Original subtitles

Hi, I'm glad you could join me today.

I thought today we'd just do a beautiful little painting that has

a lot of beautiful colours in it and we'll just have a good time.

So let's start out and have them run all

the colours across the screen that you need to do this painting.

And they'll come across in exactly the same order as I have them

on my palette.

While there doing that, let's go on up here.

I've already covered the canvas with a thin, even covering

of liquid white.

It's all wet and slick and it's ready to go, too, so let's do it.

I'm going to start out today with the smallest little touch

of the Indian yellow and little bit of bright red.

Just mix these on a brush.

A very, very small amount, OK. let's go right up in here.

And up, I think I'll put a little more of the red.

Yeah, that'll do it nicely.

Just let this sort of bounce around a little bit.

Like so. OK?

Maybe it just goes wandering off over there, we don't care,

what the heck. What the heck.

Now, then, wash the brush and we wash it with odourless thinner.

And take out all your hostilities, just have a good time doing that.

Midnight black. Midnight black.

Just tap some into the brush, add a little bit of phthalo blue.

The midnight black is very transparent.

So it's a nice colour to work with. Let's go right up in here.

There we are. Just play a little bit of this right along here.

Like so. I don't want to cover up this bright colour.

Just want to throw a little bit of the blue and the black

here and there.

Like so. I thought maybe today we'd make some almighty clouds.

Have some fun. Maybe some big mountains.

I love to paint mountains. I lived in Alaska for so many years,

I feel like it's really home and I like to do mountains.

Alaska has some of the most beautiful mountains in the world.

Same old blue and black.

Let's go right down here and have a little bit of water.

All right. And, already, there,

we have a masterpiece for the Museum of Modern Art.

We are ready. We could stop right there.

OK.

I've got several brushes going here, I'll take a clean two-inch brush.

And, very gently, just blend some of these edges together a little bit

I'm not worried about doing a lot of blending today.

Just a little.

I'm going to take a small amount of the red and put it in here.

I want a little warmer glow.

A little more red, a little touch more of the red.

There. Just really scrub that into the canvas.

It's going to be a bright one today.

OK, let's build a happy little cloud.

We'll use the one-inch brush now.

When you're doing this at home,

you could use a one-inch brush or a fan brush or a two-inch brush.

It doesn't matter.

Put a little bit of the bright red there, we'll sparkle those clouds.

Let's go up here.

Now, then, decide where you want that happy little cloud to live.

And just tiny little circles.

Tiny little circles.

And just begin working all that together.

Tiny little circles.

Don't let them get too big.

Keep your brush moving.

You'll have places where the paint's very thick,

places where it's very thin, places where there's no paint.

Just let all those little things happen.

Now, then, top corner with a large brush

and just sort of mix it up, blend it up.

Blend it up. Then fluff it.

Give it a little fluff, that lifts it up, and when you do this,

if you pull up some little stringy things, don't worry about it

because when you blend it, they all go away.

See, there?

Then when you're painting clouds like this, work in layers.

Do the most distant layer first and then come forward.

Always working forward.

A little more of the red into the white and maybe, yep, look here.

There is another happy little cloud and he lives right here.

Wherever you think a cloud ought to live, that's where he should live.

I'll tell you what, maybe there's one that one lives right here.

He just floats right down.

Clouds are very free. They are one of the freest things in nature.

They just float around and have a good time.

There we go. Top corner of the large brush.

Tiniest little circles.

Give it a little fluff.

There, just fluff it up.

Remember years ago, ladies used to tease your hair like this.

The same principle, you just sort of fluff it up, tease it.

Just tease it.

Very gently blend the entire sky.

Isn't that a fantastic way to make some great big billowing clouds?

It works very well.

Let's put some big mountains in this one.

I want to take some black,

some blue,

and some alizarin crimson.

Some alizarin crimson.

If you want to see what colour you have, take a little white

and put it there, because that just looks black. There, you can tell.

I want a little more crimson, I want it a little bit more

into the more purplish hue.

That's better. OK.

Pull it out flat, cut off a little roll of paint.

Let's go up here. Now, I have to make a big decision.

Where does your big mountain live?

I think he lives right there.

See when you put this lavender colour over the yellow, you can get

away with it because when you mix lavender and yellow,

it makes a nice brown.

