- Hi, I'm certainly glad to see you today. I thought today we'd
just do a little painting that's a lot of fun, and
I think you'll enjoy it. So let's start out and have 'em 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 going up here today. Have my standard old double-prime
pre-stretch canvas up here but today I've taken a
little bit of brown acrylic and mixed it with gesso and just took an old brush and sorta dobbed in a basic idea here. As you can see, we're
gonna have a big tree here, and the rest of it, we'll just sorta, whatever happens, we'll
just sorta let it happen. It doesn't matter. Let's start out today and just have fun. I'm gonna use the old two-inch brush. We'll go into a small
amount of indian yellow. And I've chosen the indian
yellow because it's transparent. All righty, let's go right up in here. I'm just gonna come right in here and just begin with a little
of this indian yellow, making little crisscross strokes. And just cover up the entire canvas. Just cover it up, what the heck. But just use little x's,
little crisscrosses. It doesn't take but a
second with a big old brush. Something about like that. Just right over the top of this. Now the gesso, of course,
was allowed to dry before we covered it with liquid clear. There. And the liquid clear is on there just so the yellow and other
colors just go on very easily. This was a dry canvas. We'd work ourself to death
trying to get that on there. There. Okay. And when you have the
entire canvas covered, then we can mix up another color. Let me find my little knife here. I think today I'll make
a transparent brown out of alizarin crimson
and some sap green. Probably a little more crimson than green depending on which way you want it to go, toward the red side or the
green side, it's up to you. I want mine to go sort
toward the reddish side. All right. Okay, let me wipe off the old knife here. I'll just use the same old
brush, it doesn't matter. We'll go into a little
bit of that brown color. And I'm gonna start
down here at the bottom. Allow it to mix with the
color that's already on there and begin blending upward. Begin blending upward, I
want it to be the darkest on the base and work up. So we'll start at the bottom
and allow it to blend out just like so. That's really all there is to it. And maybe wherever you want it to go, it doesn't matter, doesn't matter. 'Cause as you know, if you've
painted with us before, we don't make mistakes. (chuckles) We just have happy accidents. There we are. While I have that old brown on the brush, let's take and put a
little bit in the corners. By putting a little of this
dark color in the corners, it'll make the lighter area look brighter. There. About like that, and just let it blend right into that yellow that
we already have on there. And little bit over in this corner. There we go. Already that's beginning to look like some beautiful little
trees in the background. Using acrylic paint
with gesso is fantastic. It opens all kinds of
doors to your imagination. It'll let you go wild. Okay. And that's really about all I'm gonna do for the background in this painting. Okay, now the most fun of
all, let's wash the brush. And as you know, we wash our brush with odorless paint thinner,
be sure it's odorless. Shake off the excess. (banging) (chuckles) And just beat
the devil out of it. I thought maybe today, tell you what, let's get our little round brush. I'm gonna take it, go
into some of the yellows. Yellow ochre. Ah, even a little bright
red and indian yellow here. I'm gonna just jump back and forth between all the yellows and bright red. And sometimes I'm gonna pick up, be right back, a little
bit of alizarin crimson. Okay, let's go right up in here. Now we can come along in here and just begin picking out
little individual things. Just little individual things. Maybe we'll make that a little brighter so it'll show up a little better. There. Little individual things. There, just all kinds of little doers that live in these things. Maybe over in here. Tell you what, let's make
like a fall scene here. Look, we have all kinds of
little things happening. All kinds of nice, warm colors. So you just decide where
they are and drop 'em in. Wherever, wherever. This is just gonna be
little background things that live far in the distance. Pick up a little sap green
once in a while, too. Maybe, even if this is fall, sometimes there's still a little bush or two that got a little green left on it that hides back in here. We don't wanna leave him out. There, we work in layers, do
one little bush at a time. And then work forward, forward, forward. Maybe, yeah, this one right here, we'll put some little highlights on him. but that's basically all we're doing. Allow that color that you put on first with the gesso and the
