(gentle music) - Hi! Certainly glad to see you today. You ready to do a
fantastic little painting? Tell you what, let's start out and have them run all the
colors across the screen that you need to paint along with us. While they're doing that let me show you what I've
got done up here today. Have my standard old canvas up here, this is a pre-stretched,
double primed canvas, and I've covered it with
just a thin even coat of liquid white from top to bottom, and it's ready to go. So let's just do a fantastic
little painting together and just have a good time. Today let's start with
a very small amount, oh, let's use a little bit, little bit of the Indian yellow. Not much, just a little (paintbrush stroking) on the two inch brush, there we go! Just tap a little into
the bristles, alright? Let's go right up here. Let's just start right along in here, I think the horizon's gonna
be somewhere in this area. (paintbrush stroking) And it doesn't really matter, (paintbrush stroking) and we'll just blend it upward using little crisscross strokes, and that way it's mixing
with the liquid white that's on the canvas, and automatically it'll
blend and get lighter and very smooth, there. Little bit more of the Indian yellow, and let's have a little
bit down this direction. Shoot, maybe we'll have
a llittle water in here. You know me, I love water! So we'll just put a little bit just right down into where we know there's gonna be some water. There! (paintbrush stroking) Something about like that. This is a very simple little painting, I think you'll like it! Think you'll like this one. Alright, let me wash the old brush! (water splashing) Here we wash our brush in odorless pain thinner. And as I've mentioned before, I really, really suggest
you use odorless thinner. (slapping paintbrush) Just beat the devil out of it! If you don't use odorless thinner you're gonna be working by yourself and your popularity
around the home front's gonna go, bsst! Down about 15 points. Here we go, I'm gonna
take a little bit of the midnight black. Just midnight black on the two inch brush. And let's go up in here and very gently, still using
our little crisscross strokes, (paintbrush stroking) let's just put a little bit
of that right up in here. It too will mix with the liquid white and you get those beautiful,
beautiful values there. It just begins blending, there! (paintbrush stroking) Something about like that. And we'll just put it
down to about that area and then we'll come
back with a clean brush and blend it in a second. Okay, now then a little bit into the water. And if we're going to have water let's just do this. Go from the outside in, and I'm still using nothing but just black. Just midnight black. (paintbrush stroking) There, to about there. And anything that we
don't want to be water we'll just put land right over it. As you know, if you've
painted with us before, we don't make mistakes,
we have happy accidents. And by that I just mean that after a while you begin to learn to work
with anything that happens. We really don't make mistakes, (paintbrush stroking) you learn to use what happens. And that's when you truly, truly experience the joy of painting, because there's no fear of this canvas. And with this style of painting, that will happen very rapidly. There! (paintbrush stroking) A little bit of practice
just sort of a dream in your mind of what you want to paint, and off you go! Okay, let's wash the old brush again. (water splashing) Just wash the brush! Shake off the excess. (slapping paintbrush) Haha, and we're in trouble again! Now when you do this at home they make such a little thing as called a brush beater rack that goes down to the
bottom of a wastebasket, and you can shake the
brush inside of the basket then beat that rack, and
it contains all this. Because you (slapping paintbrush) certainly don't want to do
that in your living room. As I say, you'll change
your decor in a second! (paintbrush stroking) Now then, clean, dry brush, and it needs to be very dry. We just begin blending where these two colors come together. Here you want to blend it until you can't tell
where one color starts and the next color stops. And sometimes to do
that you need to sort of step back and take a
looksey at your painting. When you're right up against it it's very, very difficult
to tell what you're doing. Step back across the room, and get your glass of
iced tea, sit down maybe, and look at your painting
for a minute or two, and then you can tell what you have. (paintbrush stroking) A lot of times people write and ask me how I develop all these paintings, because when this series is over there'll be nearly 300 paintings, there will be 300 paintings. Then one of the ways,
as crazy as it sounds, a lot of times I'll start
with just a blank canvas. and sit and stare at it, and begin visualizing things. And as you put each little thing on there, step back and look at
it and think about it, and you'll learn to compose that way. There! Tell you what, let's have some fun. I'm gonna take some black, some black, alizarin
crimson mixed together. Just black and alizarin. (scraping pallet) And that'll make a nice
lavender like color. There! Pull it out very flat,
flat as you can get it. Cut across and get that
little roll of paint, and it should live right
at the edge of your blade, I mean it's right out
on the very edge, okay? Maybe in our world, come right up in here. Maybe there's a little, way back in there there's a little hill or a little mountain that lives way back right there. (scraping canvas) And all we're looking for
is a nice shape on top. There! We're realy not concerned with the bottom of it at this point. Something maybe like it. (scraping canvas) This one's going to be far, far away. So we're not looking for a lot of detail, we're looking for a basic
shape, and that's all. And underneath it, since this is water, there's gonna be some reflection, so you can just reflect
