- Hi, welcome back. We're certainly glad you could join us today. I thought today maybe we could just do a fantastic little painting that I hope you'll enjoy. 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 got done today. I have my standard, old, pre-stretched, double-primed canvas, and I've covered it with just a very thin coat of liquid white. So it's all wet and slick, and it's ready to go. Let's just have some fun today. Today, let's start with
a little tiny brush, the two-inch brush. We'll take a small amount
of Alizarin Crimson. We don't need much, just a little Alizarin Crimson. Just tap a little in the bristles. There we go, and let's go right up in here. We'll put a little bit
up in the sky today, somewhere delicate, just want to warm it up. Be very careful. In a heartbeat, you can
set the sky on fire. All we want to do is warm it a little. There we go, something about like so. That's all we need. Maybe a touch more of that, and we'll have a little water, down here at the bottom. I'll put a little bit
down here at the bottom. Maybe a little of that pinkish color will reflect right into the water. If we don't have water,
we'll just cover it up. No big deal because in our world, we can do anything that we want to do. Alright, in that case, let's go into a little bit of the Phthalo Blue. Once again, don't need much, and it don't even have to clean the brush. The Phthalo Blue is so much stronger than the Crimson, it'll just eat it up. Let's go back up in here. I'm just gonna make little X's, little criss-cross strokes, something like that. Go all the way across the top. Bring it down til it
almost touches the crimson. Once again, the blue is so much stronger if you're not careful it'll
just eat all the crimson up. There, about like so. While I still have that brush going, I'm gonna take a little Prussian Blue, which is much darker, and just add to the corners on each side. Something like that, and, once again, while I have the blue on the brush, I'm gonna go down and put a little bit down here. If I'm gonna have water, we need a little blue down there, something about like that. There we go. It really doesn't matter
because we'll change it in any direction that we want when we get there. There, alright, and now, the most fun part of the whole procedure. Let's clean the brush. We wash our brushes, as you know, with odorless paint thinner, and I really, really recommend that it's odorless or you'll become the most unpopular person in the whole house. If you do that in the living room, you're going to become unpopular too. Get your little brush beater rack that you put down in the garbage can to contain all that. There we go. I do it here in the studio
because they pick on me. It's a way of getting even with them. There we are, and besides that, it's a lot of fun. Okay, very gently, just
blend the entire sky, and take out the little brush strokes. Same thing here in the water. We're just gonna blend it a little bit. See that little bit of
pink is still there. It shows right through, and that's exactly what we wanted to do. Alright, let's have some fun. Let's take- I've got several of these two-inch brushes going- I want to take one and tap it, tap right into the Titanium White. Show you a simple, simple little way of making a happy little cloud. All we're gonna do is just take and tap in a little, basic shape. We don't care, just tap it, there. This is the easiest way I've ever found of making very effective clouds. Just tap, but you do have to put in basic shape. You can't just tap it random, and a cloud appears, there. Think about basic shape. Now, this old cloud could float around and just have a good time all day. Maybe, maybe something about like here. It doesn't matter. A clean, dry brush and very gently, very, very gently, one herrance of air, we can just blend this rascal until it's as soft as you want it to be. It's that easy, that easy, alright. We've got some happy little clouds that just live up here in our sky. Okay, great, there. If you just have a little
paint on your brush, you can just beat it like that. It'll take the paint off, and it's easier than going through the whole cleaning procedure. Let's make us a little mountain. For that, I'm gonna
take some Prussian Blue, some black, a little brown in there too, a little Van Dyke, some Crimson, maybe a little more of the Crimson. Just mix them up. Cut off a little roll of paint, should lay right on
the edge of your knife. Let's decide, in our world, maybe way, up in here, there's just a happy little mountain lives way up here. We don't care, however you want it to be. That's the way it should be. There we are, something like so. I'm scraping off all the excess paint, all of it. What's left is exactly right. It's absolutely perfect, there. I'll take the two-inch brush, grab it, and just pull. That does two things. Most important, it removes excess paint so the next layer goes on much easier. Secondly, it blends the paint down, so it looks misty down at the base. That's exactly what
