- Hey, welcome back. Certainly glad you could join me today. Today I have one of my
little friends with me. This is a little baby cedar waxwing. He's just all of probably 12, 14 days old, maybe a little older than that, but not very old. And he's just as precious as he can be. I thought I'd bring him on today and share him with you. Hi, guy, how are you? Can you talk a little bit? Huh, can you talk a little bit? Huh, talk a little bit? What? What? Yeah, I know. Yeah. But he's something else. Tell you what, let's have
them write all the colors across the screen that you need to paint along with us today. And while they're doing that, I'll set him down. If you'll come right
up to the canvas here, I'll show you what we've got going on. Well, he's decided to clean
himself here a little bit. All right. Today I have a long skinny canvas, a 12 by 24 inch canvas. And I've taken a little masking tape that I picked up here in the studio. And I've just sort of
put some masking tape around the edges. I thought we'd do something
a little different, where we take maybe, let's paint a scene that goes
through these two sections. And maybe it'll start out as summer and end up as winter over here. Just to break it up. Something different. It'll give you a lot of good practice. So, let's have the
summer scene on the left. So I'll start with phthalo blue, a little bit of phthalo
blue on the two inch brush. OK, let's go right up in here, and we'll drop in just a happy little sky, just a simple little thing. Just making little
criss-crosses, little Xs. Summer skies are normally a lot brighter than winter skies. Winter we get sort of gloomy and drab, so. And we'll put a little
water, we'll have water. There, about like that. All right, and then we'll come back, and we'll blend all that out in a minute. But right now that's good enough. That's good enough. All right, on the other side there's gonna be winter. I'm gonna go into prussian blue. It's much darker. There. It'll make it look colder, more rough. There. All right, something about like that. You can even add a little touch
of the midnight black to it if you wanna really grey it down. See there. Now then. And we'll have a little water in that. We'll take the same color,
a little prussian blue, a little touch of the black in it. And we'll just put in a
little water indication, just pulling straight across. It's that simple. That simple. Now then. Let me grab another brush here. I have several of them going. Maybe over here in the summer side, (laughs) sounds like a
new series, summer side. Maybe there's a happy little cloud or two over in the sky. We'll just take a little titanium white with a two inch brush. And we'll just put an indication. I don't wanna get, we don't wanna get too carried away today. Just a little indication of some happy little
clouds that live up here. Little fluffy clouds
up here in the summer. Now, over here on the winter, maybe there's just a long stringy cloud. Something about like that. That comes across. And that's about all you have to do. The little stringy clouds are easy. We'll make another one
since they're so much fun. But that will give the indication of a little cloud that lives right there. All right, all right. Most fun part of this
is washing the brush, so let's do that. We wash our brushes with odorless paint thinner. (laughs) And then we just
beat the devil out of it. All right. Let's do a happy, happy little mountain. Take some black, prussian blue, I'll get some crimson, maybe a little van dyke brown. Doesn't matter, whatever. Pull it out as flat as you can get it. Take the knife, cut across, get a little roll of paint that lives right under
the edge of the knife. And let's go up in here. And maybe, there we are. Maybe there's a mountain
that lives right here. Wasn't that little bird cute? He's a little cedar waxwing. I borrowed him from the bird lady here in Muncie, Indiana, where we film. And her name is Diana Shaffer. And Diana devotes just
about her entire life to taking care of these little creatures. It's fantastic that people care enough to devote their time and their resources to doing these kind of things. My hat's off to her. There. There we go. If I wasn't careful I could
become just like Diana. I could become so infatuated
with these little rascals that I'd spend most of my
time just working with them. And there's a lot of people like Diana all over the country. And nearly every town has a bird lady, or someone who takes care of injured and orphaned little creatures. And you need to, if you have time, go out and see them. They've got interesting things, they need your support. And they're super people. Just taking the two
inch brush, pulling it. I wanna blend that color out because if you can see
the entire mountain, it's always more distinct at the top than it is at the bottom. And this will do that to it automatically. Already, see it just sort
of sitting in the mist. Now we will take some titanium white. Pull it out very, very flat. Once again, take the knife, go in, cut. And we need that little roll of paint. Get in the habit of
