to a sharp edge is loading a lot of paint into the bristles.
You have to have enough paint in these bristles to literally stick them together.
If you don't stick them together, then you really have problems because the brush will spread apart.
And then all you do is just sort of tap like you're making little Zs.
[Dana] Just exactly like you're using the fan brush, really.
[Bob] The technique is basically the same.
[Dana] Just reload quite often That's the tricky part.
If you don't keep enough paint on this brush, no paint, no painting.
That's what I tell my class.
[Bob] No paint, no painting.
[Dana] Right.
Maybe you've heard this before, he has maybe a little friend there.
Yeah, you know me, I think everybody should have a friend.
Of course, that one may have got stepped on.
There.
[Bob] Now, could you do these with a two-inch brush?
[Dana] Sure you could.
I like it also.
[Bob] So, basically you're saying any old brush we have?
[Dana] Any old brush.
[Bob] It's more important when you're making trees of any kind that you worry about shape more than what you're making them with.
[Dana] Some good old dark color in here.
[Bob] OK.
Good, I'm glad you're making some bushes because that's my next question here that I'm looking at.
Says, "If I make a bush that I'm not happy with, "how can I correct it?" It also goes on to say, "I'm having trouble also "making the brilliant highlights that you make on the show.
"What am I doing wrong?" So that's a two-part question.
Highlights on the bushes?
Let's first how how to correct one.
Let's make one...
Let's make a mess, that's what you're trying to say.
Yeah, that's what I'm trying to get you to do.
I can handle that pretty easy.
OK, what I'll do is maybe load this brush up and like a general student may do...
[Bob] What happens in class sometimes-- [Dana] Not enough paint usually on the brush.
And I'll come up here.
[Bob] OK, maybe we can get a real tight close-up of that and just how you exactly what's happening here.
As you can see it's sort of...
Steve uses this word all the time, mushed.
[Dana] Yeah.
[Bob] It's just sorta-- [Dana] Mushed.
[Bob] Mushed in there.
Now, if you should have this happen and all of us who are painting in this method at one time or another, we've made a bush like this, I guarantee you.
Take the knife and do a bush-ectomy.
Watch Dana here.
This is a bush-ectomy.
Just take that rascal right off.
[Dana] Pretty simple, isn't it?
[Bob] Yep.
And back with some more of your dark paint.
[Bob] Just go right back and...
The one thing though that happens, each time that you do this, your bush is gonna grow a little bit.
[Dana] A little bit.
[Bob] And you have to be careful.
I've seen people when they first start doing this, they've had to nail another canvas on top because a bush or a tree would get so high.
Now, show us the correct way of doing it.
What I would suggest when you're loading this, you can see a bush right down there on my palette when I pick this brush up right here in this area.
And it takes more paint than probably what you were thinking.
[Bob] You have to load a lot of paint into the brush and create that rounded corner.
You pull it in one direction, that makes that rounded corner.
Then you put that rounded corner to the top.
[Dana] And it's a super light, light touch when you're getting these bushes on the canvas.
[Bob] Yeah, I know sometimes when you watch the shows it looks like you take a running start across the room and sock 'em.
[Dana] And don't kill all your darks.
To help separate some of them, you may want to add just a little bit of red to your color.
[Bob] OK, why don' you just drop in a couple little bushes there.
We're about to run out of time on this show.
I hope we've answered most of the questions that people have.
The one remaining question that I have and if you have time, maybe you'll do that for us, is, "I love your reflections, they are so real.
"Are they easy to do?" Could you maybe reflect a little bit of that down in the water.
Oh yeah.
Just simply reverse the brush.
[Bob] While you're doing that, I've got a couple other ones here that I want to answer.
I'm sorry, go ahead.
[Dana] Put some of the color, just reverse it right down in the water here.
[Bob] OK, here's a question that says, "What do I do with paint that I have leftover?
"Do I have to throw it away?" Absolutely not.
Oil paint, now you got me again, didn't you?
Oil paint, you can take and cover it with something like Saran wrap or aluminum foil and keep it for several days on a palette or you can take and put it in your freezer and freeze it and it will last almost indefinitely.
Now, if you have a freezer that's self-defrosting, you have to cover it because it will dry out over time.
And you know when I first started doing that I got in a lot of trouble because my wife thought it was something in the icebox that we were gonna eat and she took it out and had a bug mess on her hands.
So I wasn't too popular around the homefront for a few days.
So you might want to label what it is.
And here's another question, and this is very common, I wish I would have asked this one earlier.
"What if I don't have time to finish my painting "in one setting, what can I do?" Think probably the easiest thing there, if for some reason you don't get it finished, try to find a good stopping point for your painting sometimes like the water line is excellent and just stop it right there.
If he was to stop right along in here someplace and then the next day or two you come back and if the liquid white has dried, and it will last for several days on a good canvas, but if it has dried, then you can come right in here and add a little bit more of the liquid white and you can go right on about your business.
If, for example, you wanted to come in here and you wanted it wet, liquid clear can be used to cover areas and it won't show like the liquid white will.
So you can go back and put some of the base coat mediums onto the canvas and continue your painting.
And I think with that, we're gonna shut it down for the day.
And as I mentioned earlier, this is the last show of the 17th series and I want to thank you for allowing me back into your home again.
This has been a special series to me.
I've been able to bring you some of my friends, my son's been on the show, and a lot of the little creatures that I'm so crazy about.
And I hope you enjoy seeing my creatures, and my friends and I thank you very, very much for allowing me into your living rooms.
I feel like I'm part of your family.
And from all of us here, we'd like to wish you happy painting and God bless, my friend.
(jazzy music)
I'm glad you could join me today today I
think we'll really do a fantastic little
painting that'll it'll bring a lot of
good thoughts and write to your heart
here
so I've already covered the canvas with
a thin even coat of the liquid white
it's wet slick ready to go and we'll
have them graphically run all the colors
across the screen that you need to paint
along with me and we'll get started I'm
going to take right off today I'm gonna
get right in here to sum this midnight
black a little bit of phthalo blue and
I'm just gonna mix these on the brush
just tap them right into your brush all
right let's go up here now I want to
just just sort of dance in a little
little sky little happy sky use little
Criss crosses just let it bounce around
and play leave some holes in this guy
don't don't kill it off kill it all
that's little things just shine through
like so just have fun but enjoy there we
go now I got this brush dirty I'm gonna
go right into a small amount of phthalo
green add it right onto the same old
dirty brush and load it the same way
just tap okay let's put in what will
eventually be water pull from the
outside in from outside in see over here
pull from this direction I'm gonna leave
a little area open here I want it to
look like a sheen of light coming across
the water when this painting is finished
there we go just right across okay now
let me wash this brush a little over
this paint thinner scrub it off give it
a little shake and is beat the devil out
of it okay now put a clean brush I'm
going up in here I'm just gonna blend
this guy together a little bit I don't
want to blend it so much that I kill all
the little actions in it I want to keep
some of those in there
yeah over blended it just turned into a
flat old dead blue sky there we go
let's blend it right on down and for the
park there's gonna be water very lightly
go across that light area will remain
right there who where you put it
see already it looks like a light
shining across here and you hadn't done
a thing this is really the lazy man's
way to paint that's why I like it so
much already
you clean up brush one more time shake
it off
these cameramen hate me alright right
into some titanium white a little bit of
the rib there we go pull that brush in
one direction load a lot of paint into
the bristles let's go up here now I want
to put a happy little cloud and I'm just
gonna take this brush you just dance it
a room let it have fun you have areas in
the sky where the paint's thick areas
where it's very thin areas where there's
absolutely no paint keep it moving keep
it moving keep it moving
otherwise if you stay in one place it'll
look like hmm look like a big cotton
ball laying up there in the sky that's
not what we're looking for we're looking
for happy little clouds it just float
around and have fun then we'll take a
clean dry brush same brush very gently
blend the bottom of this out this just
blend it Jenna splendid
I'm not touching this top area at all
just the bottom sorta mix it up mix it
up that's a good way of thinking of it
just mix it just like you get beaten up
a cake batter here and just mixed stuff
okay that just takes off the excess pain
then I'm gonna fluff it and grab it lift
it
fluff it drag out all those little
stringy things let them happen hmm when
all these little things happen don't
worry about them because when you blend
this guy they'll all go away look here
it just brings the fall together it's
one of the simplest nicest easiest ways
I'm making a beautiful little sky has
all kinds of happy with clouds floating
in it okay and then think today we'll
let's do let's do it almighty Mountain
I'll take a little bit of this blue and
black add a little white to it so it
makes sort of a blue grey color
there we go why can't cut off a little
bit
all right up here I'm gonna have a
little hill as far away so all you do
drunk in a basic shape take a dirty
brush I'm gonna grab it doesn't matter
for brushes dirty or clean and just by
using brush strokes I'm gonna put the
indication of highlights and shadows in
this I want this to be very soft very
quiet far far away look at there you can
blend over the entire thing very light
very light it looks like he's little
Topman right up in the clouds there and
then maybe in front of that one maybe
there's a big strong cloud our big
strong mountain I mean so let's go back
we use some black little touch it move a
little Van Dyke Brown in there too
let's just mix that pull it out cut
across it
get that little roll of paint right out
on the edge okay now I've decide where
your mountain lives may be yep lives
right there
with this dark color he certainly does
now he comes down like that and all
you're looking for here is a very basic
shape we're not looking for a lot of
detail you push get mean with it
get tough with it this will you take out
all your hostilities I really push that
paint right into the fabric canvas is
tough
I make tents out of it they're ready
push it okay now we'll take a big brush
and we pull that down just gently just
like we did the one in the background
this removes excess paint makes the next
layer of paint stick much easier less
paint you have on this part that easier
you'll find it maybe I hear what just
happened a bit just let it disappear
look at that
sort of floats down the sky right now
and that gives you a basic shape if you
don't like your shape if you're not
happy with it when you get to that point
you can change it this is your world and
the old brush we're in business
all right now let's put some happy
little things up here I'm going to go
into a little bit of the dark sienna and
the brown little why just mix it all
together I'm gonna put of the bright red
in there what the heck we'll just have
fun they will make a happy mountain a
little more of the white there cut
across it small roll of paint okay let's
go up here decide which peak is the
father's two way in my mind it's this
one tinies tinies a little bit of paint
just a tiny bit
just like so see there Tiny's a little
bit of paint now for shadow cover Oh
take a little Y blue some black and mix
me up the shadow color here put a little
brown in that to give it sort of a
bluish gray and you can there tone it to
whatever degree you want it okay cut
across let's go right up here I'm gonna
layin just a little indication of shadow
right in there just like so now I want
that to be farther back
so very lightly take this brush give it
a little tap and then very lightly very
lightly barely barely caressing the
canvas follow the angles there we go
just let this disappear try it off into
nothing that's far far away okay now
then yeah add a little bit more Brown to
the same color and sometimes a little
yellow ochre doesn't wonders but don't
overmix II leave it leave it like that
cut off a little hunk yeah we can start
playing in here see by not over mixing
all these colors happen automatically
beautiful little things if you tried to
sit here and plan all those you'd have a
devil the time but you do it max
identity they just fall in there
get that but we never we never admit
this was an accident somebody asked well
we slammed this side of a gun right in
the beginning I watch a lot of people
when they first start selling paintings
in it people will say it's gonna sell it
painting they say yeah yeah I want to
sell that painting but there's a couple
little errors and you know this trees
wrong or those mountains are wrong don't
tell nobody that huge Uddin you wouldn't
even buy somebody else's mistakes
nobody's gonna buy yours if they didn't
like the painting they wouldn't ask you
maybe the thing and that painting that
troubles you the most just what makes
them the happiest so don't ruin their
illusion here I'm using a little bit
shadow color and just bringing it down
I'm gonna take the small knife go right
into some very dark color I want to
increase the intensity of some of these
shadows back here like a dad this little
knife gets into some places it you might
find a little difficult with a big knife
there it just slips right in look at
their baby was a little more shadow
right in there there might even be the
tiniest little bit of light it hits oh
look at that
mmm look at that that easy
you bring it around look at there create
all kinds of beautiful little effects
just just letting a knife just grazing
crazy
I want to sort of slope out a little
lights singing through there and hitting
take a dry brush make sure these brushes
are dry out when you do this if they're
wet you're gonna watch your painting
just just drip off your canvas then
you're going to be mad at me and I want
you to be happy with your paintings and
happy with us okay now we can play a
little more take a little more this
yellow ocher some bright red and some
Sienna with this mix all this together a
little white next once again don't over
mix it see there now you have to start
making some decisions where does this
live there couch look at look at what
happens there because you did not over
mix that paint comes down there it is
we'll just let it go let it go let it go
like that just let it go wherever
I'm gonna take in touch a little bit of
the same color with more white in it
just to spark light up just so little
lightest a little lights just playing
through hearing zing hips and if you can
please there's one right there
and sometimes life things happen
going back to my little knife and back
behind here we need a shadow look at
that see that makes out a separate
entity just by putting a shadow behind
it just look here and we come down in
here and we can raise parts out look
right there
it's about putting a little dark area
and changing the angle angles are very
important when you're doing mountains
very very important okay I'm gonna take
and go into the tiniest a little bit of
a CAD yellow with that big brush just
tap the bristles in it
okay maybe right up here this I look at
here little grass that grows right up
the side of that mountain just wherever
just let it sort of blend together and
have fun there little fix just let your
brush work
you can put the least little touch of
SAP green here in there oh look at that
see how it separates brings those apart
looks like a whole separate entity just
that easy
tell you what maybe I'm just gonna throw
some dark in here and watch watch what
happens watch what happens go back to
the same old brush take some that dark
color look it there look there just
begin bringing all this together
you could make the multitude of things
happen just by using the brush but all
these little things just live in here
and play okay take off somebody excess
paint soften that right up like Oh ready
already with a clean brush we can soften
a team a little more and create the
illusion of mist in it okay I think that
gives you a general idea of how to make
a fantastic little mountain I won't go
in here and drop it a few little
background trees we'll just use some
black and some blue pick up some white
any little brown what the heck what's
that there we go okay let's go right up
here maybe there's some happy little
trees that live right here all right
go wherever you want there we are see
you just make as many trees here well
you will stop them right there that's
enough that's enough right there now
with good dry brush I want to just tap
this just tap it softens it all up theft
upward very lightly just blend it out
that gives us a nice little layer some
background trees let's go we use the
round brush I'm going still into the
black add a little SAP green to it
little brown can you go up here maybe
there's a happy little tree and he lives
right there whole bunch of little trees
just tap the knees in I'm using a darker
color here so it stands out against the
other color yeah we put a few highlights
on it that'll show too we'll just drop
some down here that'll be reflections
right into a little bit of the yellow
the yellow ocher and then you can put
look at there few little highlights
these trees are closer you're beginning
to see some highlights and now just tap
them off very lightly
don't overdo don't overdo just a few but
a few and layers
look there that easy that easy you got
some nice little background trees yeah
we'll take 2 inch brush grab it and pull
down look at there at quick you got some
beautiful little reflections maybe one
of the nicest things that happens and
this technique is reflections you just
pull it down very lightly go across and
you have instant instant reflections
take a little bit liquid white do that
add a little bit blue it's very thin
paint cut across it let's go up here
that then will give us some water lines
back here and these little trees helps
create the illusion of depth it shows
different planes again take the point of
the knife not get a few little sticks
and twigs just like so
okay I'm going back to the same old
round brush go back into some brown and
green black and maybe right here yeah
you're right there lives a nice little
happy tree it comes right down I can't
just like think like a tree when you do
these
baby right on back through here so maybe
there's a big son of a gun there a
little bit of that dark Seanna I had
that right in there just just be a
little background drop it down there
there we go right quick okay tell you
what let's do the same thing right over
here
maybe there's a happy little thing right
there this sort of this verb helps helps
with a composition it bring some borders
around the edge makes the painting look
a little better pushes everything father
back there we go sounds like so it's a
nice warm tones in here okay now there
let's take the old fan brush here I'll
put in a few basic little tree trunks
we'll just use some Brown just a little
bit of brown there we go let's go up
here
maybe there's a happy little tree trunk
in there right there there's one plus
some indications we're not looking for a
lot of detail right now just hearing
their top on that now I'm going to take
a one inch brush we dip it into a little
bit of the liquid white let's go into
some yellows some greens little yellow
ochre just mix them on the brush okay
let's go there
let's begin popping in just nice little
highlights on some of these little trees
here that easy
okay add a little bright red to that
look at there
hmm all kinds of beautiful little
effects and do this in layers so it
creates creates all kinds of depth in
there now happy little reflection right
there all right cross
and we got that rascal let's put a few
on the other side there yes right there
hmm here we're just using the brush side
Birds just bend them right out okay
listen let's have a few little stones
down here so you'll take a little bit of
the Van Dyck Brown clean off my knife
come right down here there we go
there is a little stone right there
maybe just some over here too can't ever
tell why this polo fitments down it'll
end up being reflections like so dry it
out like it wherever you are
maybe tell you what there's a little
stone out or there's another one maybe
we'll just have a bunch of them out here
in the water just drag them across I can
take a little big brush let's bring this
right on down this is just brown and
green just a nice dark color down like
hmm we getting crazy here I don't know
what's gonna happen we'll use a little
bit of this brown and white just put a
little highlight here and there are some
of these little stones these little
stones out here need some highlight on
to let it bounce around and play just
like so now you know me I always like to
have a little cabin let's fill this
little cabin right about here just a
little one there you go
look at that little rascal that easy why
wished it was really that easy to build
a little cabin out no listen look at
there yeah we'll take some Brown just
alright I'll put a few little highlights
on it
front of him here I can take the knife
cut through make it look like some old
slabs little bit of brown give him a
door can I have a door
let me touch you hide around the door so
it stands out now let's take I'll use a
little bit of red and brown mixed
together put some red on its roof here
go bloop what do to do to do to do to do
let's let that fall right off you nicely
there easy way to make a quick little
indication of happy little roof a little
light color here to make him stand out
now then remember the yellow we can pop
in a few happy little bushes around his
foots and over here let's do this site
over here here's a nice little bush look
at that she just let these little
rascals layer after layer after layer
just layering effect Oh once again I
know you're tired of hearing me say it
but this layering effect is what creates
the depth in your painting let's have
some fun let's put let's put a few big
old trees and remover right into the Van
Dyck Brown and the sienna just mix them
together make a decision I think as a
tree it lives it's right there big tree
and he's got a friend there there yes
okay it's going the other side maybe
over here there's really some big trees
and I'm gonna get a letter sure as a
devil says why did you mess up that
painting with all those trees there we
go there's another big tree
that one right there however many trees
you want you just drop them in just drop
them in and we'll take a little bit of
the liquid black the liner brush with
some thinner on it let's drop in a few
indications of some happy little nails
here and there just a few and are you
doing this at home you put as many in as
you want I just want to show you how to
do it there we go just however many a
few and knees over here don't want them
to be left out there okay
they're just drop them in you take a
little bit liquid white and highlight a
few of them just wherever okay I want to
take a little bit of a little bit of
highlight color and just my keys stand
out just barely touching give it a
little pull see just barely touch pull
it
look at that make the little trees just
stand right out
just think of which side the light would
hit then go little bit a little bit
right over here don't want this tree to
get lonely
leave him out he'll get upset they don't
like unhappy trees in our paintings all
right tell you what tell you what we got
just about enough time left up play
around here and we'll put a few little
happy leaves there I'll take a little
CAD yellow a little satin green and I'm
just just tapping that brush right into
it okay let's go right up here now then
just think about where the leaves would
be see just to help them
keep a lot of paint on your brush a lot
of paint leave them loose and very airy
hope that's a proper word Airy sounds
good anyway you know what I mean
sometimes I'm bad about making up words
so don't pay any attention and if you're
young and still going to school don't
tell you English teacher and she'll be
writing me bad letters to see how you
make the indication of thousands of
little leaves that quick let's do this
over here look just tap think of a basic
shapes though you want here don't just
hit a minute random look at that look at
that look at that oh I get excited when
I see these things maybe that's the
reason I continue to paint it's one of
the few things that you paint for a
million years
you always know the next painting you do
is gonna be a little bit better you're
gonna learn a little more like that
alright I think we can take a one inch
brush here with a little paint on it
let's go right down here just foot s'en
let's put some happy little things right
there this foots okay I'm just about out
of time someone take a little bit color
here a little bit of water line right
around here just a tiny bit pull this
down I'd like to thank you for being
with us today I hope you've enjoyed this
one and I look forward to seeing you
next time and until then from all of us
here happy painting
hey I'm glad to see you today
you really do another fantastic oil
painting with me let's go get started
here tell you what let's have them
graphically put all the colors on the
screen that you need to paint along with
me and they'll come across in the same
order as I have them on the palette
while they're doing that let's go on up
here now I've already covered the canvas
with a thin even coat of the liquid
white it's wet and slick and it's all
ready to go so let's get started now
today we do a let's do just a happy
little painting it has a big mountain in
it and shoot maybe a little water and
all those beautiful things let's do it
I want to take off day with a 2 inch
brush go into a small amount of the
yellow ochre just a little bit tap it
into the bristles let's go right up here
now then maybe right in here using the
little crisscross strokes we're laying a
small amount of the yellow ochre a very
very small amount don't don't get
carried away with it just a little bit
k-kevin without cleaning the brush I
won't touch the least little amount of
alizarin crimson just just a very small
amount came back up here and here and
there but you just want to blend down a
little touch of that just to give it a a
little bit of warmth nice and warm I'm
very soft there we go
okay I don't want to set this guy on
fire all we want to do is put put the
least little bit of warm color into it
and we will throw a little bit of that
color right down this area we know
that's going to be water so we can just
go ahead and throw it in okay let me
clean the old brush scrub it off shake
off the excess then just beat the devil
out of that is really fun you like it
you like it let's start same ol brush
and we'll go right into the midnight
black load some color onto the brush all
right let's go right back up in here
we'll just take a little that black
color and I'll just sort of still use a
little crisscross strokes just begin
making some happy little things in the
sky here there we go
you just make all kinds of little
patterns and shapes and just throw them
in throw them in just let your
imagination take you wherever you want
to go this piece of canvas is your world
so you can do anything that you want
here anything there we go hmm
while we got that going I'm gonna take a
little bit more of the black and put the
least little touch of phthalo blue into
it so we have black and blue black and
blue that's why I look after arguing
with my wife there okay we have the
bristles all loaded up we're ready to go
yeah pull from the outside in and put a
little bit of water in there I don't
want to cover up all that nice light
area in the center we want to add a
little light shining right through this
area when we're finished so don't cover
all that up pull it from the outside in
there okay then let's wash the brush got
that really beat off there now they're
back into this light area and let's just
blend this guy out let all these little
colors just just blend together so you
can't tell where one stops and the next
one starts there we go you know one of
the questions that I get asked quite
frequently is what kind of canvas do I
use I'd recommend you have a canvas
that's double Prime two coats of primer
on it that way your liquid white will
stay wet for an extended period of time
we very rarely ever use the canvas
boards because they are absorbing liquid
white and pretty soon you're working on
a dry surface and the other thing is I
use a canvas that has a gray primer on
it that way you can tell exactly where
your liquid white is and you don't have
to you don't have to wonder if an area
is covered or not
okay let's build us a happy little
mountain in here I'm going to use the
midnight black and a phthalo blue black
and blue pull it out very flat cut
across get a little roll of paint okay
let's go up here now you have to make a
big decision where did you where does
your Big Mountain live maybe right in
here
where you just just drop it milk and
make all kinds of little little things
the only thing you're worried about is
this nice outside edge you could cure
less what's happening inside just that
nice outside edge all right and sort of
look around if there's mountains in in
in your area and you that's the kind of
shapes that you're probably most
familiar with and you were to put in
your painting if there's no mountains in
in your area you can leave the mountains
out of these paintings it's no problem
we just want to show you how to do it
what you do is up to you because when
you paint as you know we're very rapidly
how to paint how the paint becomes easy
that's the easiest part of it what to
paint that's what's hard and we get a
lot of questions about where do you get
all the ideas for your paintings believe
it or not a large percentage of the
ideas we get are from photographs that
people send us or your ideas so if you
have if you have something you'd like to
see painting on one of the shows drop me
a line you may see it right here I'm
taking a little bit of a midnight black
titanium white making a gray color cut
off a little roll of paint now then that
gray color let's just put some happy
little highlights on here just grab it
no pressure
no pressure just sort of let it bounce
and play and have fun
let the paint break but no pressure most
gentle touch imaginable
so you sort of float across there no
pressure it off there we go
tell you what let's have some fun in
this old Mountain take some play little
blue and alizarin crimson a little bit
of titanium white so we have blue
crimson little white and sort of make a
little lavender color there we go
don't over mix it leave it all marble II
like it James take a small edge knife
and cut off a little roll of paint okay
let's go peer maybe over in here we're
just going to begin touching and pulling
down this will be the shadow side let
these little colors just happen there
look at all the little things that's
what makes it pretty and you know on
this piece of canvas you can have any
color combination that you want any
colors this is your world and you can
make it any way you want it painting to
me represents freedom I can create the
kind of world that I want to see what I
want to be part of and you can too now
then I want to play some more here I'm
gonna go right into the dark sienna but
a little tiny bit of white with some cut
off that little roll of paint again just
tiny little bit on the smaller edge of
the knife and then right back up in here
and just barely touch just graze it here
and there this is a time you could use a
small knife it would work very good for
this hair just wherever wherever where
you think a little bit of but a color
should show and you can make it a little
brighter in places take some of the
mountain color let me go back and you
can drop in some dark shadow areas see
how you can play with that mountain just
miss some of these colors to sort of
just work back and forth and then bring
them all together a lot of fun and back
to our highlight color let it sort of
overlap here in there I'm Kate now with
a clean dry two inch brush I want to
begin misting this just tap it
follow the angles in your mountain and
you're just barely tapping over here
follow these angles I want to create the
illusion of mist at the base of these
now lift upward very softly very softly
barely barely caressing the canvas there
we go see just barely touching it but
you can soften bring all that together
this looks like sort of a reminds me of
a mountain maybe in in Arizona New
Mexico somewhere like it beautiful
scenery there and we have so many
fantastic friends in that area adding
you can begin creating all different
planes in your mountain just all kinds
of beautiful little things may be a
little dark right there you just play
some of these colors right through there
hmm
it's fun to do all these little things
make you happy your friends will never
believe that you did that you'll never
believe what you could do do you get an
earn triumph one of the earlier shows we
showed you some of the paintings that
people are doing all over the country
it's almost unbelievable the success
that people are enjoying we now have oh
gosh we have now nearly 120 shows so out
of 120 you can certainly find one that
that paints an area you're where you
live there look at that yeah then I'm
just going to tap right into a little
bit of my lavender color the black
little brown disorder I'm just mixing up
all the Mountain colors on the brush do
it on the brush now then let's go right
up in here and maybe there's some happy
little things that just come right down
this mountain follow the angles in the
mountain oh that's very important very
important there we go there they come
and come right down this side there just
have some little things in there and
that helps create the illusion of
distance and depth in your painting now
very lightly short tiny little strokes
lift up reading tiniest tiniest little
strokes quarter of an inch tight teeny
tiny little strokes there okay now then
with a clean brush I want to create the
illusion of more mist to here so take a
clean brush and again just tapping it
that way it'll mix with a liquid white
and you'll get softer and softer mister
you missed here that easy okay hmm
see how quiet far back that looks gives
you a strong oh mighty Mountain hmm okay
I think we got it nice little little
Mountain back here I'm going back to my
old dirty brush here we're going to some
brown and we'll pick up some SAP green a
little bit of that mountain color just
all the dark colors huh with some SAP
green added same old mountain colors the
black and browns okay let's go right in
here and maybe maybe we'll have a happy
little foothill yep lives right there
see just take the corner to brush and
pull straight down straight down just
sort of just tap it pull downward all
you're worried about this nice top edge
there okay now we know this is gonna be
water so underneath here I'm going to
put what will end up being reflections
just drop them in forever nice
traditional painter these reflections
were a little son of a guy's used to
drive me crazy but on a wet canvas
reflection or one of the easiest most
fun things that you can do now with a
clean brush grab it pull straight down
it's important that this comes straight
down straight down and very lightly go
across you don't want to destroy all
these little lines in here all you want
to do is just move them a little bit so
it looks like water happy little water
things happening all back in there okay
now then take a one-inch brush go into
some black some SAP green there we go
just pull it in one direction through
there load a lot of paint into the
bristles can't go back up here maybe
there's all kind of little bushes to
live there add along the edge of the
water here just drop in some basic
little shapes to help give the illusion
of distance let them get smaller as they
go back over this way that will help
make it look like they go further and
farther away and if you happen to hit in
the wrong place maybe down here for
example all you do is take your brush
pull it down see there and that easy
you can create a reflection you have to
remember we don't make mistakes we don't
make mistakes we have happy accidents
okay and we'll go into some yellow with
the one-inch brush and some SAP green
yellow and SAP green also try making
greens out of the midnight black and
yellow beautiful color one direction
load a lot of paint just go back up here
now then I want to come right in here
see here and just begin putting some
little bushes and little trees that are
we back in here
all kinds of happy little things there
is one that's a little more green in it
you can turn the brush over and reflect
a little bit that right into the water
look at there that easy can add some
yellow ochre Indian yellow all these
little things they're saying turn it
over tap a little bit right into there
that easy that easy grab it pull down
straight down it's most important this
comes straight down now this is two
hairs and some air and then go across
see instant reflections there we go okay
take the knife put a little bit of
liquid white right out here cut across
it like at go right up in here and we'll
just literally cut in some nice water
lines right through there there we go
keep those lines basically straighten
basic history and you put as many little
ripples on your water as you want sewed
up to you okay
now then I'd like to have some big old
strong evergreens in here I like
evergreen trees they're a lot of fun to
paint so it takes some black some black
SAP green throw in some blue looking for
a color that looks black and blue might
as well mix up a pretty good amount here
throw in two Browns whatever you have
laying around okay let me clean the
knife off maybe today tell you what
let's do let's use let's use an old two
inch brush and load it full of paint you
need enough pain in the bristles so the
bristles stick together wiggle the brush
wiggle it and in sharpen it so it
becomes very sharp see there look how
sharp it is that's a chisel edge that's
what we're looking for
pull it get it very sharp
maybe there is what there is now there
is a happy little evergreen and he lives
right there don't be afraid of this
brush because it looks big it'll do
unbelievable things for you make it your
friend your brushes need to be your
friend learn what they will do
devote some time to practicing if
there's a secret to this or any style of
painting withered or there'd be
portraits or florals Lenzi it makes no
difference if there's a secret it's
practice it's practice I always like the
story about the the great violin player
and he played a concert and afterwards a
lady came up to him and she says oh my
gosh she says you're so fantastic she
says I would I would give half my life
to be able to play like you do and he
looked at her and he said I did so
that's all it's just practice you can be
the best all you have to do is practice
devote some time to it well I get to
talk in here and trees just appear
everywhere if I talk to her a couple
more minutes we'd have whole canvas full
of trees tell you what let's put let's
put an almighty tree right there big
strong son of a gun he got a lot of
sunlight there we go
yes drop him in it not a super way to
make some fantastic little evergreens or
big evergreens in this case
and come right on down right on down
there here we go see in another one
there when you're creating your own
world you have to make big decisions but
lives in your world let's have some
happy little bushes here I'll go back on
this side we'll just push him
oh there he is there yes just two little
bush there we go
all right you see all of this as you
probably know already
he's gonna end up paying reflections
that easy let's go back to the other
side no I'm just getting crazy here
maybe there's a happy little tree in he
lives right here and let's just bring
this for I don't know there like that
that's good that's good there
and this you really you really push it
in there try not to let the brush slide
like that see difference practice
bending the brush just bend it there
your bushes will be much happier and if
your bushes are happy you'll be happy
and I sincerely want you to be happy
with what you're doing cause that's when
it becomes fun that's what makes it fun
take a little the dark Sienna a little
white get us a little roll of paint okay
and we'll put some trunks in these
little happy trees back here just some
indications you're not gonna see the
entire trunk so don't worry about it
scratch it a few things see there well
you just put all kinds of little doers
in there there we go scratch outside
trunk ideas and sanda down in here we
can do the same thing on the other side
there we go just some little indications
same thing now these things must ever be
covered up but someone will show through
and people think you spent a week with
your little one haired brush in there
don't tell them any different don't tell
them any different just enjoy okay now
then I'll go to the one-inch brush you
set green and a little bit of CAD yellow
pull that brush to a nice sharp chisel
edge very sharp okay let's go back up
here now then let's put some nice
highlights on some of these trees don't
overdo
don't overdo it's real easy to kill all
the dark it starts working and you get
carried away and next thing you know you
covered up the whole tree don't kill it
all see they're just sort of work it
back and forth where you think light
would strike Kenna scored on the other
side over here and put some highlights
on these old big trees let a little Sun
play through there and sparkle those
films
you can do it okay this comes right on
down we don't know wherever you want to
go a little bit on this like so now then
I want to take some more of my yellows
and I'm using three different yellows
here Indian yellow yellow ochre and a
little CAD yellow pull it brush in one
direction get it full of paint come
right up here look at there there it is
let that just shine out there there like
all these little things tell you what
I'm gonna do we know this is gonna be
reflection so let's pull that down pull
it straight down and then we can turn
right around and reflect some of this
into the water right into the water you
can just put all these happy little
things here and do layers layer after
layer after layer and also layer it
right into their reflections then let's
see if you have a delicate touch barely
touch down and across okay then we'll go
into some Van Dyck Brown and we're just
touching here and we'll put in some last
little land areas little rocks and
stones we can take some that gray color
we used on the mountains and just barely
touch that it sort of bounced just let
it bounce along there
create the illusion of some highlights
and tap in a few little things just to
break up that straight edge little
liquid white cuts it a little water line
right here said cleans if the bottom
brings it all together scratch it a few
more little sticks and twigs and we got
it that easy maybe over here there's a
weed said there was a nice tree it lives
here there it is just like so and you
pick up a touch of the bright red let's
let's put something there that oh
there's a nice little orange rascal see
if you have trouble making your paint
stick add a little bit of paint thinner
a little bit of the liquid white there
we go and work in layers I know you get
tired of hearing me say that but it's
important if you don't work in layers
it's gonna look flat I'll tell you tell
you what I want to do here will have a
happy little path so who this take Van
Dyck Brown look at that look at that
just Van Dyck Brown a little bit of dark
CNN it won't hurt sort of nice pull it
across and we can take some Brown and
some white and go back and just barely
touch it's just like making snow break
on the mountain see there and that easy
we have a happy little path drop in all
these little things around his foots but
there we go and we'll push that path
right back and look at there now you
don't know where the path goes and
that's super he just sort of disappears
back here you'd wander around blow up
his path to catch a big old fish it
lives in there just like that okay
I know scratch it a few more sticks and
twigs wherever you think they are to
live and I think we'll sign this one and
call it finished I'm dipping my brush
right into a little bit of the liquid
clear go through some bright red and
let's sign it right here the old clock
on the wall is telling me it's time to
leave you for this week so I certainly
hope you've enjoyed this painting until
next time from all of us here happy
painting god bless
I
Hello, here we are again, ready to go.
