- Hi, I'm certainly glad
you could join me today. You ready to do a
fantastic little painting? I tell you what, let's start out today, have 'em run all the
colors across the screen that you need to paint along with me. And while they're doing that, let me show you what I've done up here. Have my standard old canvas up here, but today I've taken black gesso and I've just sort of sketched
in with the black gesso a rough idea here, just
some tree indications, and just this whole bottom area here is covered completely with black gesso. I've allowed that to dry totally, and then I've covered it
with a transparent color, which today I'm using a
mixture of alizarin crimson and a little bit of phthalo blue. Another thing that
you'll find that'll help when you're doing this,
sometimes it's very difficult to scrub that old stiff
paint over the black gesso. If you will take a little
bit of liquid clear and put on here, but a little tiny bit, then, when you start putting
this transparent color on, it'll go on just as smooth as glass, and it makes it a little easier for you. So I tell you what, let's start out today with
the old two-inch brush. We'll go right into a small, small amount of the phthalo blue, just a little bit. Just tap the bristles
into a little bit of it, don't need much. Now then, up here, I've just
applied liquid white, as usual, so that our color will blend with it and we can create all kinds of effects. There. And we'll just drop in quick little, just a happy little sky. There were are. Now this blue is very transparent, so, see these things still show through and that creates some beautiful effects. I'll show you as we go along here. Now then, I have a little bit
of that lavender color left that I used to cover the black gesso. And it's just, as I say, alizarin
crimson and phthalo blue. Maybe I'll put a little
touch of that lavender color right along in here. And I'm still using just
little crisscross strokes, little x's, something like so. Okay, now let me wash my brush. That's the fun part of all this. And as you know, we wash our
brushes with odorless thinner. We shake off the excess, (chuckles) and just beat
the devil out of it. Okay, now then, now then. That brush washing makes
all this worthwhile. I'm gonna take some titanium white, I'll be right back. I'll get the least little
touch of yellow ochre. Yellow ochre and titanium white, and just mix those on the
brush, you don't worry about it. Maybe in here, we'll put
a little bit of that. We want to make a bright,
happy little sky today, so we'll just drop that right in there. Now that lavender color
that we put in here, that'll act as a barrier so the yellow does not touch the blue
and turn bright green. There we go. Now then, wash the brush one more time, one more time. There's a screen down here
in the bottom of this can and that allows you to
scrub the brush against it. That works great. But the screen allows the solid material to settle to the bottom and it keeps your paint
thinner relatively clean. And paint thinner never wears out. All you have to do is let
it settle for a while, pour the paint thinner off, then throw away the sludge
that accumulates in the bottom. Then you can use it over and over again. There we go. Now doesn't that make a
very effective little sky? Umph. And you can just tap all
kinds of little things. If you want to mist this
right together, just tap it. And very lightly go over it. Okay. Think we have a nice, little sky. Today, I tell you what, we haven't done many
mountains in this series, so let's build us a little mountain. We'll take some black, alizarin crimson, mix that together, and that'll make a nice lavender color. Sort of a reddish-lavender
color, it's very pretty. You could take a little prussian blue, and add in there also a
little bit of prussian blue. Now then, pull it out very flat as usual, cut across, and there's
our small roll of paint right on the edge of the knife. It's most important. Now then, you have to make
your first major decision. Let's come right up in here. Where does your mountain live? And our world, our
mountain lives right here. And just begin working
on some basic shapes. Just let this wander right on back here, wherever you want it. Maybe it comes out here,
maybe a bump there, another one, maybe it goes off. Just however you want it. It's really an individual thing. There, and scrape off
all the excess paint. It's most important to get
all this excess paint off. And you're not going to hurt the canvas. The canvas is tough. Shoot, they make tents out of it. It's very tough. Now, with a large brush,
we'll pull that out. That does two things: It removes the excess paint even more, and it blends this down, so it gets lighter and lighter in value as it works down the mountain. And you can use the brush to create sort of like the illusion
of highlights and shadows just by using brush strokes. And it may not show
too much on television, but when you do your own painting you'll understand exactly what I'm saying. Okay, let's have some fun. Let's take a little white, a little white, a little bit of alizarin crimson, a little phthalo blue, making a dark lavender color here. Maybe a little more of
the crimson, there we go. We're gonna make a shadow color, that's what I'm looking for. There, something about like so. Okay, once again, we cut off
our little roll of paint. Now then, today I'm going