we're looking for today. We can wash the old brush, just want to wash the brush, there. I'll say, that's really the most fun part of this whole procedure. Let's take some Titanium oil and put the least little
touch of Bright Red in it and maybe even a little
bit of the Midnight Black. I want to gray it and warm it. Don't over-mix it. Leave that marbled, all those little designs
will stay right in there. Okay, let's go up in here. Little roll of paint, and we touch. We just follow the angle of the mountain. Follow it, follow it, see? Follow right along, just like that. That's all there is to it. No pressure though,
absolutely no pressure. Let the knife float. I've said it over and
over in other series, but when I was teaching my son, Steve, to paint, I used to tell him, "If you just pretend that he was a whisper, and he floated
across the mountain," and it's sort of a good analogy. He understood, and today, today, that little rascal makes the best mountains in the industry. Alright, now that I've
taken a little white, a little touch of the Prussian Blue, made a little shadow color, and, with that, we'll
come right up in here, and we'll put the indication of some happy little shadows that
live in our mountain. Right along in here, once again. Absolutely no pressure, no pressure. Just let it sort of float. When you have this much power, you've got to make decisions. Maybe right here, yep, you're right. See, here's another little peak, and maybe it comes right
around here somewhere. I don't know, don't know
that we really care. I just want to show you how to do it, and you decide where they live. Back to our shadow color. Each little highlight needs its own individual shadow. It won't play with you. It'll just go home. Give each one a shadow. Maybe it sort of bends over like that. It's your world, and, in your world, you can do anything that you want. Clean, dry two-inch brush. We'll create a little bit of a mist up here, just by tapping. Pay very close attention to the angles, and follow them. Lift upward. Takes out the little tab marks, sort of. Sort of blends it all together, that easy. There we are. Once again, just blend it. Angles are most important
though, most important. Sometimes, let's get crazy, sometimes, I like to paint like a
big ridge of mountains that lives underneath one mountain. It's striking, so we'll
have a little ridge that comes right down through here. We don't know where it goes. Maybe it goes on over here somewhere. Oh, I'll probably put some trees there, so don't worry about it. You know me, I alway
have to have a big tree. So I'll probably have a tree there. Put a little paint on. Grab two-inch brush and pull it, the same as we did before. Pull it. Really get in there and grab it. That pulls that paint down and removes excess paint. There, something about like that. We don't care where it goes. There we are. Now, we'll take, once
again, I'm putting a little black with the white to gray it. Just a little. A small roll of paint and no pressure. No pressure. I'm using
less paint on this one. A lot less paint just
barely, barely touching it. I just want the indication here. Think where light would hit. This mountain says our light's coming from the right, so pay attention to where light would strike. Think about it in your mind. Just think about it. Just let it go. No pressure at all, none whatsoever. I know you get tired of hearing that, but it's so important,
and I get letters everyday from people who say, "I'm
still having a little problem with the mountains." 99 times out of 100,
it's one of two problems. The paint is too thin.
The paint is too thin, and it, as Steve, my son, said, just mushes together, and you have mud. Or you're applying too much pressure. One or the other. One or the other. There. Once you get the pressure thing down, then it's easy. Then it's so easy. I get letters everyday, as I say, from people all over the world, fantastic friends, and they tell me they never believed they could paint, and they're doing paintings now that friends and relatives absolutely don't believe. I bet some of them tell me that the friends start looking real close and start trying to find the numbers. They think they're paint-by-number. They never believe that their friend had that kind of talent,
but you can do this, you really and truly can do this. There we go. I have youngsters in their 90's tell me that they wanted to
paint their entire life. Now, they're doing it.
Now, they're doing it. If you can do this, you can do anything that you believe you can
do, anything, anything. I know you can do it, and if I know, you certainly do, there. Alright. That's all I want there,
just the indication of some nice cliffs or something there underneath that big mountain. There we go. I'm just gonna lift this up and blend this together,
something like so. I want this to be very soft at the base, very, very soft. Alright. Shoot, you're doing okay there. Pretty nice looking mountains we made in just a few minutes. How long will it take? I'm going to take some
of that mountain color, add a little white to it.
