- Hello, glad to see you again. This being the last show of the series, we decided to devote it to a
question and answer period. We've had so many cards and letters from everyone who's watching
us, and today we're gonna try to answer some of those
questions, right here on the TV. Also, today it's a great,
great privilege to me, to be able to introduce the
pride and joy of my life. This is my son, Steve, and I've asked Steve to come give me a hand today, and he'll read the questions for us. Steve, glad to have you with us. Good to see you today. Okay, I think everybody has probably asked just about the same basic questions, so we've picked a few
letters here today that will answer most of the basic questions. If we don't answer your specific question, we will be dropping you a line personally, if it's something only few people asked. So, Steve, why don't you
give us the first question. - Okay, the first question
is, "What is magic white?" - What is magic white. Magic white is a very thin, white, oil based paint. And it's very important to know that it's an oil based paint. Please, do not get it confused with Gesso. Gesso is a water based
paint, it will not work. Magic white is designed
to stay wet on the canvas for extended periods of time. And, maybe we'll just, demonstrate here a little
bit, how think it really is. And, let's see. If I can take just a little bit here, and we'll just put it right
up here on the canvas. And it's very, very thin. It's almost like water. Like so. And I hope that does give you an idea of what magic white is. The big thing is, do not
confuse it with Gesso. There is a terrific
difference between the two. What's our next one, Steve? - How do I tell if I have too
much magic white on my canvas? - It's a common mistake made. It's very, very easy to
put too much magic white, and probably, well let's just do it. Let me get an almighty brush here, and let's put some magic
white on the canvas, and we'll just sort of demonstrate. (bristling) And, if you'll put the magic white on, and really work it. Back and forth. It takes a very thin coat of magic white. Just enough to get the canvas wet. Okay. Just like so. If there's any doubt in your mind, and you think you may
have too much magic white, I suggest you clean your
brush, dry it very well, go back over the canvas and remove any excess magic
white that's on your canvas. (bristling) Okay, so you just rub this in. Very, very good here. And work it back and forth. There we go. (bristling) Nice even distribution of paint. Once again, if there's
any doubt in your mind, clean your brush and go back over it. It will pick up the excess. Okay, what do we have next? - Can I use any kind of
oil paint for this method? - The biggest thing that were looking for is a paint that is very, very firm. It has to be as thick as
you can possibly get it. What we suggest is you go down, open the tube of paint, squeeze it. It should stand approximately
three quarters of an inch above the tube, by itself. If, when you open it and squeeze it, if the paint's sort of oily,
if it runs out the sides, it will not work. We suggest that you really try this. It has to be firm. Okay? What's the next one? (papers rustling) - The brushes I purchased
not seem to work, what do you suggest? - We run into this quite frequently. People will watch what
were doing here on TV, and they go down to the
local hardware store, and they purchase the
cheapest brush they can find. Most of the time, you'll
end up with a nylon brush. The brushes that we use, let me just pick one up here. The brushes that we use
are natural bristle. These are split boar bristle brushes. So, when you purchase a brush, get one that is natural bristle. Do not let them sell you a nylon brush. It will not work. It cuts paint. Okay, what's our next question? - Can I clean my brushes in turpentine? - Turpentine. Several things are wrong. Number one, it has a
terrible odor that will drive you out of the house. You'll be painting all
by yourself very soon. Probably the biggest thing
that happens with turpentine, it leaves a residue in your
brushes that can only be cleaned out with soap and water. And if you use soap and water
on natural bristle brushes, you're gonna find they get very fuzzy and begin to lose their shape. We suggest that you clean only
with odorless paint thinner, and do not use turpentine. Okay, what do we have next? - Is it alright to use
canvas boards to paint on? - This is a question
that's asked over and over, because canvas boards are much more reasonably priced than stretch canvas. The big problem with using
canvas boards is that inside the canvas board is a thin layer of cardboard. The cardboard has a tendency
to absorb your magic white, and your canvas will become dry before the picture is finished. We really recommend that you
use a canvas that's covered with an acrylic primer, double primed. Two coats of acrylic. And we find that the stretch
canvas is much, much better than the canvas board. Also, the knife has a slight
curve in the long edge. It is not straight, the
curve is designed in there so when you push the canvas,
it forms to the knife. So we really recommend that
you use stretch canvas. What do we have next? - The snow on the
mountains is so beautiful, but I'm having a hard time
making the pain break. Can you tell me what I'm doing wrong? - Well, maybe we'll just demonstrate. And I think I can probably