loading the knife like that to save you a lot of agony. Touch, no pressure, no
pressure, no pressure. No pressure at all. No pressure at all. Just let it glide across there. Just let it glide. See, that easy. Maybe this one, you have
to make decisions here, maybe this one comes out here. I don't know. I don't know. It's up to you. You can bring them
together if you want to. Totally and completely up to you. And we don't wanna stop there. We want this side to have a
little highlight on it too. Just cause it's winter it'll probably have more snow on it. And you can make this with any color. I'm just using white today. Sometimes these summer scenes you like to use various
colors of brown and stuff to make different mountain shapes. And that works. Works just the same. Take a little blue, a little white. Pull it out flat. Once again, our little roll of paint. And with that we can go back up in here. And we put the indication
of some little shadows. Pay particular attention to angles. Mountains are just geometric shapes, and it's a game of angles. Notice that most of your shadow angles go in one direction, most of your highlight angles go in an opposing or opposite direction. And that's basically all there is to it. No pressure. Absolutely no pressure. Can't say that enough times. I get letters everyday from people saying, "My mountains just don't work right. "What's happening?" It's normally one of two things. Most common is the people try to do it
with a paint that's thin. You absolutely must have
a very firm dry paint. That is, it's essential. Without it, you're just
gonna become a mud mixer. You need a firm dry paint. That's the only way you can
paint over the top of this over and over and over. See, now you can come back in here. And even change your mind. Sorry I keep jumping around. There. OK. And you can even get crazy, and maybe put a whole
'nuther projection here. It's up to you. Just see these things in your mind and drop them in there. It's no big deal. You have total, total
control over it, total power. You can do anything. Just wipe the knife off. And you can just put any
ol' shape you want in here. Wherever. I better quit. I'm gonna fill the whole canvas up full of mountains, which is OK. It's a super way to practice this. I'm gonna take a two
inch brush and just tap. Follow the angles though. Follow those angles. And then very gently lift upward. Upward, upward. Over here, you're still
following those angles. Most, most important. Gotta follow them. There. Or you'll destroy everything you built. All right. Now maybe, maybe back here in the distance. Let's see, we'll take a little, I'm gonna take some titanium white, a little prussian blue, a little crimson. Just sort of mix them together here. I'm making, that's basically a blue color. Put a little bit of the, a little bit of the crimson in it just to, oh, I like that. Just sort of mix around
until you find something that really turns you on. And that's good. Now, I'll just use the
ol' two inch brush here, tap in a little color. And maybe there's a little
footy hill back here in our world. It lives right here. And we let it go right through. Right on through. Something about like that. All we have done here is just tapped down some color. Now, every gently, short strokes, I'm gonna grab it, lift upward. Upward, upward, upward. Very short little strokes. Very short. Very short. See, it looks like little trees live far away already. Now then, maybe we'll darken that color. Same color, but I'm gonna make it darker. Much darker. Come right into here. And here I'm just gonna touch. See, watch, watch. I'm sorry, I get excited. I've painted thousands and
thousands of paintings, and it still fascinates me. Look, see. Just, it excites me every
time I paint another painting. It's one of the few things
that I've ever done in my life that doesn't get old
and boring very quickly because every painting, every one is a learning experience. And you know each time you do a painting that you've learned something that next time, next time the painting's gonna be even better. There. It's like we have well over
400 instructors in the country, and I hear over and over that we're not satisfied with what we're doing. And I tell them that's the greatest thing that could ever happen
to you, dissatisfaction. I hope you're plagued with it because if you're not satisfied, then that's what drives you to go forth and do another one. And it'll be better. So I hope you too are plagued with dissatisfaction. I'm making up a dark color here, get a little white in it. Same color we were using, just darker. And we'll find us a little ol' fan brush, load some color in it, both sides. Let's go up in here. Now, maybe, maybe there's some more little
trees right in here. There. These are a little closer, so we can make out a little more detail. Like that. There. You decide where they live. Wherever you want them. Wherever. All right. Maybe they come down here. I'm just gonna push in
