- Welcome back. Today I thought we'd do a
painting that's right out of the heart of Alaska. We're gonna start with a black
canvas, which I've already covered with a coat of Van
Dyke brown and Prussian blue. And these colors are transparent,
so it'll still look black. In this painting we want
to show the Moon in the sky with some happy little
clouds floating around, put some almighty mountains,
some beautiful, frost-colored bushes, and we'll see
what happens from there. - I'm gonna start with
a little titanium white. And we'll start right up here
where we want the Moon to be. And just make little x-es. And just start working around. You want to start in the center
and work outwards so that the light gets progressively
darker as it moves away from the Moon. And we'll go out in this
direction so that it hits the curvature of the Earth
and bounces back up. Okay, there we go. Already, you should be able
to see how the white paint is beginning to pick up the color underneath. And we'll just blend this together. There we go. Okay, now we don't want to
let this get too bright; we still want it to look like
night when we're finished, so just work it 'round and
around and all the way out to the edges. And we'll do a little over in here. Now then, we'll take the
large brush, and very gently, we'll bring this together, just
by making little x patterns. There we go. Makes all the little actions in the sky. And we'll come across. Now, let's put the Moon in. And we'll do that by taking a
clean brush, and we'll load it full of white paint,
and we go right straight into the canvas where
we want the Moon to be, and we push quite hard. And push the paint right into
the canvas, and just turn it. There. Get it in with the knife,
very carefully, we'll take off just the excess paint. Let me clean this ol' big brush out here. There we go. Now very gently, we'll
bring this together. Just work it back and forth,
and create the illusion of a moon setting up here in the sky. Okay. Now then, let's put some
happy little clouds up here. And we'll use the almighty
fan brush, and we'll just use this blue and brown color. And... Load it full of paint, and
we'll take, just using the corner, and we'll put in
some happy little clouds, just let one float right
across the Moon, here. Lot of paint on the brush. Okay. There we go. Now, maybe, maybe, maybe,
you can see right up here, we'll put another happy little cloud. Little sneaky cloud running
around here at night. There we go. And you're pushing this paint
into the canvas; really, really work it into the canvas. And maybe down here we've got
some little delicate clouds that are just floating around,
really small, little clouds. There we go. Just lay 'em in. Mmmkay. Now, let us clean the fan brush. And wiping dry. And we'll take a little
bit of titanium white, mixed with just a little
bit of the same color. And we'll push some highlights in here. Just take the fan brush
and just work the corners. Just the corner of the brush. Just push the paint right in here. There. A little light playing
across the top of this cloud. Maybe right along here. This is your world, so wherever
you want light to strike this cloud, let it happen. Okay, and let's put some
highlights right along these little clouds right here. And we're pushing quite hard with this. Once again, we want to push
the color right into the material if possible. There we go. Now, in this cloud up here,
since it's above the Moon, the light's gonna strike the bottom of it. So we put the highlights
on the bottom rather than on the top. There. Give me a nice little thing right out through here like that. Maybe a little light striking
around up in here, just a little something playing. Okay, now, we'll take the big brush. Make sure it's dry and clean. And we're just gonna
gently hypnotize this. Just to bring it together. Isn't that fantastic? Look at that. Look at all the little things
that happen in this cloud. This is unplanned. It really just happens. You really can't control
what's gonna happen here. Don't try to, don't fight it. Use what happens. Okay. Let's make a happy little mountain now. We'll take some blue and some
brown, still using the same color. And we'll draw in our
basic mountain shape, here. Here we go. Really push. Really forcing that
paint into the material. Maybe we'll make this one come
up a little higher so we can see clouds behind it. We use a large brush to pull
that paint down, this removes any excess that we have
left on the canvas. 'Cause we're trying to get
all the paint off the canvas that we possibly can. Okay. Let's just clean the brush. Once again, we clean the brush
with odorless paint thinner. Now, let's put some snow on the mountain. We'll take some titanium
white and just a little touch of blue. Just a little blue. Okay. And let's let some snow just
run right down this mountain. Just let it break and play. This has a very delicate touch. Very light touch. You're almost touching
the canvas with the knife. Oh, here's a nice little ridge,
just let this little ridge just play around like that. And there we go. And we'll put a little
bit of light right on this little peak. Let it just break and play. Now we're gonna use blue and
white next to a darker value for the shadow and we'll start
right here and let this just follow right along. Let it go. Okay. And we'll put a little
shadow behind this one. There we go. Maybe all the way over
here a little shadow. Each highlight needs
its own private shadow. And we can bring this
down a little further. As you work on these mountains,
you begin seeing all kinds of little things happening. Use what you see. Don't plan it. And maybe we'll put a
little ridge right here. Ah, there's another one,
I see him right there. There he is. Okay, now let's lay the bottom
of these mountains into a little mist. Clean, dry brush, and all
we're gonna do is tap. Always following the angles
we've created in the mountain, down like so. Just tap. Mmmkay, over here, we'll follow
these angles, and tap from this direction. Okay, a little bit here. Then we're gonna lift upward
just enough to take out the little tap marks. There we go. Mmmkay, now we're getting
a nice little misty effect over here. And we just work that right