it right into the water where you have that color on your knife. Okay. And I'm really, as you can probably hear, I'm rubbing quite hard with the knife. I want to literally push this
paint right into the fabric. (scraping canvas) Just as my son, Steve, says, just sort of mush it in there. That's probably not a word, but everybody understands (slapping paintbrush) what he means when he says that. Just mush it in there. Alright, now then with the old two inch brush here just sort of blend that out. Just blend it out. And you can actually make it look like highlights and shadows just by using brush strokes in here. There we go! There, brush strokes, that's a name for a newsletter! There. We do a lot of interesting
articles in that, I really enjoy writing for it. Now then, our reflections are, just pull that straight down. Straight down. See there? And instantly (slapping paintbrush) we have reflections. Go across, (paintbrush stroking) and that's all there is to it. Reflections used to drive me crazy when I was a traditional painter. And in this style of painting it may very well be one of
the easiest things that we do. And you can take a
little of the dark paint (scraping canvas) and here and there maybe
just put in the indication of some little shadows and highights without really doing a great deal. If you put too much detail in here, it's gonna destroy that illusion of distance in your painting, and we want it to look like
it's far, far away back here. But just rub it with a knife. (scraping canvas) There, see? And you can let that just blend anywhere that you want it, and it gives the indication without a lot of detail. Sometimes it's neat to take just a little touch of the dark sienna, white, not much white, and right down here at the bottom (scraping canvas) just really scrub in a little bit of that. Make it look like there's a little dirt down at the bottom of it. But that's up to you, you may not want to put that in. (scraping canvas) Strictly up to you, I sort of like it, it changes
this flavor a little bit. There! Alright, now we can take a little
bit of the liquid white and put it out here on the pallet and pull it out very flat. Just as flat as we can get it, and then cut across just like that. And we can go up in here (scraping canvas) and just begin cutting in the indication of a little water line. There we go! Now if you make these and they're too thick or you don't like them, if you just take the knife and rub 'em, just rub 'em very hard, they'll just basically disappear right into the color that's on the canvas. And I tell you little things like that in case you ever make, 'cause a lot of people get worried that they've made a mistake, that's not a mistake! All you do is just rub it a little more, don't worry about it! There's nothing to fear
on this piece of canvas. The absolute worst thing that can happen is that you enjoy it. Whew, it's fun! Painting should be fun. If painting doesn't make you happy then you're doing the wrong thing! (scraping canvas) And if you're fortunate
enough, as I have been, to take something that
you love as much as this and learn how to do it for a living, and be fortunate enough
to be successful at it, my god! World's a great place then! Tell you what? We'll just use this old two
inch brush that's dirty here, let's take a little black, (tapping pallet) a little Van Dyke brown, a little touch of the Prussian blue, we need some crimson too. Shoot, might as well put a
little sap green in there just all the dark colors basically. Tap a little bit of that
color into the brush. We're just pushing and tapping, build to it, let's go up here. Maybe in our world there lives, yep, does now! (paintbrush stroking) Maybe there's some nice little things that live right along in here. And all we're looking for at this point are some very, very basic little shapes, maybe there's a tree
that lives right here. And just happy little tree, hangs out here, looks back at the mountain
that's in the distance. (paintbrush stroking) Well, maybe this is a big tree! Seems to be growing on us, but that's alright! That's alright, we can have any size tree
in our world that we want. (paintbrush stroking) Got a little bigger
than I thought it would, that's fine. There! (paintbrush stroking) Okay, now what we have is dark color on here, let's just pop in a little reflection. We can do that, we're just
pulling straight down. But it's important that
these lines go straight down. And then very lightly, two hairies and some air, just go across. And sometimes, sometimes, let me see here, we had black and blue, a little brown, crimson, a little sap green I think. Something like that. Let me wipe off the old knife here. I just wipe the knife on a paper towel, just to clean it. We use a fan brush, I think we'll put a little
evergreen tree in there, I like little evergreens, and
they're a lot of fun to do, and they work so nice. Okay, load both sides of the
brush with a lot of paint. Okay, let's go up in here. And maybe, big decision time, maybe our little evergreen
lives right there. Take the corner of the
brush and just touch, and then as you work down the tree, touch harder! And you're pushing the bristles downward, make 'em bend downward. And as you go down the tree push harder and harder, and that makes a tree get wider and wider. And it almost happens automatically, with a little practice you'd
be surprised how easy it is to make something like an evergreen tree. (scraping canvas) There! That's all there is to it! Now we can take that same color, go into a little bit of the cad yellow, and we have instant green, 'cause there's blue in there and black, and both of them, when
mixed with the yellow, make green! And we can highlight that little tree with the same old brush, no problem. There! Isn't that a cute little tree? And you can do that. Alright! Let's have a tree trunk in there! (water splashing) We'll take some paint thinner, some painting thinner, a little bit of the Van Dyke brown, or whatever you would
