- 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 right on it today. Let's have them run all the
colors across the screen, they'll come out right about there, that you need to paint along with us. While they're doing that, let me show you what I've got done already. Today I have my standard old canvas up. I'm using 18 by 24 inch,
but you use whatever size is convenient, and
I've covered the entire canvas with a very thin
coat of liquid white. So it's all wet and ready to go. Tell you what, let's do a
little winter scene today. Something that's cold, (exhales noisily) make you have to put your coat on. We'll start out with a
little two inch brush. (Chuckles softly) And a little bit of Prussian blue, little Prussian blue. Let's go right up in here. We'll just start right at the top making little X's, little criss-cross strokes. There we go, just little
X's, there a little more of the color, we start at the top of the canvas making our little criss-cross strokes and work downward. That way, it's continually mixing with the liquid white that's on the canvas. As you work down in, this direction, then it gets lighter and lighter in value. Automatically, you don't
have to do a thing. And that's exactly what we're looking for when we paint a landscape. We want it to get lighter
toward the horizon. All right, something about like 'at. And we can just take a little
blue and put down here. I want to paint some snow today. So anything we put down here, it'll just end up being shadows in the snow. We don't even care, don't even care. Alright, if you've painted with me before, (chuckling) you know the most fun part of this whole technique is washing the brush. So, let's do that. We wash our brush with
odorless paint thinner. We just shake off the
excess (metal knocking) and then (slapping and chuckling). Cover the whole studio. Alright, maybe in our world, maybe there's a happy little cloud floating around. So let's make a little cloud. Take the two inch brush,
I'm just gonna tap it right into a little bit
of the titanium white. And notice we're just tapping the one corner basically, like so. OK? Then we go up here and let's just tap in just a basic indication just tap that's all there is to it. Something about like that,
we don't really care. In our world we can do
anything that we want to do. So, if we want a happy little cloud that easy will just drop one in. Alright, let me grab a clean brush. I have several going, now this is a clean two inch brush and I'm just
going to gently, gently, just stir it up a little bit,
something about like 'at. And that easy we got a
little cloud in our world. And we can wash our brush again. Actually I'm just looking for
an excuse to wash the brush. There, (banging and slapping)
alright tell you what, today, let's make a little mountain. I like mountains, they're
a lot of fun to paint, They give you a lot of practice
with all of the equipment. Take some midnight black,
some Prussian blue, a little alizarin crimson, will mix those together. Let's throw some Van Dyke brown
in there too, what the heck. As long as it's dark. OK, now cut off a little roll of paint, see it lives right out there
on the end of the knife. Let's go up in here, your
first major decision. There it is. You have to decide where the old mountain lives in your world and
what his basic shape is. We don't care, mountains grow in all sizes and shapes, it's really up to you. It's really up to you. If you an area where
there's a lot of mountains, you can just take a look-see
out the window and get an idea. And if you don't, there's
millions of books that have beautiful, beautiful photographs of mountains from all over the world. And when you're creating your own world, you make a mountain that you like. Alright, gonna take the two inch brush grab that paint firmly and pull it, just pull it. We want to remove excess paint and we want to blend the base of the mountain out so it gets softer and softer
down toward the bottom. Something about like that and
that's all we're looking for. Alright, let's put some
snow on that mountain. Shoot, it's cold (exhales)
we need a little bit of snow. Pull the paint out as
flat as you can get it. Cut across, get a little roll of paint. It's most important you
have a little roll of paint. Alright, now with no pressure,
no pressure whatsoever, just let it glide right down there. And I'll tell you a little secret. It's much easier to do
fast, then it is slow. If you go real slow and timid, you have a tendency to
put too much pressure. Do it, just see? Just do it. That really and truly works better. I don't know why, but
even when we're training instructors we make them paint
very, very fast sometimes. And when they first start,
you wouldn't believe they're nervous as they can be and then all of a sudden they find
out that if they paint fast, it works better, then when they go slow. Try it, both ways. Any way that you can make it work is absolutely perfect, absolutely perfect. There, maybe this old