and then lift upward to make it look like more little trees. There, pull that down. All right. See, that's all there is to it. That's all there is to it. No problem at all. All right. Now, watch here. Wanna grab that, pull it down, and that'll make us a nice reflection. And we'll go across. Instantly, nice little reflections. Lift up. Smooth it out a little. Shoot. You got a nice little
painting going there. Now, maybe underneath
here, underneath here. Let me tell you what, let's put a little dirt under there. Take a little brown, both browns, van dyke and dark sienna. I'm just gonna come right in here. And we're just gonna put the indication of some soil, dirt, rocks, whatever, that live right in there. And on top of that, let's get crazy. Take some sap green right into the cad yellow,
yellow ochre, Indian yellow. Just mix them together on the brush so you get a multitude of colors. Let's go up in here. And maybe there's some little grassy areas back in here. Just take the little
fan brush, push upward. Push upward, use the corner, otherwise you get smiley faces. There, just use the corner. Now we got a little grassy area there. Take a little white, a little dark sienna. We'll make a little brown color. And we can go back, and just make it look like, there, like little rocks and stones live right along the edge. Now, over on this side, we said this was gonna be winter. So over here, we're gonna
do that same basic thing, only with white. All right, I'm gonna
take some liquid white and pull it out very flat. This is just liquid white on the knife, just cutting across. Just put a little water line back there. And we'll come right in here, and put a little water line that follows right through, goes right through. Just let that scene continue right on through. We're actually doing two
paintings at one time here. There we go. Maybe there's even a little
ripple here and there. Wherever, up to you. You can have ripples
anywhere you want them in your world. All right, let me grab another fan brush. I have several of them going here. Let's take, clean off a spot. I got the biggest palette in town, it's just not big enough. You always, it's like a goldfish, you'll grow to the size of
your environment I think. Take black, prussian blue, some phthalo green, some crimson, put them together. I like phthalo green there, just, I like that. All right. Now then, go right into the color. Lot of it, load a lot of
color to the fan brush. And let's make a few evergreen trees, some nice ones. A lot of paint. You ready? This is your bravery test. Here it comes. Corner of the brush. Back and forth. Maybe there's one big ol'
tree that lives right here. And he looks out over this mountain. Gosh, what a view he would have. That's where I wanna live. Right there. Look out over the mountains, see all of God's creations. All right. I like that. Let's make some trees on the other side. There. Sometimes when you're painting, step back from your painting, take a look see at it every so often. When you paint really close to it, it sort of gets distorted. Step back and look at it. Step back and take a look see. There. See. Just dropping little rascals in. We need one more. There it comes. Just corner of the brush work, back and forth, applying more and more pressure as you work down. And down here we just
pull a little color down. And, you guessed it, that'll end up being some reflections. That easy. That easy. Now we put a little dark color in. There, see, now we have
reflections for it. That easy. Painting does not have to be difficult. There's no big secret to it. You can do it. Let's take sap green, yellow, lot of color on the brush. OK let's go up here. And let's put, let's put some highlights in these little rascals. Darker, darker, darker toward the base. Always want them to get darker. A little yellow ochre in that one. Oh, I like that. A little sparkler. That's one of them happy accidents. They happen. In your world, you learn how to work with anything that happens. Grab another fan brush. I'm gonna dip this one into a little bit of a liquid white 'cause this is winter. Gotta remember. A little liquid white, titanium white, be right back. A little phthalo blue. Pretty color. OK, let's go up in here. Now, for this winter tree, maybe there's snow, a little snow laying on these arms here. So we can put a little of that on there, not a whole lot. That's about enough. Let's take a one inch brush. That's a good one. Gonna take some of that
nice dark color, like so. I hear my little bird over there. He's chirping so nice. He was good. I'll have to feed him extra special. Extra special for doing
a good job with us. Yeah. And he likes blueberries,
fresh blueberries. He loves them. There we go. I just let that come right on through. There. Now, there's another one
inch brush that's clean. I'm gonna dip the one inch
brush into the liquid white. I dip it into the liquid white only to thin the titanium white. So I'm gonna go through titanium white, be right back, right back
get a little phthalo blue. Pull it in one direction. It's important you're
doing it in one direction, round one corner. Turn it over so that