out, and we're ready to come forward. We've created small mighty
mountains in just a few minutes here. Mmmkay. Now, we'll take a little
more of the blue and brown, and back to one of our golden rules, you need dark in order to show light, so we're gonna start by
putting some dark on here. Load a lot of paint into the
brush, and we just push in little bushes right out of the... Right out of the brush. Here he comes. There he is. Just put in some dark on him so we'll have some light showing. Alright. Okay, now we can take a brush... We use a little bit of magic
white and a little bit of plain white. Thin paint will stick to a thick paint. So we're thinning the
paint just a little bit. And we're gonna push in beautiful
little snow-covered trees, way back in the distance on here. There. Look at those son of a guns. There they are. Just hundreds of little trees,
little bushes, all these things happening way back there. Okay. Now we'll take the big brush
and clean it up a little bit. And we have all these nice
bushes here, they need some reflections. So we'll take a clean brush
and just a little bit of white paint on it, and we'll pull that down. Just grab ahold and pull. Make these nice streaks. This is mixing with the color
that we have underneath, the blue and the brown. These lines need to be
straight down reflections. What a fantastic way to make reflections. There. Now, we'll go across just enough
to give it a watery effect; we don't want to destroy all those lines. We just want to make it
look like it's in the water. Mmmkay. Let's take... Lay a little touch of snow along there. We'll just take the knife
with a little paint. Just put some little
snow right along there. Ooh, better get your coat
out, this is gonna be a cold painting. I may have to go find my
old mukluks and put 'em on. In Alaska, we have a word for
people who have came to the great country and only been
there a short period of time: it is called "cheechako." And if you've been in Alaska
less than a year, you're a cheechako. So maybe you've learned a new word today. And where I live it's not
unusual for it to get 60, 70 degrees below zero. And we have a thing in nature
that happens, it's called ice fog. Normally, it has to be
about 30 below or colder. And this ice fog coats
everything, every little branch, with little crystals of ice
that weigh almost nothing. But they create unbelievable beauty. Light plays though these little
crystals and acts as little prisms and breaks up the light. You see all the fantastic
colors shining and shimmering and it is really something. Okay, here I'm just scratching
right through the paint. Make it look like little trunks. Alrighty, let's take the
almighty fan brush... During this series we have made
trees with a two and a half inch brush, with a one inch
brush, and a fan brush. So, all of these brushes you
can use to create almighty trees. Today we're gonna try the fan brush. Load a lot of paint into the brush. Figure out where you'd like to
have a beautiful little tree. Just touch, and then just
using the corner of the brush, just begin building some
little limbs on here. There we go. And we're still using
the blue and the brown. Come right down there. That looks like a good place for a tree. Gonna push the paint
right into the canvas. Okay, and maybe we need one
over here that's sort of tired, sort of leaning over a little bit. In nature, trees grow in every direction. Maybe we'll put another one right here. These trees are so much fun to
get started on, I have a hard time stopping. And we'll put another one right there. Now, as we work forward, we
want these trees to begin getting much larger to show
distance in this painting. In so many of the techniques
where people paint very rapidly, the paintings are
very flat, very overworked, washed-out looking. In this technique, you
can create depth that is unbelievable. Distance in paintings. And this is how we do it. We use size, we use color. All of these things combine
together to create the illusion of distance in a painting. Alrighty. Well, let's do some more trees. We'll put some on the
other side over here. Put an almighty tree up here. There he is. Very dark. Mmmkay. Just let that tree come
right out of your fan brush. Trees live in your fan brush, but you have to scare them out. It takes a little practice. The first time, it's
gonna be a little touchy. Next time, it gets easier. Each time you do it, you learn from it. You progress. I've painted for 20 years,
and I'm still learning. Every day I learn. Spend time studying nature
if you wish to paint nature. You must understand nature. Talk to trees, look at the birds. Whatever it takes. Okay. Now, then, let's do an
almighty tree, big tree. We'll come right over in here. Okay, here he comes. Big ol' tree. You got your coat out yet? You may need it here any second. In the paintings like this, on
the black canvas, you can do a multitude of things
with this, multitude. You can use all different colors. All you're looking for is
a color that's transparent, so that the black shows through. Use this black to your advantage. We'll have another tree right there. There we go. There are a lot of people we
have taught to do these black canvas who are absolutely
making a living out of it now. And we have literally taught
thousands and thousands of people to be almighty painters. To create things of beauty
they never dreamed possible. And you can do it too. You can do it. Just jump right in here and
paint along with us, we'll teach you how to do it;
we'll make a happy painter out of you also. Okay, I think that's
enough trees for right now. Let's take a little bit of
white and blue mixed together, looking for a dark blue, here. And let's go right into this
area here, and let's put some, let's put some happy little
bushes and trees back in here. All this is is the shadow color. We put the shadow in first,
and then we'll highlight it. And, while we've got the shadow
here, let's put some right into the water. We can just reflect some
of this right in here. Okay, now, let's... Oh, let's have some bushes
over in this side also. Just start bringing
this painting together. Now at home you have unlimited time. You can sit and come up with