mountain, shoot maybe just comes right around like 'at, I don't know. Let's take a little white,
little bit of the Prussian blue, mix it together, just
white and Prussian blue. We're going to make a shadow color, there. That's not too bad, that's better. You just keep on until you
get it the way you want it. A little roll of paint, once again. Then we can go up in here and we begin picking out these little shadows. They live right in here, right in here. See, just let 'em go. Once again, no pressure
on the knife, though. Just let it touch the
canvas, just let it touch. It'll pull off what it wants,
give you back what's left. There, see just barely let it graze. There, something like that. Alright, and you can go
back pick up a little white and begin putting in more
details, you can do this until you make just a fantastic mountain. Practice with mountains,
it teaches you how to use the knife, and if you can use
this knife properly, shoot, you can do entire paintings
using nothing but the knife. Yeah, some of the earlier series we did a couple of paintings like that. It's a little bit slower
and it's hard to do in the time frame that
we have, but you actually can paint the entire painting
using nothing but the knife. Now, I'm tapping the base, but
I'm following those angles. Now I'm going to lift upward, still following those same angles. Alright, I want this to sort of look like it's rounded a little, so
we'll just do that, tap it. Just put it in, there. A little bit over in here. Shoot, we're in business, that easy. M'kay. That wasn't so bad was it? Will use that mountain color, oh, a little bit of white with it. Whatever we got, it doesn't matter. Cause you know, we don't make mistakes, we just have happy accidents. So, anything that happens
here, is wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. Alright, so I'm gonna add
a little more blue to that. Oh I like it now. I'm looking for a color just like that, let me wipe off the knife. And we'll take, there's one, not too dirty, 'ole two inch brush. Sometimes we avoid these big brushes because there so big, but you know them rascals will do just marvelous things, if you just give 'em a chance. Alright, let's go right up in here. Maybe there's a little
foothill that lives-- Where does it live? Right there, you decide. I'm using just the corner of the brush. Just the corner, it's all you need. And we can sorta pull it downward. Just pull downward (tongue click). Gotta make those little noises. Alright, maybe comes there. Something about like 'at. Right along in there, OK. And, you can add just a
little more here and there. To break it up a little bit, see there? That easy, though. We can make the indication, now that's all we're looking for, just an indication of little distant trees live far, far away. Alright, now, fun time. Let's put a little snow in here. We'll go back to our two inch brush. I like these lil' two inch brushes, they really do marvelous things. M'kay, loaded full of paint, I'm really putting a lot of paint in it. Now, big decision time. Where does the snow live in your painting? Just make a decision, it lives
right there in our world. Right there, just put it in. Snow is so easy to paint
when you use a big brush. Looky there, already we
have a whole field of snow. Did you ever think painting
that much snow would be so easy? It is, look at that, I like that. Now, let's clear us off
a little spot to work. I wanna paint a big tree, you know me, (chuckling) I like 'em big trees. I'm gonna take black,
Prussian blue, I get letters sometimes from people,
and crimson, get letters from people sometimes say, "Oh
you had a beautiful painting there and you put that
miserable tree in it." You know, once again, painting is such an individual thing,
when you're doing yours, if you don't want a big
tree in it, leave it out. It will probably be better
than mine anyway if we do. But, experiment, take a
chance once in awhile. Let's take 'ole two inch brush, I'm gonna pull it until it comes to a
very sharp, chiseled edge. Very sharp, almost shave with it. See how sharp that is? Great, let's go up here. OK, bravery test, just touch the canvas. Now we're going to take just the corner. Tell you what, this tree, it
lives right off the canvas it goes right on up
into the sky somewhere. All the little birds we've
shown on this series, they need a place to sit and this is it. They can hide right up in here. Look out over the mountain,
just have a wonderful life. There. I like the little birds. We had three or four
different ones this time, I really hope you've enjoyed seeing 'em if you got to see 'em. Alright. I tell you what, shoot that tree went pretty good let's give him a friend. There it is, there he is. Just start off, drop him in. Sometimes when you're painting
the hardest thing to do is to make a decision what to do. Just haul off and do something. To do nothing is worse. It's absolutely the worse
thing you can do, is nothing. Do something, do something