I want to lighten it up a little bit, about like that. Maybe, I'll clean the knife here. I'll get a fan brush. Maybe, in our world, way back, under this mountain, maybe there's an indication of a few old trees that are far away. We can't make out a lot of detail in these trees. These trees are too far away to have a lot of detail. So
don't spend a lot of time trying to put every leaf on these. It will ruin the illusion
of distance if you do. When things are far away, you see shape, basic color, and that's all. There. Now we take a two-inch brush. Tap it. Tap it severely right on
the bottom and lift up. I tapped it down here only to create the illusion of mist,
a little bit of mist. You know me, I'm crazy about trees. So I thought, now, maybe today we'd do a few trees. Why not? Let's take Prussian Blue, Phthalo Green. I like Phthalo Green in
my evergreens sometimes. A little Van Dyke, some Crimson, and we'll just mix all those together, all of them together. I might as well mix up a pretty good pile of paint. Wipe off the knife. I just wipe the knife
on an old paper towel. There we go. Let me find an old fan brush. Hey, there's one. I've got too many brushes going here. I'm gonna load it full of paint, both sides, a lot of color. Okay, let's go up in here. Big decision time. We have a tree; we do have a tree. It lives right there now. Just use the corner of
the brush to start out. As you work down the tree,
push harder and harder. Really smush it in, once again, as Steve says. He's quite a character. I think he's almost 27 years old now, and he's painted his entire life. That's all he's ever known, and I'm so proud of him. He is a character, a little short guy; he's nearly 6'6" now, calls me Shorty. There, a little touch here. Steve is so accomplished
at what he's doing, him and my dear friend, Damon Jester, they travel around and
they teach instructers how to instruct. Plus, we have a couple of
other people that do it. There, but at his young
age, he's practiced enough already that him and Damon teach people how to instruct. So we have teachers running loose all over the country. There, gotta spread the joy. Okay, we'll have another one right there. Add another one right there. There we go. Wherever.
This is your forest. You can make it any way you want it. Sometimes, you can just
do something like this, and, because we don't worry
about detail at the base, only where they stand as individuals, down here you can care less. We'll separate that with highlights. You don't even have to worry down here. All you're worried
about is some nice tops. See? We just made a forest
right there. That easy We'll come back with a little light green, and we'll just highlight
those little rascals. Easy. Okay, I like bigger trees. We are gonna have a forest here. And, when you're painting, I'm not having too much trouble here,
but, when you're painting, if when you go over a mountain like this or something, you have a hard time making it stick, dip the brush into a little bit of paint thinner. Then go through your color. It'll thin the paint just enough that you can go right over the top of that other without it
mixing together so bad. Alright, we said we was
gonna have a big tree here, so I think we should do that. Here we are, a big old tree, and, once again, down here, we don't care. We really don't care because I'm going to fill this up full of trees. I want a whole forest out here in front of this beautiful mountain. There, and maybe I'll have one more right here, just to cover up that hole we got left. We're in business. Now, you can fill this up here with a paint roller. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Just quickly drop in some stuff. In fact, I could've painted these with one or two-inch brush and been a little faster. Now
then, I'll tell you what, let's see something here. Let's take, let's take, yeah. Let's just bring this together down here on the bottom like water. There, just bring them together. This is our world, so we can do anything we want to here, anything we want to do. There we go, and maybe, in our world, maybe a little of this is reflected right down into the water. Yep, you're right. Just pull a little bit straight down. It's important that it
comes straight down. I'm trying to save a little bit of pink. And go across. Isn't that easy? That easy. Have instant reflections.