And you don't care if you get brown in your mountains.

If you used too much blue, you'd have green mountains.

And that'd be all right,

but this looks a little better for what we're looking for today.

There we go. The only thing you're worried about is the nice top edge.

You could really care less what's happening in here.

Now, then. Let's take the old big brush.

And very gently pull this down.

We'll have a ridge of mountains, I like to do those.

I just sort of pull it right down right down like this.

This is where you begin laying out your basic mountain shapes

and angles just like that.

Just using brushstrokes.

Like that.

There.

All right.

You know when you paint, every day is a good day when you paint.

Every day is a good day.

I had somebody tell me here awhile back,

"How can every day be a good day?

"Just, you know, every day can't be a good day."

If you don't think every day is a good day, try missing a few.

You'll see.

All right, let's go up here and play.

Take some white, a little bit of alizarin crimson.

And the least little touch of phthalo blue into it.

I want a lavender colour

but more into the reddish hue than what we put on to start with.

Cut off a tiny, tiny little bit. See there? A little bitty roll.

Let's go right up here.

Now, then, begin picking out your highlights.

You just let that barely touch the canvas.

Just barely.

It's just grazing the canvas.

As I've said on some of the earlier shows in the series,

when I was teaching my son to paint, I used to tell him

just to pretend he was a whisper floating across the mountain.

Just graze the canvas.

Caress it.

Make love to the canvas.

Very gentle, very soft.

Then we can take,

let's take some other colour that we've made the mountain with.

And add a little white to that.

We want it darker than the highlight

but lighter than what we have up here already.

Now let's begin just tapping these together.

Just begin working them together.

Pay very close attention to the angles.

The angles are the secret.

Not much paint.

The smallest, smallest amount of paint possible.

Just put all these little shadow areas in here.

Virtually no paint.

OK? I'm going to take some crimson and white.

And make a nice warm pinkish colour.

And, with that, let's go up here.

With that, we'll really put some shiny little highlights on here.

Ain't that pretty? See how it stands out?

You can put layer after layer after layer of highlights on it,

just as many as you want in your world.

Just let them all come together. Put little bumps in it.

Think about all the little rocks that live up here.

Maybe that comes right down. See?

Just let your imagination go.

Look at that.

Look at that.

It's that easy to do,

just think where the light would strike through here.

Just let all these things blend together.

Layer after layer after layer.

Then you go back in here and put all kinds of little...

Look, see how that just jumps right out?

Isn't that easy?

Now when you're doing this at home, this is when that little knife

really comes in.

You can sneak into all those little places.

Take a little bit of the phthalo blue.

The tiniest little amount. A little white into it. There.

OK, let's go back up here.

And just sort of touch... Oh, look at that.

Look at that.

See? It really sparkles it up right up here on the edge. Like so.

OK.

Now, then, a clean, dry, two-inch brush

and I want to tap this, just tap it.

We want to defuse and soften.

Lift it up very gently.

See, that pushes everything back, makes it so soft and quiet.

And you can just keep going on and on and on.

Maybe, maybe there is another big old mountain lives right here.

Oh, let me show you something.

Let me show you something that's fun.

Maybe, maybe when a cloud floats in here,

you can just take a little paint and if you keep that brush moving,

see there? Put a little cloud in.

Blend it, give it a little fluff.

And that will look like a nice, soft, misty area

where there's a little cloud floating down that mountain.

OK.

Let's take maybe, right there.

Just let your imagination go crazy.

Put these wherever you want them.

Each mountain, as you work forward, should get darker in value.

This base colour should get darker and darker.

Really push it into the fabric. Push hard.

Take the big brush, pull it out a little bit.

Just give it a little pull.

See when you put this one in there, it just set that cloud we made

right back in there.

That little cloud hides back in there and has fun in between those.

Now, then, let's come right along here.

And just put the indication of a few little highlights,

just zinging through there and playing, look at that.

Follow the basic angles in your mountains. That's most important.

Most important.

Think where the light would strike.

Right there maybe a little bit would go zing!

OK? Put in a few little shadow indications.

And just sort of work these shadows and highlights together.

Make all kinds of little things happen.

Here comes one, right there.

Just back and forth between the shadow and highlight colour.

See how you can set things back in there?

And that creates a little recessed area back in there.

Sneaky, huh?

