Original subtitles

- Hi, welcome back.

Certainly glad you could join us today.

I thought today we'd just do a little painting

that's very easy, a lot of fun.

I think you'll enjoy it.

So let's start out and have them run all the colors

across the screen that you need to paint along with us.

While they're doing that,

lemme show you what I got done today.

I have a little preparatory work already done,

but this is very simple.

You'll have no problem doing.

I've taken,

it's plain old canvas,

and a little bit of black and gray gesso, and I've just,

using a disposable foam brush,

I've just painted in a basic little shape of some mountains.

And this one has more grey in it than this one does,

so it looks a little farther away.

Then we've allowed the gesso here to dry completely.

After if was completely dry, then I've covered

the entire canvas with a very, very thin coat

of liquid clear.

And once again, it's a thin coat.

Probably because it's transparent,

the biggest mistake made is putting too much on.

I recommend you put on the thinnest coat you can

and take a paper towel maybe, and wipe it.

What's left will be just right.

Liquid clear is fantastic, it does wonderful things.

I'll show ya.

You take the gesso and clear and combine them,

oh it makes your painting world so much easier.

Let's take a little bit of the phthalo blue,

I love phthalo blue.

It's a beautiful color.

Let's go right up here at very tippy top

and we're just gonna start out today

and make little crisscross strokes.

Little Xs.

Just little Xs,

like so.

The clear that's on the canvas makes it

very slick.

It allows the paint to actually blend,

right up on the canvas.

There.

And the black and the grey gesso

will put a background in

with very little work

and it'll be gorgeous.

These color gessos is one of the neatest things

we've ever come up with.

It's almost become a standard

in the painting industry.

There we are.

Just like so.

I want this guy to be a little darker on the top

than it is

right here when he reaches the mountain.

Just a little darker and by starting at the top,

making little crisscross strokes and working

downward in layers,

each time going across and coming down a little lower,

it'll get lighter automatically.

Because you just use up the paint that's on the brush.

Now to make it even darker in the corners,

'cause I wanna make it dark on the corners

so it makes your eye go toward the center of the canvas.

I'm gonna take prussian blue.

Just a little on the two inch brush.

Prussian blue is much stronger.

Woo, really strong.

Let's go back up here.

I'm gonna add a little of it

right into the corners,

just to make it dark.

It's a beautiful, beautiful blue.

There.

Add a little more, we'll do the other corner.

'Bout like that.

We just let that blend right on down

till you can't tell where one color stops,

next color starts.

There we are.

While we have that old blue going, I'm just gonna take

a little more of the phthalo blue, a little prussian blue,

it doesn't matter.

And I'm just gonna cover this part

where it has gesso on it with a very thin coat.

Very thin coat,

of blue.

Something about like that.

And we really don't have to even worry about it,

just paint right over it.

There.

So there's a very, very thin coat of blue

over the entire area here that we have

the gesso on.

Okay, now the fun part of this whole painting procedure,

let's wash the brush, heck.

That's the only reason I do this, so I can wash the brush.

That's where you take out all your frustrations

and hostilities.

Shake off the excess.

(rapid slapping)

(laugh)

And just really beat the devil out of it.

One thing when you're working with clear

be sure your brush is as dry as you can possibly get it.

I recommend you wipe it on a paper towel like I just did.

After you really beat it severely,

I'm gonna take a little titanium white

and I'm just adding some to one corner.

See? It's mainly on one corner.

Let's go up in here.

In my world, I think today we'll have

maybe the sun's right here,

and it's very bright

and it's just burning

right through there.

(imitates rocket sound)

Gotta make those little noises.

There.

But I want this to be very bright.

Sometimes

when I look at the sun coming through

it is so bright

it almost washes out all the detail,

and that's exactly what I want to do.

Titanium white is very opaque,

but if you thin it,

you get it thin enough on the canvas,

it's still transparent enough that you can make out

basic shape, and it's really all I'm looking for.

I wanna look like that sun's just burning

through that valley,

coming right through here,

(imitates rocket sound)

like so.

There.

You can do this several times if you want to

to achieve a desired lightness or brightness

in your painting.

Strictly and completely up to you.

You make the decision.

Totally up to you.

Maybe just a little touch more of that white, right there.

I want a nice eye burner, right there.

Something that'll just sparkle.

(sharp exhale)

So you can still make out that there's mountains back there.