like for your trunk to be, I thought today brown would be nice. And let's come right along in here and (exhaling) This old tree seems to be leaning over so we'll make it's trunk lean over, too! It looks funny if you've
got a straight trunk and a crooked tree, so we'll have them both crookedy. Put a few little arms and limbs on it, we're gonna put some leaves out here, so most of this will be covered up, but a little of it will show. There! (water splashing) And you can take the
brush and pull it through a little bit of white or liquid white, just some light color, and run right down his edge like that and give him a highlight, that easy. And just sort of blend him back. (water splashing) Now you got a light side and
a dark side to your tree! Now I'll tell you what, we're into using old dirty brushes, we'll use that same old brush today. Go right into a little bit of the yellow, a little yellow ochre. Here and there we're
gonna touch a little bit of the bright red, and the bright red is used as a duller, dulls the green down. Okay? See that little bit of paint there? That's what we're looking for, just push it, okay? Now then using just the
corner of the brush, or you could do this with
one of the round brushes or the oval brush works
very well for this, too. Beautifully! Now then let's just tap in some nice little highights on this tree. I sort of like this old
two inch brush, I like it. And if you're demonstrating for people, and that's really lot of fun, to demonstrate for people. Use this old big brush because they're not used to seeing this much detail done with a brush the size of something you probably painted the barn with the last week. it really grabs people's attention. There! Maybe while I got that going, maybe, yeah! We'll have another little
tree that lives right there. You just sort of pick 'em out. They live right in there! All you got to do is just find 'em. There! Okay! Maybe just a little touch back in here, I don't want much back here, just a little, just to indicate. Now another way of making a lot of beautiful little bushes, I'm gonna use the one inch brush, put some liquid white on it, and the liquid white is only
to thin the other color. Be right back, let me
get a little green here. There! Pull this in one direction, one direction. Look at the end of it, lot of paint in there! Lot of paint. But by pulling it in one direction you round one corner, then turn it over, and that rounded corner goes to the top, let's go right up here. Now with the rounded corner up touch and just push gently upward, it should very gentle push. You do not have to push hard. There we go! And that's all there is too it! You can make some of the most gorgeous lacy looking little bushes. Do one at a time, don't get greedy! One at a time, one at a time and that way they will look layered, one's on top of the other. There! (paintbrush stroking) Okay, something about
like so for right now. Then we can take our liquid white, and I want to put the
least little touch of, well, I'll use a little
blue, not much blue, tiniest little bit of
Prussian blue and black, I want a grey color. Maybe, tell you what, a little dark sand in there, ooh, that's nice, that's
what I'm looking for. Tiniest little bit of color on there. And we'll just make the indication of land using nothing but that. (scraping canvas) Allow it to pick up some of that color that's already on the canvas, and just let them band together. And it's a very simple way, I'm making a nice little
area that looks like land without doing a whole bunch. And with a clean knife
you can just take and scrape in some little trunks, and sticks, and stems, and just all kinds little
things that live in the woods. There they are! (scraping canvas) Some like so, wherever you want 'em! Now then, tell you what? I'm gonna take a little
bit of the liquid clear, get a little liquid clear. To that I want to add titanium white and midnight black. I want to make a nice thin, that's the key word, thin, grey color. But it's very thin. Okay, and let me lay that up there, clean off the old knife. Now today let's use, let's use a filbert brush. (water splashing) Okay, I'm a'go right through to midnight black, load
both sides full of color, just like so. Now we walk right over in here and I'm going to take and pull one side through that thin light color we made. So we have dark on one side, light on the other. Now watch, we come up in here and with one stroke we
could put the indication of a lot of little stones
and rocks and things that are happening right back in here. But that way it will make the highlight and the shadow in one stroke. (water splashing) Then you need to come back
with the color you used and just sort of go around the edges and clean the edges of all that up. (scraping canvas) There! Alright! Let's get crazy today. Let's go back into our dark color. Yeah, let's do this, what the heck! Since I say anything that
you don't want in here, in the way of water, we'll just cover it up. Maybe this comes, let's go all the way across. (tapping canvas) Now this we can just fill in any old way, you could fill this is
with a paint roller, it doesn't make any difference, we're just putting color on the canvas. If you're into using the black gesso like I am, I love that set! You could actually have done
all this with the black gesso, (paintbrush stroking) and it'd been that much easier. There! Okay, I really like that black gesso, we use it so much! I could just about do a whole series with nothing but black gesso. (paintbrush stroking) Shoot, you know what we need? You know me and my big trees, Yep, let's have another big of a tree
