- Hi, I'm certainly glad to see you today, because I thought today we'd do a painting that's just a lot of fun. Let's start out and have
them run all the colors across the screen that you need to do this little painting with us. And while they're doing
that, let me show you this craziness I've got up here today. Today, I took my standard
old pre-stretched double-primed 18 by 24 inch canvas, but once again, you can use any size that's convenient for you. I just like this size because it fits a television screen good. I took a paper towel and acrylic paint, now we're using oils,
but I used acrylic paint to put a dry undercoat on here. Now, I just took a paper towel, and a little bit of sienna and umber, and just dabbed it, just everywhere. Then here, I found an old
filbert brush and just pulled a couple things through. And I allowed all that to dry. Now I've covered the entire
canvas with liquid clear. The liquid clear just
makes it wet and slick. That's really all it's there for. The bottom of the
canvas, then I've covered with a mixture of Sap
Green and Alizarin Crimson. That makes a gorgeous brown color. And I thought I'd wait until you got here to do the top part so you can
see exactly how it's done. Now sometimes when I'm
walking through the woods, which I do frequently, sometimes the sun's coming through the trees and
you see this beautiful glow coming right through the trees. And some of the trees that
are close to that glow, they sort of just disappear into it. And that's the effect I
was trying to achieve. And I'm gonna show you a
very easy way to make that. All right. Let's go today, we use a two
inch brush to get started here. I'm going to go right into a little bit of the Indian Yellow. I like Indian Yellow because
it's very transparent. Very transparent, it's a gorgeous color. Let's go right up in here. Now with that, right over this acrylic, with the liquid clear on it. I'm just going to cover
the entire canvas here. The entire top part of it. The bottom is covered
with that brownish color. There. Just like so. About like that. It's really all we have to do right now. But see how easy that goes on. If you don't have the clear on there, the liquid clear, this is
quite a job putting it on. I've got now since we have the clear, I use this any time that
I'm using a black canvas. Or a canvas that has some
color or design on it. It makes it so much easier. I'll go right into, I made a
little of that brown color. Once again, it's Alizarin
Crimson and Sap Green in about equal parts. I just went ahead and
mixed up a little pile here because I'm going to
use a lot of it I think. And right up here in the corner,
I'll add a little bit more. I just want to darken this corner. Make it look like a sun's
shining through here. About like that, and
that's really all we need. It's all we need. There. Okay, let me wash the brush. If you've painted with us before, you know this is the most fun
part of this whole technique. We wash it with odorless paint thinner, shake it off.
(brush thuds) (laughs) And just beat
the devil out of it. Good way to take out all your
hostilities and frustrations. I want to take a little
bit of the Cadmium Yellow and put it right over here
with some Titanium White. Don't need a lot of white. Let's go up in here. Now figure out where the
sun lives in your painting. I think it's right there. Take the corner of the
brush and we'll start there. And we'll begin working outward. I want this to be very bright. It'd go right over these trees. I want to just absolutely blend them out where the light's going to
be zinging through there. Just blend them out. Little more of the white. There. Right in there. Want that to be very bright. If that's our hot spot. That's the source of our
light in this painting. And you can do this as
many times as you desire to achieve a desired lightness. But I suggest each time you do, get a clean brush or clean your brush. Just depending on how
many brushes you have. There. We'll just let this little
glow just work its way out. Already you can see how those
trees are almost disappearing in that strong direct sunlight. And that's exactly the effect
that I was trying to achieve. And this makes it so simple. So simple. There. And then we'll just blend
the entire thing out. Now already, that looks like a
sunlight coming through there so strong it almost hurts your eyes. Fantastic. That easy. All right. I'll tell you what. Let's use the old filbert brush today. I like the filbert brush. I'm just going to go into a little bit of the Titanium White
with the filbert brush. Just load both sides up. Both sides up, something like so. A lot of color. Fully loaded on both sides. Now maybe in our world back here, let's make this a winter scene. It can be winter or summer. I think we'll do winter today. Maybe back in here we
touch and there's just a little indication of some
snow that lives back here. Barely touch the canvas. I want to just graze it. Just graze it. I want it just to begin picking up some of that color we have underneath. Just graze it though. It has that brown underneath so it's going to pick
up a little bit of that. All we're doing is just grazing. Sometimes you can put
a lot of paint on there and just let it bounce along and break and by break I mean it has all
