(chuckling) Hi, glad you could join me today. And today I thought
we'd do a black canvas. And I've already taken and
covered the entire canvas with a layer of sap green and thalo blue, and just sort of mixed
them together on the brush. Now, I'll have 'em run all the colors that we're gonna use
today across your screen. And they'll come across the screen in the same order that I
have them on my pallet, starting with white and going around. And while they're doin' that, let's go up here and do a
fantastic painting together. And as I say, this is
sap green and thalo blue covered over a black canvas. And we make this canvas black
using a flat black acrylic. Paint the canvas, let it dry, and then we put the color on top of it. Now, we don't allow the color to dry. The sap green and Prussian
blue are very wet, I put 'em on just a second ago. Okay, let's go right in, right in to some titanium white. We'll start out here and
just load the bristles full, a lot of paint. A lot of paint. Maybe we'll do a little
bubbling stream today. That's always fun, and this
is a fun little painting. Let's go right up to the canvas and maybe there's a
light source right there. Just pick out a little spot, and start making little crisscross, little X-strokes. And blend outward. And just let it go, have fun. There. And you can see how when
you apply a little white, all these beautiful colors just happen. These black canvases are so, so exciting. They're a lot of fun to do. Lot of fun. Now I don't wanna, don't
wanna have all this real even, I wanna just have spots here and there, and I don't wanna kill
all the dark in places. And I'm gonna add a little more white and go right back here. I want this to be the lightest area. And get progressively
darker from there on. Okay, got a little hair there, so we'll take him off. And just blend it out, if you happen to get a hair, just use the corner of your brush and blend it away. Okay. Very lightly, very lightly. Just barely touching the canvas here. And that'll give us a little
light source back here. Sap green, thalo blue. Okay, I'll wash the brush. And we wash our brushes
with odorless paint thinner. Never, never, never do I use turpentine. Turpentine smells bad, number one. It leaves a residue in your brushes that you need to get
out with soap and water. And I don't recommend you wash these natural bristle brushes... With soap and water. Mm-kay. Today I think we'll take a one-inch brush, and we'll put a little paint
thinner into the bristles. And let's go right into
a little cad yellow. Little cad yellow. Grab a little sap green
and throw in there. And I'm just gonna load some
paint into the bristles. Just go up here to the canvas. And maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe there's just some little indications of a, we don't want definite shapes here. I just want background foliage. So just touch here and there. And we'll sort of vary back out, begin going into maybe
a little yellow ochre. A little Indian yellow. Just here and there. All we want is just
some background foliage. Most of this is gonna be covered up. But in case some of it shows through, it'll look like trees
way back in the distance. So we're not worried about
a great deal of shape, form. Just some little things happening. Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe right here. Maybe there's a little
light playin' through. And you can see some little
leaves here and there. Here and there, wherever you want 'em. There. Okay, okay. Let's go back into some, a little bit of Indian yellow. Just put some little
indications here and there. I'm using just the corner of the brush, and just barely touching, and letting the brush
sort of bend downward just a little bit. A little bit. Not a lot of pressure, a little pressure. There we go. Okay, maybe, maybe, maybe, yup, right there. We're just gonna get another one. And just sort of let these things just come out of your imagination. No set pattern here. Just want these to be
dark background trees. As I said earlier, most of 'em, before it's over with,
we'll probably cover 'em up. Be very little showing. But just in case. Looks like there's trees way far back. More deep in the woods. Deep in the woods. That's where I'd like to live. Little bit of dark here and there, just to set all that down. It's that easy, we've got all kind of little
background indications. No definite shapes, just indications. Okay. Now, I'm gonna take a little Van Dyke brown. I'll put a touch of white with it. Maybe, maybe, the teeniest little bit of yellow ochre. So I got yellow ochre, titanium white, little Van Dyke brown. Let's go up to the canvas here, And lets just, let's just drop
in a few little indications of some little tree trunks
happening here and there. We're not looking for detail. Still not looking for detail. Just some little
indications that we can see. Already it looks like trees back here, and you really haven't
done hardly a thing. Just make some little indications. We'll worry about detail when we get a little farther
along in the painting. 'Cuz when things are far away, you can't see all this detail. As they get closer yo you,