that lives right here. (tapping canvas) Alright! There! Maybe this big old tree just keeps climbing right on up. (tapping canvas) And this is your world, so you decide where your tree lives. Sometimes they just keep growing 'till they get clean on out of sight. Maybe we'll do that, what the heck! Let's just have one that
goes right on off the canvas. (tapping canvas) And all we're doing here is just putting in some dark color so our highlights will
show when we drop them on. (tapping canvas) Just lay in a basic shape, and all I'm using is
a corner of the brush, just the corner of the brush. Now a little black, run out of color, crimson, sap green, a little blue, little brown, maybe right there, yep! You're right! We'll just have a happy little bush, he lives there. I want one over here too, I don't want this side left out. He lives right there. (paintbrush stroking) But isn't that neat how you can just close that in? That easy! Alright! Now then, we need a tree trunk over here. (scraping pallet) Let's take a little Van Dyke brown, and just using a side of the knife you can drop in a nice
little trunk that easy. (tapping canvas) That easy! Firm up the other side, (clicking tongue) he needs a friend! Haha, you know me! I'm fanatical about people having friends, and even trees need a friend! And painting has allowed me to meet so many people and make so many friends. That's probably the most rewarding part of this whole thing, is all the friends that
we've made travelling all over the country and
people watching the shows. Alright, let's take a little white, a little dark sienna, not much, pull it out flat and cut off a little roll of paint, and I'm gonna touch and just give it a little round pull. And let me exaggerate, I'm going, (whistling) Very, very gently. There, we'll do the other one. Something like that, and just let it go right on up. Okay, now we go back to our brush that has the, yeah, has some nice grassy colors on it, we were working on the other side. (tapping pallet) And let's put some
highlights on this tree. This will be a fantastic tree for one of my little creatures to live in. I got to show you one of my creatures, here recently my son Steve, and I'm sure you've seen on
some of the other series, came to Florida to visit me, and I had the opportunity
to introduce him to a couple of my little squirrels. And Steve had never had a squirrel sit on him before, so he was a little nervous about having this little tree urchin
run all over his body. But he sat and watched for a little while and pretty soon Steve was sure that he could handle it. But aren't these the cutest little devils? Now you saw these in earlier series, this little squirrel here, when he was just a tiny, tiny little baby, and now he's grown up and we've turned him loose, and he moved far away. In fact, when I opened my back door where I can look right up into his nest, there's a tree limb that comes right over my back door, and these two little brothers built a nest literally right over the back door, so they can tell any
time anybody comes out and hopefully they'll have a nut with them when they come out to feed 'em. I'm just putting some leaves on this tree while you're watching Steve there. Okay! Now then, we'll go back into liquid white and through some color. Maybe we'll get a little yellow ochre, sometimes it's fun to tip it, there, I'll do it this way, tip it with a little red. And then we can make a bush here that has red flowers in one stroke. There we go! A little bit more over in here. (paintbrush stroking) See? And just let those little rascals, they just live right here in your brush, just got to sort of push 'em out. There we go! Just go in the other side and give it a few, don't want that side left out. (paintbrush stroking) There! But just push and turn the brush to shape your individual bush or tree. Don't just hit 'em in all in one direction because the leaves and the limbs hang every which way. And change the flavor of the paint, color, every so often. Then you just put all kinds
of little things in there, and put as many or as few
as you want in your world. Sometimes it's fun, (scraping pallet) watch here, we'll take a little brown, little Van Dyke, little dark sienna mixed together. (scraping canvas) Do something like this. Then we come back with a little touch of the brown and white, barely grazing, just let is graze. (exhaling) See? Then you can just, we'll turn it into a nice little path that comes through there. Back to our brush that has the greens and stuff on it. We come back and we tap in some little grassy areas
that live right down here at the bottom of these bushes. (tapping canvas) Just tapping. Once again, change of
flavor every so often, you can add the least little
touch of titanium white, that'll brighten it up. There! And if you have trouble making this stick add the least little touch of liquid white or paint thinner. If you don't want to change the color use paint thinner, but very, very little of it, I
can't say that enough, very little of it. Work in layers just like you did with the bushes. (tapping pallet) Other side, we'll put some over here, (paintbrush stroking) there we go! All kinds of little things. There! (tapping canvas) Alright, as I say, every once in a while just sort of change the flavor and it'll stand out and look like a whole little different hill there. (tapping canvas) And that easy you can make
all kinds of little things, we'll put a few little quick stones in there, using the black with the thin black on top, that thin grey. And you can just go in
here and pop in indication of some little stones that
live right along the bank. That easy! Maybe we'll put a big one right there, and there's one! Cover up his little foots, take a knife, clean up the edges, and shoot, you about
have a finished painting! Something like that. I really hope you've enjoyed this one, it's a lot of fun, give it a try! And from all of us here I'd like to wish you happy painting, and God bless my friend! (gentle music)