acrylic to show through. It'll create all kinds of
beautiful and interesting effects. That easy, that easy. Little red, little cad yellow with it makes a nice orange color. Yeah, in the fall, it
looks like Jack Frost took all the colors on the palette and just sort of went crazy. Just sort of went crazy, and that's what we're gonna do. There, there's a happy little
bush lives right there. Just like that. Once again, work in layers, though. Do the little bush that you
think's the farthest away and work forward, always working forward. Vary your colors a little bit. The fall colors gives
you a multitude of things to choose from, you can do
all kinds of gorgeous things. There we are. Back into my yellow and
red, makes a nice orange. Once again, I'm just
gonna sorta vary colors back and forth, wherever. Wherever. Just enough so they stand out. There. Isn't that fantastic
though that you can do a beautiful background, look
at all the different planes, the layers in there. Put a few sticks and twigs in there, and it'll look like that
goes back 1,000 miles. And to me, that's what
makes a painting fantastic is it has depth in it and dimension. It's not just an old flat surface. There. Okay, brighten that one a
little bit so you can see him. But there, there we go,
see, look at all those. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that fantastic? There. I tell you what, let's get crazy today. Maybe in our world back here, yeah, let's have an old barn maybe
that lives right in here. I'm gonna take and just pick out a basic shape. I'm just scraping off the excess paint. And it'll, at the same
time, just scrape in, as I say, a basic shape
for a nice old barn that lives back here and has a good time. Maybe it comes out like
that, I don't know. Down something like that. Over in here. Might even be some... I know none of that makes sense yet, but it will in a minute. I'm just removing any excess paint. Now then, we can just take the knife, begin blocking some of this in. There's the back eave. We'll have an old barn that
has a projection out there, I like those, I like those. Something about like that. There, comes out. Down, then need a backside
for the old rascal. We're just blocking in color
here, don't worry about it. I'm using that same brown that I made from the alizarin crimson
and the sap green. And here, we need a front on our barn. So we'll just drop it in. There, and the side. Like that, maybe it's got a... Maybe there's an old shed that
comes out here on the side. Probably none of this makes sense yet, but I can sorta see it in my mind. And that's really all you have to do. If you can just sorta visualize
things, then off you go. Gosh, what started out to be a little barn is gonna end up being a big barn. But that's okay. We need a place to put the old cow. There we go. And all this we'll just fill in. All right, maybe today,
tell you what let's do. Let's get crazy. Let's take the old filbert brush, I wanna take some of
that brown that I made, and we'll use the old filbert. Brown, be right back, get
a little touch of the red. A lot of paint on there,
just really gob it on. See, just pull it through there. But don't over mix your color. There's all kinds of
colors going on in there. Now very gently, you just touch this, and let's just start pulling it down. Barely touch though, barely touch. Just enough to let the paint come off. And it'll make it look like
old boards there, old wood. Just enough that it drags
the paint off the brush. There, it's just, it's very gentle. It's like putting snow on the mountain. Very, very, gentle, barely touch. You could do this with a
knife if you wanted to. I thought maybe today
we'd just do it with this. Doesn't much matter, it's up to you. There. A little more of the red in there just so it sorta matches everything. This is a super way of making old wood. And little bit of the dark color, I want it a little darker up here 'cause there'd be a little
shadow cast from the top. Something like that. Let's get the knife. We'll take a little bit
of yellow, yellow ochre, little bit of red, little
bit of that brown we made. But don't over mix it,
leave it sort of marbled so when you cut off that
little roll of paint, you have all these colors. They're living right here
in this world on your knife. I just wanna touch now
and let it just bounce, bloop, bloop, bloop, bloop, bloop, bloop. Just let it bounce. And make it look like an
old, old roof on this thing. It's like me, it's had a hard life, and this one's probably
seen its better day. There. There comes a little point
out there on the barn. Mm, I like to paint old