Hope you have the easel set up and your almighty palette ready, we'll paint a fantastic little picture together.
I'm gonna have them quickly run across the screen here all the colors that we have on the palette, so if you haven't caught those in one of the previous shows, you can pick up all the colors that we're using.
I thought today we'd do a very quick happy little waterfall.
Last week if you were with us we did a waterfall that was way off in the distance, this time I think we'll do one that's a little bit closer.
So I'm gonna start today with a little tiny bit of thalo blue, and I'll mix a little Van Dyke brown with it, and we'll just throw in a quick little sky here, something about like so.
And, while I have the blue on the brush, I'll go right into a little bit of thalo green, and we'll put some water in here, there we are, just to give us some nice little water indications.
OK, now, let's wash the brush real quick, and we'll move right along.
OK, now we'll go into a tiny bit of alizarin crimson, let's just warm this up a little, we'll put just a tiny bit of crimson right here.
A little crimson, we don't want to set the sky on fire, just want to give it a nice, warm glow.
A little bit into the water.
There.
Now let's bring all this together.
Just using little criss-cross strokes, back and forth, sort of like you're making x's.
OK.
Just very gently bring that together so it's nice and evenly blended.
OK, let's take and put a, let's put a little mountain way in the background, I use a little bit of Prussian blue, Van Dyke brown, a touch of crimson.
We'll have a little mountains way back in the distance back here.
Something like so.
Just a little small one.
Now with the large brush, I'm just gonna take and pull that down, so it blends it out on the bottom.
There we are.
We just want this mountain to literally just disappear, right at the bottom there.
OK, we'll take a little bit of white, and I'm gonna put the least, least little amount of permanent red in, just to put a little warm glow on the mountain.
Tiny, tiny bit of permanent red, it's very, very strong.
OK, let's run a little highlight, right down through here.
Don't want these to be too bright, they wanna be far away.
Very soft.
Maybe there's a little highlight striking right in here.
And right down this ridge.
For the shadow's side we'll take a little Prussian blue and white.
There we go.
And, just drop some happy little shadows in here.
And let's just let this one wander around and play here a little.
Let your heart take you wherever you wanna go.
Maybe there's another little peak right there.
Each highlight beats its own private shadow, so just give him a shadow, so he stands apart.
OK, with a clean, dry brush now, I'm just gonna tap the bottom of this, just to create some mist.
Over here we'll follow these angles, then lift upward.
Want this one to be very soft, very far away.
OK, now let's take a little bit of Prussian blue, Van Dyke brown, a little, tiny bit of sap green, we just mix it on the brush, put a little white with it.
Let's make a happy little foothill, comes running down here, there he is, just let him wander down here and have fun.
All we're doing is tapping the canvas.
Now you can take and lift gently upward to make it look like little trees, way, way, way back in the distance there.
There we are.
Now then, maybe, let's do another one, that was a lot of fun.
We'll take some blue and brown, sap green again, this one we want to be a little bit darker, because it's closer, and we'll just have one run right down through here.
Alright.
It creates a lot of depth in your painting, and we can just take the bottom of it and pull down, and create our reflections.
Gently lift upward, make it look like little trees.
There we are.
Just make all kinds of little projections back here.
Now, very gently I'm gonna just wipe across, to turn it into reflections.
OK, we'll take a little bit of magic white, and make a little waterline here.
This is just straight magic white, remember our golden rule here, a thin paint will stick to a thick paint.
So this is very thin, so it will stick right on there.
OK, let's dull that one a little bit, too bright.
And a little bit right out here.
Now we could take a fan brush using the same dark colors, blue, brown, a little sap green, and we could just drop a few little indications of trees back here, maybe these are a little closer, just like so.
Don't want to get too much detail yet.
Let's darken this one up, it's closer.
Then, with just a little tiny bit of yellow, on the brush here, I'm just gonna put a little highlight so it looks like this is beginning to get close enough that we can see things, just here and there, very little.
OK, that gives us a nice background for a little waterfall.
Now.
Let's take the large brush, put some Prussian blue on it, and a little Van Dyke brown, and here we need to figure out where the waterfall's gonna be, have to make almighty decisions when you're the creator.
And let's just say it's right here.
Pull straight down, all we're doing is applying some darks so our light color will show on top.
And, let's throw some down here.
OK, clean the brush, and we'll be ready to go here.
And we'll use the fan brush, and take a little, tiny bit of the magic white, and add to firm white, thin paint will stick to a thick paint, so I've thinned it just a little bit here.
And we'll put some little ripples in the water.
Just touch the canvas.
Now, to make the waterfall pull the brush straight, and let it fall, pshoo, that's all there there is to it, straight, fall.
And it'll pay you to wipe the brush in between because you're gonna pick up a little bit of that blue.
Tchoo.
Just pull it over, let it fall.
That's why they call them waterfalls.
OK, let's go over here, pull it over, and let it fall.
Over, and it falls.
Wipe some of that blue off the brush, over, and fall.
And that's how easy it is to make a little waterfall.
Now with a little more of the magic, a little more titanium white, we can begin letting it hit and splashing, have all kinds of little fun things happen down here.
OK now, we need to determine what's gonna contain this water, so let's take Van Dyke brown, just straight Van Dyke brown, and we'll begin building some little, some little cliffs and rocks, something's gotta contain this, be sure your rocks are higher than the waterfall.
One thing that you have to remember, water's probably the laziest thing in nature, it will not climb a rock just so it can fall and be pretty for you.
It'd be nice if it would, but it won't do it.
Alright, let's just fill this in with a lot of Van Dyke brown.
And, over here, let's come right along like this, let this big old stone just play there.
A lot of paint.
Just like so.
Now, we wanna makes these stones look flat on top, so I'll take a little burnt umber, mix it with the Van Dyke brown, maybe just a little touch of yellow into it.
There we go.
Now, wanna try to make this look flat on top, so this, when it comes across, needs to be like so, to keep it flat, across here.
Just let it go.
Say it, Van Dyke, burnt umber, yellow.
Let's have this one just sort of come around, there.
OK.
Now, angles, most important thing here, bring these angles down.
A little bit of light color, just a tiny, tiny bit, probably the biggest mistake made is putting too much highlight under here, and you lose that beautiful darkness.
Just enough to create a little illusion of rocks here.
OK, little tiny bit over here, and you can do this, like so every once in a while, just to break it up a little.
There we are.
Angles so, most, most important.
Now let's play with the water a little, maybe it comes up in here and splashes and has fun, tchoo.
Little more of the magic white, be sure your paint's a little bit thinner than what's on the canvas already.
I'm having so much fun with rocks, think I'll build another little happy stone that comes right out through here.
Just using the Van Dyke brown.
And a little bit of our highlight color.
Just let that work and play.
Little pull downward.
OK, let's take a little bit of the water over here, and, I'm going crazy with stones today, let's just bring something down like that, maybe there's a big stone right here in the front.
Remember this is your world, so anywhere you want a stone, that's where it should be.
There we go, we'll just fill all that in.
Creates a lot of depth by having all these different planes in the painting.
And, let's put a little bit of highlight on here on this happy little stone.
Just let that knife barely, barely touch.
Barely touch, it almost touches the canvas.
And we can just begin creating all kinds of almighty stones, rocks.
OK, now, let's build, let's build some happy little things here, using Van Dyke brown and some burnt umber mixed together, little bit of sap green in it, and let's just put, right over here, just a happy little tree, sitting up here on this rock.
Like that.
Maybe I'll, maybe over here, oh, there's an almighty tree.
That's where these big brushes really work beautiful, when you wanna make big things.
Alright.
Here, you have to make decisions here, where does it go, where is the bottom of this tree?
Let's just let it run right on down here and we'll decide that later.
OK.
Let's put a few little limb indications back here, just here and there, like that.
And, we'll highlight it with a little brown and white, least little touch of blue, just to put a little highlight on there.
OK, now we'll take some magic white, to thin the paint a little bit, we're going to, little bit of yellow, little bit of sap green.
Yellow and sap green, a lot of paint on the bristles, and let's put some happy little leaves back in here, just let these little leaves just fall off your brush, all kinds of little things happening.
And go out sometime in the woods, and, and study trees, talk to trees, whatever it takes, tree needs to be your friend if you're gonna paint him.
Probably out in your yard you have some beautiful trees that you can look at, study what happens in a tree, what makes each one an individual.
Study nature.
I really, I really have some hangups about nature being destroyed, I would like to see nature remain the way it is.
I would like for my son, his grandchildren maybe, when he goes back to Alaska to be able to see a real moose, not just pictures of one, so appreciate what we have.
Let's put a big old tree trunk right up through here, this is just straight Van Dyke brown.
There we go.
OK, just fill that in real nice.
There, maybe there's a limb that just travels right up through this way, your tree, so you put limbs where you want em.
OK, let's take a little bit of the titanium white with just a touch of umber in it, burnt umber, and let's just put some bark on like yesterday.
Touch it, pull it to the side.
There.
Let it run right on up the tree.
OK.
Now, back to the magic white.
Little magic white, some yellow, and I want a darker color on this tree, so I'm gonna use a lot of sap green on it, lot of sap green, want him to be darker than the one that's behind him.
And we can throw some happy little leaves right out here.
By being darker they stand apart a little better.
There we go.
Now, let's make a happy little bush, right out here, let's put some little brighter colors on him, so he stands out and shines.
And on down here at the bottom there's all kind of little things growing out here on the stone.
OK, maybe this one right here covers up half the tree's foots.
This is a very nice little painting, it's a lot of fun to do, it'll teach you a great deal, it's a good practice painting.
It's also good for putting a happy buck in your pocket once in a while.
There, maybe a little grassy thing over in there somewhere.
And you can also use the fan brush if you'd like, and just bring all this together very gently.
Maybe right out here there's a little weed that grows almost on the other side.
OK.
Now, with the palette knife, just a clean knife, scrape a few little trunks and limbs in here.
One of the important things when you're doing this is, don't kill all this dark area, you really need it, otherwise your painting will become very flat.
You need the dark.
It's the only way you can have light.
OK.
Let's go over here to the other side, I think that tree needs a little trunk.
Just touch, touch, touch Van Dyke brown, little bit of highlight on it, this is brown and white, just enough to give it some little indications.
OK.
Now, let's highlight that tree, a little magic white, a little yellow and sap green, there we are.
And, let's just put some purty little leaves out here on this one.
OK.
And down here at the tree's bottom, let's put a nice little bush right here, this is yellow ochre, beautiful color.
Maybe there's a little bush trying to live down here on this stone, life can get rough down there.
OK, few little sticks and twigs here and there.
But you're beginning to see now, how really very simple it is to do a happy little waterfall it's, no big secret.
It's quite easy to do.
I'm just throwing a few little sticks here and there.
OK now, we can take the fan brush, little bit of magic white on it, little bit of firm white, and now we can begin bringing the water all up through here, just touch and bend the brush so it bends upward, and pshoo, once again, tchoo, it makes it look like water's dripping down, but you pull it upward, and do it in a real fast little motion.
Water's just going right on out, little bubbly stream out from here.
OK.
Now another thing that you can do just to make it look a little more finished, anytime you have these big cliffs with little things growing on, you should always have a lot of little roots that hang over, just take your fan brush with a little tiny bit of color on it, and pull, like so.
Just pull it, makes it look like little roots hanging over, ain't that something?
There.
Just hanging there.
Now, dry the fan brush off.
Maybe we'll take the liner brush, a little Van Dyke brown, and we'll put a couple little stems and stuff up through here, maybe, maybe there's a little limb that comes right up through here like so.
This is just a thin oil, just about any type of oil will work, just thins the paint down a little bit, you may thin it with paint thinner if you desire, be careful because paint thinner will bleed, like ink on rice paper, be very careful with that, the oil is slick it moves much easier.
And we'll have a limb coming right across the front.
When you're doing little trees and stuff, one thing to avoid, don't have a trunk and then limbs coming just off each side, because some of the limbs are in front of the trunk, some are in the back, so have them come across, there we go, and just gives us a little something right there.
Few little sticks and twigs, just little finishing touches.
And I think I'm beginning to piddle right now, so I'm gonna take a little bit of the oil, little permanent red, I think it's time we signed this one and called it finished.
OK, work your oil in there to your paint, it's just like water, and turn the brush to bring it back to a nice sharp point.
OK, lets go right along in here.
And when you have this oil very thin like this, it's just about like writing with a pen.
Another way you can sign your name is just take the back of your liner brush, and you can scrape right through the paint, your signature will be there.
OK, I think we just about have a finished painting here.
Well this is a very, very fun little painting to do, it teaches you a great deal, and I hope it helps you.
If you've enjoyed this, you know let your PBS station know, that's the only way we know what you like.
Let us hear from you once in a while.
So on behalf of all of us here at this station, we'd like to wish you happy painting, and we're looking forward to seeing you again next week.
Until then, have a super day.
Certainly glad you could join me today.
I thought today we'd do a fantastic little panting that I really hope you'll enjoy it.
So I tell you what, let's start out today, have them run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint along with us.
While they're doing that let me show you what I've already done up here.
Today I have, well it's a standard old 18 by 24 inch pre-stretched canvas but you use whatever size makes you happy.
I've already got it up here, I've taken black gesso and I've just covered this area in here with black gesso and allowed that to dry completely.
And I sort of have an idea that I wanna do something with a little lake here and maybe we'll put a little mountain back here.
I don't know.
But the big thing I want to show here is try to make some rocks under the water that you can see.
So we've done that with the black gesso.
I've just taken and just dropped here and there.
Just to give it a little effect like so.
Okay everything that's black then we've covered with a liquid clear.
A very, very thin coat.
Tiniest little amount you could imagine.
And then on top of that I've covered all the black area with a mixture of sap green, phthalo blue and then a little Van Dyke Brown just to dull it down 'cause otherwise it's very bright.
The part of the canvas that we didn't have any black gesso on I just covered with liquid white like we normally do.
So, I was just finishing up putting a little bit of this color on here and this once again a mixture of sap green, phthalo blue, and a little bit of Van Dyke Brown.
Now we know we're gonna have water in here.
If we had covered this with a liquid white, it would be opaque but since we used the clear, it's nice and transparent.
So we can just take the same color, that same color that we done everything with and just begin laying that right over the top.
And right from the very beginning, we'll have the basis for our water.
Beautiful little color there, sort of a blue-green.
And this will look like all kinds of little things in the edge of the water.
If everything works just right.
There.
You see, that way part of your painting's already done before you even get started.
And this is a lazy man's way of painting.
I look for very simple ways to make very effective little paintings and I hope that'll make your painting life much easier for you.
And here, to make these little effects I've just taken the corner of the brush and just tap.
And it goes right into the liquid white.
We don't care 'cause we're gonna mess with that in a little bit.
So I tell you what, let's start out today, we'll use the old fan brush and let's make us some happy little clouds up here in the sky and for that I'm gonna take a little bit of Prussian blue.
We'll use a little Prussian blue today.
And a little touch of midnight black.
And we just mix those on the brush.
And I'm just using a fan brush but you could use a Filbert brush or a one-inch brush.
Whatever.
Very little paint on the brush.
Okay, let's go up here.
Now let's make some big decisions to where our clouds are gonna live.
So we take the corner of the brush and very lightly, and very little color, very little color, just begin putting in a basic cloud shape.
That's all we're looking for.
Now, interestingly enough, all I'm interested in here is the white area, this dark is gonna be blended out.
In other words, use the white area here to form your basic cloud shapes.
Be more concerned with this than you are with this.
This we don't care about.
And I'll show you why here in just a second.
There.
And we'll have some nice fluffy clouds in here.
Maybe in our world there's one that lives right about here.
And he just bounces around.
Has fun all day.
Clouds are very very free and when you paint them, try to paint them that way, try to paint them with a looseness and a freedom that just shows that they're floating around.
Maybe we'll have another one right here.
Once again, we're worried about the white area here.
Not the dark.
And that's all we're concerned with at this point.
There.
Little more color right in there.
Okay, let me grab a little one-inch brush here.
And you could continue to use your fan brush but we'll just use this.
Just wanna blend this out and I'm trying not to touch the edge.
Just blending it out.
And it'll blend with the liquid white and automatically it's gonna become lighter and lighter in value and you can blend this to any degree that you want of lightness.
There we go.
See, just blend that right out.
Now then.
We're just using sort of little criss-cross strokes to blend that.
And maybe right down here at water's edge, we'll just take a little bit of that color and let it blend up.
We just picked up a little color on the brush from doing these other clouds.
Okay.
Now then, let's have some fun today.
We'll wash that old brush.
And we wash our brushes, as you know, with odorless thinner.
Shake 'em off.
And just beat the devil out of them.
That's the whole fun part of this.
Now then, let's grab a fan brush here.
Go right into titanium white and I'm gonna load quite a bit of color into the bristles on both sides.
Very full.
And let's go right up here and begin looking at what we have.
Now then, we wanna take the white and put it right on the edge and this is where you make all your little fluffies.
Right out here on the edge.
There.
Look at that.
See them clouds? They just start coming right together.
That easy.
This is just straight titanium white.
Nothing else.
But now it makes sense to why we were more interested in the light area than we were the dark area.
And I'm just using the corner of the brush here.
Just to create all those little effects.
Okay and we'll have one that lives right here.
Like so.
Here is one.
A lot of paint on the brush though.
And just using the corner of the brush, I'm making little tight circular strokes.
There we go.
Now, a little bit right in here.
This is a very simple way of making very effective clouds.
And easy to do, even if you've never painted a cloud before.
These you can do without any problem.
Clean dry two-inch brush and very lightly now, I just want to blend that all together.
Just blend it right in with that blue color we put on first.
And this is what will give you cloud dimension and shape, form, have some darkness underneath.
But great big fluffy clouds.
This is a fantastic way of making clouds in seascapes.
Beat the brush there just to knock off excess paint that I've picked up 'cause there's quite a bit of paint up here.
There.
And we'll just blend this one in.
We don't want him left out.
He'll be all upset if we leave him out.
But now we take that blue and blend it right in there.
Just blend it all together.
As I say, this is one of the nicest, easiest ways of making great big fluffy, very effective clouds.
And it'll work for you.
This'll work for you.
Very gently we'll sort of fluff it up a little.
Just very gentle.
Good dry brush, clean.
And we can just blend all that together.
There.
And the more that you work with this, the more gentle and subdued it will become.
And you can work it and work it and work it to whatever degree that you want.
Up to you.
Up to you. Let's wash your brush here.
I enjoy that.
Okay and we'll wash this big brush.
Shake it off.
(chuckles) And just beat the devil out of it.
All right.
Let's have a little mountain back here.
We said we was gonna have a mountain.
We'll use some, how about some black?
We'll take black and just a little bit of Van Dyke Brown so we just basically have black and brown, or brown and black.
Pull it out flat.
Cut off our little roll of paint so it's right out on the edge there, it lives right on the end of the knife.
Let's go up in here.
Now we have to start making some big decisions.
In your world you have to decide where your mountain lives.
So just begin placing in the initial shape.
The basic shape, that's all we're worried about at this point.
We really could care less what's happening in here.
The other thing that we're worried about is a nice top.
The outside shape.
The rest of it, we'll worry about that later.
But at this point, just enjoy.
There.
Just really push that paint right into the fabric.
Get tough with it.
Okay.
Take a two-inch brush and lightly pull it.
This will blend the paint out and it removes excess paint.
It makes it easier to put the next layer on.
We want it to be very dark.
There.
Something like so.
And a little bit here.
Now the more you blend this, the softer and more subdued it's gonna become.
And if you look right here you can see the brush strokes.
That's a nice way of sort of laying a mountain down.
It's just by using brush strokes and you really don't even have to worry about what you're doing.
Just let the brush work and it can lay your whole mountain out and show you light areas and dark areas and all those beautiful places.
Let's take a little titanium white, a little dark sienna, maybe I'll put a least little touch of the bright red in it but very little, maybe even a little Van Dyke Brown.
But try to leave your color marbled like this so there's a multitude of things going on in it.
Then we'll take, cut off our little roll of paint.
I don't have a lot of paint on there, just a little.
Now then, now you can begin just coming in here and playing.
Barely touching the canvas, let the knife flow with angles.
Just let it flow.
I'm also gonna mix up just a little black and white to make some grey.
I want a little grey too so we can sort of work back and forth between these two.
Oh that's nice.
Makes it look very rough.
I want this to look like a very rough old mountain.
He's had a hard life.
There.
That's better.
A little lighter, I think it'll show a little more for you.
But allow the paint to break.
Almost no pressure.
No pressure, just the weight of the knife.
Little highlights here and there.
Gonna bring all these things together.
Let 'em go, just enjoy.
And the more you practice with this the easier it'll become.
We'll take a little bit of that dark color and use it to go right back.
See and you can create a shadow by using that basic initial dark color.
There.
Maybe a little touch right over in here.
There we are.
But play with this a little.
It's unbelievable what you can do with this big old painting knife here.
Looks like a putty knife almost.
With a little practice you can do entire paintings with it.
On some of the earlier shows we did the entire painting using nothing but the knife.
Back in some of the earlier series.
Just to show people that it could be done.
And if you practice with it, you'll just fall in love with what happens.
There we go.
(hums) But be happy when you paint.
There, a little bit of the light color just let a little light zing through there and think about where the sun would play.
Not too much though, I want these mountains to stay quite dark.
Don't want them to get too bright on me.
And maybe a little bit right in here.
Just sort of make up your mind.
Let me go back to some of the pure dark color.
We can begin adding in some of these dark shadows.
Not solid though, let the paint break so you get all these little holes and bumps and it just makes it so much more interesting.
There.
Otherwise it (chuckles) it looks sort of like you just iced a cake and that's not what we're looking for.
Think about all the little shapes.
Little mountain goats live up here and they need a little place to go up in here and hide.
In the last series I showed you my little squirrel Bobette, she is so precious.
Hope you enjoyed her.
She's long gone now though.
She grew up and took off.
She's living on her own now.
Has a little house in Orlando, Florida.
There.
That's where I found her so that's where I turned her loose.
There we are.
So if you see a little grey squirrel running around Orlando that very well could be her.
Say hello to her.
Treat her nice, she's a super lady.
Annette and I had a lot of fun with her.
Raised her from just a tiniest little thing and in the last series I showed her biting me on the nose one time.
I don't believe she done that but she did.
Okay, enough of that.
Let me wash my old brush and get it cleaned up.
Shake off the excess.
(chuckles) You ought to see our studio.
Now then I just wanna create a little bit of mist right at the very base here, not much.
Just a little.
There we go, just lift it up.
Lift upward.
Tap it.
A tapping creates a misty effect.
There.
Okay.
Now then.
So I say, those are some old dark mountains that live way back in the woods back in there.
Let's take, we use some sap green, a little bit of black, some Van Dyke Brown, a little Prussian blue, we'll just mix them together here.
Very dark color though.
Very dark, should look black on your palette.
Let me wipe my knife off.
Now then.
We'll just use the old fan brush.
Load it full of color.
A lot of paint.
Both sides.
Okay, let's go up here.
Maybe in our world back here, there lives some little trees.
They're far back here on the other side of this little lake.
There.
See we're just tapping some very basic little shapes.
There we go.
Like so.
And one of the questions I get quite often is that people wanna know if I'm using a palette that's different than the one that they have.
This is just plexiglass palette.
The only difference from the one you have, I take sandpaper and scuff this one all up so it doesn't shine so bad when the studio lights here shine on it.
But otherwise it's exactly the same.
We have to dull everything that we use here.
Including the brush furrows and everything.
It's all painted black or dulled or something.
But they are absolutely no different than what you use.
There.
Maybe here we'll just push up and then give it a little upward lift.
We'll make these look like they're really far away.
Like that, there.
Push down a little bit 'cause I want a little reflection in the water.
Okay now we take our two-inch brush and you have to make a big decision.
Where's your little reflection live?
Maybe.
Maybe, yeah, it's right there.
See, just by pulling straight down on the bottom of these little trees, automatically you create your reflection.
Automatically.
There.
Add a little touch more color right in there.
And it goes way back over here into nothing.
We don't know where it goes over there.
Knock off the excess paint then very lightly come across.
Now if you wanted to sparkle these, watch here.
This is fun.
Take a little white on the brush, see there's just a little bit of white, now watch.
Come right in here.
And it makes like little shimmers of light.
Really, it'll sparkle up your painting.
But don't get too wild with it.
It gets nice and pretty soon you just wanna cover the whole thing with it.
Too much is distracting.
Just a very small amount.
Just enough to give it that shimmer.
Just a shimmer. We don't wanna kill it.
While we have that white on there, we just gently go across that.
Now the white is a very opaque color.
Can't see through it so be careful of you'll lose all these little indications that you worked so hard to put in here to make it look like there's rocks right along the edge in here.
Okay.
Maybe we'll put a little land back here, what the heck.
I'll just take a fan brush and just push upward.
We'll have a little peninsula there, maybe this one goes way back.
We don't know where it goes.
Just let it go.
I'm gonna take another fan brush, I have several.
Put the least little touch of titanium white on it.
Very small amount.
Now, this is sort of a sneaky little trick.
Watch right up here.
I wanna make the indication here, like as little little tree trunks way away but at the same time, create another plain and just by doing that, can you see what's happening there?
It looks like there's a whole other plain.
And it also looks like there's a lot of little trunks.
So if you ever get one that's a little bright, just work it.
That dark color will eat it up.
That easy.
You can make all kinds of little things.
That's sort of sneaky but it works well.
Now, we'll take some yellow, a little bit of black.
We just mix them on the fan brush here.
Little black and yellow, makes a beautiful dark green color and that's exactly what I'm looking for.
Load both sides of the brush.
Okay.
Now then.
We said we was gonna have a little grassy area here so just take the brush and just give it a little upward push.
Just a little upward push.
There, we'll make a little indication way back in here of a little grassy area that lives right in front of these trees.
There.
Maybe a little touch back here, that's farther away.
A little more difficult to see.
Take a little touch of liquid white now.
A little liquid white, I'll put the least little touch of dark sienna in it.
See I don't want pure white.
I want it to have sort of a tone to it.
Cut across.
Okay, let's go up here.
Now then with that, we can come right in here and just put the indication here and there of a little water line.
Just a little light area in here to break all this up.
But this is where you create the shape, the bottom shape of your land back here.
You can have it go up and down but these lines need to go basically straight, if they don't your water just won't look right.
It'll look like it's gonna run right out of your painting and get your floor wet.
And just push very firmly.
Act like you're trying to cut a hole right through the canvas.
Right through the canvas.
And if you want one to go away, look here, you can just rub it, see?
The more you rub it, the more it's gonna pick up that color underneath and it'll just go away and leave you. (chuckles) That's all there is to it.
Okay.
I think it's time we really had some fun.
This big area back here, I want that to be some large trees that hang over the water.
So I want to start out and just put a few little indications back in there that maybe there's some little trunks that are way back in there.
Take a little Van Dyke Brown, a little dark sienna, a little white.
I want this to be quite dark.
Just enough so it stands out.
And just go back in here and we're not gonna see a lot of this.
We're gonna cover it up.
But if you can see through the branches here and there you're gonna see the indication that there's things happening way back in here.
Just a few.
We'll do some more in the foreground but just want those back there.
We'll just use an old two-inch brush.
I'll take a little of that black.
A little cad yellow.
We'll get a little yellow ochre, a little Indian yellow.
Shoot, once in a while, a little touch of that bright red.
Not much.
'Cause if you put red and green together, they make brown.
Okay.
There.
Now tap firmly.
We're gonna push, wanna push that.
See that little ridge of paint that it's leaving behind?
There's one just like it on the brush and that's what we paint with.
Let's go up in here.
Now then you have start making some big decisions in here.
