- Hi, welcome back. Certainly glad you could join us today because today is a very
special day for me. Every once in a while when
we can get him off the road from teaching, I have my son Steve come in and do a little painting for us and today is one of those days. Steve is quite a painter, he's been painting all of
his adult life and in fact he sold his first painting
when he was 12 years old. So I'll tell you what, we're going to turn it over to Steve today and let him do a fantastic
little painting for you. Steve. - Thanks, dad. Hi, glad you could join me. I've already covered the
canvas with a thin even coat of liquid white so you want
to go ahead and do that and while you're doing that, they're gonna run all your
colors across the screen for you right down at the bottom of the screen. And let's see, I think
I'll paint something with a big waterfall in it today,
mountains, and clouds, and maybe a big waterfall. So, start off with your two inch brush and we'll go into just a
little bit of phthalo blue. Very light, drag out
a little bit of paint, tap it into those bristles and then we'll go up here. Oh, I like that color. I think blue is my favorite. There we go, little x strokes. Little x's everywhere. Some little dark cloud areas in here. Then maybe a little bit more phthalo blue with a touch of phthalo green. And let's just pull that right in. Just recently came back from California. I've been traveling all over
the country teaching classes and I ended up way over
there on the west coast. I really like it out there. Got the ocean right there and got the mountains
right there beside you. People are really nice, too. Okay, let's go ahead and
use a clean dry big brush. I had a spare there, see? I pulled a sneaky on you. And we'll just blend out that light area. Wow, look at that. It gets real soft. I'm pushing hard in areas
that I think are too heavy with paint and areas that I like I go over 'em real soft. Just like that, very light. Very light. And maybe down here in the water just some straight horizontal strokes, just like painting the side
of your house, real simple. And maybe down here at the
very bottom of it we'll make it extra dark, just add a little
bit more of your phthalo blue. There we go. That's almost too easy to believe. There we go, easy. Okay, let's do a couple
little clouds up in the sky. We'll go in with a little
bit of titanium white and maybe just a tiny
touch of alizarin crimson. Let's go ahead and just
throw 'em right in there. Heck, we're not worried about it. Real free and simple. This might sound a little bit nutty but as you're doing your
painting with me today, kinda think about the
things that you're painting. When you're doing a
cloud, think like a cloud. Real light, fluffy. Just like that, like the wind's blowing. Feel that wind in your hair
when you're doing clouds. It's kinda like dad says, "You don't have to be crazy
to do this but it helps." There we go. Just real nice clouds, real nice clouds. Whenever I'm painting anything, I'm always thinking to
myself how wonderful it's coming out, you know? I don't get into a bad frame of mind ever because I know no matter what I do, I'm doing it for me and that I'm gonna enjoy it. No matter whether it's a Leonardo da Vinci or Micheal Angelo lookin' thing, I'm not worried about that. There we go, a few clouds. Then you can just blend those
out with your two inch brush real light, real light. Think soft. There we go. Now lift very gently. Just a couple of hairs
and some air breezing across the canvas. And then go across those also very light. I like those little
hints of pink in there, makes it look like the
sun's shining on the clouds. Real gentle, okay. Let's do a mountain. We're gonna use a little
bit of van dyke brown, a little bit of midnight
black, some crimson, and prussian blue. That's all in equal parts. And we'll mix that up real good and get a nice roll on
your knife just like that. Very nice roll. Come up, push in. Oh my gosh, it's a grand teton. I can tell already, look
at how high that peak is. I might have got a little carried away. But more than likely, it
was just a happy accident. Look's like it was, it's coming out okay. You have to do that, you know? Compliment yourself a little, tell yourself you're wonderful. It's good for you. People are too hard on
themselves these days. That's just my opinion but when I'm watching the new and stuff, it seems like people almost
want to hear bad things. I don't want to hear bad things, I like to hear good ones. That's why I paint. I can get off in my own little world not worry about what anybody
else is doing or saying and just feel free. There we go, there's a mountain shape. Now I'll just drag that
out with my big brush. Try not to get too close
to those top edges, you might accidentally
get some birds out there that you don't want. There we go. Or maybe you want birds in
your world, I don't know. Heck, it's up to you. There we go, something like that and then let's put a little bit a
titanium white on the knife. And a touch of crimson in it, maybe. Good, there we go. Okay. Cut the little roll on the knife again and we'll just real gently
come on down the mountain. Well, I gotta admit it gives
you quite a powerful feeling to know that you're moving mountains I really like that feeling. I can't think of anything
else in the whole world that makes me feel like painting does. It really, really is special. And you know when I
first started doing it, yeah, it was a little difficult. But riding a skate board is, too. I'll forget the first time dad said, "Oh, I can ride that skate
board. That's no problem." Well, you can kinda imagine what happened first time he stepped on it. I won't tell you that, though. I don't want to embarrassed dad, you know. (laughs) Okay, let's take a little
bit of titanium white and a little bit of prussian
blue and we'll mix those up. Leave that kind of marbled,
don't mix it too much. Just about like that. Get a little roll on
your knife and then we'll put a little shadow behind
