The Joy of Painting 10x1

1. Hello, I'm Bob Ross, and I'd like to welcome you to the 10th Joy of Painting

2. series.

3. If this is your first time with us, I hope you grab a few paints and some

4. brushes and come along and paint with us.

5. If you've been with us before, first of all, I'd like to thank you for inviting me

6. back again.

7. So I tell you what, let's have them graphically run all the colors across the

8. screen that you need to do this painting with me, and they'll come across in the

9. same order that I have them on the palette, starting with a titanium white and

10. working all the way around.

11. While they're doing that, let's go on up here and talk a second.

12. This is an 18 by 24 canvas.

13. This is a double-primed, pre-stretched canvas, and I've covered it with a nice, thin,

14. even coat of the liquid white, which makes it wet, makes it slick.

15. It allows us to actually blend color right here on the canvas.

16. So we have that ready, so let's get together and let's do a fantastic painting.

17. I'm gonna start off today with a small amount of phthalo blue, and we'll just

18. take and pull a little bit out, and then tap the brush.

19. That assures a nice even distribution of color all the way through the brush.

20. Just tap it, just tap like so.

21. Okay, let's go right up here.

22. Now then, let's start right up in here and we'll use little criss-cross strokes.

23. Just make little X's.

24. And let's put in a happy little cloud, little sky.

25. Okay, a little more of the color.

26. And this phthalo blue is very pretty.

27. It's bright and shiny and it's a happy color.

28. Just continually use these little criss-cross strokes and allow the color to, it just

29. literally blends with the liquid white.

30. And as you work downward here, then you get all these fantastic little effects

31. automatically.

32. See, isn't that easy?

33. Now, while I have this on the brush, tell you what, let's add the least little

34. amount of phthalo blue, or phthalo green, I mean.

35. So we have phthalo blue and phthalo green, just a small amount of the greens, very

36. strong.

37. Let's go back up here.

38. Maybe we'll have a little water in here.

39. So we'll just pull right across like this.

40. See, try to pull though from the outside in.

41. If you start here and come across, it'll leave a great big mark.

42. It's very hard to blend out.

43. We want to make this as easy as possible.

44. And here, all we'll do is just blend that together.

45. And that little light area remains right here, and it sort of gives the illusion

46. of a silhouette of light coming across there, just a little shiny area.

47. Okay, let's wash our brush now.

48. If you've painted with me before, you know this is the fun part.

49. And we wash our brushes with odorless thinner.

50. Shake off the excess.

51. Just beat the devil out of it.

52. Alright, now with a nice clean brush, now we'll go right back up here.

53. And we'll just blend this guy out a little bit.

54. Now you can work this guy until it's absolutely dead, or you can leave some

55. of these little dark and light areas in it to give it some life.

56. And very gently, we'll blend it to take out the brush strokes, come right across

57. the bottom, and we have a happy little sky.

58. That easy. That easy.

59. Okay.

60. Now then, let's make some big fluffy clouds today.

61. I'll go right into the titanium white with a one inch brush.

62. Pick up the least little touch of the bright red.

63. Very small amount.

64. It's very strong, eat up your whole world.

65. Okay, load a lot of paint into the brush.

66. Let's go up here now.

67. And maybe there's a happy little clouds that just sort of float right around in

68. the sky and have fun.

69. Just sort of mix them up on here.

70. Clouds are very free.

71. Just let them play, let them play.

72. Maybe he comes right off in here and goes off the top of the canvas.

73. Wherever, wherever.

74. This is your world.

75. So you create any kind of illusion that you want in your world.

76. There we go.

77. And these are just little floaters, little happy clouds.

78. And you can put as many or as few as you want.

79. Okay, now then, we'll take a clean, dry, be sure it's dry, two inch brush, and I'm

80. gonna just gently blend it using tiny little circular strokes.

81. Tiniest little strokes.

82. And just blend this together.

83. Just blend it.

84. Just sort of mix it up. Okay.

85. Then we're gonna lift it.

86. This sort of fluffs the cloud.

87. Just fluffs it right up, like so.

88. See, and then very lightly, there we go.

89. Isn't that fantastic?

90. You can do a happy little cloud that easy.

91. Okay, shoot, we're just going right along here.

92. Tell you what, I lived in Alaska, oh, gosh, nearly 14 years or so, and I really like

93. mountains, so let's do a fantastic little mountain today.