Where does all these little things live in the background?
Start up in here.
Just use the corner of the brush and begin tapping in.
So very gentle, very gentle.
But you can just make all kinds of beautiful little leafy indications just by tapping with the corner of that brush.
But now it's very important at this point if you begin thinking about shape and form and all the things that make a tree an individual.
Trees are like people, each one's different.
Some are tall, some are short.
Some are thin, some are a little heavier.
Some are great big.
They're really individuals.
Just like people are.
And when you're doing your tree, do it just like that.
Think about the different shapes.
All right, there.
Just dropping little rascals in.
Wherever you want 'em.
See as I said earlier, most of these are gonna be covered up but some of them will show here and there.
And they're very pretty.
Big old branch that hangs right out here in front of the mountain.
But all that black gesso in there make it so much easier.
You don't have to put any of that dark in 'cause it's already there.
There.
Then just begin laying this in.
Wherever.
A little darker.
Back in here there's...
There, I hope you can see those.
They're there. They're quite dark.
But these are little things that live way back in the background.
Now then.
Maybe we'll take some Van Dyke Brown.
Maybe in our world we'll just tap in.
There's a nice tree trunk that lives right there.
We'll give him a friend.
Just tap, firmly tap.
Go right into a little white.
Take the white and go right down this side.
And then blend it back together, that'll give this indication of a nice tree trunk there.
That easy.
A little bit on this one.
Gotta make those little noises or it doesn't work.
There we go.
We'll take our liner brush, a little paint thinner, a little brown, and here and there just put the indication of a few big branches that live right up in here somewhere.
There.
See?
And you put as many or as few as you want in there.
Now then, we'll go back to our two-inch brush that we were using earlier.
Make a nice, little bit brighter green 'cause I wanna come in here and I want this to stand out.
There.
Just put the indication of some nice little leaves that live out here on this one.
There we go.
Not too many 'cause I don't wanna lose all that nice background that we had back here.
Let some of them come right across the trunk and that way it helps push it right back in there.
Now then.
Down in here.
We'll just have all kinds of little bushes that live right down.
And by changing the angle of the brush, you can create all kinds of different little shapes and little bushes.
Little bunny rabbits have to have a place to hide.
Change the color a little.
Just vary it a little bit between the different yellows and all that.
Now then, right along in here, just take the brush and begin thinking about the lay of the land.
And we can tap in all kinds of little soft grassy areas that just live right along in here.
And the more you tap this, the more it picks up the color and the darker it'll become.
So, there we go.
Okay, just tap though.
Very gentle.
And very very easy.
There.
You see there.
And you can create all of these little grassy areas.
Okay, a little here.
Sometimes it's nice to leave little dark areas in here too and that'll give the indication that maybe there's little indentations in the ground.
It's just not perfectly smooth, there's...
There we go.
Little places to hide in there.
Let it come right up underneath like so.
Then the super easy way, I'm gonna leave this quite dark over here because in my mind it'll be in shadow over here.
And you'll pick out little high points.
But once again, the more you tap on this, you can keep on 'till it looks just like velvet.
And it's very very pretty.
Shoot, I think we about have a finished painting.
Tell you what, let's take a little red on the liner brush.
Sign this one and we'll call it finished.
Hope you've enjoyed this one.
It's a little different.
It'll give you some experience using the black gesso.
I think you'll really be pleased with what you can do on this.
So from all of us here, happy painting and God bless, my friend.
(relaxed music) Hi, I'm certainly glad to see you today, because I thought today we'd do a painting that's just a lot of fun.
Let's start out and have them run all the colors across the screen that you need to do this little painting with us.
And while they're doing that, let me show you this craziness I've got up here today.
Today, I took my standard old pre-stretched double-primed 18 by 24 inch canvas, but once again, you can use any size that's convenient for you.
I just like this size because it fits a television screen good.
I took a paper towel and acrylic paint, now we're using oils, but I used acrylic paint to put a dry undercoat on here.
Now, I just took a paper towel, and a little bit of sienna and umber, and just dabbed it, just everywhere.
Then here, I found an old filbert brush and just pulled a couple things through.
And I allowed all that to dry.
Now I've covered the entire canvas with liquid clear.
The liquid clear just makes it wet and slick.
That's really all it's there for.
The bottom of the canvas, then I've covered with a mixture of Sap Green and Alizarin Crimson.
That makes a gorgeous brown color.
And I thought I'd wait until you got here to do the top part so you can see exactly how it's done.
Now sometimes when I'm walking through the woods, which I do frequently, sometimes the sun's coming through the trees and you see this beautiful glow coming right through the trees.
And some of the trees that are close to that glow, they sort of just disappear into it.
And that's the effect I was trying to achieve.
And I'm gonna show you a very easy way to make that.
All right.
Let's go today, we use a two inch brush to get started here.
I'm going to go right into a little bit of the Indian Yellow.
I like Indian Yellow because it's very transparent.
Very transparent, it's a gorgeous color.
Let's go right up in here.
Now with that, right over this acrylic, with the liquid clear on it.
I'm just going to cover the entire canvas here.
The entire top part of it.
The bottom is covered with that brownish color.
There.
Just like so.
About like that.
It's really all we have to do right now.
But see how easy that goes on.
If you don't have the clear on there, the liquid clear, this is quite a job putting it on.
I've got now since we have the clear, I use this any time that I'm using a black canvas.
Or a canvas that has some color or design on it.
It makes it so much easier.
I'll go right into, I made a little of that brown color.
Once again, it's Alizarin Crimson and Sap Green in about equal parts.
I just went ahead and mixed up a little pile here because I'm going to use a lot of it I think.
And right up here in the corner, I'll add a little bit more.
I just want to darken this corner.
Make it look like a sun's shining through here.
About like that, and that's really all we need.
It's all we need.
There.
Okay, let me wash the brush.
If you've painted with us before, you know this is the most fun part of this whole technique.
We wash it with odorless paint thinner, shake it off.
(brush thuds) (laughs) And just beat the devil out of it.
Good way to take out all your hostilities and frustrations.
I want to take a little bit of the Cadmium Yellow and put it right over here with some Titanium White.
Don't need a lot of white.
Let's go up in here.
Now figure out where the sun lives in your painting.
I think it's right there.
Take the corner of the brush and we'll start there.
And we'll begin working outward.
I want this to be very bright.
It'd go right over these trees.
I want to just absolutely blend them out where the light's going to be zinging through there.
Just blend them out.
Little more of the white.
There.
Right in there.
Want that to be very bright.
If that's our hot spot.
That's the source of our light in this painting.
And you can do this as many times as you desire to achieve a desired lightness.
But I suggest each time you do, get a clean brush or clean your brush.
Just depending on how many brushes you have.
There.
We'll just let this little glow just work its way out.
Already you can see how those trees are almost disappearing in that strong direct sunlight.
And that's exactly the effect that I was trying to achieve.
And this makes it so simple.
So simple.
There.
And then we'll just blend the entire thing out.
Now already, that looks like a sunlight coming through there so strong it almost hurts your eyes.
Fantastic.
That easy.
All right.
I'll tell you what.
Let's use the old filbert brush today.
I like the filbert brush.
I'm just going to go into a little bit of the Titanium White with the filbert brush.
Just load both sides up.
Both sides up, something like so.
A lot of color.
Fully loaded on both sides.
Now maybe in our world back here, let's make this a winter scene.
It can be winter or summer.
I think we'll do winter today.
Maybe back in here we touch and there's just a little indication of some snow that lives back here.
Barely touch the canvas.
I want to just graze it.
Just graze it.
I want it just to begin picking up some of that color we have underneath.
Just graze it though.
It has that brown underneath so it's going to pick up a little bit of that.
All we're doing is just grazing.
Sometimes you can put a lot of paint on there and just let it bounce along and break and by break I mean it has all these little holes in there.
Barely touching.
Just, let it just drag across the canvas.
Allow the canvas to do the work.
Let it pull off the paint that it wants.
Then what's left on the brush you can just sort of scrub it in.
And work back and forth.
Where you want to highlight, put it on very thick.
There.
About like that.
Now.
As I've mentioned earlier, I've already mixed up a large pile here of the Alizarin Crimson and Sap Green to make a beautiful brown color.
Now you can, you can take that to the reddish side by adding more crimson or to the greenish side depending on your mood.
I usually go a little more to the reddish side.
I sort of like that.
A lot of color on the brush.
Shoot.
We might as well check you out for bravery right off in this painting.
Maybe.
You ready?
Maybe (whistles) right there.
Just pull it down.
A lot of paint on the brush.
Very thick, very thick.
Let's have a, let's have a whole grove of trees.
Maybe it's wintertime.
These trees have lost their leaves.
Lost their leaves.
The snow's just beginning to collect on the ground.
All the little squirrels and stuff.
They're probably up here hibernating, taking life easy for the winter.
There.
All right.
If you watch the show in the past, you know I like little squirrels.
I have a bunch of squirrels.
I raise, well I usually raise anywhere from two or three to a half a dozen a year.
Turn them loose.
I have the good fortune of working with a lot of the rehab people around the country.
Here in Muncie there's a lovely lady named Diana Schaffer that takes care of animals and she's taught me a tremendous amount about all these little creatures.
And in Florida there's several other people that I work with.
I like to work with animals, and these people, they work with injured and orphaned animals and devote their whole life to it and I have a great respect for them.
There.
I want these trees instead of the nice smooth ones we usually make.
Let's make some trees today that have character.
These trees are not going to end up as future telephone poles.
Guarantee you.
I want them to be ragged.
(grunts) Rough, rough.
That's what my dog said when he sat down on the sandpaper.
Rough.
Bad joke.
Now I'm pushing because I want a lot of little things to happen with the brush.
Normally you would pull so you'd get a smoother line.
I want the roughness today.
I want these trees to look like, oh, it's been a rough life out here.
See?
Pulling the edges out.
Really rough.
This is a place you wouldn't want to go in the middle of a dark night.
It's one of them scary places.
There.
When I was young, there was some places where I lived that, they were just sort of scary.
You'd be out the evening and it started getting dusk, you could make out all kind of monsters that lived in there.
There we are.
But we lived way out in the woods.
I grew up in Florida.
And we lived so far back in the woods they used to have to pipe sunlight into us.
There.
All right.
See how all them all limbs.
We'll come back with a liner brush and put in a few little ones.
But I really want these old raggedy looking things.
Shoot, I like that.
I want a tree over here.
This is our world, so we can put trees anywhere we want them.
Maybe it comes all the way down to there.
I don't know.
You make that decision.
And this painting's great if you've never painted before.
This is an easy one.
You can do this one.
You can do this one.
We try to do some paintings in each series that work so well those who are just beginning can have outstanding results with them.
Or people who've painted a little bit, they can just have fun with them.
And we try to do some paintings that have a little more challenge to them for those that have painted for a while and they need a little more challenge.
I'm just taking the brush and rubbing it up and down.
I want to make the indication of some little bushes that live way back here.
Gotta have a place for my little friends to hide.
There.
Probably, a little racoon lives right in there.
There we go.
I like little racoons when they're little.
They are the cutest little devils.
I got a letter from somebody here a while back, they weren't happy that I was condoning keeping these animals as pets.
Let me emphasize, strongly.
I do not keep these animals as pets.
I only try to help the rehab people raise them up, and then they're turned loose back to the wild, because that's where God intended for 'em to be.
I have all these little squirrels in my backyard that I've raised, and it's funny, people come to the house, (laughs) and they're like little puppies.
I'm not exaggerating, they literally, they come to my back door, in fact, they've ate a hole through my screen on the patio.
But they come through the screen, and they come to the back door, and they scratch on the door like a little puppy, wanting me to come out and bring 'em some goodies.
They know I'm a soft touch.
(blows air) I just decided I was talking so much, I'm gonna put another tree in.
But isn't this an easy way to make some gorgeous, old rough looking trees?
Tough old trees.
There we go.
Just get a general idea of where we want 'em to be.
I like that.
Now, I've got a couple of filberts going here, so I don't have to spend all my time just cleaning them.
Maybe back in our world, here, just make a decision.
(whistles) Maybe there's some more snow lives right in there.
I don't know.
You know, painting is such an individual thing.
Don't just try to copy somebody else's work.
Just do your own thing.
We each see nature through totally different eyes, and that's what you're to paint.
I say that over and over, because I just don't, I don't want to teach people to copy.
Shoot, anybody can copy.
Creative freedom, though, is where it's at.
That's really The Joy of Painting.
There.
We use no patterns, no sketches, we let our imagination take us to worlds that we can only imagine.
We can do that.
We can do that, we can do anything.
Anything, at least on this canvas we can.
Maybe there's another little bush lives right here.
I've mentioned before, on this canvas, I have absolute and total power.
I can do anything here my heart desires, I can change the course of mighty rivers, anything.
When I go home, the only thing I have any power over is the garbage.
It sits there and waits on me.
There we are, but that's okay.
I can always escape to this piece of canvas and create any illusion that I want.
So can you.
Maybe there's a big old root on this tree, it comes right out like that.
Like that.
Let's put some arms on this old tree. (grunts) Once again, I'm pushing a lot with the brush, just to make them all gnarly.
Is that a word?
My son Steve and I are both bad about making up words.
I learnt that from him, he didn't learn it from me, of course.
There we go.
Old Steve, if you've never had a chance to watch him paint, that son of a gun is one dynamite painter.
He's almost, what, 27 years old now.
Hey, and this is the 27th series, what a coincidence.
But he has been painting, I think, since he was born.
He was about 12 years old before he realized everybody didn't paint.
There we go, just a little snow over there.
We'll just bring that little bush in the background down.
We're gonna put some sticks and stuff in these little bushes and they'll show up a little better.
I hope you can see 'em.
Alright.
Let's go back to this big old tree.
On this side, this is really an exercise in making trees.
There it comes, there it comes, there it goes.
Think about these old limbs that hang out here and there.
Now you could just as easy have done this painting in summer or spring.
And put leaves on all these trees.
I just decided today, I wanted to do a scene that, as I mentioned when we started, I like to walk in the woods.
Sometimes when I walk in the woods in the winter, the sun comes through so strong, and you have this gorgeous effect.
I sit down, and I watch this for a long time, and I kept thinking about how would I make that?
And how could I do it easy?
I knew how to do it as a traditional painter, it's a very time consuming, you have to let things dry between layers, and put some washes and glazes on there.
But I wanted the way where somebody could do this very quickly, and easily, without all the agony.
And this is what I've come up with, I think it works.
Now this is acrylic paint, as I say.
It dries very rapidly, it's not very good for doing wet on wet, cause you depend on the canvas staying wet through the entire painting.
Doesn't work very well for that.
But for this, where you need a dry, undercolor, it works great.
I will tell you, there is some controversy in the art world at this time, as to whether putting acrylic under oil is a permanent medium.
I don't know.
I really don't know at this point.
I have been talking with some manufacturer of art products though, and, about the possibilities of making some other products that there will be no controversy about.
So maybe one day, they'll have something like that.
Hopefully not too far in the future, cause I like to design new products.
That makes painting easy, and makes it work for people.
There we are.
I'm fascinated with machinery and et cetera, for a long time, in college, I was an engineering student.
Wanted to be a mechanical engineer.
Instead of building bridges, I'd rather paint 'em.
A lot of that rubbed off, I think.
I'm gonna take a little bit of that white, put a little touch of the brown into it.
Maybe a little black, just to grey, oh, I like that, just to grey it a little.
I want to grey it.
Lot of color on the brush, don't be afraid of color, a lot of color.
I like sorta hold this thing like I would a pencil.
So that it's very loose, now then.
Touch, and let this dance.
Let it play, let it pick up that color, let it leave its own color, let all these things happen, don't fight it.
No pressure.
Absolutely no pressure.
There's your light, it's gonna come across there.
No pressure, no pressure.
Here it comes, here it comes.
Just highlight it, with no pressure.
Let me get a little more black on the brush to grey it.
There we go.
But you need a lot of color on the brush so when you touch it, it'll just pull right off.
There.
See that?
Isn't that fantastic?
Just with an old filbert brush, you can just about do this entire painting, with just an old filbert brush.
Up to you.
There we are.
I'll have this one come right on through.
But I'm turning the brush to get all the paint, and it creates different effects as it's turning, and wiggling and jiggling.
There.
Darker and darker as it comes around, cause you want this side next to the light to be the lightest of course.
You do that.
There.
Look at that.
All we need up here is a big old hoot owl, it'd look like Halloween.
There.
Alright.
One of the other shows, I showed some footage that I had taken with a great big owl.
In fact it was a great horned owl.
That rascal bit me on the nose, there.
Alright, let's do this to a couple other trees here.
As I say, this whole painting is mainly just an exercise in painting trees, but when you get it done, people will think you labored over this painting for long periods of time.
Shh, don't tell them any different.
Don't tell them any different.
There.
Just let it go, fall right along the edge.
There we are.
Now if you have a lot of time, which we don't here, but if you have a lot of time, you could take a very thin paint, thin it with paint thinner and put it on the script liner brush.
A little black in there.
And using it sidewards, just pull it down and let it just graze the high points here of that brown.
It'll make some gorgeous effects.
It does take a little longer than doing this.
Try it, you may like it better than this.
If you do, then use it.
We want to show you as many different ways as possible of creating effects.
What you create then, is totally and completely up to you.
There, put a little bit over here on this old monster.
See, but very loose.
Very, very loose.
There we are.
Something about like so.
Alright.
Let me wipe off the old brush.
Little more of the white paint, and we can just sort of fill this in.
Want this to be very rough looking.
This paint's thick.
In fact, in ways, it looks like a traditional painting when it's done, you can go back with glazes.
Glazes just made from, oh, you can make glazes from something like a little paint thinner, a little linseed oil, a little color.
Can make all kinds of beautiful glazes, add a little transparent color to it.
You guessed it, (laughs) I need a big tree.
Lives right there.
This tree, I'm gonna sort put it at an angle, so it looks like it's, maybe it's bent over a little bit.
There we go.
Big old legs sticking right out there.
Big tree.
Big, big tree.
Yeah, there he comes.
Alright.
There.
See, it doesn't matter if you pick up some of that color, it makes it look good.
Big old limbs hanging out on him.
Right across that one, we don't care.
See, don't be afraid of it.
Do it, enjoy it.
It's what makes it fun.
Back to our brush that has the light color on it.
Come back in here.
There, see?
Just let it play and have fun.
There, look at that.
You know, I've got several letters commenting on this easel that I'm using in this series.
This is a brand new easel that has just been released.
I'm very happy with this easel.
What makes it so great, the top comes off.
If makes a wonderful table top easel with four legs instead of the traditional three.
It's much stronger.
It works for this kind of painting, very well.
There, little bit of that white, we can add just a little white around his foots.
About like that.
There, once again, no pressure, allow that paint just to break on there.
Just allow it to break.
Maybe there's a happy little bush that lives right there.
Maybe there's another one over in here.
Just here and there, some little bushy things.
There, a little touch there.
Take a liner brush, put some paint thinner on it.
There, go right into that brown.
And we can just snatch up a few little sticks and twigs, here and there.
But see, this painting was done with very, very few pieces of equipment.
Very few colors of paint, there's not a lot to it, it's easy.
You can do this one.
Even if you've never painted, this is one that you can do.
And your friends and your family, they won't believe you done it.
They really won't.
In fact, I've had people write and say their friends actually started looking for numbers on their painting, like it was a paint by number.
They thought they just covered the numbers up.
Now you can go back in here, and here and there, put the indication of a few limbs and twigs and sticks and things, but I don't want these to be real smooth.
I want them rough, so they follow along with what's happening in this painting.
Very rough, ragged.
Wherever you think they should be.
Gnarly, I like that world, gnarly.
There we go.
See there?
All kinds of hangy-downs.
All kinds of 'em, wherever you think they should be.
There.
Alright.
Mmm, yeah that looks like a Halloween picture to me.
And we can put some out in here.
And at home, when you do this, take your time.
Do a lot of these, they really, all these little hangy down things here are absolutely fantastic.
You'll enjoy them.
They make your painting look like, once again, like you spent so much time on it.
And only we know, that it was very easy.
There, and if you enjoy success with this, you won't believe what you can do.
This just opens doors to a world of art, that'll take you places you've only dreamed about going.
Alright, tell you what.
Think we about got a finished one here, let's take a little red, sign this one, and we'll call it done.
Hope you've enjoyed it.
I'd love to see some photographs of your work, if you have time, send me a couple.
Let me see what you're doing.
From all of us here, I'd like to wish you happy painting, and God bless, my friend.
("Interlude" by Larry Owens) Hey, welcome back.
Certainly glad you could join me today.
Today I have one of my little friends with me.
This is a little baby cedar waxwing.
He's just all of probably 12, 14 days old, maybe a little older than that, but not very old.
And he's just as precious as he can be.
I thought I'd bring him on today and share him with you.
Hi, guy, how are you?
Can you talk a little bit?
Huh, can you talk a little bit?
Huh, talk a little bit?
What?
What?
Yeah, I know.
Yeah.
But he's something else.
Tell you what, let's have them write all the colors across the screen that you need to paint along with us today.
And while they're doing that, I'll set him down.
If you'll come right up to the canvas here, I'll show you what we've got going on.
Well, he's decided to clean himself here a little bit.
All right.
Today I have a long skinny canvas, a 12 by 24 inch canvas.
And I've taken a little masking tape that I picked up here in the studio.
And I've just sort of put some masking tape around the edges.
I thought we'd do something a little different, where we take maybe, let's paint a scene that goes through these two sections.
And maybe it'll start out as summer and end up as winter over here.
Just to break it up.
Something different.
It'll give you a lot of good practice.
So, let's have the summer scene on the left.
So I'll start with phthalo blue, a little bit of phthalo blue on the two inch brush.
OK, let's go right up in here, and we'll drop in just a happy little sky, just a simple little thing.
Just making little criss-crosses, little Xs.
Summer skies are normally a lot brighter than winter skies.
Winter we get sort of gloomy and drab, so.
And we'll put a little water, we'll have water.
There, about like that.
All right, and then we'll come back, and we'll blend all that out in a minute.
But right now that's good enough.
That's good enough.
All right, on the other side there's gonna be winter.
I'm gonna go into prussian blue.
It's much darker.
There.
It'll make it look colder, more rough.
There.
All right, something about like that.
You can even add a little touch of the midnight black to it if you wanna really grey it down.
See there.
Now then.
And we'll have a little water in that.
We'll take the same color, a little prussian blue, a little touch of the black in it.
And we'll just put in a little water indication, just pulling straight across.
It's that simple.
That simple.
Now then.
Let me grab another brush here.
I have several of them going.
Maybe over here in the summer side, (laughs) sounds like a new series, summer side.
Maybe there's a happy little cloud or two over in the sky.
We'll just take a little titanium white with a two inch brush.
And we'll just put an indication.
I don't wanna get, we don't wanna get too carried away today.
Just a little indication of some happy little clouds that live up here.
Little fluffy clouds up here in the summer.
Now, over here on the winter, maybe there's just a long stringy cloud.
Something about like that.
That comes across.
And that's about all you have to do.
The little stringy clouds are easy.
We'll make another one since they're so much fun.
But that will give the indication of a little cloud that lives right there.
All right, all right.
Most fun part of this is washing the brush, so let's do that.
We wash our brushes with odorless paint thinner.
(laughs) And then we just beat the devil out of it.
All right.
Let's do a happy, happy little mountain.
Take some black, prussian blue, I'll get some crimson, maybe a little van dyke brown.
Doesn't matter, whatever.
Pull it out as flat as you can get it.
Take the knife, cut across, get a little roll of paint that lives right under the edge of the knife.
And let's go up in here.
And maybe, there we are.
Maybe there's a mountain that lives right here.
Wasn't that little bird cute?
He's a little cedar waxwing.
I borrowed him from the bird lady here in Muncie, Indiana, where we film.
And her name is Diana Shaffer.
And Diana devotes just about her entire life to taking care of these little creatures.
It's fantastic that people care enough to devote their time and their resources to doing these kind of things.
My hat's off to her.
There.
There we go.
If I wasn't careful I could become just like Diana.
I could become so infatuated with these little rascals that I'd spend most of my time just working with them.
And there's a lot of people like Diana all over the country.
And nearly every town has a bird lady, or someone who takes care of injured and orphaned little creatures.
And you need to, if you have time, go out and see them.
They've got interesting things, they need your support.
And they're super people.
Just taking the two inch brush, pulling it.
I wanna blend that color out because if you can see the entire mountain, it's always more distinct at the top than it is at the bottom.
And this will do that to it automatically.
Already, see it just sort of sitting in the mist.
Now we will take some titanium white.
Pull it out very, very flat.
Once again, take the knife, go in, cut.
And we need that little roll of paint.
Get in the habit of loading the knife like that to save you a lot of agony.
Touch, no pressure, no pressure, no pressure.
No pressure at all.
No pressure at all.
Just let it glide across there.
Just let it glide.
See, that easy.
Maybe this one, you have to make decisions here, maybe this one comes out here.
I don't know.
I don't know.
It's up to you.
You can bring them together if you want to.
Totally and completely up to you.
And we don't wanna stop there.
We want this side to have a little highlight on it too.
Just cause it's winter it'll probably have more snow on it.
And you can make this with any color.
I'm just using white today.
Sometimes these summer scenes you like to use various colors of brown and stuff to make different mountain shapes.
And that works.
Works just the same.
Take a little blue, a little white.
Pull it out flat.
Once again, our little roll of paint.
And with that we can go back up in here.
And we put the indication of some little shadows.
Pay particular attention to angles.
Mountains are just geometric shapes, and it's a game of angles.
Notice that most of your shadow angles go in one direction, most of your highlight angles go in an opposing or opposite direction.
And that's basically all there is to it.
No pressure.
Absolutely no pressure.
Can't say that enough times.
I get letters everyday from people saying, "My mountains just don't work right.
"What's happening?" It's normally one of two things.
Most common is the people try to do it with a paint that's thin.
You absolutely must have a very firm dry paint.
That is, it's essential.
Without it, you're just gonna become a mud mixer.
You need a firm dry paint.
That's the only way you can paint over the top of this over and over and over.
See, now you can come back in here.
And even change your mind.
Sorry I keep jumping around.
There.
OK.
And you can even get crazy, and maybe put a whole 'nuther projection here.
It's up to you.
Just see these things in your mind and drop them in there.
It's no big deal.
You have total, total control over it, total power.
You can do anything.
Just wipe the knife off.
And you can just put any ol' shape you want in here.
Wherever.
I better quit.
I'm gonna fill the whole canvas up full of mountains, which is OK.
It's a super way to practice this.
I'm gonna take a two inch brush and just tap.
Follow the angles though.
Follow those angles.
And then very gently lift upward.
Upward, upward.
Over here, you're still following those angles.
Most, most important.
Gotta follow them.
There.
Or you'll destroy everything you built.
All right.
Now maybe, maybe back here in the distance.
Let's see, we'll take a little, I'm gonna take some titanium white, a little prussian blue, a little crimson.
Just sort of mix them together here.
I'm making, that's basically a blue color.
Put a little bit of the, a little bit of the crimson in it just to, oh, I like that.
Just sort of mix around until you find something that really turns you on.
And that's good.
Now, I'll just use the ol' two inch brush here, tap in a little color.
And maybe there's a little footy hill back here in our world.
It lives right here.
And we let it go right through.
Right on through.
Something about like that.
All we have done here is just tapped down some color.
Now, every gently, short strokes, I'm gonna grab it, lift upward.
Upward, upward, upward.
Very short little strokes.
Very short.
Very short.
See, it looks like little trees live far away already.
Now then, maybe we'll darken that color.
Same color, but I'm gonna make it darker.
Much darker.
Come right into here.
And here I'm just gonna touch.
See, watch, watch.
I'm sorry, I get excited.
I've painted thousands and thousands of paintings, and it still fascinates me.
Look, see.
Just, it excites me every time I paint another painting.
It's one of the few things that I've ever done in my life that doesn't get old and boring very quickly because every painting, every one is a learning experience.
And you know each time you do a painting that you've learned something that next time, next time the painting's gonna be even better.
There.
It's like we have well over 400 instructors in the country, and I hear over and over that we're not satisfied with what we're doing.
And I tell them that's the greatest thing that could ever happen to you, dissatisfaction.
I hope you're plagued with it because if you're not satisfied, then that's what drives you to go forth and do another one.
And it'll be better.
So I hope you too are plagued with dissatisfaction.
I'm making up a dark color here, get a little white in it.
Same color we were using, just darker.
And we'll find us a little ol' fan brush, load some color in it, both sides.
Let's go up in here.
Now, maybe, maybe there's some more little trees right in here.
There.
These are a little closer, so we can make out a little more detail.
Like that.
There.
You decide where they live.
Wherever you want them.
Wherever.
All right.
Maybe they come down here.
I'm just gonna push in and then lift upward to make it look like more little trees.
There, pull that down.
All right.
See, that's all there is to it.
That's all there is to it.
No problem at all.
All right.
Now, watch here.
Wanna grab that, pull it down, and that'll make us a nice reflection.
And we'll go across.
Instantly, nice little reflections.
Lift up.
Smooth it out a little.
Shoot.
You got a nice little painting going there.
Now, maybe underneath here, underneath here.
Let me tell you what, let's put a little dirt under there.
Take a little brown, both browns, van dyke and dark sienna.
I'm just gonna come right in here.
And we're just gonna put the indication of some soil, dirt, rocks, whatever, that live right in there.
And on top of that, let's get crazy.
Take some sap green right into the cad yellow, yellow ochre, Indian yellow.
Just mix them together on the brush so you get a multitude of colors.
Let's go up in here.
And maybe there's some little grassy areas back in here.
Just take the little fan brush, push upward.
Push upward, use the corner, otherwise you get smiley faces.
There, just use the corner.
Now we got a little grassy area there.
Take a little white, a little dark sienna.
We'll make a little brown color.
And we can go back, and just make it look like, there, like little rocks and stones live right along the edge.
Now, over on this side, we said this was gonna be winter.
So over here, we're gonna do that same basic thing, only with white.
All right, I'm gonna take some liquid white and pull it out very flat.
This is just liquid white on the knife, just cutting across.
Just put a little water line back there.
And we'll come right in here, and put a little water line that follows right through, goes right through.
Just let that scene continue right on through.
We're actually doing two paintings at one time here.
There we go.
Maybe there's even a little ripple here and there.
Wherever, up to you.
You can have ripples anywhere you want them in your world.
All right, let me grab another fan brush.
I have several of them going here.
Let's take, clean off a spot.
I got the biggest palette in town, it's just not big enough.
You always, it's like a goldfish, you'll grow to the size of your environment I think.
Take black, prussian blue, some phthalo green, some crimson, put them together.
I like phthalo green there, just, I like that.
All right.
Now then, go right into the color.
Lot of it, load a lot of color to the fan brush.
And let's make a few evergreen trees, some nice ones.
A lot of paint.
You ready?
This is your bravery test.
Here it comes.
Corner of the brush.
Back and forth.
Maybe there's one big ol' tree that lives right here.
And he looks out over this mountain.
Gosh, what a view he would have.
That's where I wanna live.
Right there.
Look out over the mountains, see all of God's creations.
All right.
I like that.
Let's make some trees on the other side.
There.
Sometimes when you're painting, step back from your painting, take a look see at it every so often.
When you paint really close to it, it sort of gets distorted.
Step back and look at it.
Step back and take a look see.
There.
See.
