- [Bob Ross] Hi, welcome back. You know, in each series, there
has to be a crazy painting, and I thought today, this
would be a crazy painting. So let's start out and 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's happened up here. I have my standard old
pre-stretched, 18x24 inch canvas, but you use whatever size is convenient. And, today, I've taken a little bit of acrylic paint, black and blue,
and just taken a paper towel, and went all over it. Let that dry completely.
After that's dried completely, then I've taken ...
Covered the entire canvas, with a very, very thin
coat of the liquid clear. Then I've taken a paper
towel, and wiped off every bit that I can get off. You can never wipe it all off. It is still very slick, and quite wet. But, if you put too much clear on here, this is very hard to do, so ... Put it on, the least amount that you
can, then take a paper towel, or a soft rag, wipe every bit
of it off that you can get, and then we'll do this. Now, I think you'll be tickled
at what you can do with something that starts
out looking this bad. So, let's take a old two-inch brush today, and we'll go right into a little
bit of the titanium white. Just a small amount. Small
amount. Something like so. I'm just tapping a little
into the corner here. You sorta have to start
deciding. I want to make some big clouds up here, and I think
today we'll have a ... Tell you what, let's do
a winter scene today. That's a lot of fun. Just
going to start any-ol'-where, making little tiny circles
with the corner of the brush. Some of these colors will show through. And here and there, and there
and here, I'm going to take a little phthalo blue, very
little, and just add it to the brush. We'll begin getting little
white spots, and little blue places going here. There!
But just mix it. Stir it up. Just stir it up. Stir it
up. See, some of these dark colors, though, are
going to show through. Maybe this is going to look
like ... Maybe it's just before a big storm, big snow storm,
what the heck. It's up to you. You decide. But just sort
of vary it back and forth between the phthalo blue, and
white, and just a pure white. Just tap a little color in,
and you can begin making some very basic, little cloud shapes. There! Just the corner of the
brush. Just the corner. You can put these splotches
on here with any old color that you find, it doesn't matter.
Whatever color you sort of want to show through. There we go. You'll be amazed at what
you can do if you just try. Sometimes, you know, artists
sort of have a reputation of being a little different.
And that helps, sometimes. Let your imagination go. Let it go. Because that's where new ideas come from. It's from imagination. And
practice visualizing things in your mind. It's
unbelievable what you can do if you just practice a little. Don't be afraid to experiment. There we are. You know, I
read some time ago that ... Don't be afraid to go
out on a limb, because that's where the fruit is, is
out on the end of the limb, and the same is true here. See, now, we're not covering
up all those little things. Some of them are showing through, and it makes beautiful effects.
And it'll drive people crazy trying to figure out how
in the world you made 'em. You can leave more show,
or you can cover more up. The white is an opaque
color. So it will cover quite strongly. It's totally up to you. There we go! All right. And I'm just going over
and over and doing the same basic thing. Just
to make all these little cloud effects. I say, it looks like there's
a big storm gonna come, and maybe it's gonna snow, and
all the little creatures will have to hide somewhere. Or maybe they'll just
hibernate for a while. All right. Now then, let me find a clean, dry brush. There. And very lightly,
we're just going to sort of fluff this and blend it
and bring it all together. I don't want to blend it too
much. I want to keep some nice variations going here
and there, so it looks like it's a mean sky. That's about all I'm going
to do to that little sky. But isn't that a nice way
of making a sky that's very, very different. And if
you're painting for friends, or out in public or
something, you start of with a canvas like this, and
they'll think you're going to have one wild day, tell you what. Let's take some prussian
blue, and some black, maybe even a little alizarin
crimson. Mix 'em together. Maybe a little more of the
crimson. Ooh, that's nice. pull it out very flat. Really
get tough with it. Cut across, get our little row of paint, as usual. Maybe today ... I'll
tell you what, let's have a little mountain that
lives right here. Tchoom! Maybe, we'll make a real
jagged little mountain. Maybe, there's a lot of
little things happening on this mountain. You just decide what kind of
mountain you would like to have in your painting, and drop it in. It almost looks like the
Teton. So, if you wanted to paint the Teton, then that's what it is. There! Tetons have a lot of gorgeous
jagged peaks and stuff on it, very nice. A couple of years ago, a
lady in class told me what Tetons meant, and I'm not gonna tell ya. You'll have to look that up,
if you don't already know. Take the old two-inch
brush, and pull. Just pull. I want to remove excess
paint and blend it downward. Okay, we'll just sort of blend
right out into nothing there. Right out into nothing.