94. I'm gonna take some black, some Prussian blue,

95. Some Van Dyke brown.

96. We'll put some alizarin crimson in there too.

97. Be careful with the crimson or your mountain will turn purple, which is all

98. right.

99. That's all right.

100. They wrote a beautiful song about purple mountains.

101. Pull it out very flat and then cut across so you have a small roll of paint right on

102. the edge of the knife.

103. There you go. Let's go up here.

104. Now then, you have to make an almighty decision.

105. Where's your mountain live?

106. I think he's gonna live, he is now, right there.

107. Right there.

108. Maybe there's a bump there.

109. You just sort of make a decision and put it in.

110. Mountains grow in all kinds of shapes and colors.

111. There, you're restricted only by your imagination.

112. Pull this right over like that.

113. Now scrape off all the excess paint.

114. Here I'm just really using firm pressure, pushing that paint right into the fabric.

115. Now then, we'll take a two inch brush and I wanna grab it and pull.

116. This removes excess paint and blends it out so it gets lighter at the bottom.

117. If you can see the entire mountain, it's always lighter at the bottom than it

118. is at the top, because we have mist and pollution and all those things that

119. break up and diffuse light.

120. See? Because this is wet, so you can just move this paint.

121. You can pull it.

122. You can move it all over the canvas.

123. If this was a dry canvas, you'd be in Agony City right now.

124. There we go.

125. Now let's go back to the knife.

126. And let's put some snow on this mountain.

127. For that, I'll take the titanium white and pull it out very flat.

128. And then cut across to get that little roll of paint again.

129. See there? Okay, let's go back up here.

130. Now, think where your light's coming from.

131. You have to start making some big decisions now.

132. If you're right-handed, normally it's easier for the light to come from the

133. right side.

134. So let's go right here, touch, no pressure.

135. Just the weight of the knife, no pressure.

136. See there, let it float right down the side of that mountain.

137. Look at there, look at there.

138. See, just follow the angles in your mountain and let it float.

139. Absolutely no pressure.

140. No pressure.

141. Pretend that if you're not careful, your hand will just literally float away.

142. Just float away.

143. Very soft and very gentle.

144. There we go.

145. See, and then you have to make big decisions.

146. Maybe this peak right here, oh look here, look here, there it comes.

147. See?

148. See, you can bring it right in front.

149. You can move mountains.

150. You can do anything on this canvas.

151. On this canvas, you have total power.

152. Absolutely.

153. Now then, let's put some shadows in there for that.

154. I'm gonna take some white, we'll put a little Prussian blue in it.

155. Just white, Prussian blue.

156. Mix it up to about that color.

157. Pull it out very flat again, cut across.

158. Once again, we have that small roll of paint.

159. It's very important how you load this knife.

160. Okay, let's go back up here.

161. I want to touch and just pull down.

162. Now we're following the angles on the other side of the mountain.

163. Watch here, I want to push that back, so we'll come here, and then I'll come

164. distinctly through.

165. See how it pushes that peak right back?

166. That's sneaky, huh?

167. It's easy to do. You can do it.

168. You really can do it.

169. There's no big secret here.

170. We'll show you everything that you need to paint fantastic paintings.

171. There we go.

172. Look at that, see?

173. sort of pops out at you.

174. It brings it alive.

175. The shadows are very important.

176. See now we have a little hunk of paint right here that doesn't look like much

177. until we add a shadow under it.

178. See there, you add a shadow and it becomes a separate entity.

179. Becomes a ridge all by itself.

180. Come right over here.

181. And just pull in all kinds of happy things.

182. And you can move these mountains anywhere that you want them.

183. Watch here.

184. Sometimes it's fun just to play some games.

185. You can come right down in here, and look at there.

186. Look at there.

187. There's another peak.

188. That easy.

189. That easy.

190. When you put the shadow in here, then it really becomes a personality all on its

191. own.