to apply the shadows first. Zoom, no pressure. Absolutely no pressure. Just barely, barely touching the canvas. The lighter the better. No pressure whatsoever. Okay, put in a few of
those little shadow areas. Maybe there's one gonna be right in here. Wherever you think there'd be one. Now then, I'll just take a little dark sienna, a little bright red, a little touch of the
yellow ochre into it, and we'll just make a beautiful,
little brown color here. But leave it marbled like this so all kinds of things are happening. Don't overwork it. Our little roll of paint again. Now we can go up in here
and begin picking out all these little individual things. Once again, though,
absolutely no pressure. No pressure, just let the knife barely, barely touch, and follow the basic angles
that you have in your mountain. There. Just all kinds of little things happening. Just let your imagination wander here. Do whatever, whatever,
whatever makes you happy. There we are. Now, I'm gonna highlight even this, so all we're doing here is just applying a little bit of color. We're not really too
concerned at this point. And I don't want to lose all
this light area down here. That'll be very pretty. I'm going back to some
of the shadow colors. Shoot, maybe there's
a bump right in there. Watch here, we want to
have a little indentation or something different, just drop it in. On this canvas, you can do
anything that you want to do. You have absolute and total power. There. I think that's one of the things that attracted me to painting so much, because here I could create any
kind of world that I wanted. Any kind of world. And there's no violence
here, everything's happy, and that's what I wanted. Shoot, if you want
violence, turn the news on. Okay, now then, I'm gonna take white, just titanium white, pull it out as flat as I
can get it, and once again, we're gonna cut off that
little roll of paint. Now then, I want to put the indication like there's a little highlight just zinging through here. Very, very delicate touch. Let that paint break, let it break. Zoom. Umph, that's nice. There we go, wherever
you think it should be. But angles are very important. Very, very important here. Don't just hit at random. There. Now then, we'll take a clean,
very dry two-inch brush and we can take tap
this, follow the angles, follow those angles. There we are. And then very lightly, blend it upward. That brings everything together, takes out all the little tap marks. And that quickly, we have a
beautiful, little mountain setting right out here. Okay. I beat the brush like that because there's a little
paint that is collected and that way you can take that paint off without going through the
whole cleaning procedure. Let's see, today we'll
use some prussian blue, some black, a little brown,
a little bit of sap green. Maybe even a little bit of
alizarin crimson, what the heck. Whatever makes you happy, dark colors. We're looking for very dark colors. There we are. Now then, a little bit of
this pile I'm gonna take out and add to that, just a
small amount of yellow. I want it to be a little bit lighter. There. A little yellow ochre, there we go. Maybe even a little white in there. There, that's nice. It's a little lighter
than this pile over here. We have two piles, one's a little lighter. Let me get a fan brush. Okay. Now I'm gonna load the fan brush full of color, full of color. Let's go right up in here. Now back in here, back in here, we're just gonna have all
kinds of little evergreen trees that live far back in the distance. There. Okay, see there, I'm just tapping downward, that's all we're doing here. And we'll just let that go, wherever. We don't know where it goes. Wherever you want it go. There, there's one way up in there. Now see, some of these
things like right in here, we painted that on with black gesso, but I don't want to cover
those, I want 'em to stay because it'll look like misty, soft things that are far, far away. See 'em all up here? Those can be so beautiful in a painting. Try not to kill all of 'em. Looks like little background
trees that are far away. Now here and there, maybe there's a tree that you can make out
a little more detail. Just a few, here and there. They're a little bigger,
a little stronger. Okay. And we don't know where they go, they just go up here
into the mist somewhere. Now, then we'll take the old two-inch brush. I want to create some
mist at the base of these. I've got the least little touch, least little touch of white on there. Just a small, small amount. It's easy to overdo,
especially on this black here because it'll just jump right out at you. I just want to create a
little mist at the base. And that's all we need,
that's all we need. At this point, it doesn't look
like a great deal in here, but when we come back and
begin laying in other things, that'll jump out at you. Okay? Super. Let's go in here, take a
little touch of yellow, be right back, get a
little of the sap green. Just tap it right into the bristles. Now tap, that loads the bristles. Okay, let's go up here. You have to start making
some big decisions. Where does our land live? I think, let's come right here. See, I think it lives right here. I've left a little bit
of that mist in there. Now then, just begin making
these big decisions again. Where does it go? All we're doing here is just tapping. See there, it looks like