I like these kind of little things that just happen.

There we go. Now...

Once again, clean, dry brush and very gently, very gently,

just tap and lift upward.

Always following the angles.

It's most important that you follow those angles.

Look at that. And we have another layer of mountains.

And you can go on and on and on. I'll show you another one here.

Let's take a little black, a little blue, a little more of the crimson.

We'll just use a fan brush. Watch here, watch here.

Maybe there's a little bump that lives there.

You can do these with a fan brush. There it is.

Just fill that in. Maybe it comes, we don't care where it goes.

Right on that gap.

And a little bit of highlight. See that? Just take the fan brush.

You can almost paint with anything if you just practise enough.

All you have to do is just practise.

See? Put little shadow colours in there.

Oh, there's a happy little thing that just lives there.

Just let your imagination go crazy.

There's a nice little... Let that fan brush wiggle and play,

hoping little things happen.

OK, then we'll take our big brush

and let's just tap this a little bit just to soften it.

Look at that. And that easy, you have a little rock.

Now we have three layers of rocks here and mountains.

And that creates a lot of distance in the painting.

Each layer or each plane that you put in creates more

and more distance in your painting.

Now we'll take a little bit of the same old mountain colour

and maybe there's some happy little things that live back here.

See? Now we're beginning to see some little distant trees.

Just sort of touch it and give it a little snap upward, bip!

You've got to say those little funny sounds or it don't work.

There we go.

All kinds of little things.

I'll just clean the brush off there because all we're looking for here

is a good dark colour.

We don't care. Just a good, dark colour.

This should reflect the colours that you've used in the painting already.

That's a good dark colour.

All right, let me grab another fan brush here.

I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what,

I'm going to go right into some liquid white.

And, then, right into the titanium white.

I'm looking for a paint that's a little bit thinner.

And, I know, let's really make it more interesting,

maybe there is a stone lives right there.

See, stones need a little place to live too.

We'll put a couple of little stones there.

And I'm gonna take a little of the dark sienna, a little white.

OK, cut off a little bit of paint.

Let's go right up here.

And let's just put a little tiny bit of highlight on them stones.

We want a little sun playing through here.

Highlight the same side of the stone that you did on the mountain.

OK, now, then, let's have some water.

And the water's coming back here. It's coming back here.

Like so. Maybe it comes right here and goes poosh!

Now, remember we put a little bit of liquid white in with

the titanium white?

We want to thin that down, so it's thinner than the paint

that's already on the canvas.

If it's not thinner, then you're going to become a mud mixer

and then you're going to be unhappy with me.

Maybe when the water gets here, it hits this one

and just goes zoop, like that.

And splashes over this way.

Now, when it hits down here, there. See? Whoosh!

You've got all kinds of happy little splashes just...

Look at that, look at that.

All those little things are happening right there.

Maybe there's a little stone that lives under the water.

There, it causes it to go, bloop!

All right, let's have some fun.

I'll tell you what, I'm going to take the old two-inch brush

and go right into, oh, we'll take some alizarin crimson,

tiny bit of phthalo blue and a little bit of black.

Just go right up here.

I think, yep, let's put a... Just push and bend that.

He's a happy little tree that lives right there.

We begin worrying about the lay of the land.

And it comes right down in front of this water. There it is.

Just like so.

OK? Maybe we'll just put a whole bunch of stuff right in here.

What the heck?

There it is. So you put your dark in so your light will show.

A little more blue, a little more crimson,

a touch of black.

I don't know, right there, just sort of look at your painting and make

big decisions where you think all these little things should live.

Right down that gap.

We don't know, we don't have to make these decisions yet.

We'll make these decisions as we work on down in the painting.

OK, let's put some stones in here.

Take a little Van Dyke brown

and we need a stone to hold this waterfall back.

Otherwise, it just wouldn't stay there by itself.

Water is lazy, it looks for the easiest way

to get to where it's going.

So when you're doing these little waterfalls, you've got to have

little stones and stuff that explain why the water is higher back here.

You don't want it to just sort of all of a sudden be there.

One of the basic rules

of nature is that water will not climb a rock

just so it will fall and be pretty for you.

It's lazy. It's like me.

It looks for the easy way to do things.

OK.

Let's take our fan brush and go right into, let's see,

there's some black and blue,

crimson.