Very soft, very gentle. Let's just wash this one, We
need a clean brush any way. It's a lot of fun just to wash the brush. Shake off the excess, and
just beat the devil out of it. Okay. Let's have some snow on our
mountain. We'll have some snow. Pull the titanium white out
as flat as we can get it, then we'll cut across, and
get our little row of paint, right on the edge of the knife. Let's just begin right up in here, maybe. Very gentle, no pressure, no
pressure. Just awake the knife. Just allow it to glide
right over there. Tchoom! Something like so. Occasionally, and I've mentioned
this in other shows, but occasionally, I get letters
saying that my knife looks different than the one
that people at home have. The only reason it looks
any different, is because we take it ... We spray it
with just flat black paint, so that it doesn't glare. But, other than that, it's
exactly the same knife. The palette we take and sand
it, so it doesn't glare, but it's the same. It's just a clear acrylic. There we are. Even the brushes, we have to
put tape over the furrows, or they would shine and be very distracting on tv. But, other than that
they're exactly the same. Let's take a little ... We'll use that phthalo
blue and white, I like it. It's a nice color, so pretty. Make us a little shadow color. And Tchoom! we'll just a small edge of
the knife here and there, or you could just use a small knife. I'm just too lazy to pick it up. Just here and there. I don't
want a lot of color back here. I want this to be quite dark. Mysterious. A little touch right in
there. There, just to get that little valley right in there. You can come back, and
maybe there's a peak. Yep, you're right! A little
peak lives right there. No pressure. Absolutely no pressure. I get letters just about every day. People say they can't
make this snow break here. They're having difficulty with
that. It's one of two things, ninety-nine times out of the hundred. Either the paint that their
using is too thin, because this is a very thick, thick,
dry paint. It is not like normal oil paints. Or, most
common, is that they're applying too much pressure with the
knife. Very very little pressure. A whisper. Clean, dry brush. I want to create the illusion
of mist at the base of this mountain. That the big storms coming. Chances are that the clouds
are rolling in, and there's a lot of mist. As I say, the little
creatures are looking for a place to hide. Creatures seem to sense when a storm's coming. I lived in Alaska for a lot
of years, and there's a lot of little earthquakes, little
tremors that happen. I had some beautiful
cockatiels. Beautiful birds. You could tell, before the
tremor hit, that it was going to, because the birds would get
sort of crazy, and they'd start screaming and jumping in their cages, and nine times out of ten,
there'd be a little tremor pretty soon. I'm gonna take a little
white, a little phthalo blue, and we'll have a ... Clouded.
We'll let these clouds Just come right over the
top of the mountains here. Just so there's some nice
clouds floating right in here, covering the whole base of this. You can tap a little, here and there. There they are! Just soften it. Okay now with a clean, dry brush
be sure it's clean and dry. We can just sort of stir 'em up a little. And then blend 'em, so that
they just set way back here. That whole mountain just
lays right in there. All right. Isn't that neat? Now then, let's have some fun. Let me grab one of my little
half-size, oval brushes. These are half the size of
our original oval brushes. We'll go right into
that dark color that we made the mountain out
of. That's a good color. Black, prussian blue, alizarin crimson. And let's go up in here,
and let's have some little, some happy little trees
that live back here at the base of this mountain. All we're doing is just
tapping. Just tapping, and laying some very basic little shapes. I'm not looking for detail,
only basic shapes at this time. We'll begin to show shape
and form when we put the highlights on. This is just the dark,
so the light will show. You always have to have
dark, in order to show light, or light, in order to show dark. There. Just like in life, we
have to have a little sadness to appreciate the good times. There we are. 'Cause if everything
was good all the time, pretty soon you'd begin just
accepting that as normal. Once in a while, you need a
little sorrow in your life, probably. There. Maybe, a little tree up here, wherever. This little brush just makes
some of the most gorgeous little tree shapes. Very simply. We'll take a little liner brush. Dip it in a little paint
thinner, and go right into that same color. Doesn't matter. I want to make this thin, almost like ink. And with that, here and
there, and there and here, we'll put an indication of a
little stick, of a twig, and trunk. Little placement for
the birds to sit out here. Wherever you think they should be. Even though it's the same
color, they'll show up. Let's take ... I have several
of these oval brushes, I mean round brushes,
half-size round brushes, and dip it into a least little
amount of the liquid white. Then we'll go right into ...