answer most of the problems you're having just by doing it. So, let's just mix up a little, oh a little blue-brown and, and little touch of alizarin, and white. And let's just build an almighty mountain. (scraping) I think, first of all, let's, so we have a little
background here to play with, let's just put in a very quick little simple sky in some blue. (bristling) Just so we have something
for the mountains, to set here against, rather than just a white canvas. We'll just throw on a little blue paint. (bristling) Okay. Just enough to give us
a nice little sky here. Several things are probably happening. And we'll try to cover
each one individually here. So, let's make a basic mountain shape. And let's just say this
is our mountain here. (scraping) Probably the first thing that's happening, is that you're leaving too
much paint on the canvas. We want to remove all the excess
paint that we possibly can. And we're pushing very, very hard. It's a matter of pushing the
paint right into the fabric. (scraping) So, when you're doing this,
get tough with it, get strong. This is a time to take
out all your flustrations. It's much better than kicking
the dog around the house, or taking it out on your spouse. This is the way you take
out your flustrations. Now, I've scraped all the
paint off here that I can get. Now, I'm gonna take the big brush, and pull this down. This will take even more paint off, and thin what's here. So, there's, virtually nothing left on the canvas except just the color that's
pushed in to the material. (bristling) So, here we have a basic mountain shape. If you're having problems
with the snow breaking, the most common problem is
that you're pushing too hard. This is absolutely, the most
delicate touch imaginable. I remember when I was
teaching Steve to paint, I used to tell him to
pretend he was a whisper, floating across a mountain. It's that light of a touch. So, you touch it, just let it grab, and just the weight of the knife. And you can make this
snow just break and flow right down the mountain. But, you need to do this with, aw, pretend your hand,
if you're not careful, is gonna float right away. It's that light of a touch. And then you can add all the
snow that you want on here. (scraping) And think about where
the light's gonna strike. This is another problem that we run into. Think about your light, if it's coming from here,
where it's gonna strike all the little protrusions
that come up from the mountain. Just like so. (scraping) The shadows are just like the highlights, only we're going in
the opposite direction. And, I think you've heard me
say, over and over in the show, each highlight must have
its own private shadow. Each one. So, if you wanna make a peak, stand out, give him his own private little highlight, or a shadow, I'm sorry. Okay, there we go. (light cheerful music) Probably, the biggest problem, once again, is too much pressure. Use a very, very delicate touch. And the diffusing is another area we run into a lot of problems. And here, it's a light touch. A very, very light touch. It's so easy to destroy this, and especially if you're using a paint that's not super, super strong. Firm. You're gonna destroy all your work. So, use a firm paint, barely touch the canvas. Just enough to diffuse this. (bristling) And then, we lift in
the direction and angle that the mountain is flowing. We lift it upward, just to
take out the little tap marks. And just let it blend, right into nothing. And you can just make
that big ol' mountain lay right around there. Mist. Okay, Steve, what's our next question? - [Steve] Would you show us up close, how to make the trees and bushes? I'm also having trouble
making the highlights stick to the canvas. - Another very common problem. Okay, let's make some, I'll show you several different ways here to make some trees, and maybe we can get the
camera to come in real close, when we start this, and
you can actually see how the brush is bending. I'm gonna take a little blue and brown, a little touch of alizarin here, little sap green. We'll just mix all these together. Now, if we can bring the
camera in very close, you can see how full of
paint the brush is here. Has a lot of paint in there. Okay? Let's make a big, leafy tree. We go into the canvas, and
we just bend the bristles, and you see what's happening. Thousands and thousands of little leaves, just happen. And we can make this
tree any size we want it. Just, we just keep working
and playing on it here, and it just grows, right off your brush. Okay, gonna put another little one right here while we got paint on the brush. Now, this is the way
we'd make a leafy tree, and one of the ways to
make bushes, for example, is to use a big brush, go
straight into the canvas, and bend upward. Just push upward. That's all there is to it. All we're doing is just
bending the bristles. Make the bristles work for you, you're the master. (bristling) Okay, look it there, already we
have a tree, mountains, nice little bushes, son of a gun. Okay, how to make an evergreen tree. We'll take, mix up some dark paint, here. And we'll just use the same colors: blue, brown, a little
of alizarin, sap green. Very, very dark. (clearing throat) And we'll take and fill
a brush full of paint. Probably, the biggest
single problem we have is not putting enough
paint into the brush. It takes a lot of paint to
stick these bristles together. Okay, let's just go right up here on the canvas, and let's make an evergreen tree. Let's just touch. All we're doing at first is