Just dropping little rascals in.
We need one more.
There it comes.
Just corner of the brush work, back and forth, applying more and more pressure as you work down.
And down here we just pull a little color down.
And, you guessed it, that'll end up being some reflections.
That easy.
That easy.
Now we put a little dark color in.
There, see, now we have reflections for it.
That easy.
Painting does not have to be difficult.
There's no big secret to it.
You can do it.
Let's take sap green, yellow, lot of color on the brush.
OK let's go up here.
And let's put, let's put some highlights in these little rascals.
Darker, darker, darker toward the base.
Always want them to get darker.
A little yellow ochre in that one.
Oh, I like that.
A little sparkler.
That's one of them happy accidents.
They happen.
In your world, you learn how to work with anything that happens.
Grab another fan brush.
I'm gonna dip this one into a little bit of a liquid white 'cause this is winter.
Gotta remember.
A little liquid white, titanium white, be right back.
A little phthalo blue.
Pretty color.
OK, let's go up in here.
Now, for this winter tree, maybe there's snow, a little snow laying on these arms here.
So we can put a little of that on there, not a whole lot.
That's about enough.
Let's take a one inch brush.
That's a good one.
Gonna take some of that nice dark color, like so.
I hear my little bird over there.
He's chirping so nice.
He was good.
I'll have to feed him extra special.
Extra special for doing a good job with us.
Yeah.
And he likes blueberries, fresh blueberries.
He loves them.
There we go.
I just let that come right on through.
There.
Now, there's another one inch brush that's clean.
I'm gonna dip the one inch brush into the liquid white.
I dip it into the liquid white only to thin the titanium white.
So I'm gonna go through titanium white, be right back, right back get a little phthalo blue.
Pull it in one direction.
It's important you're doing it in one direction, round one corner.
Turn it over so that round corner's to the top.
Look at the end of that brush, all the pain that's sitting there.
Tremendous amount of paint, OK.
Let's go up in here.
Now, all you gotta do is just barely touch the canvas.
You don't have to sock it hard.
Just barely touch it and you can make all these gorgeous little lacy looking frozen bushes.
That easy.
See them, they live right here in your ol' one inch brush.
And you can just scare them out.
There they are.
Maybe, I'll tell you what, tell you what.
See, when you paint you see things.
You just, you begin, you just do it, so it makes it fun.
Pull.
Maybe there's a little snow right there.
There.
Living in Florida now, I don't see a lot of that.
But for well over a dozen years I lived in Alaska.
I certainly saw my share there.
Alaska may be one of the most beautiful creations God's ever made.
What a pretty, pretty place.
Let me wash this brush.
Not as much fun washing a one inch brush.
It doesn't splatter near as bad.
But it'll get people standing real close.
All right.
Back into the liquid white.
Camera people hate me here.
(laughing) I'll run this right through, right through some of the sap green, the cad yellow, yellow ochre.
Over here we're gonna have summer on the other side.
OK, let's go up in here.
Same thing that we rounded one corner.
With that rounded corner up now then we can just go in here and lay in some highlights on all these little bushes that live over here on the summer side.
Over on this one now.
There's one.
See?
Do one little bush at a time.
Don't get greedy.
Don't get greedy.
All right, where's the next one live?
Right there, you're right.
There he is.
Isn't that neat?
You can just put things wherever you think they should be.
There's another one.
Do one at a time though.
I know I say that on every show that I paint on, but it's most important.
Most important.
Let's reflect a little down in here.
Something like that.
A little bit of that color.
Now, now.
Dry brush.
This is your gentle test 'cause it has to be very light.
Whisper.
Barely touch.
Just graze it.
Go up and over, and then go across.
Look it there.
You have gorgeous mirror reflections, that easy.
That easy.
And you can do it.
Van dyke brown on the knife.
And we need a little land in our world right there.
Just a little bit of land.
And we, there it is, we had some brown and white we had mixed up earlier.
So with that we'll just come right in here and put some little highlights.
Back to our liquid white.
We use the liquid white here just to make a little waterline underneath.
It's sort of a little separator, separates your two dark areas.
There, that easy.
That easy.
About like that.
All right.
Now we can take, take a clean knife, and all I'm gonna do is go in here and just scrape in, mainly in the dark areas.
And I'm gonna jump all around, just to put in the indication of some little sticks and twigs, and all kinds of little things that live here in our world.
Just wherever you want them.
There, right.
OK.
And with that, let's put a few over here too.
I don't want this side left out.
If you turn the knife sidewards, it makes wider sticks.
If you want little sticks, go straight in because the blade's very thin.
See?
And that way you can make a whole variety of different kinds of sticks and branches in your world.
I'll break up that edge right there, so I'll just put a little bush with the fan brush that grows right down the side there a little bit.
Something like so.
There.
I'm gonna take my liner brush, a little bit of paint thinner.
And maybe here and there, a little stick that just lives right in there.
Something like that.
Now, I'll tell you what let's do, let's take the masking tape that we have around this painting off.
And let's find out what we have.
And this will take just a second.
As I say, this is just something that we cut here at the studio.
And to make these little circles, I took the cap off my paint, had a round cap on it, and just cut right around the masking tape.
See there?
There you go.
You get two for the price of one.
But isn't that neat?
Now we have this starts in summer, and it runs all the way across, goes from summer into winter in the same scene.
And these are very, very effective.
When you put this in a frame and present it to maybe a friend or relative as a gift, well you just made a lifelong friend, guarantee you.
Tell you what, let's take some paint thinner.
We'll thin a little bit of the bright red 'til it's literally like ink.
Very, very thin.
See you work that, I get so many letters asking about how you sign a painting?
First thing is to get the paint very thin, see, and then just work it.
Look at that, you see it run?
That's what we're looking for.
Now turn the bristles in there, loads it full.
Comes to a very sharp point.
All right, let's go up in here.
Now you have to make a decision.
Do you sign this one once or twice since you have two paintings?
I'm just gonna sign it once, since it's just a half hour show.
And we'll sign it right there.
Really hope you've enjoyed this, and that it will spark your imagination, set your whole world on fire because with paint you can take a trip and go anywhere that you wanna be.
Until next time, from all of us here, happy painting, and God bless my friend.
(bright music) Hi, welcome back.
Certainly glad you could join me today.
You know, we get hundreds and hundreds of letters here concerning the Joy of Painting.
And one of the things we here over and over again is people feel intimidated, or they're a little nervous about putting the first stroke on canvas.
So, I thought we'd devote this entire show today to teaching you how to just sort of loosen up, and take life easy, and enjoy painting.
We're gonna use a very limited palette, and maybe I'll just use something like a two inch brush and maybe a palette knife.
Very simple, but I wanna show you how to get over this fear of your first painting.
So, let's have them run the colors that I'm gonna use across the screen.
And let's just have some fun today.
Just drag out the old easy chair, and get you a big glass of iced tea, and kick back, and sort of enjoy this.
If you have your paintbrush out, I invite you to paint along with us, and I think you'll enjoy doing something that's a little different.
It's very free, very relaxed, and it gets you over this tightness, or this fear of your first painting.
So, I'm just putting a little Liquid White on the canvas.
And basically here, all we're looking for is just a nice thin even coat, of the liquid medium all the way across the canvas.
This just makes the canvas wet and slick.
It's what allows color to blend on here, and maybe we can really demonstrate today how color blends on this Liquid White.
Now, this is a pre-stretched canvas.
It has give to it.
It's not a canvas board, we don't recommend those.
Because they have cardboard in the center, and what happens, they'll absorb this Liquid White, and very rapidly your surface will become dry.
And it's no fun to paint on it anymore.
Because this is wet you need it to stay that way.
All right, let's take a little Yellow Ochre, and I'm just gonna play today.
Let's just have fun.
A little Yellow Ochre.
Be right back, don't go away.
Little touch of the black into it.
Very little.
And we just make a light little color, like so.
And we still have Liquid White on the brush.
So, we're just letting that blend.
We're gonna make a very soft, maybe a little muted area in the background back here.
And just play with color.
You know, maybe one of the hardest things to do in painting is to is to get over this fear of canvas.
It's natural.
And if it bothers you a little bit to jump up here and start throwing a bunch of color on the canvas, it means you're normal.
You're just like me and everybody else that's every painted.
You go through this until you get over this fear.
So, that's what we wanna we wanna play with.
Then, we'll take a little touch of the Prussian Blue.
So, this begins to get a slight greenish hue to it, but not much, not much.
And let's just begin playing with color.
Just play, maybe we ought to decide what season it's gonna be, at least, before we get too far involved.
And maybe something in the winter colors that's always fun.
A little bit more of the Prussian Blue, and black.
A little touch of Yellow Ochre, but mostly just blue and black.
And just let these colors sort of blend together and play, and have fun.
But really and truly don't worry about it.
The way to learn how to paint is to be relaxed and enjoy, and just let it go.
Things work better for you when you're relaxed, and you're really happy with what you're doing.
So, try to let it happen that way.
Maybe on this side, we'll put a little bit more of that there.
See, we just sort of let these colors come together here, like so.
But very loose.
Very loose.
There.
Okay.
And we let them go wherever.
Doesn't matter.
There we are.
But see, that easy.
You have a very nice little sky.
One of the best ways to do this, nearly every time you do a painting you're gonna have a bunch of color left over.
This is a super, super way of using up that old color, and enjoying the freedom of just painting.
And just letting your imagination run wild with you.
So, try this.
I'm serious, there's nothing that I know of that will teach you looseness more than this.
I want to make this side over here a little bit darker.
See, and as you begin painting, you begin seeing things.
All these little things just sort of happen.
So now automatically we have a light area over in here.
Just because we made these sides a little darker.
I'll make it even a little darker yet, what the heck.
This is our world, so we can do it any way that we want.
We'll just make a little cross criss strokes.
We'll do it backwards today.
There.
And very lightly, I'll just sort of blend that out a little.
And we have all kinds of things happening in this sky.
That simple.
And if you wanna blend it more, just continue to blend.
You can make it as soft as silk or velvet, just by doing that.
And maybe in our world, maybe way back here in the background maybe we can visualize some little distant tree indication.
Just take the brush, lay it like that, give it a little gentle push.
But I want these to be very soft, and very light.
Far away.
See?
Now, the other side.
These are just little indications of things that are far back here in the distance.
Far away.
Don't let them get too distinct.
Or you'll ruin that illusion of distance in your painting.
And we're just gonna play here.
Enjoy this.
Let it go.
Let it happen.
Let it happen.
Maybe there's another one right there.
I don't know.
Wherever you wanna.
But this is mainly a little Midnight Black, a little Prussian Blue, and there's a touch of Yellow Ochre left in it.
You can add maybe the least little touch of Van Dyke Brown, but the color should be very soft and very muted at this point.
Very soft and quiet.
Maybe this one goes way up here.
We don't know.
Just push harder if you want it to look like it's a bigger tree.
But this background idea is a way to make very soft scenes that you wanna show a lot of distance in.
And it's a very, very simple and effective Okay, a little more of the color on the brush.
Tell you what, maybe there's a tree that lives right here.
Maybe this one, maybe this one is sort of crooked.
And it goes all the way off the canvas.
Who cares?
In your world, you can make it any way that you want it.
These are just, once again, distant indications of things that are happening.
Very soft and muted, quiet peaceful little places.
This is where all the little creatures live and have fun.
There.
Some of them you can hardly see in there.
They're so far away.
There, maybe.
There we are.
Let's see, we said this was going to be winter.
So, we need to keep that in mind.
I'll mess around here, and forget what season I said it was gonna be.
There we go.
Now then, down here at the base we're still using the same colors.
The same ol' colors.
We can tap in a few little happy bushes that live right down in here.
This is just a tiny bit darker.
So, it indicates that it's a little closer.
Now, if this is our light source here less pressure on the brush.
Let it get lighter, and lighter.
Very gentle.
Just sort of fade right into that.
Where you want it to be darker, just get a little tougher.
Push, and let it go right off there somewhere.
There we go.
Maybe over in here Tell you what, maybe maybe there's a few little trees that, yep you're right, live right here.
Just little indications of little things.
See, and you can just turn the brush in different directions to create all types of effects.
There.
And just sort of look at it once again.
This is such a fantastic way of painting because you have no you don't trace a painting up here, and you don't have any guidelines.
The only thing that restricts you here is your imagination.
Just your imagination, nothing else.
And imagination is like anything else, it's like a muscle in your body, if you practice with it, you exercise your imagination it gets stronger.
Very soon, you're able to visualize more and more things in your mind.
So, use it.
God gave you this gift.
Take advantage of it.
We may be the only creature on Earth that has a vivid imagination.
There.
Then again, we may not.
I don't know.
Don't know that it matters.
There.
And we'll start adding Mmm, we'll take a little more of the black, and the blue, Van Dyke Brown, maybe a little tough of the Dark Sienna here and there.
But as we work forward, I want this color to begin getting a little darker.
And see, I'm just loading the brush by just going back and forth.
Doesn't matter how you load it.
Doesn't matter.
There, a little blue, and black, a little Van Dyke Brown.
All those beautiful, beautiful colors.
Now, then maybe watch here.
See, all you gotta do is take this brush and push upward, like that to make.
Look at that.
See, that easy you can make the illusion of little grassy areas back in here.
Just like so.
Shoot, maybe we'll have some over here.
And we're gonna sort of change the lay of the land here a little.
So, it has some interesting things happening in here, it's not just all the same.
Let these little things just happen.
There.
All kinds of little doers.
Maybe over in here again.
See, you begin seeing these little doers.
But just pushing upward, bend the brush very hard.
You're not gonna hurt the brush.
But it makes all these little grassy looking effects.
They're very simple, and you can do them.
I know you can do them.
'Cause you can do anything that you wanna do.
As long as you can believe you can do it.
Anything that you believe you can do, you really can do.
Let's take a two inch brush.
And I have several two inch brushes, so I don't have to spend all of my time here just washing brushes.
Just gonna pull through a little bit of that Titanium White.
This is gonna be winter, maybe.
Maybe in our world there's a little snow laying back here.
But I want the snow to reflect some shadows from whatever it is we have in here.
So, go up into the color a little, and grab it, and begin pulling.
Now, watch here, let's just mess something up.
If you mess up the top of this one, don't worry about it.
You can either completely wipe it out, or you can go back and very simply drop it in.
'Cause you know, if you've painted with me before, we don't make mistakes, we have happy accidents.
Because there's nothing that you can do on this canvas that with a little practice you can't fix.
Think about the lay of the land now.
Watch here.
Let me grab this other old brush.
You can go right back in here.
See here?
And pop that right back in.
And that's nice because now it looks like there's snow behind it.
See?
These little things work for you.
See you could put one over here like that.
See, and it looks like there's snow back in there.
There, and you can make this just as smooth and peaceful.
Maybe, we'll grab that.
See, we got quite of bit of color there.
That's nice, that'll make a very nice shadow area.
There, and just sort of bring it together.
This old two inch brush will just do wonderful things for you.
Just fantastic things.
Now, already though look at the depth in here.
And you've really done nothing.
You've really done nothing except just take a two inch brush and play a little.
Let's take that same color we're using, take a little paint thinner on the liner brush.
Maybe we'll have a few little sticks and twigs in there.
Maybe a few.
Just pull this out.
Turn it, so it brings it to a very sharp point, okay.
Now, we want these to be very subdued and quiet.
We don't want these to be too bright.
Too strong.
Very subdued.
There, a few little things that live back in here.
Ooo, that's what I'm looking for.
You almost can't see them, but they're there.
They're there, you'll see them.
There.
See?
And just pick out where you think a little twig would live, and drop it in, drop it in.
So, now I mentioned we get a lot of letters from people who are a little nervous about trying their first painting.
We also get a lot of letters from people who are painting, and they're doing some of the most fantastic things imaginable.
Maybe in this series we'll show you some.
But people who have never painted, just from watching the show have picked up a brush and they're doing marvelous things.
And maybe more important than the painting, is the fact that they can do it.
Is the fact that you can achieve a creative process like this.
And it's a nice way of oh, I think everybody has sort of an urge to be creative, and it's a nice way of letting that urge come out and it's so enjoyable.
That's one of the reasons we like to show you.
Shoot, let's get crazy I talk too much sometime.
Let's go back into some of our blue, and black, get a little brown, be right back here.
Well, see I'm gonna have a little more brown, a little Dark Sienna.
I may even reach over here and get the least little touch of Alizarin Crimson.
Oh nice, nice.
Now, if your color gets too dark on you, or you think it's too dark, you can reach right over pick up a little white, and lighten it up.
Because you can do anything.
Let's load the brush up.
Tell you what, let's load it to a chisel edge.
Let's really have some fun.
Chisel edge, turn it around here so you can see how sharp that is.
See, it comes to a beautiful sharp chisel edge.
There we go.
But you must put enough paint into the bristles to stick the bristles together to make the chisel edge.
Let's go back up here.
Maybe in our world there lives a little tree, or a big tree.
Maybe this is a big tree.
And we can, if it helps, you can put in a little center line like that.
Get a little more color here.
Now then, think about where you would have nice branches living here.
Just take the corner of the brush, and just put out a branch here and there.
Just let them go.
Just let them go.
And maybe they aren't all just even.
Maybe these aren't all potential Christmas trees.
They're just trees that grew any way that they wanted to grow.
All evergreen trees are not gonna be Christmas tress, some of them's gonna be crooked, some of them's gonna be sort of, they gonna be sort of poor.
There.
A little more paint.
Now, just to have a general idea of where we're going, and let's just take the corner of the brush, once again.
There.
Just tap in some very basic little shapes.
There we go.
Maybe even we can see a little touch of the trunk here.
Who cares?
This is your world, you do it any way that you wanna do it.
So, maybe this tree had a bad year right in here.
It didn't grow too hot.
Maybe when he was little maybe some hungry creature decided to chew on him a little bit.
We don't know.
Don't know that we even care.
Okay, now as the trees come closer, they should get a little darker.
So, I'm gonna add a little bit more of that Prussian Blue, and a little Van Dyke Brown, Dark Sienna.
But they begin taking on a darker tone.
Black, blue, brown.
There we are.
Sounds like my body condition when I stay out too late.
Black, blue, and brown, that's what I get when I get home.
There we go.
Maybe in our world there lives another little tree, right there.
Okay.
We'll just let these little trees just fall right off the brush.
Wherever, wherever.
Doesn't matter.
Black, blue, and brown.
This one goes all the way off the canvas.
What the heck.
He's a strong tall tree.
But if you practice this painting very loose.
You will not believe, number one, what you can do.
Secondly, it'll create a looseness, and a freedom in your painting that you've never experienced before.
And I think you will find that's very refreshing.
Very, very, refreshing in your painting.
I have a lot of people who have painted for many years that take classes with me, and my son Steve, and the other teachers that we have, and they take classes in this technique mainly to learn to be loose with their painting.
Because it's very easy to get tight, and stiff, and used to staying in the lines, and just drawing little pictures, and following those.
This will give you freedom.
Absolute freedom.
There, let's go to the other side here.
Little blue, black, back to our brown, Dark Sienna, just mix them together.
There, wiggle that brush though that brings the paint right up to the end.
We need to make it sharp.
All right.
Maybe look at what a sharp line that is now.
See how sharp you can make that line?
Now then, just the corner of the brush.
Let's put in some little things here and there.
See that?
You can do this.
You really can do this.
There.
Let's give him a friend.
You know me.
I think everything, and everybody should have a friend.
Friends may be the most valuable commodities that we have.
Treasure them, take care of them, treat them good.
There we are.
Now maybe, look just push upward.
See?
Maybe there's a whole 'nother thing that comes right out like that.
Just by pushing up with the brush, you can create that illusion.
Just by giving a little upward push.
Let's go back to the brush that has some white on it.
And with that, let's come back in here, and we lay in a little snow.
Once again, pick up some of this color though, and drag it out there.
Get tough with it.
Because the canvas is wet, you can move this color.
If this was a dry canvas, you might be able to move it, but it would be very difficult and you'd work yourself half to death trying to do it.
There we go.
Maybe on this side, once again though, figure out how the lay of the land is here.
How the how it flows.
And it's sort of nice to have a little recessed area right in here.
It just gives you a nice place for the animals to walk, and just good things to happen.
But any of these little bushes and stuff here that you don't like, you just lay snow over them.
Just like nature does.
So there.
Look at that.
Now then, we can take some of that same color on our knife and here and there, if you wanted to, you could add the indication of a little stronger trunk.
Depends on what you're looking for.
Once again, very loose, very relaxed.
Just let it go.
This is fun painting.
There.
You know, this would be a super place to have a little cabin.
Let's do that.
I think we have enough time.
And a lot of people have problems with a cabin, so let me show you.
Let's go right up in here.
Decide where your cabin lives, and let's just scrape out a very basic little shape.
Maybe we'll have a big cabin in here, it shows up better.
See, just take the knife and scrape out your basic shape.
Now, right there's where there is where the stretcher bar is don't worry about that, we'll cover that up.
Now, one of the things that you're looking for when you're doing a cabin is your perspective.
If you're gonna have a cabin, like so, one of the most important things you can do is have this part of the roof a little bit higher than the back.
Otherwise, it won't look right.
Try to keep that a little bit higher.
If you put that a little lower, which is almost a natural tendency, it'll look like your cabin is sort of well maybe the front of it fell down into a hole.
I live in Florida, and sometimes there's, we have sinkholes there.
And it almost looks like your cabin fell into a sinkhole.
See there, all right.
Let's just put a little We'll just Dark Sienna, and Van Dyke Brown, mostly Van Dyke Brown.
And let's just lay in.
All I'm doing is laying in some color now.
Just laying in some color.
There.
You could do this with a cement trowel, it doesn't matter.
A little something like that.
See, and the bottom at this point don't be concerned with.
Because you can come along here with your knife, and do a cabin-ectomy, and decide exactly where everything should live.
That easy.
And maybe, we said this was gonna be a log cabin, or something that gives you the impression of a log cabin.
So, we'll take a little brown, and white, and let's just come along in here.
And think about this angle right here.
And let's just tap in some little indications here and there.
See there.
All right.
Okay, just drop it in.
There.
We can take that dark color that we picked up earlier, and go back, and help create that illusion.
There.
Over in here, this is gonna be very dark on this side.
We don't want much color over here.
Think I'll put a tree there, what the heck.
Put the indication of the end of the logs.
Just using the point of the knife.
That easy.
Maybe we got a door in here, let's put a little door.
We gotta have a way to get in and out.
That's all there is to it.
Put in a little door.
A little light around the door.
Now, we need a little Let's put a little snow up here on the roof.
See there.
But just pull it down.
Just pull down.
We said we'd have a tree in front of it, so we don't have to worry much about the back of it at this point.
We do need a little bit of snow over on this side.
Just so there's snow on both sides.
Now then, let me go back to my brush here.
Let's take, watch how you can move the trees, let's take some of our brown, and black, and blue, a little Dark Sienna.
Okay, and let's go back up here.
Now maybe, let's take this tree right here, right here, and let's make a big decision.
This tree lives on this side of the cabin.
See, how you can change your mind?
You can pull this tree right over here in front.
That easy.
That easy.
On this canvas, you have unlimited power.
Now then, maybe See there a little grass growing over here.
Maybe a little right in here.
Whatever.
Let's take our brush with the white on it, come right up to the bottom of the cabin.
There we go.
Put a little snow right in there.
Watch here, watch here, watch here, touch, push.
Bend, bend the bristles.
Just do this in layers.
Continually in layers though.
Grab the bottom, give it a little pull.
Like that.
See how that just all comes together?
Shoot, tell you what maybe, maybe there's a little sprig right here.
And that way it looks like there's stuff behind it.
There.
Shoot, I'll tell you what, let's go on the other side over here.
Maybe over here, in our world there lives, well there does now, maybe there's a little doer that lives right out here.
Now then, once again, take a little Titanium White, grab that, and just let it flow.
See there?
That easy.
Maybe...
See, how you can break that up, and it creates the illusion of depth in there.
Shoot, we messed around here, and about have a painting that's not half bad.
And I was just going to show you how to relax, and enjoy this.
But I really hope you try something like this, because it's a great deal of fun.
It teaches you how to use the equipment, it gives you confidence with equipment.
And once you have the confidence, then you can do anything.
You can do anything.
We'll put a few little sticks, here and there.
There's one.
And you can just go around it, here and there, and tap in a few, like that.
That's really all there is to it.
Wherever you think they should be.
And I think we'll call this finished.
I really hope you've enjoyed this experiment, and I hope you try it.
Let me hear from you.
From all of us here, happy painting, and God bless.
(mellow guitar music) Hi, welcome back.
Certainly glad you could join us today, it's a fantastic day here, and I hope it is wherever you're at.
So I tell you what, let's start out today and have 'em run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint along with us.
While they're doing that, let me show you what I've got done up here.
Have my standard old pre-stretched, double-primed canvas, and today I've just covered it with a very thin, even coat of liquid white.
So it's all wet and slick and ready to go so, shoot, let's just do a...
let's just do a little painting, it's a lot of fun.
I thought we'd start with this little tiny brush, the little two-inch brush, and let's go into a small amount of Indian yellow today, what the heck.
Just a little tiny bit of Indian yellow, and we'll go right up here, and very lightly I'm just going to make some little criss-cross strokes.
I thought maybe today we'd just, we'd just do a very simple little painting that just makes you feel good, just a very nice warm little painting.
Maybe, maybe a little scene that's back in the woods and stuff.
I'm such a fanatic for nature and the woods and all the trees and bushes and stuff, that's really what I like to paint.
So, let's do that today.
Without cleaning the brush, maybe the least little touch of the yellow ochre.
Not much, very, very little color.
I'm going to keep this guy quite subdued and quiet, so you don't really notice it unless you look for it.
There we go.
Shoot, maybe, maybe the least little touch of the bright red too, It doesn't matter, but a very, very small amount.
Just a little pink in the sky.
I don't want to set the sky on fire, and very quickly you can do that.
Just want to give it a nice little pinkish hue.
Maybe a little touch more over in here.
There, something like that.
Alright, and then just gently going across the entire canvas, just blend out all the little brushstrokes.
There we go.
Okay, maybe, maybe we'll wash this brush.
What the heck, i just really like to wash brushes.
Keeps my crew here on their toes.
(laughs) Alright, now then, good clean dry brush, I'm going to go right in, do a little bit of the, little bit of the midnight black.
Don't want a whole lot of paint, just a little.
Alright, let's go back up in here, and right on the top, I'm going to take a little bit of that black and begin making little criss-cross strokes still, something about like so.
There we go.
Maybe here and there, there's a happy little floater in there, wherever you think they should be, that's exactly where they should be.
There, a little bit more color on the brush, and we go right in like that, but this is just midnight black, just knock off any excess color there because I want to keep it quite dark, and maybe, why not, why not have another little cloud right about here.
And all we're doing is just sort of tapping downward with this two-inch brush.
Maybe this little cloud, shoot, maybe it comes way out here, I don't know.
Wherever you want it.
Wherever, in your world you can do anything that you want to do.
Any old thing that you want to do.
We'll put another one there, maybe over in here on this side, shoot, maybe there's a couple more over here, just whatever.
Painting should be very individual, everybody will see nature through different eyes, and that's what you should paint.
The way you see it.
And wash the old brush off again, shake off the excess, and there we go again.
Now then, with a clean, dry brush, and very gently here, I'm just going to blend all this together, just blend it all together.
Isn't that a fantastic way of making some little clouds, that just jump right out at you?
And you can do this, even if you've never painted before, this you can do.
This you can do, we try to make painting simple enough that everybody can do it and really achieve fantastic results.
Even with very limited amounts of practice.
There, and of course the more you practice, the easier it gets and the better you get.
I'm going to take a little, let's use a little black, maybe I'll put the least little touch of, the least little touch of phthalo blue into it also.
Mostly black though, but a little bit.
I'm going to have a little water in this painting, so we'll have water maybe right here, I don't know.
It really doesn't matter at this point, you just put in some color, and whatever we don't want to be water we'll just paint right over it, because this is our world and we literally, literally can do anything that we want to do in this world.
You have total and complete power here.
There.
Now then.
I tell you what, we'll just keep using that same old brush, I'll just put a little bit more of the black on it, so it has black and the least little touch of blue, but mostly black, and not a lot of color on the brush.
Okay, maybe in our world back in here, let's just do, doop, something like that.
In fact I'm going to wipe a little of that paint off, a little more than I want.
That's better, I want it very quiet, just take the side of the brush and put the indication of some little things that live way back in the distance.
Little indications of trees.
I don't want a lot of detail, it's too far away, too far away.
Just want some little indications here and there.
There.
Wherever, sometimes you can just tap downward and if you want to make them look like, maybe little evergreens far away, you can just do the brush like that.
There we go.
Softer and softer and softer until they just basically disappear out here.
Very quiet, very subdued.
There we are.
Okay.
Now then.
I'm going to take a clean and very dry brush, and I want to just tap the base of this.
I want to create the illusion of mist down here and soften all this up, just soften it up, then lift gently upward.
See how soft that is now?
That tapping and lifting will push all those little things far, far back in the distance, and you can go right over the top of some of them to really soften them.
There.
Okay.
Well we're going to see very, very little of that, so I'm not interested in a lot of detail back there at this point.
Later on, we'll worry about it, but not now, not now.
We'll just have fun now.
Right into a little bit of black, maybe there's a indication here and there of just a few little bushes a little closer, so they'll be a little darker, but once again, I'm not looking for a lot of detail yet.
Too soon.
When we get farther into the foreground, then we'll begin seeing more.
Right now I'm just interested in getting a few little things up here.
There.
Something maybe about like that.
Okay.
Now I thought today, let's have a little bit of fun, shoot, maybe we'll, maybe we'll paint something a little different.
Get our brush nice and clean and ready.
Maybe in our world way back here, sort of visualize these, and allow visualizations to happen in your mind, maybe we'll have water running back through here, and maybe there's a little bridge that goes right over the water, so let's do the bridge first, and then we'll put things in the foreground.
Start with Van Dyke brown, maybe even a little dark sienna mixed with it, cut off our little roll of paint, and it should live right on the edge of your knife.
See there?
Now, where should our bridge be?
Let's have it right about here.
You have to make your first major decision, and all you do is just touch that little roll of paint, will pull right off your knife.
There.
Maybe that's just the top rail of the bridge, and you could make any kind of bridge you want.
I think today I'll just make a very simple one, easy little one to do, even if you've never done a bridge, this is very easy.
There.
There's the, here's the bridge's floor, the bottom of the bridge, so it's a little thicker than the rail up there.
Now then.
And let's see, we'll put some little, some little support doers in here, we'll put one in, and maybe there's some little, yep, see 'em?
See there?
We're just using the small edge of the knife, or you could just use a small knife.
I'm just too lazy to pick it up.
There.
Looks like, when I was a kid I used to, with string, make Jacob's ladders, and this looks like that, sorta.
Maybe this is Jacob's bridge, who knows?
I don't even know who Jacob is.
There.
See there, that easy.
That old knife will do fantastic things.
We'll put one little arm right here.
Now, take a little white, a little of the dark sienna.
Maybe even a little touch of the bright red into it.
Ooh, that's nice, I'm going to put a little yellow ochre too.
Little roll of paint, and right up here on the top, the lights are zinging down on top of our little bridge.
Toom!
So we have a little highlight right here on top.
Right there, and here and there, and there and here, see, right there, maybe a little coming on this side of the post, maybe our light's coming from the left today.