barns, they're a lot of fun. A lot of fun. When I travel, I see barns all over. Sometimes I stop and take pictures of 'em. It's a good way to make
you a reference library on old buildings or even trees and clouds and stuff like that. Shoot, stop and take
pictures of 'em, save 'em. I have a file, I guess you would call it, of photographs and pictures and ideas that people have sent
from all over the country. And that's where a lot
of these ideas come from. I go through there and look at 'em and see what kind of scenes
that people are sending in and that they want to see painted. And that's where we get a lot of it. So if you have some ideas you want done, send me a photograph, maybe
one day you'll see it on here. There. Just put a little
highlight along the edge. Maybe a little bit there,
just so it stands out. Okay, wipe the old knife off. Now just take a little
bit of brown on the knife and just touch here and there just to give a little division between
the individual boards, slabs, whatever you wanna call 'em. But just a little division between 'em. There, see how easy that is? You can really make old,
old looking wood like... It's not that difficult. Over here, I want this to be almost dark. Very dark, but almost the
color we painted it originally. Now we can come back with a knife and just do a barnectomy. We just cut the barn off
so it's where we want it. Something about like so. Let's take some midnight black. Come right in here, put a door in, soop. Gotta have a place for the
old cow to get in there. There. Take a little bit of
brown, just go around, sorta outline the door. Shoot, that's not so bad. We've got us a little barn
right there, that easy. Now maybe in our barn, let's make some more of that brown, crimson, sap green mixed together. Didn't mix up enough to start with. Okay, let's just sorta have an idea. Maybe here, there's an old path. Gotta have a way for the
cow to get up to the barn. Maybe when the storm comes, he
has to go up there and hide. So we'll just put a little bit of color right on here like this. There. Have a path that goes up into the barn. All right, wipe off the knife. We'll just use old two-inch
brush here a little bit. I'm gonna put a little that brown on it, then go into all the yellows and the reds. But I put a little brown on it first. Okay, let's go up in here. Let's begin putting in
some little grassy areas back in here just by tapping. Not bright enough, let's
brighten it up a little. I'm gonna dip the brush into
a little bit of liquid white. That'll brighten it and
thin it at the same time. See, it jumps right on us now. There we go. Back to my little round brush. And let's go in here. Maybe this old farmer was like me, he didn't take care of his yard too well, and the bushes sorta grew up, took over. We'll just play with some of these colors that we were using, the
reds and the yellows, little green now and then. All kinds of little things. A little more of the liquid
white just to thin the color. We're getting quite a
buildup of paint here now, so we have to begin thinning the color. There. Okay, maybe a little... Look at there, all kinds of little doers. And over here on the other side. Shoot, maybe it's growing
up here, too, we don't know. We don't know, wherever. Okay, we need to put some
highlights on our path. For that, let's use some
brown and some white. A little bit more brown,
woo, that's pretty. I like that. A little roll of paint, barely touch. And you might wanna use a small knife so you can sneak in here and do this. Barely touch, just like you're making snow break on the mountain. I wanna take a little bit of blue, little phthalo blue, white. I wanna just graze this with
blue so it looks like shadows. Just here and there, not much, not much. There, and then back to
our little round brush. And let's go back in here and put in all kinds of
little bushes and stuff that live around the old barn. We don't know, don't know that we care. I'm just gonna jump back and forth between the two-inch brush and
the little round brush. Back and forth, I wanna
make little grassy areas and then little bushes. Let's just sorta see what happens. Just let it work itself out. There. Maybe a little more red here and there. Ooh, that's pretty. There, that'd be a wonderful
place for an old cow to live. See, you already have your dark in. The acrylic and gesso puts
all your dark in for you, so all you have to do is
put your highlights on. Makes it so much easier. There we go, here and there,
and there and here, wherever. All right. That's really about all there is to it. Works very well. Helps create that illusion
of depth and distance so you can sneak back up in there. Let's take a liner brush. We'll use a little brown, a little paint thinner in it. I just wanna put in an