and very quickly, very quickly you learn to work with anything that happens up here. Because you know, we don't make mistakes we absolutely don't make mistakes. We have some happy
accidents, they may turn into things we didn't plan 'em to be. But that's alright, art is
very creative, it's very free. Take advantage of that. Alright, one more? OK, one more. Get him right there, little tree. Little baby tree. We have a whole family of
trees here now, whole family. They all live together out
here and have a good time. We'll use a fan brush, I'm
going to put a little touch, a little touch of liquid white and a little bit of phthalo blue mixed together. I want the phthalo blue, it's warmer, much warmer blue, than the Prussian blue. Both sides, loaded. We go up here, now onto
here, I'm just gonna put the indication of a few highlights, I don't want to lose all the dark. But just a few highlights,
something like so. Just a few, darker, darker, darker down here toward the base. Little tree in the background. Let me get a little more paint. Ran out of paint, there we go. A little tree in the background, we need a few goodies on him too. Darker, darker. Over here, just a few little things. And here, alright. Let's grab us a one inch brush,
one inch brush (chuckling). Let's put us a bush or two in here. Alright, bush lives in
our world, does now. Right there, OK. Once again I have several of each brush, so I don't have to spend all
my time washing the brush. Studio crew gets a little upset with me when I do because I splash 'em a lot. It's good for 'em. Pull it in one direction,
load a lot of color that rounds one corner, see there? Now, that rounded corner
to the top, now we go up here and we begin picking out little individual bushes and trees. They live right here in this brush. All you gotta do is just scare 'em out. The liquid white in there, is just to make the
paint a little thinner. That's the only reason
we have it in there. Just to make the paint a little thinner. A thin paint will stick to a thick paint. But that's the only reason it's there. There we go. And you don't have to push hard. I know sometimes it looks
like we take a running start here and just knock
in about 100 bushes. You really don't have to push hard. If it's properly loaded, you just touch. Mkay, I'm gonna make some more snow. Get a little white on
the 'ole two inch brush. Now, I'm gonna go right
in here and I'm gonna grab this intentionally
grabbing some of that color. See there? I want this color to come out and automatically make our shadows. Cause I'm a lazy painter, I look for easy ways to make things work. There, alright. Innit that something? Don't be afraid of this
two inch brush once again. We've painted most of
this painting with it. And It'll work, it will work for you. Practice a little. Shoot you know me, I lived in Alaska for a dozen years and I love places like this. I've always dreamed of
having a little cabin right under a big mountain like this. Big mountain, where I could look out and see all of God's creations. Ah, and no place did he have
a better day than Alaska. Oh, God it's gorgeous
there, it is gorgeous. I love it, I miss it. There, alright. All I'm doing is just
blocking in a little color. Now, we take a little
white, little dark sienna, maybe a little Van Dyke too and white. But mix it so it's marbled. By marbled I mean not over-mixed, has a lot of things happening in it. See there all the little doers? Now I cut off our little roll of paint. Now, we said this was
gonna be a little cabin. So let's put the indication of some little dooders in there like 'at. Now then, I go back across this way, makes some
little log looking things. That's all there is to it. Take a little bit of the
Van Dyke brown on the knife and we go back and just sorta, just sorta line 'em up a little, like so. That's all, that's all. I'll make a darker brown now for the side. 'Cause in my mind, it's not dark enough. In my mind, not as much
light would hit over here. Something about like 'at. That gives us an idea of
how to make a little cabin. Now then, we need... We need some snow on the roof. This reminds me of some
places that I used to see in Oregon and even
into Utah and et cetera. Beautiful places there, beautiful. We need a door, gotta be able to get in and out of our little cabin. Our door lives right there, there we are. Now we can come back with our knife. Do a little cabinectomy, there. Go on back to my brush
that has snow on it. This is a snow brush and we'll clean the edges up just a wee bit. Alright, got a little brown streak here we just blend that right in. Now then, maybe, there it is. Take a little of the
dark color, pop it in. Maybe he didn't take care of his yard too well in the summer. And I'm real familiar
with that (chuckles). I'm the world's worst yard keeper. I like it a la naturale. That's a way of saying I'm too lazy to go out and maintain it. There, OK. Now, once again, we'll