It's up to you, wherever.
Wherever.
Wherever you want your sun to be, that's where it can be in the painting.
I hope you saw my son in the last program.
Little devil's quite a character, isn't he?
He really can paint.
I think he's, as of the date of this taping, I think he's 24 years old.
He travels all over the country just teaching the painting method that you see here.
Maybe if he gets to your town doing demonstrations or something, he works with a lot of the PBS stations et cetera, maybe you'll get out to see him.
There we go.
If you see him, hassle him a little bit and tell him I sent you.
There.
Now, we need something underneath here, I'm going to get the small knife, we need something to keep this bridge out of the water.
Right now it would fall right into the water, because there's no little support doers, maybe, maybe there's a little post that lives right there.
I guess you'd need a pretty good sized post to hold up a bridge, so we'll make it a little bigger.
Something like that.
A little bit of our little highlight color, not much, a touch, there.
Sort of gives an indication of a little, a little doer there.
Maybe we need some little support brackets on it.
There.
Well I wish the bridge was really that easy to build.
let's reflect that, right into the water.
Grab it, pull down, and we'll take our two-inch brush, pull that down, and just go across.
That easy.
We just made a little reflection there.
I'm going to take a little bit of the liquid white, and mix it with a little of the titanium white, just to make this a little thinner than normal, and we'll put a little ripple of water right around the foot there.
Sort of cleans it all up, gives the impression that maybe the water's moving slowly, very slowly by this little bridge, a little slow river or stream here.
Big old fish just laying right under there and resting.
Taking life easy.
I like to fish, though I'm not a very good fisherman.
Shoot, I catch the old fish, and put a band-aid on his mouth and pat him on the tutu and put him back in the water and wish him well, and maybe I'll be lucky and get the chance to catch him again one day.
Okay, take a little black, prussian blue, phthalo green, and put some crimson in there.
There we go.
Mix them all up, I want to mix a pretty good pile of paint, I want to make some evergreen trees, what the heck, and some big bushy trees and we're going to wipe off the knife.
There.
Let's start maybe, hmm, ready to make a big decision?
Maybe in our world, just sort of stand back and look, maybe, yep, right about there, we'll have a big bush.
I'm going to push both ends of this bridge back into the bushes, so we don't have to worry about it.
Right in there, and, maybe there's a big tall bank right here.
There we go, there.
Right out in the water.
We'll take a little bit of brown and white, just highlight a little bit here and there.
Maybe I'll put a lot of bushes on there, so we don't really care at this point.
We don't even know.
Some of this will show, a lot of it won't.
Now we can come back in here, and drop in the indication of just all kinds of, well, I'll tell you what, let's just bring it right on around here.
Let your imagination go.
Just let that old imagination go.
Maybe it comes there.
What the heck.
Get crazy.
That's what makes it fun, what makes it fun.
There we are.
Now we was going to paint some evergreens a long time ago, and I got carried away with rocks and stones and all those things, so let's make, in our world there lives, does now, a little evergreen tree right there.
Use the corner of the brush.
As you work down the tree, push harder and harder, forcing the bristles to bend downward.
There they go.
That little bit of phthalo green in there just gives it sort of a, gives it sort of a flavor almost like blue spruce, which is one of the most beautiful evergreen trees there ever was.
There.
Okay.
Maybe I'll just put a couple in here.
You know it's interesting, over the years and the long time we've been doing this period, I've had so many little creatures and stuff, and I thought maybe today I'd just, while I'm putting these trees on, cause I'm just going to put them right, I'd just show you a quick bunch of little photographs of some of my little creatures, and let you take a look see, maybe you'll remember some of them, because they're very special to me.
They play a very important role in my life, and I just absolutely love the little devils.
That's Squirly Girly Brown, she's quite a character, and there's Dan Yells the crow.
He belonged to Ann Young, one of the bird ladies that lives very close to me.
There, he's a character.
He's all grown up and gone now.
And there's Carmen Shaw with her deer.
Hey, Bob Storr, we went sail fishing together.
Of course we let him go too, and there's my little raccoon, isn't he something?
There's another picture of Squirly Girly.
She's something else.
She's still with me, Squirly Girly.
She's almost ready to turn loose now.
Almost ready.
We do not keep any of these animals.
We don't try to make pets out of them, because they are wild creatures, and God meant for them to be outside.
The only thing that I want to do, and all the people who help them, is just to give them the best possible chance to survive.
A lot of times they get orphaned or hurt, and that's all we're trying to do.
I'm going to put some trees over on this side.
There.
Okay, maybe a little tree right there, there, because I really think wild animals, they should be wild, they should be wild.
But sometimes, like everything else, they need a little help, and if I can help them, and give them a little head-start on life, that's fantastic.
That's fantastic, there we go.
But some of them I get very attached to, it's awful hard to turn them loose after a while.
There we are.
I guess my love of animals was probably instilled by my mother, she always loved animals and she helped me raise little Squirly Girl in fact.
Her and Annette and I, between the three of us we got up in the middle of the night, and we fed them and we took care of them, and it's very rewarding.
I'm going to take a little bit of that same color, maybe we'll have a little limb that comes right down here, we've got to do something with all this.
So I'll just tap in some dark color, just using the old two-inch brush, like that, there.
Okay.
Bring it right on down, and you could fill this up here with a, eh, you could use a paint-roller, it doesn't matter.
Just to, it's sort of a good place to practice and get the feel of your brush.
Maybe over in here this comes, we'll have this one come right down to the edge of the water.
And don't worry if you get something in there, because we need a reflection under there anyway.
In fact, if it didn't happen automatically, you'd have to go back in there and paint it, so don't worry about it.
See, you just grab it and pull it down.
You need that reflection to set it right down into the water and go across.
That easy.
There we are.
Now then.
Grab our little thin brush that color on it.
Since it was blue in it and green in it, we can go right in the yellow, yellow ochre, little Indian yellow, and make a nice dark green color, maybe I'll get even a little black.
A little sap green too, I like it.
Ooh, that's what I was looking for, sap green.
There, let's go back up in here.
Now then, let's begin highlighting some of these trees.
Just figure out which one's in the foreground, which one's in the background.
Do the one that's in the background first.
There, and then let the other one come right over the top of it.
Here we are.
There's another one, just like so.
All you're doing is tapping, letting the bristles bend slightly downward.
Slightly downward.
There.
Let them get darker and darker as they work downward.
There we are.
Okay, let's go on the other side.
We've got to give these little trees something too, we don't want them left out.
That old tree would be upset with us.
We don't want that.
I did the one on both sides, because I think I want the one in the middle to be in front of the other two, so you do those first, and then do that one, and it'll give the impression that it's in the foreground.
There we go, shoot I didn't know I was going to paint a whole forest today, but we did.
It's alright.
It's a lot of fun, we got a lot of practice, so it wasn't wasted.
Take an old two-inch brush and go right into that green, so sap green, the Indian yellow, yellow ochre, a little touch of the bright red, now and then only.
Load some color right onto the bristles.
Let's go up here.
Now then, let's begin making big decisions here.
Let's have a little grassy area comes right down like that.
There, just tap, and the more you tap, the more of that base color that you'll pick up and the darker it'll become, it'll just disappear after a while.
You have to decide.
There.
Okay.
And you can do this over and over until it gets just as soft as silk.
Looks like velvet grass laying there if you want to.
And the more you tap it, the softer it'll become.
Alright.
Just layer, after layer, after layer.
There.
Okay, right down in here, a little something.
Right on down.
Okay let's go on the other side and put a little over there.
Maybe it comes right down like that, sneaks right out of those trees.
You can do it.
You can do it.
Okay, tell you what.
Take some Van Dyke brown and dark sienna.
Just going to put a little indication of a little soil, a little dirt right down here at the water's edge.
Something maybe about like that, I don't want a lot.
Just a little, just a little.
A little of that brown and white, give it a little, tiny bit of highlight, don't want much.
Then I can take a little, a little fan brush and just pop in some little bushes down here.
Brings it all together.
Little bit of the liquid white and the firm white mixed together.
There we can come right back in here.
There, just put us in a little, a little watery line there, okay.
Shoot, I need to play it way to get to this little bridge back here.
So let's take a little Van Dyke and dark sienna mixed together, and just put the indication of a little, a little path right in there.
Choom!
Take some white, maybe even a little of the bright red, the yellow ochre, be brave.
Barely touch, just let it sort of graze across there.
Choom!
There.
Right on out.
Alright.
Now then.
Take our brush with a little grassy colors and just bring some right up to the edges here.
Something about like that.
If you want a little more distinct bushes as we get closer, we'll use the fan-brush and just pop them in, pushing upward.
There we go.
Now.
Let's find a nice one-inch brush, I'll dip it right into a little bit of, a little bit of the liquid white, we'll go into some green and yellow, pull it in one direction.
Now, let's take...
put some nice highlights on all these little things here.
Start with the one, as usual, that's the farthest away, and work forward, always working forward.
Let them just hang right out over the bank here.
There they are.
All kinds of little things.
One little bush at a time, but don't get greedy, I know it's tempting.
I know it's tempting.
One at a time.
It's all we're looking for.
Just drop them in.
Maybe even over here, shoot there's one little, two little, three little bushes right there, whatever you want, just something to sort of break it up a little, maybe back in here there's a few.
You can even have one or two right in here.
There we are.
Let's grab an old fan-brush, shoot.
You know me.
I always have to have the big tree.
Let's take some of the browns, both browns.
Here's your bravery test.
Sswukk!
Make those little noises.
There's the little tree, and there's his little brother.
So, we've got to give him, got to give him a little friend there, don't want him to get lonely out here.
I'm just going to touch a little highlight to the edge of these little rascals.
Just a little, we'll take our little script liner brush.
Going to dip it into a lot of paint thinner.
I want it to be as thin as ink.
Very, very thin.
Look at there, just absolutely drips right off there.
Nice, soupy.
Okay, let's go up in here.
Now with that we can come back in here, because it's a very thin paint, it'll slide.
We can just run it right over the top of all these little doers.
Put us all kinds of little branches and limbs, and things like that on here.
Maybe these old trees, maybe they're dead.
Maybe we've just got naked limbs out here.
There.
If you want to put a few leaves on, you certainly could, it's up to you.
I think today I'm going to just leave them sort of hanging around.
Something about like that.
Something about like that.
There.
And, you could just take a knife, and here and there and there and here scrape in a few little sticks and twigs, things like that, and you're about to the point you have a little finished painting.
Hope you try this one.
It'll really...
you'll enjoy it, so give it a try and send me a photo, let me see how you do with it, and from all of us here, I'd like to wish you happy painting and God bless my friend.
(relaxed guitar music) Hey. Welcome back.
Certainly glad your could join us today.
Today I thought we would do the little painting that you had seen at the beginning of the show.
The one that's got the little character that walks in the snow.
I'll show you how that one was done.
But first let's start out and and them run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint along with us.
While they're doing that, let me show you what I got done up here.
I started with a regular old 18 by 24 inch canvas but you can use whatever size is convenient.
Took a piece of contact paper and I just cut a shape out that sort of, in my mind, resembles a window.
That's all.
Then we took some masking tape and just made a couple of little doers with masking tape up and down like that.
We've covered the entire thing then with a very thin coat of liquid white just to make it wet.
And it's ready to go.
So, let's just have some fun today.
Let's start out today with a - Let's start with a bit of the midnight black.
Just a small amount on the old two inch brush and a little Prussian blue.
Just mix them together on the brush.
It doesn't matter.
Little of each.
Alright, and let's go right up here.
And we'll start up in here, just making our normal little criss-cross strokes.
Little Xs.
And just paint right over the top of the masking tape and everything.
Just paint right over it like it's not even there.
Cause if you are looking out the window the little cross members in the window would be in front of what you are seeing anyway.
So just paint it on.
Maybe a little bit in here.
Wherever.
Wherever.
There. A little more of that color.
We'll put a little up in here.
Like so.
There. Just make the little Xs though and it'll blend with the liquid white that's on the canvas and automatically your color will just blend together.
There we are.
Something about like that.
Now then.
We can just blend that.
See there are spots that are lighter than other spots.
And we leave those in there intentionally.
And you could go back with a little titanium white if you wanted to and brighten those little spots.
In fact, i'll tell you why not wash the brush and do that.
Just to show you.
But you can make those little spots as bright as you want them.
Just shake off the brush and beat the devil out of it.
Let's take just a little bit of white.
Maybe, right up in here we want a little brighter area.
It's up to you.
And you can just take the white and drop it in.
Maybe even one up in here.
But that's all there is to it.
Ok.
Now this won't be an exact duplicate of what you see at the opening of the show.
But it'll certainly show you how that one was made.
Alright.
Now, let's take - Use that same old color.
It's working pretty good.
Black. Prussian blue and white.
And we'll just mix them together.
Mix them together.
I'm going to make a light blue color here.
Something that's getting pretty close right there.
You just sort of mix it until it's the flavor that you like.
And I sort of like that.
So let's wipe off the old knife.
Think I'll grab number three fan brush, since that's what I picked up.
Load it full of paint.
And let's go right up here.
We have a little tree that's far away.
So touch.
Now this time we are going to push upwards sometimes we push down with the brush to make little evergreens.
Today, I'm going to push upwards.
Go right over the masking tape.
Just like it wasn't even there.
Don't worry about it.
Don't even worry about it.
Something about like that.
Now then, And there's one right there.
We just put these little trees wherever you think they should live in your world.
There we go.
I like making little trees like this.
They're a lot of fun.
But just push upward.
You're making the bristles bend toward the top of the tree.
There we are.
Something about like that.
Push in some little bushy things.
Same basic way.
We're just pushing upward with the brush.
Ok.
And that's basically how we made the little background trees.
You could take the knife and you could put a little stick or twig.
Maybe there's a little tree that's maybe not doing so well.
Maybe doesn't even have any leaves on him.
Just an old stalk sticking out there.
Maybe there's a couple of them. I don't know.
Wherever you think they should be.
Just just them in that easy.
But you want these just a little bit darker than the sky.
Don't get too crazy.
Now then, Let's take that color and we'll just lay it over here for the time being.
Might use it later. Who knows?
Prussian blue, black, crimson.
Throw a little alizarin crimson in there.
We'll mix us up a pile of dark color.
We're going to make some dark trees later on, so we'll have that ready.
Now then, since this is a winter scene we had snow in it.
Cause I remembered the little guy, he walked around in the snow back here.
Now, believe it or not, the little guy was me too.
It's hard to see.
Alright. Now let's have a little bit of snow right here.
See there. That easy.
Just pull it across.
Snow is one of the easiest things to paint in this technique.
There we are.
There we are. That's simple.
Old two inch brush will do it in a heartbeat.
Ok.
Let's build a bigger tree and for that I'm going to get a bigger brush.
I'm going to go to number 6, but you could continue to use number three.
It doesn't matter.
Just a little faster with this one.
Alright, we have another tree in our world.
There it is right there.
Same thing though.
I want to give it an upward push.
There.
It's got some upstanding limbs in here.
There we go.
This one is very dark.
Pure color.
There. Same color as the other one but without the white.
Minus the white, that's all.
And maybe it comes down to about there.
Who knows.
Who knows.
Alright.
Take the knife, I'll be scratching a little indication of a trunk in there.
I have several fan brushes going.
So I'm going to take another one and put some liquid white, and some titanium white and mix them together.
Liquid white is in there only to make the paint a little thinner.
Cause you know our golden rule, thin paint will stick to a thick paint.
Alright, and we'll go up in here and with this phthylo blue and white we'll just put the indiction of some highlights on this little tree. Little sparklers.
That will make that rascal stand out.
There.
I'm going to grab a one inch brush and use some of that dark color and we have a little bush live right here.
There he comes.
Just push in a basic shape.
That's all we're looking for here.
Just a very basic little shape.
About like that.
See? But leave some of that background in there.
It helps create the illusion of depth and distance in the painting.
And we'll dip the brush in the liquid white and pull it in one direction.
One direction.
To load it.
Liquid white and through the titanium white in one direction.
Look at the end of the brush. A lot of paint on it.
Probably the biggest mistake made is not enough paint.
Let's go up here.
Now with that, we can come up in here and we can put some little snow covered bushes right under that tree.
There.
If you have trouble making that stick add the least little touch of liquid white to it.
There we are.
Cause it needs to be thinner than what's on the canvas.
If the thinnest paint is on your canvas, it'll come off and go on your brush.
If the paint on the canvas is thinner than the brush.
It's the most important.
You want the paint on your brush to be thinner than what's already on the canvas, that way, the canvas will literally pull the paint off.
It'll take what it needs, just like a tax man.
There we go.
Come right in here, and we'll pull that down.
Create a whole other plane in this painting just by doing that.
Intentionally grab a little bit of that blue.
It makes gorgeous little shadows automatically.
Automatically.
There. Alright.
Now, are you ready for a big tree?
We'll just use the old fan brush.
Load it full of the dark, dark color.
Let's go up in here.
Make a decision.
Might as well just do it.
Might as well just do it.
An start pushing upward.
We're going to create a monster tree here.
A big tree.
There he comes.
Just keep pushing up.
Think about individual limbs and branches, little arms on the tree.
Little squirrels have to have a place to go.
In the wintertime, they get sort of cold.
They have to go up here and build themselves a nest.
Sort of take life easy.
There we are.
Something about like that.
That's a big tree. I wasn't kidding.
I forgot how big that tree was in that painting.
But isn't that little opening neat with the little guy walking back there?
That little opening is the idea of one of my very good friends here at the station, Gerry Morton, who is one of the engineers that puts all of this together.
He comes up with those.
There we are.
I don't know where he gets all of his ideas but they are neat.
I'm going to put another one right here.
Alright.
I like that little painter guy.
For many years I wanted to take that little painter guy and do a show with him.
Let him do all kinds of things.
And maybe, in the very near future, we can do something like that.
I've had some fantastic people ask us to come to Branson, Missouri and do a little show with the painter man.
So, maybe we'll do that.
If you're there, stop by and say hello.
I'd love to talk to you.
Just take into pulling that out, like that.
And off we'll go.
There.
Now then, find my little brush that's got the phthalo blue on it.
A little phthalo blue, a little white, a little liquid white.
You know that we want it thinner so it'll stick on there.
Phthalo blue, titanium white, liquid white.
See? Brush is loaded both sides.
Let's go up here and we'll come right into here.
I use the phthalo blue because we use prussian blue in the sky and I want it to stand out.
And it sort of makes evergreens look like blue spruce trees, which I love.
When I lived in Alaska, I had a huge blue spruce that lived in my front yard.
Gorgeous tree.
Absolutely one of God's most beautiful creations.
There we are.
Darker, darker, darker down here toward the bottom.
Less and less.
And this one back here in the back, I don't want a whole bunch.
It's too far back.
Don't want him to be really important in this painting.
Quiet little tree.
There we are.
Alright.
Now then, in our little painting that you saw at the beginning, we had a couple of huge birch trees.
So let's do those.
We'll take midnight black, and just a little blue in there but it's mostly black.
Mostly midnight black.
Let's put a little Van Dyke brown in it too.
About like that.
Pull it out flat.
Cut across and get a little roll of paint.
There you can see it.
Right under the edge of the knife.
Ok, this really is your bravery test.
We're going to start way down here and we're just going to begin working up right across the tape.
Right across everything.
Just let this tree go all the way out of the top.
That's a big tree.
That was serious, wasn't it?
It is a big tree.
But they're a lot of fun to make.
And if you don't want the tree in your world to be quite that big, make it a little smaller.
It's totally and completely up to you.
Any size you want him to be.
Alright I like big trees because they reach right up to the sky.
Nearly touch the sun.
Alright, well not quite.
If I remember, somebody said the sun was about 93 million miles away.
I guess a tree is not quite that tall.
But he's a big tree.
Oh right through my evergreen, but we know he's back there.
We know he's back there.
And we learned how to paint him, so it's not wasted.
Anytime you learn, it's not a wasted effort.
There.
And I like to paint birch trees, and other kind of trees too.
When the paint is dry you can literally feel the bark, just like a real tree.
Alright.
Now, let's got back to our titanium white.
I'm just going to use straight titanium white.
And I want to touch and sort of give it a, I'm exaggerating, a round pull.
Touch, and sort of give it a - and it makes the tree look round.
And those little square trees, they're sort of rare.
You need to make your tree have a round look to it.
It would be nice if they came in square, wouldn't it?
You could just cut two by fours off of them without even running them through the mill.
There we are.
Big old birch tree.
There.
And this one.
Now I've decided this one is in the front.
So we'll do him last.
Always do the thing that, in your mind, is the farthest away.
And then work forward, forward, forward.
There.
These are fun.
I like to make old birch trees.
When I lived in Alaska, I used to do a lot of paintings for the tourists there.
And they always wanted birch trees and northern lights.
Of course that's sort of what Alaska is noted for I guess.
And they were a lot of fun to paint anyway, so I don't mind.
There. A little dark in there.
About like that.
And you can just keep playing back and forth and building this up until it gets to any degree of thickness or color that you want.
There.
Of course you can piddle it to death too.
Alright.
Let's take our liner brush, paint thinner.
Put quite a bit of paint thinner up here.
And let's make some thin paint and we'll paint some arms on these little trees.
Gotta have an arm on him.
But it doesn't have any leaves.
It got too cold.
The leaves chickened out and they went south for the winter.
There we are.
But there, just, the paint thinner will allow you to flow.
The paint will flow right off the bristles.
Right onto the canvas.
If you have trouble making it flow, add a little more paint thinner.
This one seems to be working pretty good so we'll just keep on going with it.
There we are. Big old arm.
We can come back and put a little highlight on it, maybe a little snow.
But just pretend that the tape is not even there.
Just let the branches grow the way they would grow if the tape wasn't there.
Don't worry about it.
When we pull that off, it'll make it look realistic.
Alright.
See?
And this is where I get letters from people and they say "Bob, but I don't think I can paint.
I've got a little nervous twitch in my hand." This is your painting.
Because if you have a little nervous twitch it really works better doing these tree branches.
I have youngsters in their nineties who write me and tell me that they never believed that they could paint.
And they're doing it.
And they're doing it everyday.
It's fantastic to hear success stories.
There we are.
So the tree over here says, "he needs a limb too." Now this tree, we decided was in the front.
So his arm will go right over the top of the other one.
So we'll just start him right here.
and he'll go distinctly over, that makes him look like he's in the front.
There.
I don't want him to get angry at us.
Nothing worse than a mad tree.
Alright.
And maybe here's one that goes off that way.
We don't know where it goes.
Don't know that it even matters in this particular painting.
You could just put arms wherever you want them.
And I'm going to clean the brush and just dip it into a little bit of the liquid white.
This is just liquid white.
And maybe we can come back here and there and there and here.
Just put the indication that there's a little snow sitting in some of these places on here.
Something about like that.
But isn't that neat?
It's all there is to it.
Ok and with that, that gives us a pretty good little tree.
Down here at the bottom grab a fan brush.
Put a little liquid white on my brush.
Titanium white.
Let's go down in here, grab a little of the color and we'll put a little snow right down there.
There we got a little of that color.
I want the color in there for a shadow.
Something about like that.
Ok. I can pop in a little indication of a little bush.
See? that easy.
Alright. Now then.
Over here, we had a little fence.
So for that, I'm going to take a little Van Dyke, a little dark sand and mix them together.
And right here, just lives what remains of a little old fence.
It's about gone.
There. Something about like that.
Come back with our one inch brush.
Let's put a little brush on his foot.
Just a little bush lives down in here.
Something like that.
Liquid white.
And we'll go through titanium white, same as we did before, maybe a little blue on that one.
Cause there's white behind it, we need to separate with just a little phthalo blue on it.
A little snow-covered bush lives right there.
Little bit of the titanium white to pull that out.
Isn't that easy?
Shoot, we got that rascal in there.
Now, while I have liquid white and titanium white mixed together, I wanna put the indication if you're looking out the window, on the old window supports here, there's a little snow that has just collected in here.
This is a gorgeous painting to give as a christmas present.
See? You can just put it on right there like that.
We'll have some up here.
Go right over the tree branches because this would be right up front.
There. But this paint is a little thinner.
It's got liquid white in it.
And maybe it's on all of them here.
And here's one right here.
Let's put a little bit right in there.
Little more of the liquid white.
Brighten that one up a little bit so it shows.
Alright.
Even a little down here on the bottom.
What the heck.
Just a tiny bit.
Something about like so.
Alright.
Now let's take us a script liner brush, dip it in a little paint thinner, and we can go around here and there and there and here put in a few little sticks and twigs.
Just little things that look like little finished details in your painting.
There.
See? just a happy little old stick that lives out there.
And some little weeds around the fence.
Shoot. Maybe there's still even an indication of a little little wire hanging on some of those.
Not much.
Tell you what, I'm going to take some white and a little touch of dark sand.
A little white and a little dark sand.
Cut off a little roll of paint.
Let's go right up in here.
And let's just highlight this so it stands out a little bit more.
Oh yeah.
That's much better.
Sort of rest in there.
we want it to pop out.
There we go.
Now, it looks more like an old fence.
Now I can go back and put a few more little sticks and twigs in there.
Maybe theres one down here.
A wiggly one.
Let your hand just sort of jerk around a little bit.
Make all them little weird sticks and things because they're always there.
They sort of stick up through the snow, wherever you want them to be.
We got s second lift here.
Maybe I'll put just a little more detail on some of these limbs because I like to have a lot of little sticks and twigs on my - There we are.
That's what makes it interesting.
If you try this painting, take your time and do a photograph and send it to us.
I would love to see what you're doing and every so often we put them together and put them on a little board show them on TV so you can see what people all over the country are doing with this.
There are some that are fantastic and some that are better than that.
So just it's wonderful that people have so much success in painting.
There.
Alright.
Ok. We're about to get this little devil finished here.
Just figure out where you want little sticks and twigs.
Any old where. There's some.
Right in there.
Ok.
I think we're about to the point where we can take the old contact paper off and see what we got here.
So bring the camera up here.
And pull this off.
Isn't that fantastic?
It does look like you're looking out a window.
But as I say, it's a very simple little painting that you can do. Try it because I really think that you're going to enjoy this one.
Sort of different. Makes a beautiful gift to give to friends and relatives.
Especially, as I mentioned earlier, around christmas time.
And no one appreciates a gift more than one that you produce with your own hand.
From all of us here, I'd like to wish you happy painting.
God bless my friend.
[Music] Hi, welcome back.
Certainly glad you could join us today cause today I thought we'd do just a fantastic little winter scene.
It's very simple and I think you'll enjoy it.
Let's start out and have 'em run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint along with me.
While they're doing that let me show you what I've got done up here.
Have our standard, old pre-stretched canvas up here and I use an 18 by 24 inch but you use whatever size is convenient for you.
We've covered the entire canvas with a thin, even coat of liquid white and liquid clear.
I have mixed them together so there's a little bit of each.
I want a little transparence up here.
I wanna have a little glow in this guy, I think, and for that, I put a little bit of the liquid clear with a white.
So let's do that.
Let's start out today with, we'll use the ol' two inch brush and a very small amount of the yellow ochre.
Just a little.
Kay, let's go up in here.
Now we have to make our first major decision right here.
We're gonna have a little glow in this guy.
Where's he gonna live?
Maybe in our world, it'll live right about there.
That's basically all we have to do, is just sort of draw a little oblong cirlcle like so.
Wherever you want it.
We'll just let it sort of blend outward.
But there's not much color on the canvas, very little color.
We're gonna come back and we're gonna add white in there to make it even brighter.
But right now we're just applying a little color.
I'm gonna take a very small amount of dark sienna, very small amount, and go right back into that yellow ochre.
So it's a little bit darker but not much, just a little.
Be right back, there, dark sienna and yellow ochre.
We go up in here and right around that first little layer of color, we'll add that.
Something like so.
Same thing again.
We'll come over here.
Just however.
Get a little bit more of color on the brush here.
Same color.
Dark sienna, yellow ochre mixed together.
But notice we're starting out here and working back.
So the lightest area is in here because in the meantime it's mixed with the liquid white.
It has become lighter and lighter in value.
That happens automatically for ya.
This is the lazy man's way of painting.
There.
Now then.
I'm gonna take a little of phthalo blue, same old dirty brush, phthalo blue, alizarin crimson and we'll begin making a lavender color.
And even a little bit of that dark sienna still in it.
There, let's go up in here now.
We'll just begin putting this on here and it'll make sort of a coal grayish color.
There.
We'll just fill the canvas up with it, what the heck.
We don't care.
Anything we don't like, we'll turn it into a happy little tree or something.
Cause as you know, we don't make mistakes.
We just have happy accidents.
And very quickly, when you're painting this, you learn to work with anything that happens.
Same color we used on the other side.
We're just laying a little color around that.
Something like so.
Okay, wash the old brush.
And we wash our brushes with odorless paint-thinner.
Shake off the excess, (chuckles) and just cover everybody around.
That's the fun part.
Now we'll just blend this out.
If you're cleaning brushes like this at home, I might recommend that you get a little brush-beater rack to put in the bottom of the waste paper basket or something.
It will certainly go a long way, as far as preserving your happy home.
Cause if you do this procedure in your living room your spouse is probably gonna ask you to find some place else to dwell.
A little brush-beater rack is only a couple of bucks and you drop it in the trashcan.
It'll save your home, and your marriage, and certainly worth the investment.
There.
Okay, now we can smooth it out.
As we mentioned earlier, we want a nice bright spot right here in the center of this.
So I'm gonna take titanium white.
Just a little titanium white.
Come right up in here with that pure white and just begin working outward.
Start in the lightest area and work always outward.
Always outward.
This will make like a glow in the sky.
Very bright and it'll show up even more when we get darker colors around it.
Looks nice already.
There, now very lightly, three hairs and some air.
Just gently blend the entire sky.
It's all we're looking for.
And sometimes it's fun to put a little sun in there.
You can take a little white on your finger and just make a little circle like so.
And it usually looks a little better if it's round.
Those square suns seem to bother a lot of people.
I don't understand that but they do.
There we go.
That'll give us indication of just a little sun up here in the sky.
Tell you what.
Let's have some real fun here.
I'm gonna take some blue, alizarin crimson, proportionately much more crimson than blue, cause the blue is many, many times stronger.
And a little bit of that same dark sienna in there.
Same basic color we used in the sky.
Just mixin' up a little larger batch of it here.
Now then, maybe in our world there's some nice trees that live back here in the background.
Let's just do it and see what happens.
Lets just see what happens.
That's the beauty of painting this way because we use no patterns and no tracings.
We learn very quickly to just let things happen.
That's when you experience the joy of freedom and creativity.
You're not just tracing something that we've done and following along and filling in the blocks here.
You actually learn creativity.
There.
That's where it's fun.
That's when it's fun.
Think about a big old tree that lives right here and maybe just sorta looks out over all of this.
Think about these things in your mind.
You paint mental pictures and then you put them on canvas.
Quite frequently I'm asked how much I practice before I do one of these shows on TV.
Normally, I don't do a lot of practice.
I think about the painting in advanced, mentally, and I paint a basic scene that I'm thinking about over and over in my mind.
Then when you come here to do it, it's easy.
It's like athletes practice if they're gonna do a big jump or something, they'll practice that mentally over and over and over.
It's the same here.
Just think about what you want to paint.
Just let your mind go.
There.
Anything that you believe you can do, you can do.
If you believe strong enough and you're willing to practice, you can do it.
There, just layer after layer here.
All kinds of little things that live back in here.
