Original subtitles

- 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)