Yeah, I like that. Now then, this is the little fan brush that had the tree color on it. I just went into some Cad Yellow, Yellow Ochre, and I'll
hit the Indian Yellow any minute here. Because it had blue and black in it when I touched this, it turned green. So I take a little of
that and put it in there, it turns beautiful green. Let's go up in here, and,
with that color, now, we can come back in here and begin picking out the highlights. Yeah, once again, if it
doesn't stick too well, and mine's not, add a
little paint thinner. See, now, watch the difference. A little paint thinner
and I just pull the brush back through the color. That thinned it out, and now it just sets right on top of that. There. The brush goes away, I'm just loading a little more color on it, that's all. Now, I like to keep my
evergreens very dark toward the base because that way, it looks to me like there's
big shadows down there. I like to keep evergreens
pretty dark period. To me, they're darker than trees with leaves on them. It's an individaul thing. The only rule
here is that you enjoy, and it makes you happy. If it does that, it's
perfect, it's perfect, couldn't be any better,
no matter what you do. There. In painting, you
will continually grow. Every painting is a learning experience. You know, in your heart, that your next painting is gonna be better. I tell our instructors all the time I hope they're plagued their entire life with dissatisfaction. I
know that sounds horrible, but as long as you're not satisfied with what you do, then you
go back and you try it again. You do it better and better and better. I hope you have the same disease. I hope every painting that you do, you look at it, and you say, "I could do better," because you can. You learn from every painting. Every painting is a learning experience. Everything in life is
a learning experience. It is not failure. If it doesn't work the way you
want it, it is not failure. It just means you learned something. As long as you're learning,
you're not failing. Let's take a little on the two-inch brush, a little of that same green, yellows, maybe a little bright red here and there. Tap and let's go up in here. Maybe in our world, see, maybe this is a beautiful little grassy area back here. It's one of them places you'd like to take your shoes off in, and let your feet run naked through there. Phew, nice. Nice, I like little meadows. There, you need some dirt down here. You take a little brown and Dark Sienna mixed together, and
we'll put the indication of some soil, dirt, whatever
you want to call it. There. I like that. Just a
little, little brown and white mixed together to make a highlight. There. Just a little. I'm
going to bring some grass down, so it doesn't matter,
a little over the shoe. A little over the shoe. Okay, grab me a one-inch brush and dip it into a little
bit of liquid white just to dim this color,
get some Sap Green, some yellow, more of the Sap Green there. Phew, nice color. Pull
that brush in one direction to load it, then turn it over, so the round corner is at the top. Let's go up here. With
that round corner up, now we can touch, push, bend very gently and create the illusion of all kinds of little bushes and trees
and happy little things. They live here. They
live here in our world. A little Yellow Ochre,
maybe a little touch of the Bright Red, right on the end to make a little flower
that lives out there. Sneaky, huh? Another little bush. He lives there. I know him. I know him. He's my friend. He's my friend. He's my friend. There. I know. Painters are a little weird. Go out and make friends with bushes and trees, but that's okay. That's okay. Whatever it takes. Now, back
to the old two-inch brush. We'll come right along in here and put in some more of that soft grassy area. There. Just a little here and there. Wherever you think that it should be. Bring them together. The more you tap, the softer they'll become
until it looks like velvet laying out here, or silk. You can do that. You really can do that. A little bit of liquid white
and we can come right in here, add a little water line indication. This is just a light
area between the darks, that's all. Just a little
light between the dark. Alright. Wherever. Something like that. Now, sometimes it's fun, we get crazy. I want to take the old one-inch brush and maybe, over here, on this side, there's a little bush
that lives right here. We'll just drop in some dark so we'll have something
for our light to show on. There we go. Get our
brush that has our green, Sap Green, and the yellow on it. Let's just pop in a happy
little bush right here. This bush sits on this side of the water and watches everything happen. There we are. Okay, a little touch more right in there, shoot. Well, I better get that
rascal where we want it. I'll tell you what, I think
that one's about done. I'm gonna take a little bit of red, and we'll sign that one, call it finished. Hope you've enjoyed this little painting. It'll give you experience
with all the equipment, and if you can do this
one, you can do anything. From all of us here, I'd like
to wish you happy painting. God bless, my friend. [jazz music]