just touching the canvas, just to sort of give us a guideline. Then we take the corner of the brush, and we start working from the center out. The center of the tree is
normally always the thickest, because you have limbs
on the back of the tree, you have the trunk in the center, and the limbs are on the front. All of which stop light, and make the center of the
tree look very, very thick. Okay, and let me just finish
this little tree up, here. Another thing we work very hard
to accomplish in doing this, as tree limbs get older, they have a tendency to hang more. And, underneath the little
needles and stuff begin, oh, they get tired. Some of them begin dying, and you always have these
little things underneath. For lack of a better word, I call them hangy downs (chuckles). There may be a proper name for them, but we just call them hangy downs. Okay? Let's do that again, just so
you can see one more time. And if we can get the
camera in here, real close, let's do one right about here. We touch, get us a little guideline, then we start right with the corner. The first time, it's just a little touch. Next time, a little bigger, and we're just working outward. Always from the center out. And, nothing wrong with
reloading your brush several times through there,
so you have a lot of paint. And we're not drawing with the brush, we're just touching it,
and letting it come off. Okay, so, let's uh, kind of some more little
bushes right here. We also can use this one inch
brush to make almighty trees. And, all you're doing is the same thing we did with the big one, you just push. (bristling) Push, push, push. And you can use him sideways, just like you did the
big brush to make all these nice little grassy
areas come down through here. There we go. And let's go back to the big
brush, and just fill this up, give you an idea here. Okay. The big brush covers a lot of
space in a very short time. Use it to your advantage. Okay, I think the other
part of the question was, they were having trouble making their highlights stick on the trees. So, let's, let's put some
highlights on these trees. First of all, I'm gonna take a little brown and white here,
and make some trunks. Might as well show the trunks too. All we're doing here is touching, and pulling sort of too the left. And you can put as many of these little trunks in as you want. (scraping) Here, just like so. And then just, every so often. And we can put little
trunks growing everywhere. There they go. And, over here, we'll do the same thing. Just touch, indications, you
don't see the whole trunk. 'Cause we're gonna have
leaves in the front. Okay, now to put these highlights on, we're gonna take and dip the
brush into some magic white. And then pull it through color. And maybe we'll make some
nice green highlights, I'll put a little touch
of phthalo green in here. And, all you do is, just push, just enough
to bend the bristles. And just lay all those beautiful
little leaves on there. Thousands and thousands of them. I used to spend weeks
with my one haired brush, tryin' to do this. It almost it made me angry the first time I saw Alexander on TV. That he could do in a matter of minutes what took me days to do. Okay. Now, there's nothing wrong with going back into your magic white, and adding a little more. So, maybe we'll just put
some highlights on here, let you really see how
the highlights are made. And, if you wanna some little
smaller bushes down here, you're still using the same technique, pushing with the brush. Just where ever you want them. You can also use this brush sideways, and make beautiful little highlights. Just let them sort of wander around, where ever they wanna go. You can spend a tremendous amount of time, worrying about where things should be. In the period of time that
you spend worrying about it, you could have completed
an almighty painting. For the evergreen trees, I bring the brush back
to a nice sharp point, just like I did to make the trees. And, I start right up here at the top, and just begin touching. Evergreen trees are normally
darker than other trees anyway. So, you don't wanna kill all
this beautiful dark color that you've got in here. You start at the top, on any kind of tree, and work down. By working down, your brush
is automatically picking up the color that's underneath. Automatically gets darker as it goes down, because in nature, the light
will come through here, it will strike the top of
the tree normally first. That would be the brightest area. Also, as limbs get older, they lose a lot of their chlorophyll. They begin losing a lot of
their beautiful green color. So, automatically this happens, you don't have to work at it. Let the brush work, let the paint work. We'll highlight this other
little evergreen over here. Right here, okay. We'll just take a, just touch. And according to what side
your light's coming from, you want that side of the tree to be just a little bit
brighter than the other one. Okay, while I'm over here, I think I'll, put some highlights on this other tree. Give you one more to look at. Okay, but back to the basic problem, if it doesn't stick, majority of times your paint is too thick. So, add a little more magic white with it. And, we'll throw some little
highlights on this one. Okay, let me wash out the brush. (metal clanking) And, we'll put just a couple
more little highlights in here, then see what our next question is. There we go. Just let them fall in here. Wherever you want them. And another thing we do, is