these little holes in there. Barely touching. Just, let it just drag across the canvas. Allow the canvas to do the work. Let it pull off the paint that it wants. Then what's left on the brush you can just sort of scrub it in. And work back and forth. Where you want to highlight,
put it on very thick. There. About like that. Now. As I've mentioned earlier,
I've already mixed up a large pile here of the
Alizarin Crimson and Sap Green to make a beautiful brown color. Now you can, you can take
that to the reddish side by adding more crimson
or to the greenish side depending on your mood. I usually go a little
more to the reddish side. I sort of like that. A lot of color on the brush. Shoot. We might as well check you out for bravery right off in this painting. Maybe. You ready? Maybe (whistles) right there. Just pull it down. A lot of paint on the brush. Very thick, very thick. Let's have a, let's have a whole grove of trees. Maybe it's wintertime. These trees have lost their leaves. Lost their leaves. The snow's just beginning
to collect on the ground. All the little squirrels and stuff. They're probably up here hibernating, taking life easy for the winter. There. All right. If you watch the show in the past, you know I like little squirrels. I have a bunch of squirrels. I raise, well I usually raise anywhere from two or three to
a half a dozen a year. Turn them loose. I have the good fortune of working with a lot of the rehab people
around the country. Here in Muncie there's a lovely lady named Diana Schaffer that
takes care of animals and she's taught me a tremendous amount about all these little creatures. And in Florida there's several other people that I work with. I like to work with
animals, and these people, they work with injured
and orphaned animals and devote their whole life to it and I have a great respect for them. There. I want these trees instead of the nice smooth ones we usually make. Let's make some trees
today that have character. These trees are not going to end up as future telephone poles. Guarantee you. I want them to be ragged. (grunts) Rough, rough. That's what my dog said when
he sat down on the sandpaper. Rough. Bad joke. Now I'm pushing because I want a lot of little things
to happen with the brush. Normally you would pull so
you'd get a smoother line. I want the roughness today. I want these trees to look like, oh, it's been a rough life out here. See? Pulling the edges out. Really rough. This is a place you wouldn't want to go in the middle of a dark night. It's one of them scary places. There. When I was young, there was some places where I lived that, they were just sort of scary. You'd be out the evening
and it started getting dusk, you could make out all kind of monsters that lived in there. There we are. But we lived way out in the woods. I grew up in Florida. And we lived so far back in the woods they used to have to
pipe sunlight into us. There. All right. See how all them all limbs. We'll come back with a liner brush and put in a few little ones. But I really want these
old raggedy looking things. Shoot, I like that. I want a tree over here. This is our world, so we can put trees anywhere we want them. Maybe it comes all the way down to there. I don't know. You make that decision. And this painting's great if
you've never painted before. This is an easy one. You can do this one. You can do this one. We try to do some paintings in each series that work so well those
who are just beginning can have outstanding results with them. Or people who've painted a little bit, they can just have fun with them. And we try to do some paintings that have a little more challenge to them for those that have painted for a while and they need a little more challenge. I'm just taking the brush
and rubbing it up and down. I want to make the indication of some little bushes that live way back here. Gotta have a place for my
little friends to hide. There. Probably, a little racoon
lives right in there. There we go. I like little racoons when they're little. They are the cutest little devils. I got a letter from
somebody here a while back, they weren't happy that I was condoning keeping these animals as pets. Let me emphasize, strongly. I do not keep these animals as pets. I only try to help the
rehab people raise them up, and then they're turned
loose back to the wild, because that's where God
intended for 'em to be. I have all these little
squirrels in my backyard that I've raised, and it's funny, people come
to the house, (laughs) and they're like little puppies. I'm not exaggerating, they literally, they come to my back door, in fact, they've ate a hole
through my screen on the patio. But they come through the screen, and they come to the back door, and they scratch on the door like a little puppy,
wanting me to come out and bring 'em some goodies. They know I'm a soft touch. (blows air) I just decided I was talking so much, I'm gonna put another tree in. But isn't this an easy way to make some gorgeous,
old rough looking trees? Tough old trees. There we go. Just get a general idea of
where we want 'em to be. I like that. Now, I've got a couple
of filberts going here, so I don't have to spend all