these, just a little shadow. Actually, the less blue
you use, the better. Leave a lot of those dark
holes showing through. Use the small portion of
your knife if you'd like in those real small areas. That'll keep you out of trouble. There we go. Real gentle, real gentle. I love to paint mountains. I'd say they're about my favorite thing. As I've been traveling around the country, I have seen so many types
of mountains that I've never even thought of before. I mean, oh gosh. It's wonderful. All the new information I've picked up. Between that and the people you meet, I'd say there's just no better job than being a painting instructor. And I think for anybody that's interested in working with people, it'd be a good idea to join the program, get involved. Become a teacher yourself. Little bit of snow cap
at the top of these. Okay. Now down at the bottom of the mountain, we'll just kinda touch it
up a little with some mist. Just tapping into the paint very gently. Just like that and then
lift up into that paint, lift up, lift up. Pull out, pull out, pull
out on that dark side. I'm use to that being a teacher, you know, saying everything two or
three times like that, so. Let's see here. Okay, that looks pretty close. Now I'll go in with a
few little foot hills. I'm just gonna mix this paint on my brush. We'll go into a little
sap green, midnight black, alizarin crimson, little prussian blue, and get a little white on your brush. There we go. Oh, I dirtied up my white, didn't I? Okay, now touch right into that color and come in here and push
down, push down, push down. Maybe there's a little one
coming from right back in here. I don't really know. To be honest with you, I'm just making this one up as I go along. Just pull up a few little trees on top and then we'll come in with the big brush and get rid of that
bottom, get rid of that lower area. Tell you a little secret. If you get rid of the
bottom edge of everything in the background,
it'll look further away. Remember that. That's one of the rules
that really helped me. And you know, as far as
perspective and contrast go, they're very easily explained. In short, perspective tells
us as things get closer they get larger and contrast tells us as things get closer they get darker cause they
get further away from the sun. So, see those rules are very simple. You don't have to make a whole book out of one little thing like that. I try to keep things very
simple in my classes, too. Pound out the bottom of that foothill, get rid of that bottom edge. See there? Now we got two foothills. One infront of the other. If you want the back one
lighter and the front one darker, you just use more
paint on the front one and less paint on the
back one, no problem. Okay, we're tired of goofing around here. Let's get serious. Let's take a little bit of
the dark color we just made and pound in a nice big
foliage area right back here. Wow, listen to that canvas. It sounds like a drum, doesn't it? By the way, I'm part Indian. I know I don't look like it but I'm a quarter Cherokee Indian and I'm very proud of that fact. And I'll tell you what, beating on this canvas
kinda brings me back to that Indian thing, you know? Sounds like a drum, listen to that. Boom, boom, boom, boom. (laughs) Isn't that crazy? You gotta think of little
things like that, though, when you're creating something. Indian's were very creative, still are. Okay, grab and pull, grab
and pull, grab and pull. It's a clean brush and you'll get a reflection out of that. That's pretty simple, isn't it? And just go across it and
it looks just like water. Okay, maybe back on these trees, they're pretty far away
so let's just go with some scratch in type trunks. Just scratch 'em in,
little y's, little v's. There we go. People will think you spent
hours going to all that work, but really we know it
just took a few minutes. Or even seconds. Okay, pull through your paint, pull through your cadmium yellow. You're going to need a drop
of paint thinner in this, just one little drop. Cause remember, thin paint
sticks on top of thick paint. Maybe a touch of phthalo blue
in that to turn it green. Wow, that was a big touch, wasn't it? Okie dokie, Very light, very light. Oh, man. We are really having fun now. I love highlighting trees and bushes. So many different things can happen. Look at that. There you go. Hey, let's change that color a little bit. We're getting a lot of green in there. Let's go for, I don't know,
maybe a little crimson in that same color. Crimson, green, and yellow. Look at that, kind of
an ochre-y type color. And if you want to make some grass, you can just kinda pop
that right in there. Just use the side of
the brush, same loading and everything, just the side. Okay, and possibly a little
reflection in the water. That's easy enough just
pull it right down. And as with all reflections, you want to go across that very gently. Soften that grass down just a little. There we go, good. Okay, maybe a little piece of land underneath that. We'll go with a little van
dyke brown on this part. Pull that paint out,
get a roll on your knife and then you're ready
to come right up here and touch, touch. Pull, pull, pull to the
right, pull to the right. It's about a 15 degree angle to the right, let's get technical, why don't we here. No, really I don't
think of things that way in degrees and stuff. I'm just trying to give you
a little bit more detailed instruction here. Let's see, a little bit of
titanium white and the brown together and you can
make a highlight color. Very, very light color. Go across that, it almost looks like snow. And let's see. There we go. Now, if you pull through your paint and kind push into it a little, you can come up here and
make some grass coming down on that land, very simple. Don't be afraid to get
thick areas of paint on the canvas, either. Some people don't like
thick areas of paint but I think they look really neat. They add texture to the painting and they really make it poke out at you, give it that three dimensional look. Pull down a little bit