mix the color on the brush. You've probably heard me say
that throughout this series, several times, but it's very important. Because, that way you
get a variety of color, all on the same brush. Okay, think that's enough playin'. Steve, what's our next question? - I love the reflections you do. Would you go over the
process you use to make them? - Hmm, that's one I shoulda
had you ask a little earlier, but, don't think that's any problem. Let me clean out my big brush here, and we'll just see what we can do. (metal clanking) This is also a good example of
how you can change a picture, right in the middle of a picture. So, Steve wants some reflection,
let's give him reflections. We'll just start right along in here, and start pulling this downward. Just maybe like so. All we're doin' is pulling the paint down. Okay, now, gently go across it, just enough
to give it a watery effect. Don't destroy. (metal clanking) Okay, now maybe you want to, make a little more distinct reflection. So, let's put a nice
little, bright yellow bush, right here, and let's reflect that
bush right into the water. And we can just reflect a lot of things, while we got it on the brush here. Okay. Maybe we'll put a nice
little bush out here that we can reflect. All I've done is turn the brush over, and I'm putting the bushes
right into the water. (metal clanking) Okay, now maybe we can
get a close up shot, right in here, and let's
see what we can do. We have the paint laid on the canvas, so now we're gonna take and very lightly, you almost let a hair touch, it's that light of a touch. Gonna gently pull that down. You don't wanna destroy, you just wanna diffuse it. Now, we're gonna slightly, with a light, light touch, just come across it to
give it a watery effect. Okay. Now we can do the same thing over here. Just like so. And you see what it
looks like at this point. Don't worry about making it
perfect with the first stroke. You have to pull down, and then very gently, come across. And it's very easy to destroy this. So, all you wanna do is just
barely touch the canvas. Let a hair almost touch the canvas. Another thing that we get
a lot of questions about, is putting the water lines in. So, we might as well put some in. Here, I'm gonna use just
straight magic white. Put a little bit on the knife. And, the one thing to remember here, if you're making still water, it's always flat, always level. So, every little line that you put in it, must be basically flat. You can go anywhere you wanna go with it, but you have to keep 'em straight. Okay? Good example here, it looks like this is
traveling right on back. Okay, put a little more magic white under that. And we're just cutting into the canvas. (scratching) Looka there. And just let it go
wherever you want it to go. Okay, now maybe over here on this side, we'll take a little bit of Van Dyke brown, and we'll just show how
you can make it look like soil, dirt, rocks, whatever. And we're just laying
a little color on here. Straight Van Dyke brown. Okay, then we'll take a
little blue, white, and brown, and just like we were
making mountains again, let it break, let it break. Leave these open spots. So it gives the appearance
of dirt or stones. Okay, now we can put a little waterline underneath here with the magic white. You're still keeping these
lines basically straight. Okay. (scratching) Okay. And we'll just add a few
sticks here and there. And maybe you wanna show a
little something happening here. You can just, pull that down a little, so it's not just a
straight line going across. Okay. Just to break it up a little bit. And we'll put some little
sticks here and there. (scraping) And maybe we'll take
just a touch more color and let it run down this dirt area here, so it looks like it all comes together. You don't wanna have a straight
line right across there. So, we'll just break it up here and there with some little grass
that's growing down on the, on the bank right here. Okay. We could throw a few more
little sticks here and there. Sometimes you can scratch
through the paint, let the white show through, and give yourself a very nice effect of little sticks, little trunks happening here in the bushes. Or sometimes, you might wanna
take a little bit of paint and lay in there. Just like so. So, there we go. And let some of these
sticks run down on the, on the bank too, on the soil area. It's not unusual, very common in fact to have a lot of little twigs and sticks growing around the water. (scratching) Just let these little things happen. It really produces a tremendous feeling of depth in a picture. Well, you know we've sat
here and answered questions, and son of a gun if we
hadn't finished a picture. And, I think, with that I'm gonna, sort of bring this to a close. I hope we've answered the
majority of your questions that really bother you. If you still have problems, or if there's anything you'd
like to know about this method of painting, feel free to drop us a
line, we'll be glad to, to answer any question that you have. As long as it's not too personal. We'll just about answer anything. And, on behalf of my son, Steve,
the entire crew here, I would like to thank you, very, very much for being with us through this, thirteen part series. And hopefully we'll see you
again in the near future. And with that, I'm
gonna sign this picture. And tell each and every one of you, thank you from the bottom of my heart, we've enjoyed being with you. Happy painting. (lively orchestral music) (guitar music)