192. See, you can create little ridges wherever you want them.

193. And it's just a game of angles.

194. Mountains are just geometric shapes.

195. Now we can take, maybe I'll bring this one distinctly in front of that.

196. See there?

197. It pushes that mountain back.

198. This is one of the ways that you create depth and distance in your painting.

199. There we go, just work with different planes.

200. Okay, I get carried away sometimes.

201. I really like to paint mountains and I just, I'd cover up the whole canvas

202. with mountains.

203. And that's not bad when you're learning.

204. Take an old canvas and start at the top and paint all the way down with mountains

205. and then just zip them right off and do it again.

206. That's the way you learn.

207. If there's a secret to anything, it's practice.

208. Just practice.

209. And you really can do this.

210. I get hundreds and hundreds of letters from people all over the country.

211. just like you and I, and they're painting beautiful pictures.

212. Some of the series we've showed some of the photographs that people have sent.

213. It's almost unbelievable.

214. There, all I'm doing is tapping and then lifting upward.

215. Lifting upward like that removes the tap marks and creates that nice soft misty

216. area down there.

217. And over here we follow these angles.

218. Always follow the angles that you've created in your mountains.

219. See there?

220. And that easy, we got a happy mountain.

221. Okay, let's make some little footy hills back here.

222. I'm gonna start off and mix up some color.

223. I'll just use this mountain color and let's put a little, let's put some white

224. with it and see what we have here.

225. So that's just mainly some blue and black, alizarin crimson, and to that I'm gonna

226. add the least little touch, least little touch of sap green, just to give it

227. a little greeny.

228. Part of it here, I'm gonna add some white and make it even lighter.

229. Just like so, okay.

230. I'm gonna clean my knife.

231. Now then, let's use a different brush today.

232. This is an oval brush.

233. Maybe we can get a close-up shot of it.

234. It's a little different, see, it's sort of round.

235. This is an oval. It's a little different.

236. Watch here, though.

237. I'm gonna fill it full of that color we just made.

238. Just really load it full of paint.

239. Okay, let's go right up here.

240. Now then, you have to make a big decision.

241. Let's say a little footy hill lives right here, and all I'm doing is just tapping.

242. Isn't that fantastic?

243. Look at all the little things it makes in there.

244. Looks like just the tops of thousands of little trees far off in the distance.

245. Look at that.

246. Look at there.

247. Now with a clean, dry brush, I wanna create some mist at the base of this.

248. All I'm gonna do is just tap the base, just the base down here, don't tap the top.

249. I'm gonna soften that.

250. That will give it a little tiny upward lift.

251. Now then, I'm going into the same color, only a little bit darker, just a little darker.

252. Load the brush the same way.

253. Okay, let's go back up here.

254. Maybe there's another little footy hill, and he lives right here.

255. By being a little darker, it stands out.

256. As things get closer to you in a landscape, they should get darker in value, darker

257. in color.

258. Look at that, see there?

259. Maybe, there.

260. See how easy that is?

261. Painting does not have to be difficult.

262. Does not have to be difficult.

263. You don't have to be blessed by Michelangelo at birth to be able to paint.

264. You can do it.

265. And it's fun.

266. There we go.

267. Tap in a little bit of mist, just like so.

268. Give it a little upward lift.

269. And you can make layer after layer after layer.

270. Take a little more of that color.

271. Same color, just a little darker.

272. Watch here.

273. Maybe you want to come right in here.

274. There's no limit, but they need to get a little darker as they work forward.

275. Look at there.

276. If I'm not careful, I'm gonna cover up the whole canvas with foothills and mountains.

277. Isn't that easy? We have several layers of foothills.

278. And these different layers are planes, once again.

279. This is what causes the depth in your painting and really, really makes it

280. look good.

281. Of course, we're not interested in making money, but should you ever be looking for

282. that happy buck when you're painting?

283. This is what sells paintings.

284. Let's have some fun here, we'll take some black, some prussian blue, sap green, we'll

285. throw in some alizarin crimson too, what the heck.