soft, little grassy areas. Just soft, little grassy areas. And this is just a mixture. Oh, we'll use some sap green, cad yellow, a little yellow ochre, Indian yellow, maybe even a little touch of
the bright red here and there. Just whatever makes you happy. Sort of look at it and make big decisions. Tell you what, I want a
little water in there. I want a little water in there. I like water. You've painted with me before, you know I like that water. Now, all I've taken is
a little titanium white on the two-inch brush,
touch, and pull down. The color is on the canvas and immediately, beautiful, beautiful
reflections will happen. That simple. That's one of the most fantastic things that happens when you
use this black gesso. Love that. Now it's very easy for it
to get too bright on you, so be careful. When you do this, it's so much fun and you get carried away and pretty soon, whew, you let it go. As I mentioned in some of the other shows, it's fun if you're doing paintings where friends or relatives
or anybody's watching, to put the color in this black part and don't tell 'em there's color there. Then you take a little
bit of white and touch it and they think you're doing
something that's magic because all these beautiful colors will just jump out at you. There we go. Just gonna tap a few more of the little grassy areas in here. Shoot, who knows, maybe on
the other side over here, maybe there's another one. Yep, you're right, he lives right there. Wherever you want him. There we go. And you can put as many or as few little things in here as you want. Now, we'll put a reflection
under that one, too. All you do, a little white, pull down. Even though this is going
at an angle this way, these strokes need to come straight down. Straight down, or they
just won't look right. There, very lightly, come across. This stroke also needs to be horizontal, straight across, or it
won't look right, either. Okay, shoot, let's have some fun here. Let's take a little
touch of the liquid white and put it out here. I'm gonna put a little touch
of yellow ochre with it, maybe a little touch of dark sienna. Okay, let me wipe off my knife. Let me use the old filbert brush, go into a little brown. Then I'm gonna go down here and just pull one side of
it through that mixture, that thin paint. See, it's dark on one side,
light on the other, okay. Maybe there's a little stone. Just wanna show you a nice way of making a happy little stone. See, he lives right there. And that easy, you can paint
both sides of the stone at one time. And we'll come down here, put a little grass right
around these foots, and we're in business. Okay, back to my fan brush. Now we're going back to that original pile of dark color that we made. We want this to be dark now. We're back to the very dark colors. Maybe there lives a tree right here. Notice I'm not going in here. Come right up here. See here, the ones with
the black gesso back there? I want to leave those. I want to leave 'em because they're gonna look like trees that are
far back in the distance. I think that's very nice and
I want to save that area. Now then, all we're going
to do here is just quickly drop in some little evergreen shapes. Maybe they live right there. We'll give him a friend. You know me, I think
everybody needs a friend. They're the most important
commodity in the world. There. When all else leaves you,
your friends are still there. If they're true friends. Okay, we'll have another one, then. Got so many friends here this
fella's never gonna be alone. There we go. Let's go on the other side. Shoot, it needs some friends there, too. Maybe over here we have a big, old tree that lives, zoom, right there. Wherever you want him,
that's where he should live. And look around in your painting. Maybe, if I put half
a dozen trees in here, maybe you only want two. Or maybe you want two dozen. It's up to you, up to you. Painting is very individual. Everyone who paints has their own idea of how their painting should
look, and it's different. What I think's right,
you may think is not, and that's what makes painting so special. It's a way of expressing what you feel, not what someone else feels. There, think we'll give
him a little friend. Gotta have little friends, too. I get so many letters from young people all over the country. It's fantastic. And we go out and we do
a lot of demonstrations for PBS stations and help 'em make a happy buck here and there. And so many of my young
friends come to see me. It's unreal. There we are. They're the most super people. And if I get to your area
and do a demonstration, I hope you will come out and see us and support your station and
enjoy a few hours with us. And if you'd like to be notified, I'm gonna take a little
brown and white here. If you'd like to be notified when we're gonna be in your area, just drop me a line with
your name and address on it. We have a little mailing list. We'll add your name to it and we'll drop you a card when we're gonna be in the area. There we go. Umph, just all kinds of
little trunks and things. Let's go on the other side,
give these trees over here a little something to hold 'em up. We don't want them left out. And you don't have to
paint the whole trunk in because there's gonna be some highlights on the front of tree and you
wouldn't see the entire trunk. Let's take a little, we'll use a little bit of the color we made the tree with,
mixed with some cad yellow and a little yellow ochre. But see, just mix things on the brush. All those different colors