That's why we did them with the gesso.

We really don't care,

we're just looking for a little shape

that just zings through there.

That's 'bout all I'm gonna do for little mountains.

That easy.

The gesso has opened a lot of doors,

the color gessos.

Once again, it makes painting so much easier.

You can create illusions that before were very difficult.

Little sap (sings) green,

a little yellow, using cad yellow, yellow ochre,

and a little Indian yellow here and there.

And I mix these on the brush

'cause that way you have a variety of things

happening on the brush.

I'm gonna get a little more green, I want a little darker.

(sharp inhale) Ooh, I like it.

Sap green's gorgeous, isn't it?

Push.

Let's go up in here.

I gotta make some big decisions in our world, maybe,

and all we're gonna do is just touch the canvas

and begin thinking about

maybe there's a little grassy meadow that lives

way back in here somewhere,

and some of that grass just

gently, gently goes up the side of the mountain.

Very lightly.

Just want to disappear back here in that

strong light.

Disappear.

Quiet.

Gentle.

Peaceful little place, and the more you tap this

the more it's gonna pick up the color that's underneath,

the blue that we put on,

and it'll get

darker and darker automatically.

Let the canvas work.

Shoot, this is the lazy man's way of painting,

but it works.

Anybody can do this.

Anybody.

I get letters every day from youngsters in their 90s.

They tell me that they're doing paintings at friends',

and neighbors', relatives',

they don't even believe possible.

And you can do it, too.

You really can.

Really can.

All you need to do

is believe that you can,

practice a little bit,

and let your imagination take you to any world

that you wanna go to.

There.

Very, very soft, very gentle.

Maybe over in here,

I'm gonna add a little more sap green.

(sharp inhale) Ooh.

Just like that green color.

Now I paint a little brighter for television

than I normally would at home.

When you're painting,

you decide if you want it to be more subdued or brighter,

it's up to you.

Painting is a individual thing.

Each of us see nature

through different eyes,

and your perception of nature

is exactly what you should paint.

There.

Isn't it wonderful that we do,

it'd be terrible if we all saw exactly the same thing.

God was very smart when he gave us

individual personalities.

There.

Or at least I think so, 'cause I like

being different.

All right.

Now then.

So I say, the more you tap this

the more subdued it would become.

It's totally up to you.

And you create the lay of the land.

You have to make decisions here

how you want the land to flow.

(rapid slapping)

Take a clean, dry brush

and I'm just gonna tap this little bit.

I want it to pick up some of that color that's underneath

and soften it even more.

Even more.

Till it just basically,

just blends out on the edges.

There.

Isn't that fantastic?

And you can do it,

I know you can.

And if I know you can, you certainly know.

There.

Okay.

I know, let's take a little Van Dyke brown,

little dark sienna mixed with it,

on the little ol' fan brush,

I'm using number six fan brush today.

Number three would work just as well.

Whichever one you have, it's okay.

(singing) And maybe in our world, way back in here

we can the indication maybe there's

a little path, little road, whatever you wanna call it.

Just goes way back in there, somewhere.

Works forward, and forward, forward.

Let it get larger, wider as it comes forward.

There.

Now, without even cleaning that brush,

pick up a little bit of the titanium white.

Just a small amount,

and just mix it right on there so I have

a little bit lighter color.

And with that, we just graze it, just graze it.

Don't cover up everything.

Just here and there, just graze it.

That's about all we want.

Just to give the indication of a few little highlights

here and there.

And we can take our brush that has

a little grass color, and here and there, put in.

See how it pushed that little thing back?

Sneaky, huh?

And here.

All there is to it.

There, that creates depth in your painting.

Fantastic.

Let's find a knife.

I'm gonna mix up a very dark color.

Black, prussian blue.

(quick low whistle)

Put some crimson in it.

Maybe even a little bit of our sap green.

Black, prussian blue, crimson, and sap green,

very dark in your palette.

Lemme wipe the knife.

On your palette it should look

absolutely black,

very dark.

Very dark.

Load a little bit into a two inch brush

and maybe let's work on the foreground.

Maybe the's a little

little place, right there.

You decide.

There it is.

Look at your path here.

That's what I'm gonna do.

That little path comes (sings) around.

There.

I'm just putting some dark in for the edges.

In here, it don't much matter

because you have the dark underneath.

Doesn't much matter, I just wanna create nice,

firm edges.