Wherever you want 'em.
Kay, let's have something on the other side.
Shoot, we don't want it left out.
This side'll get jealous if we don't put something here.
I'll tell you what, yeah maybe there's a happy little tree that lives right there.
Right there.
With just using the corner of the brush, and that easy, you can build trees.
There.
And by making this color a little darker, it'll look like it's closer to you.
See, already it's beginning to look layered.
And intentionally, we've left these light areas here because we want the sun to shine through.
When you're doing yours, don't kill all these.
This will excite people when you're doing it.
And of course I know nobodys interested in selling paintings, but if you're out there selling paintings, these little extras, that's what'll bring that happy buck home.
Let's take a liner brush, some paint thinner, and we want to thin this down 'til it's as thin as ink or water.
In fact, you can see it running right there on the palate.
See there, it's very thin.
Turn the brush as you pull it back off the palate.
Turn it so it comes to a very sharp point.
Let's go up here.
Make some big decisions.
There's got to be tree trunks, sticks, limbs, and all those things in here.
Take the brush and just begin putting them in.
Just all kinds of things.
Wherever you think they should live.
Maybe you don't see the entire tree, maybe there's something in the front here.
There.
Some little doers that live out in here.
Wherever, maybe you can see a few little things there and here and here and there.
Just sorta let your imagination go.
Let your imagination go.
There.
Kay, maybe over in here.
Another thing that I get a lot of letters, people are continually writing and asking if we edit these shows.
There is absolutely no editing done to these shows.
No editing, what you see is exactly the way it took place.
I know that there are other shows that do but this is exactly the way it happened.
If I did anything different without telling you, I'd feel like I was cheating you.
There.
All right, even the mistakes we leave on here.
Kay, let's go on the other side here.
This old tree here needs a nice trunk on it, something to hold it up.
We'll give it a wiggle here and there, so it's not just a straight trunk.
It's got some character to it.
We don't want one of them that just looks like a telephone pole somebody stuck up there with leaves on it.
There.
If you have trouble with your paint flowing, it only means that you don't have it thin enough.
If you painted with me before, you know our golden rule is, "A thin paint will stick to a thick paint." But you can't reverse that and in this technique it doesn't work well.
Let's put some nice little highlights in here.
I'm gonna take a little bit of titanium white.
Little bit of the cad yellow, not much, just a small amount.
Little touch of alizarin crimson.
Maybe even a little yellow ochre and dark sienna but there's a multitude of colors here.
It's not one flat, dead ol' color.
I want a lot of things happening in this little pile of color.
Push the brush, give it a little push.
That loads color right out on the tip of the bristles.
Now then, we can go up in here and just using that little corner, you can begin putting all kinds of little shapes.
You can do this with a one inch brush.
Let me get a little more color going here.
You can do it with a one inch brush or two inch brush, it doesn't matter.
Just whatevers convenient.
I like the two inch brush cause it seems to work a little better for me personally.
Put a little Indian yellow in there too.
Oh, that's what I'm looking for.
That's nice.
There we are.
Begin thinking about shape and form in here.
don't just hit it random.
Don't hit it random.
Tell you what, you know, in the last series I showed a couple little baby squirrels, they were so small and they looked like little drowned rats.
We got so many calls about them.
I'm gonna show you what they look like today.
These little devils are about grown and they're almost ready to be released.
This is one of my little friends here.
He's settin' on my settee, eating a little cherry tomato.
They are the most gorgeous little creatures and I have so much fun with them.
Hope you enjoy seeing those as much as I enjoy showin' them to ya.
But they really are precious.
There.
I have one little squirrel that the veterinarian has told me that it probably has epilepsy.
So it has to live in the house with me and we give it medication, the whole nine yards, just like it was a little puppy or somethin'.
It sort of has freerun of the house.
But he just runs around and plays.
Actually, it's a she.
Maybe in one of the other shows in this series, I'll bring some footage in and show you what she looks like too cause she's a cute little devil.
There we are.
I'm just laying in some indications here and there.
Nice highlights on these trees.
Think where light would strike here.
Put the little bright ones in there.
Let that light zing through.
Just let your imagination go.
Use just the corner of the brush though.
Maybe even down in here we can see a little bit.
Just a little.
Now then, let me get a little more color here and let's go to this one on the other side and give him a little highlight or two.
Just a little highlight or two.
There.
Little bit right in there.
Let's see, you wanna leave some dark areas in the tree so it's deep, otherwise there won't be any depth in the tree if you cover up all those nice dark areas.
Save 'em, they're your good friend.
They really will make your painting special.
Down in here maybe there's a little something goin' on in there.
Little bit more of that Indian yellow.
We can come right there, there we are.
See that little bush?
He lives there, you knew that.
Another one.
Just as many or as few little bushes as you want, if you don't have a lot of paint.
You can actually see the trunk right through there and to me that's sorta neat, I like that.
That's sorta special.
There we go.
See, and here's another one.
But work in the layers, doing the one that you think is farthest away and always working forward, forward.
Leaving them dark areas in between.
Once again, that's what makes your painting special.
I wanna get the least little touch of alizarin crimson.
I want one that has a little more pink, right there.
Little warm spot right down where the suns shinin' through there.
But in yours, you decide where you think all these little rascals should live and drop 'em in.
If you notice, some of them here I have done nothing to, I've left them dark.
That looks like ones that are back there in shadow.
Sneaky.
Let's take (chuckles), pure titanium white on the two inch brush and we said this was a winter scene so we need a little snow in it maybe.
Maybe our snow starts right here.
Take the brush, touch, and just let it go.
Let it go wherever you want it to go.
See there?
If it picks up some of this color, that's a plus.
Don't get upset about it, enjoy it.
Enjoy it, let it happen.
That's what makes it beautiful because it looks like shadows in there.
But, applying snow with a two inch brush is one of the easiest things in this whole technique.
One of the easiest and it works so well.
We'll put a little bush that hangs right out here on the snow and see what happens, it makes it look like there's a plane behind there.
It creates that illusion of depth and distance in your painting again.
So then we'll grab a little touch of that on the bottom, pull it across, and now you can see a little tiny highlight right there.
Just enough to separate, that's what we're looking for.
Now, let's get crazy.
If you've painted with me before, you know I always like to do these wild, crazy things sometimes in the paintings.
We'll take some blue, some crimson, same color, just gonna mix more of it.
We'll have some dark sienna.
I'm gonna put some Van Dyke brown in there too.
Shoot, let's darken it down a little bit.
Oh, that's nice.
Okay, let me grab another brush.
Maybe we'll do some, oh I don't know, let's have some fun.
Let's do some trees.
I'll start with a fan brush with a lot of color and let's make some trunks with a fan brush cause it'll make nice, sharp edges.
Maybe some of these tunks will show through in this one.
There.
We'll have a little tree there.
Maybe there's a big tree that lives there.
All you're doin' is just tappin'.
I like to sorta tap downwards so it makes these little fuzzy things on the side.
To me, Evergreens usually have little fuzzies on the side.
They're not real straight.
They got a little rough bark on 'em.
Okay, we'll have another one going off.
What the heck, it's your world, to do whatever you want.
There we are, now then.
I'm gonna grab an oval brush, I like those.
The oval brush makes nice trees that the limbs sort of hang down like they're tired and sometimes under the weight of snow or just old age, a tree gets tired and sorta hangs a little bit like me.
This oval brush does that very well.
Load a lot of color and let's go right up in here.
We start by just taking just the side, touching, and begin thinking about shape and form here.
There we go, shape and form.
See, automatically though, this brush makes those nice hangy-downs.
There.
Just ol' hangy-down limbs.
There they are.
As I say, these are fun to make.
In this series I think I'm gonna use this oval brush several times, show you some different things you can do with it.
I like it.
It's easy to distinguish, it has black handle, where our other brushes have white handles.
That's the reason we done this, so it's easy to tell.
Let's do this one here.
Here's one that lives way up here in the sky.
Way up here, it goes right on off the canvas.
What the heck.
We'll just let it live wherever it wants to.
There.
Gotta give this old tree some arms.
Reach out here and grab some sunlight.
There we go, there's one right out there.
If you have trouble going over the snow, we're not having any trouble today, but sometimes you do if you have a lot of snow back there and you have trouble making that paint stick.
Add a little bit of paint thinner to your brush and then go through the paint.
It'll thin the paint and allow it to stick right over that solid white.
For example, if you wanted it to and were having trouble but don't do that unless you absolutely have to.
We want to keep this paint as thick as we possibly, possibly can, so we can put thinner colors over the top of 'em.
I'm gonna leave a little bit of the trunk showin' right there.
It's sorta naked there, doesn't have any leaves on it.
Bad year.
Maybe on this tree was a, maybe a big ol' bear came by and stepped on it.
Hurt him, yeah.
But he did okay, he's all right now.
If you make up little stories like that your paintings are much happier.
As you've heard us say over and over in this show, if painting does nothing else it should make you happy.
It should teach you to see nature through different eyes and make you appreciate some of God's creations.
I think painting does that for everybody who tries it.
I'll take a little white, little tiny amount of the dark sienna, and I'm just gonna touch, sorta give a little pull here.
Maybe this ol' tree here, maybe it's dead.
So we'll just see a little white zingin' through there.
Just here and there though, don't want a lot of trunk showin'.
Just enough, there.
Now then, I have several oval brushes going, so let's take another one and we'll dip it into the liquid clear cause I wanna thin the color that's going on there.
Grab a little titanium white, a little bit of cad yellow, yellow ochre, and some of that red color.
Same colors we've used before.
Little Indian yellow too, that's good.
Let's get a little roll of paint right on the edge of that brush there.
Push it and create that little roll.
Let's come in here and let's make some trees that the lights just zingin' through and it's having a good time out here.
There they go.
That's just with the liquid clear in it.
The clear, all it does is thin the color a little.
Don't get carried away and kill all the dark though.
As we said before, that dark is so important.
It's your good friend.
Now back in here I'm gonna add the least little touch of phthalo blue to it, just to cool it down.
There, just enough to cool it down a little.
It sort of gives it a greenish hue without really paint green cause we don't want green snow.
It's the only thing worse than yellow snow.
Don't want to make any snow-cream out of that.
Of course I have a good friend here that told me, he never noticed the difference.
But he said he never could get any of his friends to eat any of his snow-cream.
Little more of the color.
We'll put a few little highlights on this tree.
We don't want it left out but just drop 'em in.
With this little oval brush it almost happens automatically and once you try it you'll understand what I'm saying.
It's sorta hard to explain but because of the shape it almost happens automatically.
Darker, darker down here toward the base.
Let's take our brush that has the titanium white on it.
I wanna grab the bottom of this and pull it.
I wanna intentionally pick up a little of this dark color cause that's gonna end up being my shadows in here.
That's gonna be my shadows.
There.
Now then, maybe fan brush, we'll use the ol' fan brush.
We'll just go in here and pop in a few little bushes and stuff that live right around the bottom of all of these.
Just a few little things.
Now with a clean fan brush, has to be clean.
You can grab that and pull it.
It's also a super way to make little sand-dunes in seascapes, same identical way.
You can create all kinds of little things.
Kay, let's see.
Let's go back here, take a little bit of our darker color.
Not too dark though.
Just come right along in here.
Just pop in a few little indication of a bush or two that lives down here.
Then we go back to our lighter color, a little yellow, white, little crimson, yellow ochre, Indian yellow, all the little colors that we've been using.
Same thing.
Just pop in some highlights in all these little bushes.
But that easy.
With the corner of the two inch brush you can just do fantastic little things.
Change the flavor a little bit here and there.
So it don't all look just the same.
Kay, back to our brush with the titanium white.
We can grab this and pull it again.
Each time you do this it creates another plane or another level in your painting.
It really makes it special.
Tell you what (chuckles).
You know me.
I like them big trees, so let's do one.
Let's go into Van Dyke brown and dark sienna.
Just mix them on the brush.
Yeah, I think we oughta do it right there.
Just drop one in, just brown.
Maybe we'll give him an arm, make it a big ol' tree.
And it sets out here and it just watches this beautiful little scene all by itself.
Take a little of the paint thinner on the liner brush and come back in here and put the indication of some little limbs and sticks and twigs, and all those things that live on there.
Just like so.
Shoot, I think with that we 'bout have a finished painting.
I think I'll put one more little limb there.
We'll call this one done.
Hope you've enjoyed this painting.
It's very easy and bring a lot of good things to your heart.
From all of us here, happy painting, and God bless my friend.
(pleasant music) Hi, welcome back, certainly glad you could join us today.
It's a fantastic day here and I hope it is wherever you're at.
So I tell you what, let's get started.
Let's have them run all of the colors across the screen that you need to paint along with us.
And while they're doing that let me show you what I've got up here today.
I have my standard old canvas up here, but I've cut a little oval out of contact paper and stuck it on.
And then I've covered this portion up here with gray gesso and the bottom in black gesso.
And don't laugh at my wavy line, I know it's not straight.
Then I've covered the entire thing with just a very thin, thin coat of liquid clear.
So it's all wet and ready to go.
So I thought today maybe we'd do a little seascape.
One that's very simple, very easy, and one that we'll just have some fun with.
So let's start out with a little bit of Indian yellow.
I'm just going to load a tiny little amount up here.
I want a seascape that's very bright and shiny.
So we'll just take a little of that Indian yellow and we'll just run it right along like that.
Somewhere.
Maybe, without cleaning the brush we'll go right into a little bit of yellow ochre.
There.
Just something like that.
That's really all we're looking for.
I'm going to come back and add a little white in that and brighten it up.
But we're just putting some little base colors under it right now.
There we go.
And just let that sort of blend upward.
And once again without washing the brush I'm going right into a little bit of a bright red.
Just a small amount, doesn't take much.
Doesn't take much.
Now the gray gesso underneath will dull that so it's not so bright that it hurts your eyes.
There.
Maybe just a touch more.
Right in there.
Something along that order.
That's all we're looking for.
Now then time to wash the brush.
And that's really the most fun part of the whole procedure.
So let's do that.
Let's wash the old brush.
Just wash it off good, give it a shake (brush tapping) (laughing) And there we go, there we go.
Now a little bit of the titanium white.
And let's start right in here with white.
And then we can begin painting right over the top of that.
Just begin right over.
I want this to be the brightest area, right here.
Maybe the sun sorta, maybe it just went sorta went behind the horizon right there.
I don't know.
You just decide and put it wherever you want it.
And blend upward.
Now we're just going to blend upward.
Let that white mix with all the colors you put on the clear.
And a small amount more of the white.
There.
Just let them all blend together.
Something like so.
Alright.
I like skies and seascapes that are very bright and shiny.
They just seem to make you feel better.
And you can do this several times to achieve a desired brightness, up to you, up to you.
See now when we hit that bright red up there it makes a gorgeous paint color.
That easy.
That's about all I'm going to do for that little sky.
Now, I think today I'm going to take a little phthalo blue, some alizarin crimson mix it together proportionately.
Much, much more crimson than blue.
I want sort of a reddish lavender color.
Maybe a touch more blue in it.
There, I think that's just right.
Just right.
Wipe off the knife.
Let's use the, we'll use the fan brush today.
Load a little color on the fan brush, just by going back and forth, that's all.
And maybe in our world there lives.
Here's your bravery test right off today, a big old strong cloud lives right up here.
Just floats around and has a good time all day.
There we go.
There, big old cloud.
I said a big strong cloud, I guess I was serious.
But I'm going to start on the cloud that's the darkest.
Which to me would be this one.
And maybe we'll make a few more.
But now we're beginning to have less paint on the brush.
Less and less paint.
So automatically it's going to get a little, little, lighter in value.
Let the canvas work.
The brushes work, the color.
Just go with it.
Go with it.
As I've mentioned before this is certainly the lazy man's way of painting.
And I look for easy ways.
Maybe, there's a little paint left on the brush.
Maybe there's a little cloud that's right there.
I don't know, I don't know.
Just basically wherever you think they should be.
We'll put several in here, just so you have a little practice with clouds.
There maybe.
Okay, okay right there a little string even.
Something like so.
Maybe even one over here.
But that's really all we need.
(brush tapping) There that had a little color on it, but I just banged it to knock the color off and we can go in here and just blend this some.
This will pick up the excess paint.
There.
I tell you what, I want a softer brush.
I want to pick up the blender brush so I can get in here and make all kinds of little soft things happen.
Very gentle.
With this blender brush you can go right over all this without mixing it together.
Just bring it together.
There.
Something about like that.
That's all we're looking for today.
And that gives us a sky full of clouds.
We'll wash that little brush out.
(light tapping) It's not near as much fun to beat that one.
Don't like to beat that one near as much as the other ones.
Maybe I'll blend that one a little bit more, now that it's clean.
Okay.
Let's spend the majority of our time today working on the bottom.
I'm going to take phthalo blue and phthalo green and just mix them together on the brush here.
Blue and green, phthalo blue and green.
Okay let's go back up in here.
And I'm just going to cover.
Right along like that.
See my crooked horizon didn't matter at all now.
And they were laughing at my horizon line in the studio before we started this.
But it doesn't matter.
There, because we don't make mistakes.
Okay, that's just applying a little color to the liquid clear.
Then I'll wash this brush.
(brush tapping) And we're in business again.
Now we'll mix up some sap green and alizarin crimson.
I want to make a nice transparent chocolate brown color.
And these two colors make a gorgeous, gorgeous brown.
Gorgeous brown, alright.
But it's a very transparent brown.
And we can take our brush, with this transparent brown And I'm just going to fill up the bottom of this area with a little bit of that brown.
I know you can't see it.
And that's the beauty of it.
That's how you tell if a color is transparent, if you put it over black and you still, it still seems to be black to you than the color's transparent enough for what we're doing.
Can be semi transparent.
But it will work.
Now let's find a little number three fan brush today.
I find in seascapes one of the easiest ways of getting one started, figure out if you're going to have a big major wave, figure out where it lives and then work around that.
So let's say our major wave is going to live right here.
There's the top of it.
It's going to come out maybe and go like so.
Behind it then we can have whatever we want.
And that just sort of gives you a little layout back in here wherever.
See maybe this will help.
The waves going to curve over like that.
Does that make sense now?
Crash right over.
That's all there is to it.
And that sort of gives you an idea of where everything is going to live.
Let's have a little in the background back here.
We'll take a little white a little bit of our lavender color that we made.
Mix it up, we'll just mix it on the brush.
Doesn't much matter.
And up in here, maybe we'll add a little black to that.
Yeah, yeah I like that.
Maybe in our world, right back in here is a little, is a little headland that lives back here that just sort of projects out into the water.
There, something like that.
See, that's all there is to it.
No big deal.
Now we have one out there.
I'm going to go back to the small fan brush.
And now we can start picking out things.
Today maybe I'll use the little fan brush some.
I'm going to strengthen these.
Actually what I'm doing is adding a little white paint Just a little white paint.
And I'll show you why.
Let me wash that brush.
There we go.
Now be sure it's clean and dry.
And the paint that's up here is enough to do what we want to do.
We're going to take that and begin pulling it back.
Just pull it back.
See, just pull it back.
But notice the strokes there.
Sort of rocking like little strokes.
Very, very important.
And what you're interested in is the dark area, not the light area.
There just wipe off the paint.
See there, just little rocking strokes.
And from here lead them back.
Try to maintain that dark area in there though, that's what we're looking for.
That's the goody.
Now the most fun part of doing seascapes is the eye of the wave.
Or the transparency, whatever you want to call it.
Let's say it lives right here.
We can still use the little fan brush, it doesn't matter, or you can use a filbert.
Scratch in a little bit of that.
But we're really applying a lot of pressure.
We're really pushing that color right into the canvas.
And you can do it several times to achieve a desired lightness.
But I'd recommend you wash the brush each time so you start with a nice fresh color.
There, we about wore this brush out washing it.
But that's okay.
Now to our little blender.
And very lightly.
This little blender's wonderful for these.
Wonderful, because you can make thing here that are absolutely just as smooth as silk.
There we go, just tiny little circles.
But the bristles aren't hardly moving.
Just wind it up.
There, just a nice little light spot out there.
A little hair there.
Alright.
Okay, now we can begin putting some goodies in there.
Let's take a little bit of the titanium white and think about where the water's going to crash over here.
It's going to go, shew, like so, You've got to make those little noises though, if you don't make those little noises it just doesn't work.
No, that's not true, you don't have to make those.
I like to make them, but you know how painters are we're sort of different, a little weird.
There we go, that's basically all we need.
And to make the little crashing thing there we'll take that, we're using lavender in this so we'll just continue with it.
Works well.
Just load a little bit of that lavender color, I'm going to add a touch more blue to it, get a little more to the blue side.
There we go.
Now maybe, I don't think you'll be able to see this, but it's just a shadow color I'm putting underneath.
There you can see it as it comes up over here.
See just a little shadow, so when we put that nice foam on top of it, it will jump right out at us.
But you need that dark color underneath, just sort of bring it all together.
Once again you could do this with a filbert, and I do a lot of the times.
Today I just sort of got started with a little fan brush and decided to go with it.
Doesn't matter, anything that works for you.
Load a little bit of titanium white on here.
There just a little crasher, just a little bit of crashing going on out in here.
Just wipe of the paint, reload it sometime.
There we go.
Little more paint.
Shhh, as I say these little noises sorta help me I like em.
Okay,now then.
Let's take a little blender and very lightly, just barley touch, just barley touch.
I'm going to blend this edge out a little bit, right in here, very soft.
Alright.
There we go.
And now then we can start having some fun here.
Take the paint thinner, little bit of the titanium white, And let's make a thin paint here so we can just start putting some of the goodies in here, some of the things that really make it stand out well.
There we go.
Little more paint on the brush.
See, just pick out all the little waves.
Way back in the distance here, shh.
There.
That's a very simple way of making a seascape that's very colorful, quite effective.
You'll like it, you'll like it.
And let some of these things just work down.
See you begin getting all kinds of little foam patterns in here.
There they go.
This is where you create this shape in the wave.
This is what makes it all come together.
There we are.
Okay, maybe, let's see here, we had alizarin crimson and sap green to make brown.
Make up a little more brown.
And maybe in our world, maybe in our world We will use a filbert here, maybe right over here in this this little crasher wave lives, a big old stone.
Right there.
Just making that out of brown.
Comes right down into the crashing wave, just going all over that.
Let me wipe off the excess paint.
I'm going to put a little bit of bright red.
Maybe a little lavender mixed with it.
Oh, that's nice.
That dulls it down just a little.
There, and we'll just sort of form us some basic little rocks out here, we don't much care.
I like doing little seascapes like this, they're so much fun.
So much fun.
I was born in Daytona Beach, Florida.
So I sort of grew up around the water, sort of grew up around it.
There.
I still spend quite a bit of time over by the beach.
I like that, I like the water.
Put a little, a few little splasher doers all up through here.
Little splasher doers, that's a word I made up.
But you know what I'm talking about.
Steve, my son, now both seem to have this tendency to make up words.
Alright, down here I want a little beachy area.
So I'm going to take a little white.
A little white, a little touch of the cad yellow in it.
Figure out where you want the beach to be.
Pull straight down.
Just pull it straight down.
See, that brown now shows up.
I then go across.
Already it's beginning to look like wet water just by doing that.
Take our knife, small knife, small knife.
Get a little roll of paint on it.
Figure out basically where you want the little ripples to be.
There they come.
Firm, firm pressure, really firm, bending the blade.
Don't break it, but bend it.
And that will help give you that illusion there that you're looking for.
Alright, and maybe in our world, yep you're right, there's another one, something about like that.
Goes right off that edge.
That's okay, take fan brush and very lightly, we want to grab that and pull it back.
Just give it a little backward pull.
There, but basically pretty straight, if anything let it tilt downward so it looks like the water is running downward there.
We can use a little filbert, put a little white on it here.
And we can just begin working on all kinds of little, little patterns and little things, little foam patterns that are happening in here.
Let them happen, don't worry about em.
There they go.
See and maybe in here there's some, just little things going on.
There.
Just give it a little pull.
Angles are most important in here though.
Pay very close attention to your angles.
They can be your best friend, or your worst enemy.
Just depends on, just depends on how they go.
A little bit more of the titanium white, little blue in it.
Come along and enforce some of these things.
Now at home, where you have unlimited time, you can really put some time in here, you can put all kinds of little details.
That's what makes your painting special.
That's really what makes it gorgeous, what makes it stand out.
There, just sort of skip around here and there and put all kinds of little doers in.
There we go.
(tapping) Now then, back to my little filbert brush that has the brown on it.
And maybe there's a little stone over here on this side too.
Shoot, bet he's got a friend right there.
We'll have little rocks all over the place.
Okay, a little bit of the bright red.
And we'll come right in here and just highlight that little stone.
Just enough to make him stand out some.
Take a little bit of the liquid white on the knife.
And just like if we were in water you can put little water lines right around it so it looks like it's part of the whole overall scene.
There.
Liner brush, oh liner brush.
We take a little bit of the brown.
A little bit of the brown.
You know me, I've got to have a tree.
I've got to, okay, little tree.
But I need a tree, I like trees.
Maybe, off of this old rock here there's one old tree.
That's trying to make it.
He's trying to make a living out here on this rock.
This is not the best place to try to survive.
Maybe he didn't, maybe he didn't.
Gnarly old tree.
So the arms are wiggly.
He's really had a hard life.
Okay See that tree has some character.
This would be a nice tree for the seagull to come land in.
Sit up here and see what's happening, he could check it out.
Okay take a little more paint thinner.
A little bit of that lavender color, but I'm thinning it down too, very thin, very thin.
Just about like ink.
And underneath this little wave here, I wan to put a dark line.
A dark line will separate.
And we can see little seaweeds and things through there.
But this is how we shape the wave.
We have curves now, you can see through it, it's transparent.
We can see right through that rascal.
Little of that dark right along in there.
That dark is your good friend right here.
It separates once again.
There, something like so.
And you just sort of vary these back and forth.
I'm going to go into the white with the least little touch of cad yellow thinned down with paint thinner.
Right underneath here, where it's the brightest, we can begin putting some nice bright shiny little highlights that are just zinging right through there.
See you can just put those wherever you want them.
Something like that.
And that's basically how to do a very simple little seascape Let's take the contact paper off now and see what we have.
You never know until you take the paper off whether it's going to work or not.
And I think this one turned out pretty good.
Pretty good for a quickie.
Let's take a little bit of the bright red, a little paint thinner.
I think this one's ready for a signature.
So we'll just come right down in here and sign this little rascal.
Like that.
I hope you've enjoyed this one.
If you have time, send me a picture of your attempt.
I'd love to see what you're doing.
And from all of us here I'd like to wish you happy painting and God Bless my friend.
If this is your first time with us, allow me to extend a personal invitation for you to drag out your paints and some big, ol' unorthodox brushes and I'll show you how to do some fantastic little landscapes that you can do.
So I'll tell you what, today let's start out and have 'em run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint this little painting with us, and while they're doing that let me show you what I've gotten done up here.
Today, I've taken an 18 by 24, double prime, pre-stretch canvas and I've just covered the entire canvas with black gesso.
And black gesso is just an acrylic paint that makes the canvas black.
I've allowed that to dry completely.
On top of that, take a little piece of contact paper here, any sticky back paper cut an oval, stuck it on there.
Then on the inside here, after we have the contact paper on, I've taken a little bit of liquid clear and covered the entire inside.
Then we've taken alizarin crimson, just plain ol' alizerin crimson covered the entire canvas.
And on the corner over here I've put a little bit of phthalo blue, just so it's sort of a lavender color over here.
I know it sounds complicated but believe it or not it is extremely simple.
Black gesso, liquid clear, alizarin crimson, a little phthalo blue in the corner and just blend it out.
And with that let me show you how much fun we can have.
Let's start today with a least little bit of indian yellow.
I just want a very small amount.
Just a small amount.
And I'll go right up in here and get a little bit of white on there.
So we have a little indian yellow and a little bit of titanium white on a little two inch brush.
Let's go right up in here.
Now, let's decide where our light area will be, and right in here let's start making little X's, little criss cross strokes, something like that.
And we just begin letting that blend outward and upward.
I want this to be the lightest area in my sky.
So with that, all we have to do is start making little X's.
Little more paint on the brush, and we just continue to blend.
Isn't that fantastic?
I love these black canvasses because you put the transparent color on there, they still look black, but when you start painting you add a little white, or yellow or something in there, and they come alive.
Notice that I'm always taking the pure color back to the lightest area and working outward.
That way we assure that the lightest color is right in there, and that's where we want it.
Alright.
Look at all those beautiful colors, they just... they happen automatically.
This is a very, very easy style of painting.
Anybody can do this.
I get letters everyday from people all over the country.
They say, "I never believed I could paint, but I've tried what you showed me on television and it works for me.
It works." Alright.
Now I want to make that a little brighter yet.
So I'm going to take some more of the titanium white and a little bit of canyon yellow, it's very bright yellow, very strong yellow.
Just a little.
Now I'll go right up in here, and just above there, add a little bit of that.
There.
Just, still making little X's with the criss-cross strokes.
Something about like that, let it blend upward.
Once again, always start in the lightest area and work outward, because you're gonna pick up this transparent color this on the canvas and automatically it will get darker and darker as you work away from that center area.
Something about like so.
There.
We'll take the little blender brush and come back and smooth all that out in a second.
In the meantime I'm going to grab another brush.
I have several of them going so I don't have to spend all my time just washing brushes.
Take a little white and let's get crazy, shoot, let's get a little bit of this bright red.
That's a gorgeous color but it's very strong.
Be careful with it.
Just a tap a little into the bristles, that's all we're doing, just tapping.
And maybe up here now we'll...
maybe... yep.
There's some, just some happy little things that happen up here in the sky.
Just little things like this, and we'll dance a few little colors in here.
In your world you put any color or any shape that you want.
Painting is a very individual thing.
Everybody will see nature through different eyes and that's the beauty of it.
You can paint any world that you want here.
Any world that you want.
Maybe there's a little dooer comes out here, I don't know, doesn't really matter.
You decide.
Take a little blue, a little crimson, just mix them on the brush here.
Make sort of a little lavender color but to the reddish side.
Now the blue is many, many times stronger than the crimson, so proportionately you need much, much more crimson than you do blue.
Then I'm just gonna begin laying in some little colors under in here and wherever we want them.
Just have fun with this, let it happen.
Let it happen.
We don't do any drawings or tracings, we really learn to create here.
We let our imagination take us to worlds we never knew existed, and in those worlds we find peace, we find happiness.
Good things happen here.
Little blender brush, it's a very soft brush.
Very soft.
Make a nice, nice makeup brush even.
But with that, because the paint we use here is very firm and very dry, very thick paint, we can take this little blender and go right over it.
Just like that.
Isn't that something?
That easy.
There, we can just work on this a little, and the more you blend this the more it just goes right into those background colors and gorgeous things happen automatically.
Automatically.
Put a little white paint on there, maybe we'll brighten that a little, right in there.
I want that to stand out.
Something about like that.
Alright.
Okay.
Now that, it's time to have some fun in here.
Let's get a little fan brush, take a fan brush.
I'm gonna mix up, we'll take some alizarin crimson, a little bit of the phthalo blue, maybe even put a little black in there.
Like that.
I'm gonna get a little titanium white.
I'm looking for sort of a... mmm...
that color.
That color right there.
Sort of a grey, grey to the blue side.
Okay?
Let me wipe the knife off.
Let me just wipe the knife of a little paper towel.