286. Good dark color, should look black.

287. Let me clean the knife.

288. Okay, now I'll use a fan brush.

289. Load it full of paint, a lot of paint, both sides.

290. Let's go right up here.

291. Maybe there's some little evergreens that live back here in the distance.

292. Here, I'm just gonna take and tap downward.

293. There's some little trees.

294. They're not all evergreens, maybe.

295. There's all kind of trees.

296. Just tap downward.

297. Tap it downward.

298. See there?

299. Maybe, ooh, there's a nice one.

300. See, just tap down right there.

301. It makes those nice little happy tops up there.

302. And don't make them all real even, because then they'll look like fence poles down

303. there.

304. Give them some character.

305. There we go. Okay.

306. There.

307. Now this color's a little darker, so it stands out.

308. Now let's have some fun.

309. When I was a traditional painter, one thing that used to drive me crazy was

310. reflections.

311. Watch here on a wet canvas though.

312. All you do is grab it and pull it down.

313. Just grab and pull down, straight down.

314. Where the trees are taller, pull down a little further.

315. Look at that, look at that.

316. Instant reflections. Isn't that fun?

317. It's one of the things that works the best in this method of painting, is reflections.

318. Just pull it straight down, and then very lightly, three hairs and some air, just go

319. across, and it creates the illusion of water.

320. And then take a little of the liquid white on my knife, and we'll get a touch of the

321. dark sienna and add to that, just the least little touch.

322. There, just to dull it down.

323. When you load this knife, take it, cut across like that.

324. See, cut right across.

325. See, pull it out flat, and then cut across.

326. Okay, let's go up here.

327. Now then, come straight into the canvas, push very firmly, and just cut in a happy

328. little water line.

329. and keep this basically straight.

330. You can go anywhere you want to go, but the individual strokes should be straight.

331. Otherwise your water's gonna look like it's running right out of your painting, get

332. your floor wet, and you're gonna be upset with me.

333. I want you to be happy.

334. There.

335. See, maybe a little ripple here and there.

336. All kinds of happy little things.

337. Isn't that easy?

338. That easy, you got it.

339. Now you can take a clean fan brush with at least a little bit of white on it and make

340. it look like little tree trunks far away just by lifting upward.

341. Just far back in the distance.

342. Just barely touch and lift straight up.

343. There, just a few, don't overdo.

344. Wash the old brush.

345. And let's have some fun now, shoot.

346. Let's have some fun.

347. Gonna mix up a bunch of dark.

348. We'll take some of the Midnight Black, Prussian Blue, we'll even throw some Van Dyke Brown

349. in there, Alizarin Crimson, Sap Green, just all the dark colors basically, it doesn't

350. matter.

351. Make a big water paint.

352. And let's have some fun.

353. Let's get a big brush.

354. And I'm gonna load this full of paint.

355. So often we avoid this big brush because of its size, but the big brush can do

356. fantastic things.