then you make out more detail. You can count leaves. Back here you can't. Okay, I'm gonna take a little
bit of the titanium white, and let's just put a little highlight on some of these here and there so it looks like a little light
shining through the woods. And little spots where
the light comes through. Let's go over here, right there. Tap a little. Okay. And that easy. That wasy, we've got just something that gives us an idea of a nice little soft background. Okay, let's go use the same old brush. I'm gonna go right into a little bit of the cad yellow, Indian yellow, yellow ochre, just mix 'em on the brush. Maybe, maybe even a little sap green. And all I'm doing is just tapping. Tap, tap, like so. Let's go up to the canvas. Maybe there's a little happy hill and it lives right here. Just barely touching the canvas. Maybe just wanders right on up. And comes right down, there it is. There it is. Okay. And I'm once again, just
going back and forth between all the yellows. And greens. Now the color underneath,
if you touch yellow to it, automatically it'll turn green. 'Cuz it has sap green and thalo blue. So when you touch yellow
to either one of those, you get all different shades of green, very pretty. Let the canvas do the work. Maybe, maybe, maybe there's
another little hill. Maybe it comes down. There it is. There it is. You knew it was there. Okay, and just highlight
that a little bit. You can make these little
hills just so soft. However soft you want 'em. It's your world. So you decide. There we go, maybe it comes right on out here. Barely touching. Okay now, we said earlier we'd do a little happy stream in here, so we're gonna have to
start making some decisions. Where's our little stream? Where's your little stream? Where's it gonna be? Where's it gonna be? Let's take a fan brush. And I'm gonna take a little magic white, mix it with some titanium white. So I get magic white, titanium white. I put the magic white in there to thin it just a small amount. Thin paint sticks to a thin paint. And let's go right up here. And let's decide maybe, maybe there's a stream. Comes right out through here. And we push, make some little foamy things. Maybe, yup, just gonna come right here and just drop over. Just drop it over. Let it hit and splash. Push that fan brush so it bends upward, and then rub it. Anything you don't want,
you can just rub it out. No big deal. And make the impression of water. Don't kill all your dark areas, don't paint it all bright white. You do this rubbing to pick
up some of that under-color. You don't want it to be just white. It won't look right. 'Cuz the water reflects
the color under it, and around it, and above it, and below it, whatever. So it's very rare that
you have pure white water. And you can create all these little, you have to make the decision, how fast is your little stream? How much current's in it? Is it hitting rocks and stones? All of these things, you have to make these decisions 'cuz this is your world. Your world. There we go. Now, if I'm not careful
I'll get carried away and we'll just have a whole
canvas full of stream. And we wanna show some other things. I love to do these
little streams like this. A lot of fun. Of course I'm an absolute
fanatic for water. I love water, it's beautiful. And a lot of times you have little stones underneath the water, that you might not be able to see 'em, but they're there and
they effect the water. The water hits 'em, and bubbles over 'em. Maybe it comes in both directions. Who knows? Who knows? Stone under there that
causes that water to do that. And you can make that effect just by pulling with the fan brush. It looks like that water
is surging over a stone that's underneath. It's a lot of fun, just play with it and experiment. And you can make as many
of those as you want. Maybe there's another
one, shoom, right there. We don't know how many
stones are under there. You say there's another one here, okay. If you want another one there then just drop it in wherever. And it makes your water
much more interesting. Okay, as I say, I'll get get carried away here and cover up the whole canvas with water, so let's, let's put in some more soft, grassy areas, and maybe they come right down. And you don't care if
it gets in the water, you just take your fan brush and rub it a little
bit, and it'll go away. Just becomes part of the water. Now, if you really wanna show some light striking through here, add a little titanium white. Same color. Same color. We're just changing the value. The intensity of the color. See? Makes it look like a
little bright spot there, maybe where a little sunlight's hitting. But it's the same color. You have not changed the color. And maybe it strikes a
little bit right here, also. You don't want it to just hit
on one side of the stream. Maybe the light's hitting here, also. There. Okay, that shows you how to do that. Let's get a little more