This is phthalo blue, and titanium white. Okay, let's go back up in
here, and, with that color, we'll come back and just tap. That's all you gotta do, just tap. There! and we can begin
adding in all kinds of little highlights onto these
trees, make them gorgeous. A lot of times, I like to
make paintings that are very warm for winter scenes. But, I've got numerous
letters from people saying they wanted a cold winter
scene. This a cold winter scene. You may have to put your heavy
coat on just to paint it. There's a big ol' tree
that lives back in there. That's all there is to it.
Just sort of vary the brush, so you get different shapes
and forms. Whatever you want. Whatever you want. Mix up a little more of the
white and the phthalo blue. I ran out of color. There. Little bit more of the liquid white. We just reload the brush.
And there and here, and here and there, we can put in
all kinds of little things. There. See? Put just layer
after layer after layer. Just as many little doers
back here as you want. Now, time for your bravery test. Let's take the ol' two-inch
brush, and go right into titanium white, and load it,
just like you're trying to load it to a chisel edge.
Load some color into it. In reality, you could use
your one-inch brush, or even the fan brush. The two-inch brush, though,
is ... It really works nice. It holds a lot of color,
and you can get in here. We're going to put some snow back in here. See, it'll do it very quickly.
You can just go right in and drop it in. You want to put the
indication of some snow. Very soft and gentle. Tell you what. I'm going to get the
full size round brush, because I want to do bigger things, and I want to do 'em a little faster. We'll take the black, and
blue, little bit of the alizarin crimson. Load the brush full. In my world, I think I want
a big tree, right here. Just a great, big ole happy tree. Notice we put the snow in
first, so it looks like it's behind the tree. It would be a son of a gun
to try to sneak that snow in after you've put this
in, unless you allowed the painting to dry, then
you took your little tiny, one-hair brushes and you
snuck in there and done this. This makes it much, much easier. All we're looking for here, is just a very basic little shape. This tree keeps growing! Okay, what the heck. This tree
is bigger than the mountain. Just indicates it's closer
to us. Closer to us. There! And if you've painted
with me before, you know I always like these big
trees in my painting. I think it just helps
push everything back, and helps achieve that illusion of distance. There. And painting is nothing
but games of illusion. Let's go over here on the other side. Maybe there's another
tree over here. Whatever. Whatever you think. There! Maybe it just goes here. I don't want to cover
up my whole mountain. Okay? Something like that. Right along in there. We'll go back to our little liner brush. A little more of the paint thinner. And this is very thin, once
again, it's almost like ink. Very thin. Turn the brush. This liner brush has
very long hair. Turn it. So it comes to a nice
point, loads a lot of paint into the bristles. Let's
go up here. Now then, we can come up in here,
and there and here, and here and there, just put the indication of a few little tree trunks. Don't need much. I'm gonna put a few highlights on here, so you're not going to see a lot of it. But we know they're there.
Even if we cover them all up. It's good practice. And
when you practice and learn, it's not wasted. It's never wasted. let's go on the other side.
We want a few in this little tree right here. Something like that. Little more of the paint
thinner, maybe. Here. A lot of times, there's
limbs that protrude out of the top of old trees, that
doesn't have anything on them. Maybe part of the tree has died. There we go. Something like that. A little more of the paint thinner. Maybe there's a big ole limb.