See already it looks like you can see back in there

a thousand miles,

isn't that sneaky?

Darken that a little bit so it fades right in

while I have a dark on the brush,

'cause we don't wanna see where this ends,

we just want it to blend right out into nothing.

There.

Back to the little brush I was using

to put the highlight, the grassy colors on.

We'll load it up, I want this to be darker.

Gonna reach up in here.

Be right back, get a little black.

Black and yellow make a beautiful green color.

Push that brush, get a little ridge of paint,

see it right there?

That's what you're after.

Now with that,

let's go up in here.

I don't want this to be as bright

as what's in the background.

Think I'll put some big trees in here,

so maybe this is in shadow.

We begin picking out little individual things.

If you have any trouble at all making the paint stick,

add the least little touch of paint thinner,

just dip the tips of your bristles

into a little paint thinner,

and then go back through your color.

Adding a little yellow ochre just to change the flavor.

Maybe that comes on out there.

I donno, doesn't matter.

Just to change the flavor a little bit.

All right.

And when you're home and have unlimited time

you can tap, tap, tap on this until

it just blends together and it's gorgeous.

You can make beautiful grassy areas that are

as soft looking as velvet.

There.

Think about the lay of the land, the way the land flows.

It's most important, give direction.

Give direction to your land.

There we are.

But isn't that neat, how you can take a big ol' brush

that you'd normally paint the house with,

shoot, you can just put all kinds

of gorgeous little details in here.

It makes painting accessible to everyone.

When I was a traditional painter,

I used to watch with admiration some of these

fantastic traditional painters,

but they had spent 50 years of their life or more,

or whatever,

learning their craft.

And I couldn't do it

without years and years of practice.

This is so fantastic because you can do it

without spending half your life practicing.

People who take classes with our instructors

they find on the very first day,

they go home with a completed painting.

Even people who never painted, isn't that fantastic?

Brighten that a little bit right there.

That's about all.

I'm gettin' ready to get crazy here,

I know what's gonna happen.

I see it.

I want this path right here

to just continue so I'm using

some of the Van Dyke, dark sienna,

put in a little color.

Go back to our little white and brown

and very gently, once again, just let it sort of graze

across the top, I don't want a lot of color.

Don't want a lot of color,

just a little.

There.

Something like so.

You ready?

You know Bobby, he likes big trees,

so today

let's take some Van Dyke brown (hums),

dark sienna, I'm just mixing them on the brush,

and let's really get crazy.

The black gesso allowed us

to do the background very quickly.

Here we go.

(low whistle)

Yep.

There's one big monster.

Let's give him a friend, you know me.

I think everybody needs a friend,

even a tree.

Even old tree

deserves a friend.

And all your trees don't have to be straight.

(gentle grumbling)

Trees are like people,

they're different.

You have trees that are big and strong and heavy,

and little skinny trees.

They're really like people,

and each one is an individual.

Make up little stories about your trees.

It's okay if people look at you like you're a little crazy.

Tell 'em you're a painter.

Tell them you're an artist and you can do this,

you can make up stories

because this is your world,

and in your world you can have

any fantasy that you want.

And with a little paint and a little practice

you can make that fantasy

a reality.

Maybe this old tree,

maybe he's leaning over.

He's leaning right out of the painting,

that's okay, we can do that.

We can do that.

Let's take our knife,

I'm gonna take a little titanium white,

little bit of both browns,

but I don't wanna overmix, see how the paint's marbled?

Cut off a little roll of paint,

go up in here,

and let's just touch right along the edge,

there.

And we'll just put in indication of some highlights

on some of these trees and sort of pull it 'round,

(quick hiss)

like that.

Over here, all I'm doing is just touching,

the canvas is really pulling off what it wants.

There we are.

Just like a taxman does to my paycheck.

He just pulls off what he wants and what's left,

which isn't much,

he lets me hold for a few days.

Don't get to keep it,

just get to hold it for a couple of days.

Same thing here, all you do is just touch,

the canvas will pull off what it wants,

leave you

with a

remaining amount, that easy.

Go back into a little bit of the dark color

and just touch, just sort of play this back and forth.

The paint is quite thick here.

When this dry, you can actually feel the bark on the tree.

Actually feel it.

And it makes for a wonderful effect

on oil paintings.

It's one of the things I like so much about oils

they have a thickness that you can put on there.