my time just cleaning them. Maybe back in our world, here, just make a decision. (whistles) Maybe there's some more
snow lives right in there. I don't know. You know, painting is
such an individual thing. Don't just try to copy
somebody else's work. Just do your own thing. We each see nature through
totally different eyes, and that's what you're to paint. I say that over and over,
because I just don't, I don't want to teach people to copy. Shoot, anybody can copy. Creative freedom,
though, is where it's at. That's really The Joy of Painting. There. We use no patterns, no sketches, we let our imagination take us to worlds that we can only imagine. We can do that. We can do that, we can do anything. Anything, at least on this canvas we can. Maybe there's another little
bush lives right here. I've mentioned before, on this canvas, I have absolute and total power. I can do anything here my heart desires, I can change the course of mighty rivers, anything. When I go home, the only thing I have any
power over is the garbage. It sits there and waits on me. There we are, but that's okay. I can always escape to
this piece of canvas and create any illusion that I want. So can you. Maybe there's a big old root on this tree, it comes right out like that. Like that. Let's put some arms on
this old tree. (grunts) Once again, I'm pushing
a lot with the brush, just to make them all gnarly. Is that a word? My son Steve and I are both
bad about making up words. I learnt that from him, he didn't learn it from me, of course. There we go. Old Steve, if you've never had
a chance to watch him paint, that son of a gun is one dynamite painter. He's almost, what, 27 years old now. Hey, and this is the 27th series, what a coincidence. But he has been painting, I think, since he was born. He was about 12 years
old before he realized everybody didn't paint. There we go, just a
little snow over there. We'll just bring that little
bush in the background down. We're gonna put some sticks and
stuff in these little bushes and they'll show up a little better. I hope you can see 'em. Alright. Let's go back to this big old tree. On this side, this is really
an exercise in making trees. There it comes, there
it comes, there it goes. Think about these old limbs
that hang out here and there. Now you could just as easy have done this painting
in summer or spring. And put leaves on all these trees. I just decided today, I wanted to do a scene that,
as I mentioned when we started, I like to walk in the woods. Sometimes when I walk in
the woods in the winter, the sun comes through so strong, and you have this gorgeous effect. I sit down, and I watch
this for a long time, and I kept thinking about
how would I make that? And how could I do it easy? I knew how to do it as
a traditional painter, it's a very time consuming, you have to let things dry between layers, and put some washes and glazes on there. But I wanted the way where somebody could do this very quickly, and easily, without all the agony. And this is what I've come up with, I think it works. Now this is acrylic paint, as I say. It dries very rapidly,
it's not very good for doing wet on wet, cause you depend on the canvas staying wet through the entire painting. Doesn't work very well for that. But for this, where you
need a dry, undercolor, it works great. I will tell you, there is some controversy in the art world at this time, as to whether putting acrylic under oil is a permanent medium. I don't know. I really don't know at this point. I have been talking with some manufacturer of art products though, and, about the possibilities of
making some other products that there will be no controversy about. So maybe one day, they'll
have something like that. Hopefully not too far in the future, cause I like to design new products. That makes painting easy, and makes it work for people. There we are. I'm fascinated with
machinery and et cetera, for a long time, in college,
I was an engineering student. Wanted to be a mechanical engineer. Instead of building bridges,
I'd rather paint 'em. A lot of that rubbed off, I think. I'm gonna take a little bit of that white, put a little touch of the brown into it. Maybe a little black, just to grey, oh, I like that, just to grey it a little. I want to grey it. Lot of color on the brush, don't be afraid of color, a lot of color. I like sorta hold this
thing like I would a pencil. So that it's very loose, now then. Touch, and let this dance. Let it play, let it pick up that color, let it leave its own color, let all these things
happen, don't fight it. No pressure. Absolutely no pressure. There's your light, it's
gonna come across there. No pressure, no pressure. Here it comes, here it comes. Just highlight it, with no pressure. Let me get a little more
black on the brush to grey it. There we go. But you need a lot of color on the brush so when you touch it,
it'll just pull right off. There. See that? Isn't that fantastic? Just with an old filbert brush, you can just about do
this entire painting, with just an old filbert brush. Up to you. There we are. I'll have this one come right on through. But I'm turning the brush
to get all the paint, and it creates different