Lives right out over here. You make the decision. You decide. You decide where all these things are. There. These are nice scenes here. I like these ole cold winter scenes. I lived in Alaska for a long time, and this sort of looks like
home to me. All right. Wash the ole brush, and
let's go back to our little half-size, round brush here
that has the phthalo blue and white on it. Go to that ole
big tree over there, and let's put a few little
highlights on it too. We don't want him left out here, naked. There we are. Think about shape, and form. And begin just putting all
kinds of little doers in there. There we go. Put a little
more of the liquid white on my brush. The paint's not sticking
well. It's because it's not thin enough. You put a little touch of
the liquid white on there, and go back, and see? It's
sticks very easily now. Very easy. That's what we're looking for. We want easy painting. There. We don't want to make this
any harder than it is. It's too much fun. Painting's ... Painting just makes you happy, so. No use making it
complicated, shoot. Enjoy it. Enjoy it. There's too
many complicated things in our life already. There. 'Kay. All Right. A little more
of the liquid white. And you can sort of tell by the touch, wen you touch the brush,
if you need a little more or a little less liquid
white. It'll tell you. A little practice, and
you'll know immediately. If the paint's too thick
or too thin, just when you touch the canvas, if it
didn't pull right. There. And the paint will always
go to the thickest area. In other words, if the thickest
paint is on the canvas, then it'll pull the paint
off onto the canvas. If the thickest paint's on the brush, then it takes the paint off
the canvas, onto your brush. If you're getting a tremendous
amount of color on your brush off the canvas, that's all that's wrong. If you remember those little
guidelines, little rules here, any time that happens,
you'll know immediately why. It's easy to cure. Easy, easy to cure. A little more of the liquid white, there. See, you want to just put
some little things here. In Alaska, they have ice
fog when it gets very cold. The water molecules in
the air actually freeze. The ice fog collects on every
little branch, every twig. It looks like crystals. It
is the most gorgeous thing you have ever seen. If you've never experienced
it, it is beautiful. Cold, but it is gorgeous. Telephone wires get huge. It looks like trees are in full foliage. I was born and raised in Florida, and I had never seen snow 'till
I was about twenty years old, and the Airforce sent me up
here ... Little white on here. I think they found out I
had never seen snow, and you know, uncle Sam sometimes
has a weird sense of humor. They sent me to Alaska in
January. Anchorage, Alaska. And, before that, I thought
ice was just something that grew in the refrigerator. I didn't know it actually
would grow on the ground. I got off the airplane,
the first thing I did was slide on the ice, and you
know the rest of the story. And everybody thought it was funny. I'll put a little cabin
right there, I think. So I'm going to make some
brown. I'll take some sap green, and a little bit of the alizarin
crimson, about equal parts, mix 'em together. Just have to ... You have
to mix this pretty good. Normally we don't mix color very well. This we have to mix pretty good. Okay. Easiest way I know to make a little cabin. Take your knife, scrape out a basic shape. Somethin' like so. Very basic. You're doing two things here.
You're laying the cabin out, and you're removing excess
paint, but you're not committing. See? That's all you have to do. We can take a little bit
of that brownish color. Little bit of the brownish color. Let's start here with the back eave. I love this brown color
that's made with the green and the crimson. There. See? All we're doing now
is just laying in color, just blocking it in. There. And you can do this with any ole' thing. There we go. Now, take a little of that same color, I'm gonna add a little white to it. Little bit of white, and
then very lightly, Tchoom! Barely touch it. Just like
laying snow on the mountain. Barely let it graze, and
come right down like that. Create the illusion of old
wood. Take a little bit of that dark color. Come back in here, make it look like there's old planks, old boards, whatever. Just by touching. Take a little more of that
dark color, we need a door. I gotta have a way to get in and out. Go across like that. See, over in here. Extremely
dark. See almost nothing. But Maybe? Maybe you can make out ... Yep! There's a little window
over there. [short laugh] Now, gotta put somethin' on this roof. We'll just use some titanium white. Snow's covered his roof.
Snow's a pretty good insulator. So if you've got a lot of snow
on your roof, keeps you warm! Tchoom! There we go. Snow's really filled up this one. Little bit on the other
side, something like that. Then we just do a
cabinectomy. In other words, we'll cut it off however
we want it, like so. Shoot. Maybe there's even
a little chimney. Yep! Sometimes I don't put
chimney's on my cabin, and people write and say "why not?" Put snow on there. Nobody's home. Nobody's home. Lights are on
but nobody's home. [chuckle] Take just the white, titanium white, and let's just begin filling
all this up, something like so. Back to a big ole round brush,
I'm gonna put maybe a ... Yeah, maybe a little bush
that lives right out here. Just sort of to help the
perspective and everything of the painting. I like that. Back to our little half-size round brush. A little phthalo blue and white. Few little highlights on there. There. Tell you what, for the
people that wanted a cold winter scene, this is cold. Temperature went down
twenty degrees right in here since we started this. All right. Okay, now with the white,
grab the bottom of this. Allow it to pick up a little
of that blue-ish color. So it looks like shadows
right behind the bushes. Then begin blending it
all together, like so. Back to our liner brush,
a little paint thinner. A little bit of light
color. Maybe you can see a stick and a twig and just all
kinds of little things living back in here. We don't know
exactly where they all are. Wherever you think they should be. Few little dark things. Look it there. Now then. I'm gonna take a little bit
of the phthalo blue and white, and I'm just going to
tap in some little bushes right over on this side of the cabin, sorta to close that side in. Little stick, here and there. Put a little somethin' underneath, and I think we're about to
have a finished painting. It's a very simple little painting. You oughta try it, because I
think you'll really enjoy it. And you can see what happens
with the crazy canvas. So, behalf of the entire staff, I'd like to wish you a happy painting, and God Bless, my friend. [light jazz music]