indication here and there of a few little sticks and twigs that live in between some of these things. Once again, that'll
help create the illusion of depth and distance
in between individual. Now let's have some fun. Wipe off my filbert, I'm gonna
go right into that brown. Use the little filbert brush right in some of that brown that we made. Crimson, sap green, lot of paint. Maybe, okay, here's your bravery test. Maybe. Well, maybe not too big today. How about just a little
tree that lives right here. Comes right down like that. You know me, I think everything
needs a friend, even a tree. So we'll give him a little friend that lives here beside him. They have a good time together. It's okay to make up little
stories about your paintings. People will look at you like
you're strange, but it's okay. It really does help you in your mind sorta put these things together. Just put a little color
around the edge of that. Little brown and white, like so. Just make him stand out little bit. There, you could do that
with a fan brush, too, if you wanted to, and just pull it around and make it look like little doers. Take our liner brush and some
of the brown that we made. We want this paint to be
very thin, almost like ink. Liner brush has very long bristles. There, you can see it
in front of that color. See, it holds a lot of paint. But when you do it, turn
it, twist it, that fills it. And that's ready, let's go up here. And we can go back up in
here with our liner brush with the thin paint,
and we can just put in an indication here and there
of some little tree limbs, sticks, twigs, places
for the birds to sit. There we are. Wherever you want 'em. There. Peapod, the pocket squirrel,
he'd love to live in this tree. Did you see the little
squirrels that we had in the series earlier? They were so fantastic. We showed 'em a couple of times. There, I like all those little critters. Peapod still lives in my backyard. We've turned him loose. He's been loose for quite a while. Probably has his own family now. But he still comes every day, and he's like a little puppy. He comes to my back door and he'll actually scratch on
the glass at the back door, sliding glass door there, and
hassle me 'til I let him in, and then he knows where
the nuts are stored, and he goes and finds the one
that he wants and out he goes. We do not advocate keeping any of these wild animals as pets. We raise 'em and we turn
'em loose back to the wild. There, but wild animals need to be wild. There we are. Okay, but you just put as many or as few little limbs on there as you want. Just sorta decide where they should live, and drop 'em in. There. Something about like that. And a little more paint thinner. I'm just adding a little
more thinner here and there. Want to put a few little sticks and twigs that live down in here
and wherever we want 'em. Maybe over in here, too. Sorry to keep jumping around. Okay. And I wanna put a few up in here, and I think that's gonna be about all we'll need to do. This part up in here I'm
not even gonna touch. I'm just gonna let the acrylic and gesso mixture show through. And that way we have parts of the painting that are very thick,
parts that are very thin, parts that are dark, parts that are light. And it just sorta all works together. It's a beautiful way of
doing a little painting that I think you'll like. Okay. Shoot, let's take a little paint thinner, a little bit of the bright red. Think I'll sign this little rascal. And then we will sign in right down here. Something about like so. You know, I've mentioned before, one of the questions I hear over and over, and I get a lot of letters
from fantastic people every week, but one of the questions is how do I sign my painting. Physically, how you sign it
is I thin the paint 'til, once again, it's almost like
ink, and use the liner brush, and you can write. I've had people who use
the back of the liner brush and just scratch through the
paint to do their signature. Some people will sign with a symbol, some with a name, some with a last name, some with a first name. Probably the most unique signature that I ever remember was a wonderful lady that painted with me in Alaska, and she used to sign her paintings "Grandpa's Wife." She said everybody signed it Grandma, but she wanted to be different, so she signed it Grandpa's Wife. But develop your own signature, and it becomes part of your personality and part of your painting
that everyone will recognize. And 100 years from now when
people find your painting, they'll recognize your signature, and they'll know that
you had a fantastic day, and that on this day, you
experienced the joy of painting. Until next show, from all of us here, I'd like to wish you happy painting, and God bless, my friend. (light music)