grab that pull it out. We put a little bush right there. M'kay. I know what, I know, I know. If we didn't get enough big
trees it's time for one more. Let's do another big tree. Use the 'ole two inch brush,
pull it back very sharp. Chisel edge, very, very sharp. Make a big decision, right there. See how sharp that is? Oh, to make a line that fine. Then we can come right in here and begin putting in some
happy little arms on this tree. Just some little arms on the tree. Now then, notice right here, we're fixin' to get into this white snow. Dip the brush into the
least little touch of paint thinner and go
back through your color. The paint thinner will thin the paint enough that you can paint over the top of this thick white that
was used to make the snow without 'em mixing together, as bad. You're gonna have a little mixing, nothing like you would have if they were both the same consistency. See there? Just drop them little
rascals in there, wherever. OK, what the heck, that works (chuckles). You just sorta look at
these things and figure out, figure out where you want to go with 'em. Let you imagination go. A lot of times I'll start a painting and have nothing more in my mind, but the time of day and the time of year. Other than that, I don't
really wanna know anything. Because I want it to just be
a creative thing that happens. A creative happening. We'll coin a new phrase
here, "creative happening". But just let it go, let
your imagination build. Begin just seeing things and the more you practice that, the easier it becomes. Little phthalo blue and white,
just put a few little... This is a blue spruce
I can tell right there. Blue spruce. See there? That's enough, that's enough. Now, liquid white we go right back through our titanium white and it has
a little phthalo blue in it. Load a lot of color in there. Once again, notice how the brush is, held straight up and pulled
in one direction, like so. Yeah, I'm just gonna throw
some little highlights on here. You know, recently we had a
reunion for our instructors, there is about 400 instructors
around the country, we had a little reunion
in Daytona Beach, Florida. And I got, oh gosh, it
was over 150 people came and we spent about a week
together, a solid week. Led all them instructors. And I worked 'em to death
we painted some new things. There's Lulu, she's my gal from Mexico. But we showed some new
things and we painted 'ole Steve even painted,
ah it was fantastic. These were some of the best
painters in the country. And they just had a, oh they had a wonderful time with us. And we worked 'em to death, there's Joe. We worked him too. But we got everybody there. Annette taught some of
her fantastic flowers. We really, we put 'em
through the mill (chuckles). Innit that beautiful? Lil' son of a gun can
paint a flower, can't she? She's gonna teach me how one day. And then, do you remember John Thamm? John Thamm came and he painted
a portrait of guess who? Yeah, he said it was too
easy though, because he said all you had to do
was paint a face and put a steel wool ball on top and you had Bob. But, as I say, at the
end of it then, all of us got together and we went to the park in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. And we had a free day,
we invited the public and they came and they
watched all of our painters, Oh wonderful, we're going to
do it again next year, I hope. Yeah, a lot of fun. If you happen to be around when we're doing it, please stop by and see us. We'll have a good time
together and you can meet some of the most wonderful
people in the whole country. Alright, where'd my little
brush go with some white on it? Just pull it in one direction
and get a little color. We'll pop in a little bush right there. There we go, take our
knife, scrape through here and there make a
stick and a twig that easy. Put these little sticks mainly in the dark areas, mainly in the dark areas. Alright, even up here. Sorry to jump around, I just see places where there ought a be a stick. And we put one behind the cabin, there. Somebody asked me one time why I don't ever put chimneys on my cabin. I don't know it's just something, I just go in the habit of not doing. Well when you paint your cabin, shoot put a chimney in it if you want. Maybe my little guy's got electric heat. Livin' way out here in the woods. I'm gonna take a little paint thinner, I'm gonna take a little of that blue color that we had maybe, maybe right in here, happy little stick. Just a lil' ole guy that lives out here. We'll put a few little arms on him. Something like 'at. And I think with that,
shoot, we 'bout finished. I'ma take a little red,
little paint thinner, let's sign this little rascal. I really hope you've enjoyed
this little winter scene. It'll teach ya a great deal
of how to use the equipment, bring a lot of joy to your life. Send me a picture when you
do yours, I'd love to see it. From all of us here, I'd like to wish you happy painting and God bless my friend. (Upbeat music)