Take the fan brush, and we'll load both sides full of color just by going back and forth.
Alright.
Now then up in here, maybe in our world back in here lives some little evergreen trees.
and sometimes you can make gorgeous little tree indications, just taking a little fan brush and pushing upward, just push it upward.
We'll make all kinds of little trees.
I'm gonna add the least little touch of white there so it stands out a little better, so for television it shows up.
There.
That shows up a little better.
But in your world you make them any degree of darkness or lightness that you want.
There we go.
Wherever, wherever.
And did you know, if you've painted with me before, we don't make mistakes.
We have happy accidents.
And all that means is that very soon you learn to work with anything that happens on this piece of canvas.
Literally anything that happens.
Because sometimes things that you think are big mistakes and you're really worried about, when the painting's finished they end up being the highlight of the entire painting.
There.
And each painting will teach you something.
Learn from it.
As long as you learn from an experience then it's not wasted.
It's not wasted.
It's only wasted when you accept it as failure.
And we don't have any failure here.
We don't have any.
It's against the rules.
In Bob's world, that's against the rules.
Now then, I'll go back to a two inch brush, be sure it's clean and dry, and I want to create the illusion of mist down at the base of this.
So all we do, firmly, with the top corner of the brush, just tap.
Just tap it.
That's really and truly all there is to it.
Then we're gonna lift slightly upward, just enough to take out the little tap marks and sort of blend everything together and make it very soft.
Now, it looks like a little row of trees that lives wee wee back here in the distance somewhere.
Just happy little trees.
Now, I'm going to go into crimson, blue, and black same colors but this time I'm gonna add much much less of the white color to it.
Much less.
There, I want it to be quite a bit darker.
In a landscape painting, as you know, as things get closer to you they should get darker and darker in value.
This is sort of a lavender color.
Load both sides of the ol' fan brush, and let's put another row of trees.
Another thing that you find when you're doing landscapes, the more plains or the more areas that you have in here, the deeper that your painting will look.
That's what gives a painting depth, distance.
That's what will make your painting very, very special.
When people look at it they'll say, "Oh I can look in there and see forever." There.
And that's what does it.
Maybe this comes, yeah, why not?
Right up in here.
Something like that.
And we're just looking for indications for trees.
These are too far away to see a lot of detail.
We'll put a little detail on them but not much.
Not much, we get too much detail it will ruin that illusion of distance in your painting.
And that's a good friend.
We want that.
Alright, now if you want to give a few of these trees the indication of a little more detail, just do that.
Take the corner of the fan brush and make it look like here and there, and there and here, there's a big strong tree that lives up in here.
Maybe he got more sunlight or more water, and he grew big.
Just wherever you think they should be.
Just drop them in.
Like that.
Shoot, I think we about have that.
Maybe a couple over on this side.
But that easy, we can make a pretty nice little background.
Go back to our little two inch brush here tap a little on the bottom, just enough to create that misty illusion again.
Very lightly.
Very lightly.
Lift upward.
Very lightly.
Something like that.
You know for many years I was a traditional painter, and one of the things, when I was a traditional painter, that was extremely difficult was making reflections, and in this technique it's one of the easiest, nicest, most effective things that happened.
Watch here.
Come right up in here.
All you have to do is touch the canvas with a little titanium white, we have color on the canvas already and pull it straight down.
It's important to come straight down though.
Straight down.
It'll pick up all those gorgeous transparent colors that we had underneath there.
That easy.
And very gently, we go across.
Just like that.
See there?
And instantly it begins looking like water.
Time to wash the ol' brush.
If you've painted with me before, you know this is really the whole thing, it's the most fun part of the entire procedure.
Shake it off.
And just beat the devil out of it.
I thought maybe today we'd have a little snow scene.
I'll show you a very easy way of making snow.
Very easy way.
We'll just take titanium white we use that same ol' two inch brush.
This is one of the simplest ways of making very nice snow.
Tap it.
If you've painted with me before this is the way we make little grassy areas, but I want to make snow that looks powdery, like, well skiers call it powder so sometimes snow looks like that.
All you do is just tap.
Just tap.
Something like so.
Very gently.
There.
See?
That's all there is to it.
All there is to it.
All you're doing is just tapping the canvas.
And we'll go back to this very, very soft blender brush.
It's very soft.
Get a clean one and gently just graze it just enough to bring it together.
And it'll give that indication of very soft snow.
Watch here, watch here, watch here.
I get excited.
I've probably painted a million pictures, I think, and I still get excited with this.
Maybe in our world maybe this tree watch here you can grab trees and pull them into the foreground.
This easy.
Just gonna take that tree bring it right on down and we'll bring it right here so it pushes that little snowbank back.
It goes back behind it now.
It works so good in me we'll have one over here, too.
I like that.
I like that.
And this is your world so you can do anything that you want here.
Any ol' thing that you want, there it goes.
Have one there.
Let's give him a friend.
I like to make evergreen trees.
They work so well and they're a lot of fun, and they're gorgeous.
Absolutely gorgeous.
Now we can go back to our ol' brush here that has the titanium white on it, load a little bit.
And you work in layers.
See we did the thing that was in the background first.
And now we'll begin working forward, forward, forward.
Always starting with the most distant object and working forward.
There we go.
On the other side we'll do the same thing, we'll bring it right underneath this tree.
Just right on out, a little join together there.
There.
Alright.
But isn't that a super easy way of doing a very effective illusion?
Just making snow?
Back to our little blender brush.
Very lightly.
Two hairs and some air.
Very lightly, just blend that.
Now we have that white on the brush, let's go back and reinforce this reflection.
I want to make it a little brighter so it jumps out at you.
Just like that.
And go across.
Just like that.
Now then, just take a little bit of the liquid white.
Liquid white is just an oil based medium.
And we use it to thin paint, we use it to cover the canvas, and we use it to make water lines.
Just cut across, can you see that?
Just cut across with a knife.
And we go right up in here and let's just cut in a little water line that lives right there.
Right there.
That's all there is to it.
These water lines should be basically straight though.
By that I mean going back and forth across, because if they're not straight your water look like it's gonna run right out of the painting.
You might have to tie a bucket on the side to catch the overflow.
There.
Maybe down in here there's a little ripple.
Whatever.
Whatever.
It's up to you.
Totally and completely.
There we are.
Like that.
Now then, you ready to get crazy?
Let's do it.
Let's have some big fun.
Let's take a phthalo blue and alizarin crimson and no white, it's just blue and crimson.
I'm making a very deep lavender that should look black.
Tap the bristles of the brush firmly into the paint.
Give it a little push.
And time to get crazy, this is your bravery test.
Maybe we've got a big tree.
You know me, I like big trees.
Yep, there it is.
There it is.
It lives right up here.
And I'm using, just mainly the corner of the brush oops went right over that tree.
That's alright, we know he's back there.
Maybe, maybe, maybe in our world maybe there's a big bush.
You're right, he lives right there.
Just sort of make these things up in your mind and let them go whever you want them.
Maybe there's...
maybe there's a whole little group of bushes that live here.
I don't know.
A little bunny rabbit has to have a place to hide.
And that's a pretty good one right there.
We can take our liner brush, use a little of the dark sienna, and I'm thinning the paint because one of our golden rules is a thin paint will stick to a thick paint.
Thin will stick to thick.
Taken this dark sienna, a little bit of white in it, just enough to dilute it a little.
And here and there we're gonna just put in an indication of a few little tree trunks and sticks and twigs that live back.
Not looking for a lot of detail.
Not yet.
We're gonna put some detail in the foreground but not yet.
And we'll probably cover most of those up but a few of them's gonna show through and it'll look like you worked yourself to death up there trying to get all those.
Let's go into a little white and a little touch, a little touch, of phthalo blue with it.
Just enough to cool it.
Not much.
Titanium white, but push it, push it.
You can see that little ridge of paint right there.
There's one just like it on your brush and that's what we end up painting with.
Push it, about a 45 degree angle.
Now very lightly, using just the corner of the brush, just begin tapping in all kinds of little things in there.
Okay, maybe we need to load a little more paint on the brush.
Now if you have trouble making a stick, add the least little touch of liquid white or paint thinner.
The liquid white will make your color a little brighter, the paint thinner will leave it the same color.
They both work very well, make up your mind what you want to do.
If you want it to be a little brighter then add the liquid white.
If you want it to stay the same color paint thinner.
But very little, no matter what.
Very little.
The secret to this painting technique is to keep your oil paints as firm and dry as possible.
That way you can continually paint over the top of it without them mixing together.
You don't want to become a mud mixer.
And if you've painted, we've all mixed a little mud.
There we go.
See?
Now think about, think about little individual bushes and stuff that live in here.
I'm gonna dip the brush into a little touch of the liquid white myself.
Just to thin that down so it sticks easier.
There we go.
Think about shape and form.
Don't just throw these in at random.
One at a time.
Do the one that you think is farthest away and work forward, forward, forward.
Always working forward.
There we go.
One at a time.
One at a time.
I know you get tired of hearing that, but it works for you.
And I want this, I want you to enjoy success with this.
Cuz if you enjoy success you'll get hooked on it.
I enjoyed some success with this many years ago.
And it has become my entire life and I love it.
Let's go into vandyke brown and some dark sienna.
We'll just mix them together.
Vandyke brown, dark sienna bravery test time.
Maybe in our world there lives you ready for this?
There lives right here, in one stroke, let's put a nice tree trunk.
Alright let's give him a friend.
Yeah I know, I think everybody should have a friend, even a tree.
Even an ol' tree.
A little titanium white, this is a birch tree, I've decided.
Touch, give it a little round-ward pull.
Let me exaggerate. (whistle) That way.
Gotta make that little noise, too.
See there?
Just make it look, no pressure.
Let the knife just barely, barely touch so the paint breaks.
And by breaking I mean it leaves all those little open holes in it.
There.
On the other side, a little bit in the other direction.
Like so.
There.
Wherever you think they should be.
Something like so, we can go back to the dark sienna and vandyke brown mixture, add a little bit right in the middle, and when this dries and it dries, it will feel like real birch bark.
It'll project off the canvas.
The paint's think, there's a lot of it.
It really, really jumps right off there.
Let's go back to our little liner brush.
Get a little of that vandyke brown, paint thinner.
The thinner's there only to thin the paint, make it very thin.
Very thin.
And here and there let's just put an indication of a few little limbs and little things that live out here.
This little tree needs some arms on him.
Shoot, he's got to reach out and talk to this guy.
There we go.
Just a few.
Just a few.
That works so well, I think it's time to really get crazy.
Let me put a little bush down here.
I want to cover up his foots.
Down here at the base of this, just wanna cover his foots up.
Right now they're sort of just hanging there.
But we'll make them come right out of that little bush.
Right there, right there.
I'm going back into my brown.
Big bravery test.
Right there.
Right there.
Maybe this is a different kind of tree here, just to break it up a little bit.
Let's take some white, a little dark sienna, mix it together.
Put a little vandyke in there, too, what the heck.
Take a little bit of paint and all we're gonna do is just begin touching, just touch, something like so.
There we are.
Just touch it.
Touch it.
That's all. Touch.
And as you work around we're gonna let it get darker and darker and darker and darker.
As it goes around the tree.
Put a little brown with your color, a little of that vandyke brown, see it gets darker automatically.
Once again when this is dry it will actually feel like bark on a tree.
Alright, wipe the knife off.
Back to the paint thinner.
Little bit of vandyke brown with paint thinner.
Just to thin it.
And let's put an arm on this tree.
Maybe it lives in our world right out in here.
Boy, this would be a gorgeous place for a tree to live.
Gorgeous place for a tree to live.
Maybe there's another arm right here.
It's up to you.
You decide how many arms are on your tree.
Or how few.
Maybe your tree died last year, or sometime, and it's just about just about over.
Make up little stories when you're painting, little stories just in your mind.
And then you actually project yourself into that scene.
And when you do, this becomes a reality sorta.
And you know, painters are expected to be a little strange so, that's alright if you stand around and talk to yourself about this scene and the ol' guy that lived out here or whatever, that's alright if people look at you a little strange.
Painters are supposed to be that way.
Maybe out in here there's just a little ol' stick that lives.
Use a little of the light color here.
Wherever you think that should be.
It's up to you.
Up to you.
I'll tell you what, maybe there's an ol' limb.
Right there.
Something like that.
He's a tired old limb.
Now you can take the knife get that brush clean, and you can scrape through this and allow the black canvas to show through.
And it'll look like little sticks and twigs that live back in here.
I hope you can see those.
When you do your own painting you'll see them, they'll be there.
Something about like so.
Alright, that's all there is to it.
I think we're about ready to take the contact paper off here and see what we have.
This is the moment of truth.
So we just grab the paper pull it right off.
And all of a sudden you have a painting that's right there in that oval.
And it comes out so gorgeous, and it just, these painting's excite people.
I know none of us are interested in those happy bucks but if you're out selling paintings, these are different.
You'll be surprised at how people will come along and they'll marvel at how you did this.
It's very very nice.
I think it's time to sign this ol' painting.
And with that, we'll take a little bit of the bright red.
Signatures are as unique as painters.
Each person will develop their own signature.
So find your own signature.
I've had people that sign with initials, with their whole name, I've even known people who've signed with a little symbol.
It's up to you.
But pick a signature and stick with it, because it becomes your trademark.
And people a hundred years from now will look at your painting and recognize exactly that it was you.
Alright, let's go right in here and just sign this one.
I have a very short name, so it's quite easy.
We'll sign it, call it done.
There.
And I hope you enjoyed this one.
It's a very easy painting, I'd love to see some photos of your work.
From all of us here, I'd like to wish you happy painting and God bless, my friend.
(instrumental music) (light music) Welcome back.
Certainly glad to see you today.
I thought today we'd do a painting that's just, it's a lot of fun, very simple, and I think you'll enjoy it.
So let's start out and have them run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint this with me at home.
While they're doing that, let me show you what I got going up here today.
I have my standard old, well, I'm using an 18 by 24 inch canvas, but you use any size that you like and all I've done is covered the entire canvas with a very, very...
Let me say it one more time.
A very thin coat of liquid clear.
Now, the clear's on here just to make the canvas wet and slick and that's really the only reason it's there.
Be careful when you're using this clear because you can't see it up here hardly.
It's hard to, it's hard to tell if you have enough.
If you have any doubt...
Because usually, you put too much on.
If you have any doubt, take a paper towel and wipe it down.
What's left will be just right.
It's better to have too litte than it is to have too much.
You just wanna make the paint slide on there.
Let's have fun today.
The old two-inch brush.
And I'm gonna use very, very little color.
Pull the smallest little amount, smallest little amount of the blue out here.
Little, tiny bit of blue.
Very small amount.
Let's go up in here.
Now, very gently I'm just going to begin applying some color up here in the sky.
I want the...
Let's do a winter scene today.
So, let's make it very soft, very misty.
One of those winter...
Tell you what, let's get crazy.
Let's get crazy today.
Let's have a...
Maybe a few little buildings down here like a little farm scene or something.
I don't know.
Just sort of do it and see what happens.
It doesn't matter because as you know, in our world, we don't make mistakes.
We just have happy accidents.
It's the only world I live in where there's no mistakes at all.
That's what makes it so wonderful.
Very little color.
Shoot, while I got that going, let's just keep going.
Maybe we'll just put a little bit of this blue all over.
We're gonna have a winter scene and we're gonna need some shadows in our snow, so by applying a little blue down here, we'll use that later on.
Automatically, this will become our shadows.
And if worst comes to worst, what the heck?
We'll turn it into a nice lake or pond or whatever we want.
Doesn't matter.
That's what's so nice about this.
You can change your mind right mid-stream.
Okay, fun time.
Fun time.
Let's wash the brush.
As you know, we wash our brush with odorless paint thinner.
Shake it off.
And just beat the devil out of it.
Now, let's go back with titanium white.
First of all, the prussian blue is transparent.
It's very transparent.
Now, I'm gonna go into an opaque color.
The titanium white and it is very opaque.
Very opaque.
Just a little color on here, and let's go up in here and let's just play a little bit.
Let's just pick out some areas like this.
We want this painting, as I say, to be very soft, very gentle quiet little painting.
I don't want a strong, distinct sky here that, that, will be distracting.
I want a very gentle, quiet little sky.
And so that's what we shall have.
There.
In our world, we can create any illusion that we want.
And today, I want softness in our world.
Tranquility, quiet.
Peaceful.
Shoot, there's too much bad stuff going on in our world.
We're gonna have a very peaceful place.
Everybody's happy, even the little creatures.
There we are.
That's really, that's really about all I want for this sky.
I don't wanna do much more than that.
Something about like that.
And I get to wash the brush again.
All right.
I really, really just wanted to wash the brush.
Shake it off.
(laughs) You know they...
If you're gonna do this at home, I suggest you get a little thing called a brush meter rack.
It goes down in a garbage can, 'cause if you do this in your living room, you're not gonna be very popular.
Guarantee.
Guarantee.
All right.
Let's go into a little black.
Very small amount of blue, but there's very little paint.
Very little paint here, and I just wanna tap in some little indications, barely touching the canvas.
Little indications far away, far away, almost the same color as the sky.
Very light, far away.
Remember that.
I keep saying it because it's important.
Now, you can take this...
I wanna blend the edges out so it just disappears.
Just sort of disappears softly.
Softly.
I don't do a lot of soft paintings on television 'cause they don't show up quite as well, but I thought today, we'll do one anyway.
There.
Softly.
Blending those edges out a little bit so it just sort of disappears.
If you want to make this sort of look like it just, I don't know, like it sort of flows, almost like a watercolor, leave a little more paint thinner on your brush because paint thinner and liquid clear, they have a violent reaction and it'll sort of just grow and it's beautiful.
Looks like watercolor.
There.
Something about like that.
That's a little background or something that's way back here.
We don't even care where it's at.
Far away.
Let's have one in the foreground, a little closer to us.
We'll use the same color, only a little more paint and I'll add the least, least little touch of Van Dyke brown to it.
But there's still not a great deal of paint on the brush.
Not a great deal. Let's go up in here.
Tell you what, let me show you something.
I'm gonna take just the least little touch of paint thinner.
Remember I told you that paint thinner and liquid clear have a violent reaction.
Wipe off all the excess. Don't want much.
Then we just sort of tap all these colors together and right here, let's just begin tapping in some basic little shapes.
Very, very basic.
There's paint thinner in here.
Not a lot.
I wiped all of it off, as you saw, that I could get off, but I didn't beat the brush.
So there's still some in here.
We're just putting indication of all kinds of little things that live up in here.
There.
All right.
What's the old saying?
You don't have to be crazy to do this, but it helps.
Sometimes it does.
You really...
This is where you enjoy freedom on canvas.
Just let things happen. Let them happen.
There.
Now, this will continue to dilute the paint thinner.
Will continue to dilute the liquid clear and you'll get reactions maybe for several hours.
It'll be very slight, but it'll be a little bit different.
Let me show you. Watch here.
You can even take a little paint thinner on the fan brush and flick it.
Look at that! Look at that!
Isn't that gorgeous?
Look at those effects.
It makes one of the neatest little nicest things and all you gotta do...
See? Just flick it.
And you can use the knife to flick it or I'm just using the side of the palette, whatever.
Doesn't matter.
But that'll continue to work.
It looks...
Once again, it looks like a watercolor.
All right.
Let's put another little bush. Same colors.
Just tapping.
Each layer gets a little bit darker as it gets closer to us.
And maybe in our world, there's one more little tree lives right here.
We don't know.
Don't know that we even care at this point in our life.
There. Just make all kinds of little things.
Okay.
Yep, there's another one there.
Here's one here.
Sometimes you can just take and push sidewards, create all kind of little illusions here.
Is that another one?
Then I'll take it and pull it.
Lift it.
See there?
Pull those little things out.
That paint thinner and clear will continue to work for a while once again.
I like these kind of little paintings.
They're so soft.
So nice.
They're very moody little paintings.
Yeah, there we are.
Okay.
And that gives us a fairly good little background.
You can enhance that a little, taking a little paint thinner, a little pit of white paint.
Put a little blue in it too just to dull it a little.
And maybe, in our world, maybe they're some little tree trunks that live up through here.
Just a few.
There we are.
See?
You can pull it down, you can lift it up.
Whatever works well for you.
Few little things in here.
You can actually just take plain paint thinner and do this.
It'll lift the paint off the canvas, and you can get basically the same effect by just allowing the canvas to show through.
There.
All kinds of little doers happening.
Now, we decided early that this was gonna be winter.
Let's get the bravery test out here.
We'll go right into titanium white.
Titanium white. Let's go up in here.
Where is the snow?
The easiest way there ever was to make snow.
There.
Just like it.
And it goes (makes painting noise) right on across.
I don't know.
Now see, intentionally, I went around this tree.
Now it looks like this tree is forward.
Does that make any sense?
I hope I'm saying that right so you understand.
Sometimes I get so excited, I, I don't say things right.
But that's just a neat effect, ain't it?
Look at that.
It's setting down in the snow.
Right out there.
Let's see.
We decided we was gonna have some buildings out here.
Maybe one of the easiest ways that I've found to make a building is take the knife, and just firmly scrape out a basic shape.
It does two things.
Most important, it removes excess paint.
Secondly, it allows you to lay out your buildings.
Let's put a shed on this one. What the heck?
Maybe that's an old barn with a shed on it.
Like it.
But you can lay out a whole series of buildings.
Maybe there're more than one.
Right there.
We don't care.
Without being committed, anyway, that's what I'm trying to say.
You're not committed at this point.
There.
Let's take a little Van Dyke, little dark cyan, and mix it together.
Van Dyke and dark cyan.
I'm just gonna use them together.
And now, we can figure out here where the dark part is.
And in my world, I think it's right here.
You don't have to stay in the lines that you scraped out.
You can go anywhere you want with this.
There are no rules here other than it should make you happy, and whatever works, is good.
Whatever works.
Painting is such an individual thing.
Every person who's ever painted has a different opinion of why it works and how it should work, but I believe that it's an individual thing, and if you're happy with your painting, then the world's happy with it.
What's the old saying about if you smile, the world smiles with you and all that?
Same thing here.
We were gonna have a shed here. Forgot.
There.
Now, we can come back.
Still using a knife, take a little bit of paint, and maybe, maybe this building here is straight on.
Let me get a little more paint there.
Straight on toward us.
And sort of allow that to break sometimes.
Makes it looks like the snow sorta sliding down.
(makes sliding sounds) Straight down.
Woops, got a little doer hanging off there.
There.
All right.
A little bit more here for the little shed.
There he is.
Looks like icicles right there already.
There.
Something about like it.
And that's quick enough to give us an idea of a little building.
And we take a little brown and a little white, mix them together.
Little brown, little white.
Ooh, that's nice.
Don't overmix.
Touch.
Just pull gently down.
In my mind, I think this little shed is not gonna get as much light, so it's gonna be a little darker back here.
So I'll make it a little darker so he's pushed back a little more.
I think in my mind this side of the house will be a little lighter than the front or the barn, whatever this is.
I don't know what it is.
Whatever you want it to be.
A little more brown in there.
This side over here now is very dark in comparison.
It's sorta, this is sorta like a three-quarter view.
All right.
Clean off the knife.
Choose a little edge and maybe there's a few little windows in here.
Just doop, doop, three...
There.
See? Whole line of little windows.
Maybe the cows live in here and need a place to look out.
They wanna see what's happening out here too.
There.
We'll put a couple little windows in there.
It's your world.
You decide what's in there and what's not.
As I've mentioned many times before, I sort of make up little stories in my mind.
I'm just pulling a little brown through there to make it look like old boards living in there.
But these little stories, they really help me.
I don't know if they'll help you, but I believe they will.
Make up little stories about your world.
Boy, that's some rough looking snow there.
Old snow laying up there.
We need snow on this other building.
(makes swooping noises) There we are.
Little bit there.
All right.
Now, sometimes when you have the clear there this doesn't want to stick too good.
If that's the case, add a little liquid white to make your paint a little thinner.
Then it'll stick.
It's all you have to do.
Over here on this side, put a little snow out there.
Little touch of brown, for the eve or the overhang.
Like it.
Shoot.
We're 'bout to have an old building there.
And I want these to look like they've, they've had a rough life.
Real rough life.
We'll take our big brush.
Little bit of snow right there.
Make a little shadow in the snow.
All we have to do is put a little blue in there for that.
Little darker blue.
All right.
Over here (makes swooping noise).
Cut that off like that.
The side like it.
Now we're in business.
So we have two little buildings out here.
Little bit more of the blue color.
I put some blue down here, but it's not as dark as I want it to be.
I want it to be a little bit darker.
So I'll just add a little more, because in our world, we can add anything that we want.
There.
Over in here.
You know, a couple of shows ago, I've mentioned something about this easel.
We have a brand new easel in this series.
And we've been absolutely flooded with requests wanting to know more about it.
What can I tell you?
It's a very unique easel.
The greatest thing about it is the top comes off and makes a tabletop easel.
It has four legs.
Most tabletop easels have three.
When you use a brush this big, you hit it, they fall over.
That's always been a problem, so we designed an easel that has four legs for the tabletop.
Then the nice thing about it, you can order it with just the top.
You just want a tabletop.
Then maybe later on you decide you wanna get serious about it.
You can go back and order the bottom and they go right together.
There.
And it...
It's available I think it most better art stores across the country.
If you can't find one, drop me a line.
I'll find out where they are and let you know.
Okay.
Take a little blue, little white, mix them together.
Maybe in our world...
Let's put the indication of...
Starts out here at nothing.
We'll just let it come round through here.
Just, maybe there's just an indication of a little path or road.
Little road.
Goes right through like that.
Just a little dabble.
Like it.
Comes right off the edge of the canvas here.
This is just blue and white.
There we are.
And we'll bring a little snow right up to it.
Let it just disappear right off the edge.
And you don't have to be careful or anything.
You can clean that up...
when you come back with the snow, you can clean up the edges.
You don't have to worry about it.
Just enjoy.
Just enjoy.
There.
Because maybe, maybe the wind's blowing the snow half way over this little road.
You just can't make out that there's a road there.
The old cows in the barn.
You gotta get up there and take him some hay.
All right.
Don't want the old cow left out.
A little touch of the alizarin crimson into the...
Least little touch into the white.
And maybe nice distinct something right there just to break it up.
There we go.
Little touch more of that crimson.
That gives it a little warm effect.
There.
See, it creates a whole other plain there, even in the snow.
You know, look at this.
I think this farm's deserted.
The more I look at it, the more I think I think this old farm were abandoned, this place.
Yeah, all right.
Let's take a little of that brown.
Little paint thinner.
Liner brush.
Very thin paint.
Lot of it on the bristles.
Liner brush holds a lot of paint.
Maybe in our world...
Yup, maybe there's an old fence left here.
We can just do this with a little liner brush.
As they go away from you, let them get smaller and closer together.
Closer together.
There. See?
And that'll help create that illusion of distance.
Now, maybe there's a little snow on there.
I'll just dip into a little bit of the liquid white.
Just pure liquid white and we'll put the indication of a little snow hanging up here on some of these.
There.
(makes dropping sounds) There they are.
Gotta make those little noises though, or it won't work.
Take just the knife and I'll go through a little bit of brown.
Use just the heel of the knife.
(makes swooshing noise) Go right down, we'll put a little wire on that fence.
Just the heel.
So, let it get wider as it comes forward.
There. Two strands of wire.
That easy.
That easy.
Wish it was that easy to put that wire on your house.
Maybe there's a...
There's another old post up here.
I don't know.
Some kind of big old post that lives there.
Little liquid white.
Need a little something hanging on him.
Sometimes it's nice to add a little blue to the liquid white.
It'll make your snow look colder.
Much, much colder.
Let's use a one-inch brush.
I'm gonna go into a little white, a little bit of the blue.
Little white, little bit of blue.
I want this to be sort of a, a medium blue.
In our world, maybe there's a few little bushes that live back here.
I'm just looking for a little dark color to make some light show up.
Maybe there's a happy bush lives there.
Looks like a tree.
Maybe, maybe there's another one right in here.
I don't know.
Maybe this gentleman takes care of his yard like I did and the bushes and the trees are growing up and taking over his farm.
Now, another white or another one-inch brush going to liquid white.
Now, most important how you load this brush.
Come right down here and watch here.
Pull that brush in one direction.
Isn't that a great close up?
That is fantastic.
Pull that brush in one direction.
Load a lot of color in it.
Watch.
Now, I'm gonna turn it over.
See how that's rounded?
You want that rounded corner to go to the top.
You can also see right there, we just taped this furrows.
I had people write in and they say how come your brush looks different than mine?
We put a little tape on those furrows just to keep them from shining on TV.
It's identical to your brush.
Guarantee.
Now, with that nice, white color, all you gotta to is just go up here and barely touch.
Just barely touch.
We'll put a few highlights on these snow covered now.
There.
Over in here.
Just a few little things.
Don't want a lot.
Just a few.
Just a few.
Now, my brush has got white on.
It'll work just as well.
Come in here.
And with that, you can very gently clean up the bottom.
Sort of begin to bring all this together.
Just using white paint.
There. Pull that out.
See there.
We didn't add a simple and super little, little way to do, maybe like a little farm scene in the winter.
Now, if you live some place where there's a lot of farms, you can look around and see the type of farms that are in your area and paint them to match what you're used to seeing.
It's up to you.
It's really up to you.
I just wanna show you how to do this.
What you do is very individual.
All right.
Something like so.
Okay.
Shoot, I think we about got it here.
You might take...
Let's say this guy didn't keep his grass cut very good, so maybe around here, we can put a few little sticks and twigs around some of these posts.
They usually grow there because you can't cut close to them.
There.
Something like it.
Let's take a little red, a little paint thinner, thin it down 'til it's the consistency, almost the consistency of ink and let's sign this little rascal right there.
Just like so.
If your paint's very thin, it'll flow right over the top of this thick paint.
That easy.
Hope you've enjoyed this one.
It's a very, very simple little painting.
If you've never painted before, this one you can do.
From all of us there, I'd like to wish you happy painting and God bless, my friend.
(mellow music) (soft jazzy music) Hi, I'm glad you could join us today.
I thought today we'd just do a fantastic little scene that I think you'll enjoy.
So let's start out and have them run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint along with us.
While they're doing that, let me show you what I got up here.
Have my plain old 18 by 24 inch double-primed canvas.
And today, I've just covered the entire canvas with a little thin coat of liquid white.
That's really all we have on there, just little liquid white.
And I thought maybe today we'd do a little winter scene.
Now personally, I like winter scenes that are quite warm, and I have a tendency to paint 'em that way, but I've got a lot of letters from people saying, "Hey I like the ones that are very cold." So I want to show you how do to a scene that's very, very (phew) cold.
You may have to put your coat on before this one's over.
So let's just have some fun today.
Let's start out with a small amount of phthalo blue.
Just a little bit.
I'm gonna use a very limited pallet today.
By that, all I mean is just very few colors to do this, mostly just blue, black, and white.
Now then, let's just take a little bit of this phthalo blue, and we'll just start in like this, making little, little X's, little criss-cross.
But I'm gonna start and work outwards so it gets larger.
'Bout like that.
I like phthalo blue.
It's a very warm blue.
Probably has a little green in it.
It's a very nice blue, though.
Now, we have a little blue circle up here in the sky.
Let's take, without even cleaning the brush, and I'm gonna go into Prussian blue.
And Prussian blue is many, many times stronger.
It's a very dark, strong, rich blue.
Just load a little color in that.