will also be on your brush. You don't end up with one dead old color, 'cause nature rarely, rarely ever has just one color on something. Usually it's a collection
of colors put together. Put a few little highlights on here. There we go. A little over here. Let the sun zing through there, and just do happy things to the trees. Okay. Now don't overdo the highlights. It gets looking good and feels good, and, ugh, it's almost a tendency to cover up your whole
tree with a light color. And if you lose all these
beautiful dark areas, then there's no depth to 'em, there's no distance in
each individual tree. They become very flat, and it'll disturb your eye
when you look at the painting. And we want your eye to be happy. Let's go on the other side. Now to me, maybe the light's
coming right down this valley, and maybe it's hitting on both sides. And we have an artist license here. Remember, I've mentioned when you buy your first tube of paint,
you get an artist license that says you can do
anything that you want to do, at least on this canvas. Anything that you want to do. I like that. Shoot, when I go home, the only thing I can do
is empty the garbage. But on this canvas, I can create worlds. I can create worlds. There, and so can you. There we are. All you need's a little
imagination, some practice, and you have it. Okay, now then, let's take
an old one-inch brush. Then I'm gonna dip into a small
amount of the liquid white, just a small amount, and go right into some
yellow and some green. Let's make a few little happy bushes here. And all we do is just
give a little upward push, and begin forming and
shaping each individual bush. And maybe when you do your painting, if you want, like fall. Maybe you want to do it in all kinds of beautiful reds and yellows and whatever. But use your imagination and do whatever, do whatever feels good. If it feels good and it
doesn't hurt anybody else then it's all right. I guess. (chuckles) Let's go right up here. I'm gonna put another bush
right over on this side. We don't want him left out. You put as many or as few as you want, just wherever you want 'em. Okay, now then, I'm gonna use a little
bit of the same brown we made tree trunks out of, what the heck. Pull it out very flat, just a little bit, tiniest little bit, a little roll right on
the edge of the knife. Let's go along here and just put in the indication of a little waterline. More than anything else,
we're just sort of scraping right through the color that's on here and letting a little bit
of the black canvas show. Okay, and over here, maybe a little bit. Shoot, who knows, maybe
it even goes up in here. Wherever. Now, let's back to our big brush. Let's get crazy. Maybe, look here, look here, look here. Why not, why not let this just
come right on across here. See that? Black gesso, you already
have your dark down here, so all you have to do is
apply your highlights. Makes your life so much easier. A little bit on the other
side, we'll finish it up. And I'm just using the yellows,
a little bit of sap green. Just put 'em together. There, just layer after layer. And as I've mentioned before, the softer you want this,
the more you tap it. The more that you tap,
the softer it'll become, till it looks like velvet laying out here, if that's what you want. It's up to you, totally up to you. Grab this, pull it down, and just let that become
part of the reflection. Come back with our knife, a little touch of that brown color, and we'll just clean up the edges, put a little indication of
a little waterline here. It's quite dark, though. Now then, I tell you what, let me get another two-inch brush, put some nice, dark color on it. This is that same color we
made the other trees with. Maybe up in here, there lives a big tree. It's closer to us. Don't need much here
because the black gesso, once again, creates most of what you need. Now then, just gonna
take that same old brush, 'cause I want this to be dark,
I want it to be very dark, and go right into a little of the yellow. Tap a little color on. There, now let's come right up in here. Maybe this is a very large tree, and it has all these beautiful
limbs that are hanging out. Look at there. See, you can take this big brush and make beautiful, beautiful details. Just let it work for you. Have fun with it, enjoy it. There we are. Doesn't that look like big limbs that are all hanging over? Umph, I like what this brush does. Tell you what, shoot, let's have a little fun. Maybe, looks like there ought
to be a little baby tree lives right there. Just a little guy, and so we'll just drop him right in there. Anywhere you want one, put him in. Can do, easy. Put a little highlight on
him so he'll stand out, be a nice individual. Look at there, look at there. Back to my one-inch brush. Tell you what, let's put
a little bush right there. Just sort of look around your painting and decide what kind of
little finishing touches that you want and drop 'em in. That's really all there is to it. I think we about have
a completed painting. So we'll take a little
thinner, little liner brush, touch of the bright red, and we'll sign this one maybe right here. Wherever you want to. And with that, we'll call
this painting finished. I really hope you've enjoyed this one because it'll teach you a great deal, how to use the equipment,
and you'll have fun. From all of us here, happy
painting and God bless. ("Interlude" by Larry Owens)