sap green, a little yellow, and let's just drop these areas right in. Like so, there we go. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Comes right there. That's what's so fantastic about, about painting like this. You don't have any preset notions of what you're gonna do or tracing that you have to follow. You have freedom here. Freedom. Maybe that's what attracted
me so much to this technique. Was the freedom. There's no restraints. Only guide is your heart. You let it take you wherever you wanna go. And right in the middle of these paintings you can change 'em. Oh my gosh, whatever you want, it's here. Okay, and we'll go back to my fan brush with a little white on it. And we'll clean up some of
these little edges here. Now, when you're bending this fan brush, try both sides of it. You'll find it bends better on one side than it does the other. One side'll, lot of times it
just gives you smiley faces. Or smiley frowns, whatever. If that happens, turn your brush over and use the other side. Check it, see if it does not work better. Usually, usually, on most brushes you'll find that one side always seems to
work better than the other. So try both sides of your fan brush. They're some of the most unique and individualized brushes there are. But they'll do unbelievable
things for you, once you make friends with them. Okay? I'll add a little more green. There we go. Just go right in here. Get a little bit of that good dark color. Don't wanna lose all
this darkness right here. Maybe this little stream, we'll just let it go off
the canvas over there. And I'll come back over on this side. And, and I'm gonna add a little brown on my brush. I'm gonna start dulling this color down. I want the front of this
painting to be dark. And you can add brown or you
can just keep tapping here, and it'll pick up the
blue and green underneath, and automatically it'll get darker. Automatically. There. Okay, let's take our fan brush again. See, I told you this was gonna
be a fun little painting. This is one that we enjoy, and I know that you will. Here we go, just add a little water, a little foam things
happening or whatever. Don't lose all your dark
in the water, either. And this water's hitting, and churning, and just all kinds of
beautiful little things, there it is, are happening. Just let 'em go. Let 'em go. Sort of let your hand go, it'll take you where you have to go. Don't have to always make all
your decisions with your mind. Just let 'em happen. Let 'em happen, and learn to, learn to use what happens. That's when the fun starts. That's when the fun starts. Okay, now I'm gonna go back to my old big brush, and we'll just bring some
of these little grassy areas rigght on down, right on down. There it goes. And a little more. We're almost to the point where we got a painting that
you could probably stop here and have a pretty nice painting. But we'll play a little more. We got a little more time,
so we'll play and have fun. There we go. Dark, dark, dark, dark, dark here. Okay. Now, let's put, tell
you what, let's do this. I'm gonna take another fan brush, and maybe we'll put, let's put a little dirt
around the edges here. Go right into some Van
Dyke brown and burnt umber. And I'll just mix it right on the brush. Just back and forth between the two. A lot of paint on the brush. Okay, just go up to the canvas. And maybe, maybe, maybe, there is, right here, a stone. If you want a stone there, drop it in. Maybe there's some dirt in here. Wherever, wherever. Make a decision, drop it in. If you don't like it, change it! Change it. It's your stream, your dirt, you can change it. You can change anything, you can do anything. Anything. Just relax, and enjoy, and have fun. Maybe right over here, I'll show a little more dirt over in here. Okay, put the dark in. Let that go right on back out of sight. I'm gonna take a little
yellow ochre and white, a little yellow ochre and white. There we go, there we go. And let's just lay a little
highlight right up here on top of these stones. Just barely touching, barely touching. Just let that paint touch. Just barely play along there. If you put a lot of
pressure on your brush, it's just gonna mix
together with the brown and you're gonna lose all your highlights. So just, just let it graze the top. Let it go. And you can make these
highlights different colors. I like to use a color that's
a little brighter than normal, so you can see it well on television. But according to where you live, stones are all different colors. Some places they're absolutely, just red, especially if there's a lot of iron ore in the rocks, they rust. In Alaska where I live, they have a lot of rust on the mountains, as crazy as that sounds. You have mountains that look red. And then sometimes in the summer, the fire weed, the fire weed
is Alaska's state flower, the fire weed will go up
the side of the mountain and make the whole mountain look red. It's beautiful. Beautiful. And I was like everybody else in Alaska, I went and got some fire weed
and planted it in my yard, and sat around and watched it die. Will not grow where you want it to. It only grows where it wants to. Most independent plant I ever seen. There we go, little, little highlight right up there. See how you can make all