I've seen some of the old paintings that,

gosh, it must be a quarter of an inch thick in places.

I love that.

Absolutely love it.

Areas that are very thick, areas that are thin,

areas that are basically just washes.

Wonderful.

Look at that.

Mm!

I've painted thousands of paintings

and I still get excited about this.

Absolutely, it's wonderful.

There's our light,

so it's gonna hit the other side of this tree

over here.

(chittering)

There you go.

And if you put a little too much highlight,

you can go back with the dark with the dark

or vice versa.

There is no mistakes here.

We have some happy accidents sometime,

but we don't make any mistakes.

There.

Lemme find the liner brush.

A number two script liner, I'm gonna take paint thinner,

might as well get quite a bit, I'm gonna put some

branches on there.

I want this paint to be thin like ink.

Let's put a few arms on our trees,

I'm gonna put some leaves on these

so we don't have to get too detailed.

Most of them's gonna end up covered up.

If you have enough paint thinner

on your brush that you mix with the paint,

this will literally just flow.

It will just flow right across there.

We don't put leaves on there,

we really don't care about most of them,

we're just looking for indications.

Indications, that's all.

Little more paint thinner.

And over here maybe there's some old arms hanging off this

(gentle grumbles)

(chuckle) It helps to make little noises.

Steve's and I, Steve's my son, we both do that.

Maybe we'll talk ol' Steve into doin' a show in this series.

We've had such a fantastic response

when he's worked with us in the past.

Maybe we'll just talk that little ol' rascal

into doing a show.

Little rascal, he's over six now, I think.

And I think he's still growing.

Calls me Shorty.

But he is one dynamite painter.

I know, that's just an ol' prejudiced daddy talking.

But I think he's

fantastic painter.

All right.

Time to have some fun.

Ah, we'll use this ol' two inch brush, it don't matter.

We'll go right into that dark color we was using

for the bottom.

Let's put the indication of a few leaves on these trees.

I'm just using the corner of the brush

and I'm just gonna tap in some very basic little shapes.

Now you see why I wasn't worried about the limbs,

the few that show will be wonderful.

The ones that don't, we don't care about anyway.

Just the corner, you don't have to use the entire brush,

just the corner.

There we are.

Now we can go right up in here.

You decide.

Maybe this tree is tilted over, maybe he's got some arms

that are stickin' out through here.

Isn't it wonderful what you can do?

Just big ol' brush?

You can do it.

Take same brush, don't even change brushes,

go into a little (sings) sap green, some yellow.

Cad yellow, yellow ochre, Indian yellow here and there.

Once in a while I'm gonna touch a little bit

of the bright red.

The bright red acts as a duller,

'cause red and green are opposites,

so they make brown when they're mixed together.

There we are.

And that'll dull the color.

And I don't want this as bright

back in here.

There.

Over in this ol' tree

just use the other corner.

Reason they put two corners on a brush.

Look at those leaves, see 'em?

Look, here they come.

You just pop 'em in wherever you want them.

Just add more paint

any time the brush goes away,

I'm just adding paint.

There.

Just bring 'em all together.

But don't kill all the dark, leave some of the dark

show through, that's very important.

You need to have those shadows in there.

There.

Dip the brush into the least little touch of paint thinner.

As your paint begins to get thicker and thicker

on the canvas,

you need a thinner color to stick to it.

Sometimes you have to add a little touch

of paint thinner, not much,

doesn't take much.

It can get away from you in a heartbeat.

Maybe I'll brighten those just a little bit

to separate the two trees, see?

That just snatches that tree right out in front.

Sneaky, huh?

We can do anything here.

Any old thing.

And we can clean up his foots a little.

Puttin' a few little things here and there.

Shoot, maybe there's a little bush lives right down here.

I donno.

Take a little filbert brush,

little bit of brown,

I'm gonna put a little

what remains of a little fence right there.

See?

(quick low whistles)

Maybe, fell down.

Little highlight color right across the top.

(quick low whistles)

I think we can take our liner brush,

sign this little rascal,

and have a finished painting.

I hope you've enjoyed this one.

As I say, the black and the grey gesso

mixed with a little clear

will let you do things that are almost unreal,

and you can do 'em very, very simply.

Send me a photo of what you do

and I'd love to see it.

Until then, from all of us here,

I'd like to wish you happy painting

and God bless, my friend.

(peaceful guitar music)