of your dirt reflection, you have to reflect
everything about the water and remember when you're
pulling reflections down, reflections are only as
low as what's above them that's high. Okay, just a touch of your liquid white. Spin that around on that
palate just like that real gentle, touch through it and let's make a waterline. This is where the water's kind
of bouncing off the shore. Apparently, it's bouncing
quite a bite today too. (laughs) Look at that. Maybe a little bass jumped out here. There we go. That's not bad. Remember, you gotta keep
telling yourself these things. Tell yourself you're good. Okay, pull through your paint like this. Pull through that van dyke brown and maybe we'll make a little, oh I don't know, maybe a
little tree right here. Just a little tiny one,
just touch, touch, touch. I see a little dead thing back there, little bit of the same highlight
you used on you land there and we'll touch on that, touch on that. Just like that. And it possibly has a limb or two on it. Little bit of van dyke brown
and thinner on the liner brush. And we'll go up here and
just put a couple dead limbs on that, oh boy. You know, you gotta have
life and death in nature cause it shows reality. And plus, those old nasty
lookin' dead things make everything thing else look
so beautiful in the painting. There's a place for
everything, god made everything to have a place in this world. Okay, now you just cover up
his little foots down there. There we go, get rid of that. Okay, looks just like he's planted. Alrighty, let's make a waterfall. We'll go in with the big brush, get a little bit of prissian
and phthalo blue both on the brush. Very, very dark full load of paint and then we'll come in
here and about right here pull down. (makes crashing sounds) See, you gotta make
sound effects like that. It won't work if you don't
make the sound effects. There we go. And a little bit of your liquid white and titanium together. I'll tell you what, I've barely
got a white are left here. I'm making a mess. Okay, pull across and drop down. Isn't that a fun way to
make splashing water? Look at that, comes right over. Comes right over. And do it fast, looks
good if you do it fast. Just like that. Pull in, pull in. Then take the brush and pull
the top of that waterfall out, pull it out. There we go. Then we'll just take a
bit of van dyke brown and we'll start in on
some cliffs on the sides. Just pull it right across. Remember, you're the creator here. You want to throw it in just like you're actually creating a world which is really what you're doing. There's very few times
in life you get to play with a position of serious
power, especially if you're me. I'll tell you what, my
girlfriend, she's rough on me. There you go. Yeah, maybe a few highlights on that. Like I was saying, it feels good to be able to know heck, I'm doing all this myself. Creating it all on my own. If I want this or that
there, I can put it in. If I don't like something,
I can take it away. There we go. Maybe there's one down here, too. Okay, you want to wipe your fan brush out before you do this. You want to grab and pull
down, pull down, pull down. That makes these look like
little plateaus back here. There we go. Pull in towards the center,
in towards the center. There we go. And while we're at it, let's
add a little dark paint down here at the bottom. Super dark, chop off the sides
of that waterfall down there. There we go. Okay, we could probably have, I don't know, a big tree on the left hand side, maybe. I like big trees. Just mix up your green,
brown, and blue again. Touch, then let's just
smash it right in here. We are certainly not messing around here. We're crashing in trees,
and mountains, and bushes. It's cause we're powerful. We can do anything we want. There we go, get that limb out there. Look at that. A lot of this is brush manipulation. You're just forcing that brush to make the shape that you want. You know, after a while the equipment actually becomes
like a shifter in your car. It's an extension of your
body, just like anything else. And maybe there's a small
little tree over here. Oh boy, that one looks
like it had a hard year. Look at that, gee whiz. Or maybe a bush or two, there we go. Now, a few little highlights
on these trees and bushes. Not too much highlight on
your evergreen trees though, cause you know they're very,
very dark in the forest. Very dark. Maybe this bush got hit by
the sunlight just a touch on the sides there, just a touch. Little grass down under their foots there. There we go. Make them sound effects. Okay, and as a final
step in this painting, I believe I'll add a little bit of foam. Touch into your paint, just white and titanium white together. Liquid white and titanium, and push right in there. Look at those splashes
coming up in that waterfall. It's exciting, isn't it. Makes you feel good. Look at that. And maybe we'll come in with a little piece of root, if you can believe that, hanging off this land edge where the water washed away. Okay, I think that's it for that one. Thank you very much dad
for having me on the show and thank you for watching me and we'll see you next time. (calm music)
I like that his Bob Ross and his son both had hair that reflected their generation. I imagine that his son would have a undercut now.
I opened the video just to watch his mistake. I couldn't help but watch the whole thing.
Steve Ross has completely vanished. A Reddit post claims he's a software developer, which means he swears a lot now.
This dude is hilarious.
I went from "he's ruining that lovely blue painting" to "what the fuck do I know?" very quickly.
I wish I could be this laid back, I would have just said fuck it and painted the sky black - "I guess it's nighttime now."
Having never seen Bob's son in action, I was expecting him to just shout 'Fuck!' and punch through the canvas
That was hands down, the most relaxing thing I've ever watched. I sat through the entire video just in complete bliss.
Ah, hearing "titanium hwite" never gets old.