these beautiful little things around the stream? There, you got a completed stream nearly. 'Kay, let's have some fun. Shoot, that went so well. I'm gonna go back into this fan brush and load it full of paint. A lot of brown. A lot of brown. Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, we'll build a tree or two. Okay, let's go up here. Maybe there's a nice tree that lives, he lives, he lives right there. See there? We knew he lived there, didn't we? It's just the right place for a tree. Just the right place. Maybe, maybe he's got another arm. Comes right, yup. And you can make trees in your world any way you want 'em. Any way. There we go. Little sticks. Use a liner brush and we'll make some more
detail things later on. Okay, let's go to the
other side over here. Maybe, maybe there's
a nice tree who lives, where does he live? He lives there. He lives there. Wherever. Let's make him come on
down a little further. Isn't that fantastic, you
can move a tree that easy? Pull him forward, push him back. Make him strong, make him weak. Tall, short. Just however. There we go. Gives him a few little
branches here and there. Okay, let's take, and we'll put some color on there. Tell you what I'm gonna do first, I'm gonna use a liner brush, a little brown, a little white, and let's highlight a little bit. Just wanna show ya, little highlight on this trunk here. Just so it stands out a little more. It's just brown and white. A little paint thinner to thin it. Just so we have a little
highlight on that tree. And you could do this with a fan brush. Let's go over to this other one here. And very quickly, very quickly, just drop in some indications back here, where the light's playing through. Hittin' the old tree trunk, makin' it shine. I'm gonna go into some sap green with a one inch brush. Just plain old sap green, just to get some dark color up here. I'm just usin' the corner of the brush. And all we're looking for here is just a basic, some basic shapes. Just some basic shapes. Just drop 'em in. And you get to decide
how big this tree is, how strong it is. Was it a good year or was it a bad year? A lot of water, a lot of rain? No rain. See, all these decisions, you have to make. You have absolutely unlimited
power on this canvas. Maybe that's one reason that
painting appeals to me so much. It's the only place I got any power. I can go home, and boy, my
wife doesn't give me any power. When she sees this,
she's gonna kill me, too. Okay, I'm going into a little
yellow, a little green. Let's go up here and put a few highlights, right up here on this dark. There we go. Barely touching. Barely touching. And I shouldn't say such
things about my wife, she's a beautiful lady. And she's made all this possible. I'm gonna add a little yellow ochre to that same basic color. And we'll just go over here and put in a few indications, like so. A little more paint, drop it right in. And just sort of look
at your tree and decide where light's striking it and where you want the highlights to be. Okay. Maybe, with the big brush, with the big brush we'll take and just clean up his little
foots here a little tiny bit. Let's go over here and I'll
clean this one up a little. Maybe. Tell you what. Trees are so much fun, I see one right there. Oh my gosh. Look what he's done to the painting. Okay, now I'm gonna use another fan brush, put a little brown and white on it. and come right down the side here. (singing) Put a little highlight on him. See there? That easy. These fan brushes are absolutely fantastic if you make friends with them. They are fantastic. Maybe we'll put a little
more foot out here. Okay, should we just make a branch or two? Right here, with the old fan brush. And it'll come, maybe there's one hanging down like this. Wherever you want 'em.
Wherever you want 'em. Maybe there's one that goes
right on off the side over here, and one coming through. Let's put some more little
arms on this branch. Just wherever you want 'em. Back to our light color brush, we need some highlight on these little branches, also. Okay. Maybe there's a few little
leaves on that limb. And then we need a color that stands out against all the rest. So I'ma add a small
amount of permanent red. Not too much, I don't
want it to get too bright. A little paint thinner. That'll thin it down and
make it go on easier. And just touch, put some little
indications here and there. There's just some little leaves that grow out here on this limb. Don't want it to be left out, feel lonely. And you can put as many or as few as you want in your world. Let 'em just sort of play around, like so. There they go. And I think, I think we've
got a finished painting. That's a lot of fun. This is one I think you'll enjoy, And you'd never believe from looking at it that you had started with a black canvas and all this had happened. So I'ma take a little thin oil, a little permanent red, we'll sign this one. Call it finished. And I really, really hope you enjoyed it. I look forward to seeing you next week. Have your canvas set up. Paints. Glass of ice tea. All mighty easel. And I'll see you then. Happy painting. (jazzy, relaxing music)