I'm going to grab a little bit of white

so I can lighten that up a little. OK, let's go back up here.

A lot of paint on the brush.

And maybe there lives, yep, right here, a happy little tree,

and, this time, I'm going to push upward.

Push upward with the fan brush.

Normally, we push downward when we make a little evergreen.

We want these to have little branches, though, that go upward.

See that?

In some parts of the country, that looks more like the trees

than in others, so, sort of look around your house

and see what kind of trees you have.

I know I'm going to get a letter from somebody saying,

"Bob, all I've got's a maple tree in my yard."

Well, you can put a maple tree in yours.

There.

Just put these little rascals wherever you want them.

See, these look like little Christmas trees to me

and Christmas is always a happy time.

There.

OK? Just push upward, bend it upward, make all these little trees.

Now, some of them that are a little closer,

you might see little highlights, so I'll take the same dirty brush,

go into a little yellow.

And a little sap green. I want this quite dark, because it's far away.

Load it full. Now, then.

Just put in a little indication of some green, still pushing upwards.

Not a whole bunch, you don't want to kill all the dark.

There we go.

Just here and there.

Some of them, don't put anything on,

that will help save the illusion of distance.

All right.

Let's put some highlights on those bushes.

We'll use a one-inch brush today.

Going in to all the yellows, this yellow ochre, cad yellow,

let's grab some sap green.

Just all of them, a little bit of the bright red.

OK, let's go right up here.

Maybe this big old tree back here. Look at this.

There's thousands of little leaves. That easy.

Think about the shapes inside of the tree. Don't just hit at random.

Don't hit at random.

OK? Maybe there's a nice one, he lives right there.

You notice I'm still working in layers

and doing the thing that's farthest away first.

Over here, there's a nice little yellow bush

and he lives right there.

And you can use a brush sideways to create little layers

of little soft grass areas.

Let's take just a little bit of the brown

and white we used for highlight.

We put a little highlight on that rock, a little out here.

Wherever you've got a little rock, drop a little highlight on it.

OK, I'm going to grab some more Van Dyke brown.

There's big stones that live, just let them sort of wander,

because anything that you don't want here, you just cover it up.

You can do anything in here.

Anything on this piece of canvas, big old stones.

There. Back to our highlight colour.

And just begin putting some highlights on those stones.

Brown and white.

There we go.

Like so. Back to our one-inch brush.

Some of the yellows and greens.

And begin putting in some little bushes in between.

As I said, anything that you don't want, you just cover it up.

Easy to do.

See there? Just wherever you want them. Let's go over the other side.

The same thing over here.

Make your little individual bushes, one at a time.

Just like so.

And work in layers, always working in layers.

Now, back to our water.

Liquid white and the titanium white.

OK?

Now begin splashing some of that water up against these stones.

Let it swivel and swirl and have fun,

just sort of think like water.

Just push it up, let the splashes hit and crash.

Like so. Look, there's one, see?

Think about all the little, the little areas underneath the water.

There we go.

You know, and I say repeatedly through these shows,

just mention it again, if there's things that you want to see

painted that we haven't painted, drop me a line.

I would love to hear from you.

And this is where most of our ideas come from,

for the paintings that we do.

It's from people all over the country and they write and tell me

what they want to see.

A lot of them send pictures and that helps a great deal.

If I know what you want, then I can do that for you.

A little stone there. Little highlight on it.

OK. Back to my one-inch brush, we'll load it full of paint.

And maybe, yep, there's a happy little bush, he lives right there.

See, this sort of closes all that in.

You can put little stones wherever you want them.

OK.

Then we take a clean knife

and just scrape in all kinds of little sticks and twigs.

Let's go over here and put some on this side too,

we don't want it left out.

Just like that.

Now, then, the old clock's telling me I've got to get going here.

But I want to have some fun before we go.

Let's go into a little bit of black.

A little bit of black and let's go right up here.

I think, in my painting, I want a big tree right there.

There's its trunk.

There's its trunk. And we'll just push up. Look at that, see?

There's big old leaves on it and it helps set everything back.

I like big old trees.

Just pushing that. Go right into a tiny little bit of yellow.

And we can highlight it.

I think that'll give you a nice painting to work with.

We'll call that one finished,

and from all of us here, happy painting, God bless.