And we'll go right up in here.
Still using the little criss-cross strokes.
Something about like that.
Little touch more.
There.
And then I'll just bring it right down into the phthalo blue, just let 'em sort of blend together like so.
We'll come back and blend it a little more in a minute.
There.
But basically, that's all we're looking for.
But the paint goes on very easily because we have the liquid white on here.
It just blends right on here.
If we were working on a dry canvas, you'd probably be in agony city by now.
Probably be upset with me.
And we want this to work for you.
I'm gonna take some Prussian blue and some black.
Each layer, as we go away from the lightest area, is getting darker and darker.
Darker and darker.
There we go.
This is Prussian blue and midnight black.
There.
And, out here on the very end, we'll just go into black.
There.
There is a little blue on the brush so it'll mix with the black that we put on there.
Okay.
Shoot, we just about have- we might as well just fill the whole canvas up, it doesn't matter.
If we're gonna do a little winter picture, you need this blue that ends up down in the snow.
We'll just turn into shadows, it's okay.
We don't worry about it.
Now, the most fun part of the whole technique.
That's washing the brush.
There we go.
Shake off the excess.
(laughter) And there we are.
Now, let's take the old two-inch brush, and I want to take one corner, just one corner, and go into a little bit of titanium white.
That's a beautiful close-up there, but you can see just one corner is hitting the paint.
Okay, let's go back up here.
Now decide where your light source is, and in my painting, I think it's gonna be right here.
In your world, you may want it somewhere else.
But take that one corner, that one corner that has the paint on it and start around, going around.
♫ Around and around and around we go ♫ There we are, see?
That's all there is to it.
And just begin working it outward.
You want this to be the lightest, brightest part of the painting.
There.
And you can do this as many times as you want.
But if you get your brush contaminated with blue, I would suggest that you clean your brush before you go back into the white.
There we are.
I'm gonna clean the brush and do it one more time.
Just to get a little bit brighter.
Actually, I was just looking for an excuse to clean the brush.
One more time, right here, and work outward.
There we go.
All right.
As I say, you can do this several times to achieve a desired lightness.
Now then, we can just blend the rest of the canvas together.
Just blend it til you can't tell where one color stops and the next color starts.
It can be very smooth.
And you can have a graduation of color, quite dark down to almost pure white.
All right, and then very lightly, three hairs and some air, I'll just blend all the way across.
Just to take out the little brush marks and everything and bring it all together.
There.
Okay.
And that's about all I'm gonna do for that little sky.
Let's have some fun.
I'm gonna take a little bit of the blue and some white, mix it together.
I want to make a light blue.
That's pretty good, nice little phthalo, a little Prussian and little white, okay?
And clean off the old knife.
We just wipe the knife on a paper towel.
Hands wiped on the pants.
(laughter) There you go.
I'm gonna take the fan brush, put a little bit ofput some more white in there.
Put a little bit on the bristles.
I don't need a lot of paint.
But it's very light.
In fact, it's almost the color of the sky.
And we can hold it up here and check.
It may not bethis may be- Well, that's gotta be a little darker or you're not gonna see it.
But just sort of test it.
That's good there.
And maybe back in here, there's a little hill.
Once again, I want this almost the color of the sky so you really have to- you have to sort of study to even find it.
This is gonna end up being just the indication of little hills that live far away.
Way back in the distance.
And we can take a two-inch brush, grab that and just gently pull it.
Very gently.
And just blend it together.
Blend it together.
As I say, I want that to be far away.
Quiet, little devil.
There.
Very tranquil, serene.
There.
Just an indication of something going on back there.
Brushed it too slow.
Let's get the old two-inch brush here.
I'm gonna take a little bit of the phthalo blue, ah, we'll add a little Prussian blue, too.
Phthalo and Prussian, both.
Now, tap the brush, push it, get a little bit on theright on the end of the bristles.
Let's go up in here.
Now maybe, see if that's a little darker.
Yep.
Each one of these little foothills that we put in here, I want 'em to get a little darker.
Foothills, little mountains, whatever.
Maybe it goes all the way up to there.
Add a little more color to my brush.
All the way up, and maybe it goes over here.
I don't know, it's up to you.
You make these big decisions for all these little things that live in your world.
There.
Now I'm gonna take and lift upward.
Just lift it straight up, so it looks like little trees that live far, far away.
Way back in the distance somewhere.
We don't know where they are.
Too far away.
There.
Lift upward.
There.
It's unbelievable that you can make such delicate looking little things with a brush this big, but you really can.
Maybe something comes down, right on down through here.
Just let your imagination go.
It'll take you anywhere that you want to be.
Anywhere that you want to be.
Just all kinds of little things that grow down the side of the hill.
There.
This is a very simple little painting.
You should have no problem with it.
If you're just beginning to learn this technique, this is one that you can do.
It's very easy, and it uses very few colors.
Very, very few colors.
All right, once again, lift up.
Make sure these little lines go straight up or it'll look like the wind's blowing about a million miles and hour in your world and all the trees have been blown over nearly.
So make sure that goes straight up.
Something like so.
Okay.
But isn't that a simple, simple way of making a very effective little hill that you can see all the little things growing down on?
Mm, works.
It's what's so great about this technique, it works.
Maybe over here, it's a littlesee?
Just lift upward.
Make all kind of little do-ers.
Wherever you want 'em.
Let's take us a fan brush, little bit of titanium white.
We said this was winter, so we'll put a little snow in there.
Just load some white.
Right on the brush, okay?
Now, you have to start making some decisions.
Maybe there's a little bit of snow laying back in here.
And we want this to indicate that it just sort of climbs right up the side of the mountain there.
That it just disappears.
We don't know where it goes back here.
Don't know that we even care.
Don't know that we even care.
There.
See, but just sort of pay attention to the angles and how they flow in your world.
All right.
See all that blue color that was under there?
It doesn't matter.
It now comes out to be beautiful shadows.
It's one of those happy accidents.
We like those.
There.
Wherever you want this to go.
Already, it looks like you could take your dog sledding and just travel way back in there.
Or your snow machine, or whatever you have.
I lived in Alaska a long time, so I'm used to people having dog sleds.
That's still a big sport in Fairbanks, where I lived.
And they had big dogsled races up there every year, right in the middle of town.
Sometimes they have the Iditarod, which is I think about a 1500 mile dog race.
Boy that'sthat takes a tough person. (phew) And I think it's been won by a lady the last few years.
Mm, okay.
Let's go back to our little fan brush that had the blue on it.
I'm gonna take some white and some blue, since that's all I have is white and blue, basically.
I'm gonna throw a little black in it, too.
This painting is really more of an exercise in values.
The intensity of the color.
Let me wipe off the knife.
There.
We'll load a little of that on the fan brush and maybe, maybe, maybe, in our world here- Okay, we'll just check out your bravery.
Right in front of this mountain, maybe there lives- maybe a little stand of trees.
Or a little grouping of trees.
There.
'Bout like that.
Gonna just let 'em wander down the side.
We don't know where they go.
Don't know that we even care.
Doesn't matter.
We'll figure that out next.
Right now, we just want to drop something in.
There, see?
Maybe we just go down here and just let 'em sort of disappear into teeny little trees.
Back up in here, I don't know where they'll go.
But it doesn't matter at this point.
Really doesn't matter.
Now, take a two-inch brush, I'm gonna tap that just a little.
I want the base of these trees to be a little softer than the top.
So all I'm gonna do is just tap, and then lift upward, like that.
Then go back, smooth our snow out.
See how easy that is?
And we're back in business.
And back to my little fan brush.
We'll have some snow going right up in here.
Just sort of let it creep right up to the base of these trees.
So it looks like there's a little incline there, little hill.
There.
Something about like that.
We don't know.
Don't know that we care right now.
We're just putting in little angles and stuff, and then we'll begin to look at 'em, and see what we have.
Back to the fan brush, it has the tree color on it, and maybe there's some happy little bushes that live right in there.
Just touch, lift upward.
Make it look like little, little grassy areas back in there.
Here and there, and there and here, wherever you want 'em.
All right.
Maybe in our world, get the small knife.
I'll just use some of that same blue color that we were using.
Maybe in our world- back in here, maybe there's a little, well, it could be a little- might be a little river or something back in here.
Just take very gently.
It's far away.
Far away, just laying some basic shapes here.
Then we'll come back and blend it, and I'm just laying it right on top.
Then, we can take our two-inch brush and very gently blend this.
It'll smooth it all out.
There.
But see, it looks like it goes back a million miles, and the snow is blowing over it.
Mm, have to put a little obstacle there so if they're gonna have a dog race, it won't be too easy.
All right.
Now, need something right here.
So we'll just drop in.
Maybe there's another little stand of trees far back here.
Lift up.
I'm lifting these a little higher than I lifted the ones above it, because to my mind, they're a little closer to me.
But just a little higher.
There.
See there?
Back to our fan brush with the white on it.
And we can clean the base of it up a little.
All right.
Now, let's take- we'll take our colors, since we have such a large selection, some phthalo blue, some Prussian blue, and some black and a little bit of white.
It doesn't matter.
But there is a little white in there.
And of course it's predominantly blue.
Predominantly blue.
Let me grab another fan brush.
I have several going here, so I don't have to spend all my time just washing fan brushes.
There.
You know, when you're painting, a lot of times it pays in each brush to have two of each, so you can have one for dark color and one for light.
Saves you from having to wash the brush continually.
Use just the corner of the brush here, just the corner, and begin working down.
I think we'll pop in a little- a little evergreen tree that lives right here.
Right there.
Gotta cover up that little area so we'll just drop him in.
There.
And, you know me.
I think everybody deserves a friend.
Gotta have a friend, there.
That's one thing painting has brought me, that I never suspected when I first started, is a multitude of the most wonderful friends in the entire world.
I've met people all over the country.
Some of them have turned out to be lifelong friends.
But they're all fantastic.
People from every walk of life seem to enjoy painting.
Isn't that nice?
We travel around the country doing demonstrations and putting on shows.
We've had the opportunity to meet people, as I say, from basically every walk of life, to some of the biggest celebrities in the country.
And you know what?
They all share a love of painting.
It makes no difference.
There.
In fact, just the other day, to me, one of the greatest celebrities in the country and western music industry, Mr. Hank Snow, I met him through painting, and we remained friends to this day.
And I just think he's one of the neatest people that I've ever met, whether he was a celebrity or not.
He's just a nice man.
All right, I'm gonna take a little bit of phthalo blue, a little white, I'm gonna be right back, I'm gonna get a little touch of the liquid white, too, just to thin the color down.
'Cause you know our golden rule: thin paint stick to a thick paint.
Now we have a much thinner paint, so it'll stick right over the top of this thick paint, and let's just use that to indicate some highlights.
I don't want too many.
Don't want too many.
There.
And when you're doing yours, you decide how many highlights you want on your tree.
Maybe you want 'em brighter, maybe you want to leave 'em darker.
Personally, I like to leave evergreen trees pretty dark.
To me, they look darker than most trees.
There.
And since we're only working with values in this painting, basically, we need the contrast.
There.
Back to my little fan brush that has the white on it.
And maybe right there. Be brave.
Shoot, we'll just drop right in there.
Bring that right up.
Something like that.
And just smooth that out.
You could really put this snow in with a two-inch brush.
It'd go in just as well.
I just thought today we'd use the old fan brush.
Doesn't matter.
Does not matter.
Any way that you can apply it.
The only rule that I respect in painting is that painting make you happy, and that you enjoy what you're doing.
Other than that, it's up to you.
Up to you.
Any way you can create an effect that you want to your satisfaction, has to be wonderful.
Has to be.
See, I'm just cleaning up the base of that.
Sometimes you can take a little of the shadow color, and you can just put all kinds of little- maybe there's a little stone that lives under there somewhere.
Take your big brush, blend him out, see?
That big brush just zips right along there.
Let me wipe off some of that paint.
There.
Something about like- I know what we need.
If you've painted with me before, you know what's coming.
Bob's got to have his big tree in here.
I like big trees.
I lived in Alaska for a long time, and everything's big there.
Same color.
That same blues.
But this time, darker.
Has very little white in it.
You ready?
Okay, here's your bravery test.
Don't put it right in the center.
That bothers the eye.
Put it to one side or the other a little bit.
I've chosen to go a little bit to the left side.
But in your world, you may want to go to the right or wherever.
Just, I'd recommend not putting it dead in the center.
There.
(phew) I said big tree, here he comes.
Big old tree.
Great, big tree.
If you have trouble making the paint stick as you come down over all this white, add a little paint thinner.
I might do that myself.
Just dip the brush into a little paint thinner, then go through the paint.
But let me repeat the word "little." You don't need much.
Don't need much.
Keep your paints as firm and dry as you possibly can.
Okay, yeah, he needs a friend, too.
Just a little friend.
There.
These trees just live right in your fan brush.
All you gotta do is just sort of shake 'em out.
They're in there.
They're in there.
Now, then.
I'm going back to my brush that has the phthalo blue, the liquid white, and a little titanium white on it.
Remember, the liquid white's in there only to thin the paint.
Only to thin the color.
Isn't it nice, though?
Let's just come in here and drop in a few happy little highlights, wherever you want 'em.
There.
This little tree's gotta have some, too.
Just 'cause he's small doesn't mean he wants to be left out.
He's got the same needs and desires as the big tree, just like we do.
There.
Okay, just sort of bring that all together down here.
Just running back and forth between my fan brushes, maybe doop-doop, just pop it up.
Maybe there's some little bushy things that live right in there, come out.
Wherever.
Wherever.
Wherever, see?
You just touch it, lift up.
Just touch and lift up.
There's one over here.
I'm sorry to jump around so much.
I just keep seeing things.
Drives that mean old director crazy, though, when I do that.
But it's good for her.
Keeps her on her toes.
There.
'Bout like that.
See, and you just sort of work these things together.
And it gives the indication of a big old tree sittin' out here overlooking a little river that, maybe it's froze up for the winter.
Way back over there somewhere.
And that's about all you need.
Shoot.
I think we got a finished painting.
Take a little paint thinner.
I put a little red out here just for the signature.
And let's sign this little rascal, maybe right here.
Hope you've enjoyed this one.
If you'll give it a try, it'll give you a lot of experience using the equipment and building confidence.
And that's what it's all about.
So until next time, I'd like to wish you happy painting, and God bless, my friend.
(mellow guitar music) Hi, welcome back.
Certainly glad you could join us today.
It's a fantastic day here.
And I hope it is wherever you're at.
Let's start out today and have 'em run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint along with us.
While they're doing that, let me show you what I got done up here.
Have my standard old pre-stretched double primed canvas, and I've just covered the entire canvas with a very thin coat of liquid white.
The liquid white's there just to make it slick and wet, and it makes painting much easier.
I thought maybe today we'd do a...
Maybe a winter scene that's very warm, and I think you'll like it.
Let's start out with a little Indian yellow on the old two inch brush.
Don't need much, just a small amount of Indian yellow.
We'll go right up in here.
Sometimes winter scenes can be so cold that they're almost difficult to look at.
So I thought today we'd do a winter scene that's very warm, that's very pretty.
It'll just sort of make you feel good.
There, pretty bit of the Indian yellow.
Without even washing the brush, we'll go right into some yellow ochre.
Little bit of yellow ochre.
We'll just blend that using little X's, little crisscross strokes.
But you don't even have to wash the brush, you can go right into the yellow ochre.
No big deal.
There.
Shoot, that's working so good.
Tell you what, we'll go right into, once again without washing the brush, a little bit of the bright red.
We'll just have a firecracker of a sky up here.
Beautiful sky.
One that makes you feel good when you look at it.
You hang this in your room, when you walk in, it'll absolutely warm up a room.
There we are.
And we all have rooms in our home that need to be warmed up.
There.
All right.
Yeah, maybe I'll wash the old brush finally.
But already we've blended those colors together.
It's very pretty.
Indian yellow, yellow ochre, and then the bright red.
And now let's wash the brush.
As you know, we wash our brushes in odorless paint thinner.
And we'll shake off the excess.
(whipping) (chuckling) And you just beat the devil out of it.
That really is the fun part.
Now then, I'mma go into a little bit of the, little bit of the pthalo blue.
Just a small amount.
Let's go right up here to the top.
Still using little crisscrosses, little X-strokes.
We'll just put in the rest of the sky using the pthalo blue.
That easy.
Something about like that.
There.
Then I'll wash the brush, and come back and blend those together.
All right.
Now that we have that blue in there, let's just go across the bottom.
We're gonna have a little snow, that'll just end up being some beautiful shadows in our snow.
And it's good way to wipe the excess paint out of your brush.
Okay.
And one more time we'll wash the old brush.
Really and truly, the brush washing is the most fun part of this.
(brush whipping) (chuckling) That's the way I get even with the crew for hassling me.
All right.
Now that we have a clean, dry brush, I just want to blend these areas together.
About like that.
And that's all we're looking for.
All right.
(brush whipping) Now, today let's take a little fan brush.
I'm using a number six fan brush.
Sometimes some people like to use a number three.
It's a little smaller, and some people feel a little more comfortable with it.
It's up to you.
Okay, maybe in our world there's a happy little cloud.
Just sort of floats around in the sky up here and has a good time.
There, a little more color.
There we are.
See, just let it float around, though.
Clouds may be one of the freest things in nature.
So just let 'em go, let 'em have a good time in your world.
All right.
Now then, back to a two inch brush...
And very gently I'm just gonna blend that back edge out til it disappears.
Right into nothing.
Then we'll fluff the cloud.
See there?
Just sort of fluff it up.
Fluff it up.
All right.
Then it gives the indication of a little cloud that's living far away.
Tell you what, shoot...
Cloud needs a little friend.
So we'll give him one, lives right there.
Just a happy little guy.
In my world, everything is happy.
So we have happy little clouds and happy trees.
All right, there we go.
And once again...
(whipping) I beat the brush just to knock any, any excess paint off of it, so I don't have to go through the whole cleaning procedure.
There.
If you just have a little paint on the tip, that way you can clean the brush without going through all the washing and splattering everybody.
Just makes it a lot easier.
There we are.
Something about like that.
And I just want the indication of some little happy clouds, as I say, far away.
Don't need a lot of detail.
All right.
Let's have some fun.
Let's take, let's take, we'll use today some Prussian blue, a little bit of black, put a little crimson in it, too.
What the heck.
Maybe a little more crimson.
And some white.
Notice I'm leaving part of it dark and putting white only on one side.
That's so I can use the same color in a darker value later on.
It's called lazy man's way of painting.
Wipe the old knife off.
And we'll use, shoot, we'll just use that same old brush, it doesn't matter.
Gonna tap a little color right into the bristles of the two inch brush.
And let's go up in here.
Maybe in our world, yeah, a little footy hill lives way back here.
Here it comes.
There.
Just sort of let it run across here.
Wherever you want it to go.
All right.
Then I'm gonna give it a little small, upward lift so it looks like the top's of little distant trees that live far, far away.
Far away, we don't need to know where they live.
Don't know that we care.
Clean two inch brush, and I'm gonna tap the base of this to create the illusion of mist.
Something about like that.
There we go.
I just want to soften the bottom edge.
There.
'Cuz I want to put another layer in.
Back to the brush that had the dark color on it.
Now I'm going back into the darkest part of that color.
This is the darkest part.
Still has a little white in it, but it's darker than what's up there already.
Let's go back up here.
Maybe there's another little foothill that lives right in here.
Notice that little misty area that we put in there.
That becomes the separator.
Becomes your best friend.
Cherish it, take care of it.
Take care of it 'cuz it'll separate these two areas.
Now I'm gonna lift up once again.
Chickity, chickity, chickity.
Gotta make those little noises.
There.
Something about like that.
And one more time, I'm just trading brushes here.
I'm going back to the clean one so I can tap the base of this and create more of that misty area.
If you need it, you could actually take a little bit of titanium white paint on the brush...
And create more distinct mist.
Today we don't need it.
But maybe when you're painting, you want a little lighter area than we have here.
Just add a little titanium white to your brush.
You can do that.
All right.
But now see, this one, the second one is darker than the first one so it makes it look closer to you in the landscape.
All right, let's have some fun.
I'm gonna clean that up.
Let's take the same color, Prussian blue, black, and alizarin crimson.
And we just mix them together once again.
Okay, wipe off the old knife.
Here we are.
Now, today let's get a fan brush.
I want to make the indication of some trees that are living closer to us.
So now this is pure color, it has no white in it at all.
These will be the closest, so I want them to be the darkest.
And all we'll do is just tap 'em downward.
Just tap downward like that.
Don't want too much detail.
It's too far away.
When you're painting things that are far away, the lack of detail helps create that illusion of distance.
If you have too much detail when it's far, far away, it'll boggle your eye, even if you don't really understand why.
I know you've looked at paintings and you've said, "Hey, something's wrong in that painting.
"Don't know what it is, "but something's wrong with it." Sometimes it can be something as simple as that.
And your mind tells you...
It just isn't right.
There.
You decide where they live in your world.
Wherever.
Let's say about there, that's good.
Now then, we can take this brush, and I'm just gonna lift it upward a little bit.
Just a little.
Sort of to smooth it together.
I want to leave these little light areas down at the base.
I'll show you why in just a second.
'Cuz I'm gonna put some snow underneath these.
So I want those little areas to stay in there.
If everything works just right, it'll look like misty little tree trunks and all kinds of happy little things in there.
Okay.
Let's wash the old brush again.
(chuckles) You figured it out.
I just like to wash the brush.
Shake it off.
(whipping) (chuckling) And just beat them, I'll get two of 'em.
Let's wash 'em both.
We'll wash 'em both while we got it goin'.
(whipping) There.
People have realized this brush-beating is so much fun, I get letters from friends all over the country.
They tell me they really don't want to paint, they just bought a brush and beat it to take out their hostilities and frustrations, and that's okay.
Titanium white, we're gonna use the big brush.
Load a lot of color into it like that.
So often we avoid this big brush, because it is big.
It will do wonderful things.
Watch, watch, watch.
Maybe, watch, right there.
Just make a decision.
And we have snow in our world.
That easy.
Put a little more on there.
I'm just adding some more white to my brush.
There.
Snow is one of the easiest things there is to paint.
Look it there.
But see that blue that we put on now shows through, and it looks like shadows.
Right back there in our world.
Okay.
Now then, grab another, another little two inch brush.
I'm gonna take a little bit of the, we'll use a little Van Dyke brown, a little dark sienna, just mixed together, something like so.
And let's put a little tree back here.
We'll just make it with a two inch brush.
I'm just gonna tap in...
Just a basic shape of a little tree.
This'll be a good place for my little squirrel to live in.
You know, speakin' of my little squirrel, I've got a new little baby squirrel.
I wanna show him to ya.
He's the cutest little devil you've ever seen.
Watch him. Look at him, isn't he somethin'?
He is so pretty.
I call him Peapod, Jr.
If you've painted with me for a while, you know that Peapod was a little squirrel that I had for a long time who lived in my pocket.
There.
Isn't that the cutest little devil you ever seen?
If you're not careful, you can get attached to these little rascals.
And I do.
They're very, very special to me.
And every year I raise several of them, and we turn 'em loose.
And normally they go out-- (whipping) Beating my brush there.
They go out and just live in my yard.
We have a good time.
And they're happy out there.
We sort of maintain 'em.
We turn 'em loose, but at the same time, I keep food out there for 'em.
I'm thinkin' a little bit of white, a little bit of the bright red.
Just tapping the corner of the brush into it.
Just like that.
Okay, let's go up in here.
I want to use that just to put the indication of a few little highlights on this tree.
Little snowy things.
There.
I don't want it to be too distinct, just some indications.
Wherever.
But think about some basic shapes and forms in this.
Don't just throw 'em on at random.
It is important that they have shape.
It gives the tree personality.
There.
All right, maybe a little bit right in there.
Something like that.
Wherever.
In your world, you make these big decisions where all these little things live.
It is totally and completely up to you.
Just scrape in the indication of a few little sticks and arms that live in the tree.
Shoot, we're in business.
Now then...
Let's see what we got goin' here.
Prussian blue, black, alizarin crimson, maybe even a little Van Dyke, it doesn't matter.
As long as it's good and dark, and has some blue in it.
Clean off the knife.
And let's see, we'll grab a, there's old fan brush.
I'm gonna load it full of this dark color.
Just full of it.
There we are.
Maybe, maybe, you know me, I like trees.
It's your bravery test, are you ready?
Let's come right up in here.
Right there.
Just start by making a little touch on the canvas.
Then use the corner of the brush, working back and forth, forth and back.
There we are.
See? They live right here in your fan brush.
All you gotta do is just sort of scare 'em out.
Here he comes.
We'll just come right down the front of this tree.
'Cuz in your world, you can make these decisions, and you can move 'em anywhere that you want 'em.
Shoot, I like that.
I'm gonna have another tree.
Load a little bit more paint.
We'll have one right above this.
Right over the top.
There.
See?
That easy, we got another little tree.
We'll just take the knife, cut through here.
Make it look like there's a little trunk in there.
There.
Now then...
I'm gonna wash my fan brush off a little bit.
Fan brush isn't as much fun to wash as a two inch brush.
You can have a lot of fun with a two inch brush and get even with anybody that's hassling you.
Fan brush isn't much fun.
I'm gonna take a little white.
Put a little liquid white in it, too, just to thin it down.
Little bit of pthalo blue.
Pthalo blue. There.
And we'll go up in here.
And with that let's put a few highlights on this tree.
I want to keep it pretty dark.
But a few highlights.
This is a blue spruce, it looks like to me.
There you go, few more little duders right in there.
And off we go.
All right.
Now maybe grab a one inch brush.
Okay, one inch brush.
We'll go into a little pthalo blue and that dark color we had, it doesn't much matter.
Want a little pthalo blue in it, though.
And right up in here, maybe there's a happy little bush lives right here.
I don't know.
Up to you.
You make the decision where you think all these little things would live in your world.
About like that.
And let's see, we'll grab another one inch brush.
I have several of them going.
Show you a little trick.
I'll take some liquid white, put that here.
There, let me grab some more of that.
Some liquid white, I'm gonna put a little bright red in it to make a nice pinkish color that is very, very thin, though.
Very thin. Okay.
Now.
We'll take our one inch brush, and we dip it in the liquid white.
'Cuz as you know, our golden rule is a thin paint will stick to a thick paint.
Get a little touch of the pthalo blue.
I'll be right back, I'm gonna grab a little more of the liquid white.
I want it a little thinner.
Pull the brush in one direction.
Now right at the last here, I'm gonna take it over and take just the top through a little bit of that pink color we've made.
Okay?
Now when we put highlights on these little bushes...
They'll have nice little pinky tops on 'em.
And it just warms 'em up, makes 'em pretty.
Sneaky, isn't it?
There.
That easy. That easy.
You can do it.
Just gives a little sparkle to your painting.
If you want 'em all blue, that's okay, too.
It's up to you.
Totally and completely up to you.
Go back to an old two inch brush, put some white on it.
And I'm gonna grab, and intentionally I'm grabbing a little bit of this dark color.
And I wanna pull it.
Pull it.
There.
See?
And we'll change the angle of the snow.
Right there. That easy.
Just with using this big ol' brush.
As I say, snow is very, very easy to paint.
when you're using brushes this big.
It doesn't take but just a second.
Shoot.
You know me, (chuckles) I want a little cabin right out here.
'Cuz this would be an ideal place to live.
Let's scrape out the paint.
By scraping the paint out it does two things: it allows us just to sort of lay out our basic shape...
And secondly, it removes excess paint.
Take a little Van Dyke brown.
Praint the back eave, the front.
Just about like that.
There.
See?
But you're still not committed.
You can change your mind.
That's what so great about this.
A little dark sienna mixed in there, too.
There.
And we'll take a little white.
Little bit of the brown, mix it together.
Barely grazing the canvas.
Barely touching it.
Just let it float right down there.
Make it look like old wood.
Now on the other side, not much light's gonna hit over there.
I want it very dark.
Just, that's enough.
Just enough to give a hint of color.
While we have that dark on the knife, shoop, now we have a little door.
That easy.
And we can come back, make it look like a old, slab building.
Put some boards on it.
Now the most important part, we gotta put a roof on it.
We don't want it to snow in on him.
So we'll take a little of the titanium white.
Come right up in here.
I like to sort of lay out the shapes, so I have a nice straight edge to work from there.
And then when you pull it down, shoop, it's nice and straight.
That easy.
Over here on the other side, just a little snow.
Like that.
Take a little touch of light color, sort of outline the door.
Little bit. There we are.
And we're in business.
Take your knife and do a cabin-ectomy.
That means we just cut it off to however we want it.
There we go.
Now, back to our old brush, our old two inch brush that had the white on it.
Come down here and clean up the edges a little.
Shoop.
About like that.
Shoot, we're in business.
Now...
Maybe a few little bushes growing around the edge here.
Something about like so.
Because he probably was like me, he didn't take care of his lawn very well and it grew up.
Come winter time hit, still there.
Now then, come back in here.
Tap in a few little bushes.
This is once again the liquid white, titanium white.
Just mixed together to thin the paint a little.
It's the only you're doing, just thinning the paint a little bit so it'll stick right on the top of that.
Now.
All right, I like that side.
Let's do the other side.
Bravery test.
Gonna load it full of dark color.
Right there.
Let's have a big old tree that lives in our world.
I like big trees.
There they are.
And you could actually make these trees with a one inch brush, two inch brush, whatever.
Up to you.
I like the fan brush sometimes.
When you want a little more detail, it does give you a little more detail.
We'll create another one right there.
Something about like that.
Recently we took a trip to Japan...
And met all of our friends in Japan who are painting.
And we did a painting very similar to this.
And it went over so well.
People liked it.
Some fantastic painters there.
Fantastic.
We have a whole group of instructors in Japan that are literally spreading the joy from one end of Japan to the other.
There. All right.
How's that?
We got three trees now.
And once again, we can take the knife, Just scrape in some indication of a few little trunks and things...
That live in there.
All you're doin' is scrapin' through the paint, let the canvas show a little.
Maybe there's a stick there, we don't know.
All right.
Back to our one inch brush.
I want to change the angle here.
So I'll put in a bush or two right here like that.
Yeah, yeah, that'll do it.
Liquid white on the fan brush, back in to a little titanium white, a little pthalo blue.
Okay, let's go back up in here.
Now, I have to decide which tree is in the front.
I think the big one is.
So I'm gonna put a little indication on the ones that are farther behind first.
Darker, darker, darker.
Just turn the brush over, we use this one.
There, just let it disappear.
Let it disappear. It gets darker toward the base.
Then we can come in here.
This tree is in the foreground, so we make it the predominant tree.
This is the boss tree.
There.
All right.
Now, we're gonna dip our one inch brush into liquid white, little bit of the pthalo blue.
Once again I'm gonna take the tips through that little bit of pink.
I like that little pink right on the edge.
And we'll just drop that right in somethin' like so.
See there?
And we'll put in all kind of little bushes where they live here.
There.
Back to the old two inch brush, put a little snow right in like that.
There.
Somethin' about like that.
All right.
Hey then, that easy, we got a happy little duder there.
And we'll take the little liner brush.
Just a little bit of brown on it.
I'll put the indication right here.
Doo, doo, little fence that goes back off, back in there.
There he goes.
Something like so.
Shoot, I think with that, we got a finished painting.
This is one I hope you'll try.
I know you'll enjoy it.
Until next time, from all of us here, I'd like to wish you happy painting, and God bless, my friends.