effects as it's turning, and wiggling and jiggling. There. Darker and darker as it comes around, cause you want this side next to the light to be the lightest of course. You do that. There. Look at that. All we need up here is a big old hoot owl, it'd look like Halloween. There. Alright. One of the other shows, I
showed some footage that I had taken with a great big owl. In fact it was a great horned owl. That rascal bit me on the nose, there. Alright, let's do this to
a couple other trees here. As I say, this whole painting
is mainly just an exercise in painting trees, but when you get it done, people will think you
labored over this painting for long periods of time. Shh, don't tell them any different. Don't tell them any different. There. Just let it go, fall right along the edge. There we are. Now if you have a lot of time, which we don't here, but if you have a lot of time, you could take a very thin paint, thin it with paint thinner and put it on the script liner brush. A little black in there. And using it sidewards, just pull it down and let it
just graze the high points here of that brown. It'll make some gorgeous effects. It does take a little
longer than doing this. Try it, you may like it better than this. If you do, then use it. We want to show you as many
different ways as possible of creating effects. What you create then, is totally
and completely up to you. There, put a little bit over
here on this old monster. See, but very loose. Very, very loose. There we are. Something about like so. Alright. Let me wipe off the old brush. Little more of the white paint, and we can just sort of fill this in. Want this to be very rough looking. This paint's thick. In fact, in ways, it looks
like a traditional painting when it's done, you can
go back with glazes. Glazes just made from,
oh, you can make glazes from something like a
little paint thinner, a little linseed oil, a little color. Can make all kinds of beautiful glazes, add a little transparent color to it. You guessed it, (laughs) I need a big tree. Lives right there. This tree, I'm gonna
sort put it at an angle, so it looks like it's, maybe
it's bent over a little bit. There we go. Big old legs sticking right out there. Big tree. Big, big tree. Yeah, there he comes. Alright. There. See, it doesn't matter if you
pick up some of that color, it makes it look good. Big old limbs hanging out on him. Right across that one, we don't care. See, don't be afraid of it. Do it, enjoy it. It's what makes it fun. Back to our brush that
has the light color on it. Come back in here. There, see? Just let it play and have fun. There, look at that. You know, I've got several
letters commenting on this easel that I'm using in this series. This is a brand new easel
that has just been released. I'm very happy with this easel. What makes it so great, the top comes off. If makes a wonderful table top easel with four legs instead
of the traditional three. It's much stronger. It works for this kind
of painting, very well. There, little bit of that white, we can add just a little
white around his foots. About like that. There, once again, no pressure, allow that paint just to break on there. Just allow it to break. Maybe there's a happy little bush that lives right there. Maybe there's another one over in here. Just here and there,
some little bushy things. There, a little touch there. Take a liner brush, put
some paint thinner on it. There, go right into that brown. And we can just snatch up a few little sticks and twigs, here and there. But see, this painting was done with very, very few pieces of equipment. Very few colors of paint, there's not a lot to it, it's easy. You can do this one. Even if you've never painted, this is one that you can do. And your friends and your family, they won't believe you done it. They really won't. In fact, I've had people write and say their friends actually
started looking for numbers on their painting, like
it was a paint by number. They thought they just
covered the numbers up. Now you can go back in here, and here and there, put the indication of a few
limbs and twigs and sticks and things, but I don't want
these to be real smooth. I want them rough, so they follow along with what's happening in this painting. Very rough, ragged. Wherever you think they should be. Gnarly, I like that world, gnarly. There we go. See there? All kinds of hangy-downs. All kinds of 'em, wherever
you think they should be. There. Alright. Mmm, yeah that looks like
a Halloween picture to me. And we can put some out in here. And at home, when you do this, take your time. Do a lot of these, they really, all these little hangy down things here are absolutely fantastic. You'll enjoy them. They make your painting
look like, once again, like you spent so much time on it. And only we know, that it was very easy. There, and if you enjoy success with this, you won't believe what you can do. This just opens doors to a world of art, that'll take you places you've
only dreamed about going. Alright, tell you what. Think we about got a finished one here, let's take a little red, sign this one, and we'll call it done. Hope you've enjoyed it. I'd love to see some
photographs of your work, if you have time, send me a couple. Let me see what you're doing. From all of us here, I'd like to wish you happy painting, and God bless, my friend. ("Interlude" by Larry Owens)