all kinds of fantastic things to do in this. You can put tremendous detail. Here we are limited on time,
so we're trying to give you ideas, we're not trying to just
give you something to copy, we're trying to give you an
idea, to teach you a technique, so that you can use this and
make unbelievable things. Back into the magic white
and the titanium white. And we'll make some
happy little bushes here. Look how that color stands
out against the black. There we go. And as you work more and more
in this, you'll know just by pulling the brush through,
the correct consistency of the paint, if it's too
thin, if it's too thick. It's only a matter of time
where you can pull the brush through that paint and
almost tell what brand it is. Now we'll just come across,
and we'll turn this into beautiful little reflections. And while we've got the brush
loaded here, we'll just, let's do this one right here. Big tree here. There we go. Little more of the magic white. And we'll come right down here
and put a happy little bush. Now, let's reflect these right
into the water; just let 'em reflect. Okay. Clean off the brush. That's the most fun of
painting is beating your brush. It's a good way to get rid
of all your anxieties and hostilities. Look at those reflections. But it's a very gentle touch. And now we'll take a
little bit of white paint, just put some snow in
here for all these things to sit on. There we go. Okay, a little bit of dark
paint; we'll put some trunks in. Some stems. There we are. This sort of gives the
tree body, gives it shape. And it also shows distance in a painting. Use these to your advantage. Okay. Take a little magic white, make
us a water line under here. Just use a thin paint
to make your water line. It'll flow off the knife. Alrighty. There we go. Nice little water line. Mmmkay, let's put some happy
little bushes over here on the other side now. And we'll start right here. A nice one, there. Leave a lot of these dark areas showing. Be careful that you
don't cover 'em all up. Your painting will get very, very flat. Look at all the snow on those. Okay. And work 'em in layers so
you have distance in here. Do one bush at a time. Okay, we'll put a few
little sticks in here. Mmmkay. Now then, let's lay a
little snow into this side. Just using straight titanium white. This is very firm. And let it break, so you
have shadows showing through. Just like when we do the
mountains, let it break. Okay. There we go. And we lay the snow in like so. And maybe, maybe there was
an old trapper that lived out here and one day he went
to check his beaver traps and maybe he fell into the
river here and drowned, but his old cabin's still here, so
let's draw an old cabin in. I suggest you scrape it with
a knife first, scrape out the basic shape. It gets rid of the thin,
loose paint underneath. It's also a good way to lay
out your general shape of your cabin, get your perspective right. There we go. Just very basic shape,
that's all we're looking for. Big thing is to get rid
of all that loose paint. And we'll take some Van Dyke
brown and we'll do the far eave out here first. There. There we go. Now, we'll take some titanium
white, and let's lay some snow on the roof. Over here. There. Let's bring this all together. There we go. Now, we need to have a
little snow on the other side of the roof, so we'll just take
a little white on the knife and lay it in like so. Little more brown, and
we'll begin putting all this together. There we go. A fantastic way to make a little cabin. There. And if you want to make it
look even older, you can take just a little bit of the white
paint and let it just sort of bounce along here, very gently. Just let it touch and bounce. Little more dark to
create the shadows on top. Ooh, look at that. Look how old that wood looks. It's a super way to make old
buildings and stuff if you ever want to try it. Okay, I think we need a door in here now. Somebody might need to come
along and stay in this old cabin, so he's got to
have a way to get in. There we go. And we'll take in some highlights
around the door, just by using the knife. And probably when this
old trapper lived here, he's just like all the rest
of us, he ran out of room, so he probably built him
a little shed out here. So we'll just build us a little shed. Just bring a little
snow for the roof first. There we go. Just like so. Take a little bit of dark paint... A little brown... And we need a wall over here,
so we'll just drop it in. There. Okay, let's make this an old slab cabin. So we'll just cut in some
slabs here with the point of the knife. There we go. And we can take a little
white and clean this all up. Right now, you should begin
having a painting that's beginning to take shape,
beginning to look well. Should be very happy with it. And I think we've said it
before, but painting should do one thing for you: it should
create happiness in your heart. It should make you happy. Let's take and put a
little bush right here. Just let a few of these run down. Maybe, maybe a little bush
right here to sort of push this cabin back into the painting. Right along that cabin. Okay, we need some highlights
on this little bush. There we go. Okay, and we'll cut a few
little sticks here and there. We're just cutting right
through the light paint, letting the dark show through. Alright. This painting's beginning
to get close to being done. Let's take the fan brush here,
and normally, I would leave these trees very dark. I want to take a little bit
of blue and just tap a little so you can see them a
little better at home. Just to give you an idea. Normally I leave them very,
very dark, so they really give the impression of night time. Like so. Okay, just here and there. Just a few little highlights. There. And just a few over here. Like so. There we go. Alrighty. I think we're gonna sign
this painting, and call it finished. Take a little of the thin oil. And let's sign it right here. I hope you've enjoyed this painting. It is a great deal of fun. We certainly have enjoyed
being with you today. And I hope you've painted along
with us, and you also have an almighty painting. All you need is the dream
in your heart and the desire to put it on canvas. Until next time, we
wish you happy painting. Thank you very much. (happy little country music)