round corner's to the top. Look at the end of that brush, all the pain that's sitting there. Tremendous amount of paint, OK. Let's go up in here. Now, all you gotta do is just barely touch the canvas. You don't have to sock it hard. Just barely touch it and you can make all these gorgeous little lacy looking frozen bushes. That easy. See them, they live right here
in your ol' one inch brush. And you can just scare them out. There they are. Maybe, I'll tell you what, tell you what. See, when you paint you see things. You just, you begin, you just do it, so it makes it fun. Pull. Maybe there's a little snow right there. There. Living in Florida now, I don't see a lot of that. But for well over a dozen years I lived in Alaska. I certainly saw my share there. Alaska may be one of the
most beautiful creations God's ever made. What a pretty, pretty place. Let me wash this brush. Not as much fun washing a one inch brush. It doesn't splatter near as bad. But it'll get people standing real close. All right. Back into the liquid white. Camera people hate me here. (laughing) I'll run this right through, right through some of the sap green, the cad yellow, yellow ochre. Over here we're gonna have summer on the other side. OK, let's go up in here. Same thing that we rounded one corner. With that rounded corner up now then we can just go in here and lay in some highlights on all these little bushes that live over here on the summer side. Over on this one now. There's one. See? Do one little bush at a time. Don't get greedy. Don't get greedy. All right, where's the next one live? Right there, you're right. There he is. Isn't that neat? You can just put things wherever
you think they should be. There's another one. Do one at a time though. I know I say that on every show that I paint on, but it's most important. Most important. Let's reflect a little down in here. Something like that. A little bit of that color. Now, now. Dry brush. This is your gentle test 'cause it has to be very light. Whisper. Barely touch. Just graze it. Go up and over, and then go across. Look it there. You have gorgeous mirror
reflections, that easy. That easy. And you can do it. Van dyke brown on the knife. And we need a little land
in our world right there. Just a little bit of land. And we, there it is, we had some brown and white
we had mixed up earlier. So with that we'll just come right in here and put some little highlights. Back to our liquid white. We use the liquid white here just to make a little waterline underneath. It's sort of a little separator, separates your two dark areas. There, that easy. That easy. About like that. All right. Now we can take, take a clean knife, and all I'm gonna do is go in here and just scrape in,
mainly in the dark areas. And I'm gonna jump all around, just to put in the indication of some little sticks and twigs, and all kinds of little things
that live here in our world. Just wherever you want them. There, right. OK. And with that, let's
put a few over here too. I don't want this side left out. If you turn the knife sidewards, it makes wider sticks. If you want little sticks, go straight in because
the blade's very thin. See? And that way you can make a whole variety of different kinds of sticks and branches in your world. I'll break up that edge right there, so I'll just put a little bush with the fan brush that grows right down the
side there a little bit. Something like so. There. I'm gonna take my liner brush, a little bit of paint thinner. And maybe here and there, a little stick that just
lives right in there. Something like that. Now, I'll tell you what let's do, let's take the masking tape that we have around this painting off. And let's find out what we have. And this will take just a second. As I say, this is just
something that we cut here at the studio. And to make these little circles, I took the cap off my paint, had a round cap on it, and just cut right
around the masking tape. See there? There you go. You get two for the price of one. But isn't that neat? Now we have this starts in summer, and it runs all the way across, goes from summer into winter in the same scene. And these are very, very effective. When you put this in a frame and present it to maybe a friend or relative as a gift, well you just made a lifelong
friend, guarantee you. Tell you what, let's
take some paint thinner. We'll thin a little bit of the bright red 'til it's literally like ink. Very, very thin. See you work that, I get so many letters asking about how you sign a painting? First thing is to get
the paint very thin, see, and then just work it. Look at that, you see it run? That's what we're looking for. Now turn the bristles in there, loads it full. Comes to a very sharp point. All right, let's go up in here. Now you have to make a decision. Do you sign this one once or twice since you have two paintings? I'm just gonna sign it once, since it's just a half hour show. And we'll sign it right there. Really hope you've enjoyed this, and that it will spark your imagination, set your whole world on fire because with paint you can take a trip and go anywhere that you wanna be. Until next time, from all of us here, happy painting, and God bless my friend. (bright music)