357. Wiggle it.

358. Wiggle it. That loads the bristles full and pull it.

359. That makes it very sharp.

360. And we're loading this brush to a chisel edge.

361. It takes a lot of paint in the brush.

362. You need enough paint to hold the bristles together.

363. See how sharp that is?

364. Very good, that's a chisel edge.

365. Let's go up here.

366. Now then, maybe, tell you what, maybe a happy little evergreen lives right there.

367. We touch, then just the corner of the brush, begin working back and forth.

368. And we gotta put some arms on this tree.

369. Gotta give him some little arms so he can reach up and gather the sun up.

370. Look at there.

371. Look at there.

372. Reload your brush for each tree.

373. Each tree.

374. There we go, corner.

375. And you sort of make those bristles bend downward.

376. Isn't that fantastic?

377. Look at that.

378. And you can put as many or as few trees as you want.

379. Many or as few.

380. Maybe, yeah, let's have a third one there.

381. We don't want them to get lonely.

382. Even trees need a friend.

383. We all have to have a friend, so we'll just put one right there.

384. Okay, let's make some leaf trees.

385. To do that, we pull the brush through the paint like so.

386. One direction.

387. Pull it firmly through the paint.

388. And that rounds one corner.

389. See there?

390. Gives it sort of a rounded look.

391. There we are.

392. Now, with that rounded corner toward the top, let's go right up here.

393. Let's put a happy tree that lives right here.

394. Touch and give it a little push.

395. Just bend the bristles.

396. See there?

397. And then form your tree.

398. Like so.

399. It's that easy.

400. Just form your basic shapes.

401. Sometimes you get carried away and just keep going there.

402. What the heck, we'll just push that little lake way back in the distance.

403. What the heck.

404. When you have this kind of power, you can move lakes anywhere you want them.

405. We'll put a happy tree right here.

406. There it comes.

407. Just bring all that right on together.

408. We'll come back and we'll highlight all these.

409. Look at that.

410. And that quick with a big old brush, you got that all blocked in.

411. Now let's put some, I'll take some dark sienna, a little white, pull it out flat, get

412. that small roll of paint, like so.

413. Okay, now let's go right up here, and we just put the indication of a happy little

414. tree trunk here and there.

415. See there?

416. That easy.

417. Just sort of touch, give it a little sideward pull.

418. Maybe there's some back in here, we don't know how many trees live in there.

419. Take the point of the knife, you can put some old dead sticks and twigs on there, that

420. easy.

421. Okay.

422. Let's take some white, brown, at least a little touch of blue into that.

423. Like so.

424. Cut across, maybe there's a little tree trunk that lives right here.

425. See?

426. And you can put these everywhere you want them.

427. Watch here, you can just take the knife and scrape in all kinds of little things.

428. When this is all finished, some of these will show, and people will think you

429. spent just days and days working with your little one-haired brush, putting them

430. in.

431. Don't tell them any different. Shh.

432. Keep her a secret.

433. Now let's take a one inch brush, and we'll dip it right into some of the liquid

434. white.

435. I'll go into yellow, and I'll reach up here and grab some sap green.

436. So I've got cad yellow, sap green, and there's a little liquid white on the brush.

437. That makes the paint thinner.

438. Thin paint will stick to a thick paint.

439. Now, let's put some leaves on this.

440. This is what begins bringing this painting alive.

441. And worry about little forms here.

442. Don't just throw them on at random.

443. Make little forms.

444. Think about this all kind of little individual limbs living in there.

445. All right.

446. We can add some yellow ochre to that.

447. and you can put as many or as few bushes as you want, but do the bush that you

448. think is the farthest away first, and then work forward, that way you have layers

449. of bushes.

450. Add a little Indian yellow to that.

451. But these layers, once again, I know you get tired of hearing it, but it's

452. important, these layers create the illusion of distance in your painting.

453. Here I'm using the brush sideways and just, can you see that?

454. Pushing it upward, that's all there is to it, push and bend.

455. Okay, let's go over here on the other side.

456. Now you have to start making some big decisions.

457. Big decisions.

458. There's trees that live in here.

459. So you have to sort of pick them out.

460. Pull them out, there they are.

461. See that, there he is.

462. Here's one back here.

463. Just decide where trees live in your world and put them in.

464. Put them in.

465. Maybe, maybe, maybe we'll use, I'm gonna add a touch of the bright red here.

466. Boy, this'll make a nice one.

467. Don't go too crazy with this red.

468. It's a fireball.

469. That's a nice little color.

470. And right in here, we'll have another little bush.

471. See, but they're just layered, one after the other.

472. One after the other.

473. Looks like a nice place to go fishing.

474. Now then, I'm gonna add a little more sap green.

475. Just bring this brush to a nice chisel edge.

476. I'll go up here and put on a little bit of highlight onto the evergreens.

477. See there?

478. Don't kill all your dark.

479. Be careful not to kill all your dark areas.

480. They're very important.

481. Okay, there we go, a little bit on this tree.

482. Don't want him left out, don't want him left out.

483. I tell you what, if you had a beautiful place like this, you'd have to have a way

484. to get up here and catch that big trout that lives in there.

485. I know there's a trout that lives in there.

486. Let's take some Van Dyke brown, and let's go right in here, and maybe there's a

487. happy little path.

488. See how easy a little path is to make?

489. There he goes, and we're gonna let him go around behind that tree, we don't know

490. where it goes,

491. Goes right on around there and hides.

492. We'll take some brown and some white and then very lightly, barely touch, there's a

493. little blue in there too.

494. Brown, white, touch of blue, it makes gray.

495. See, just put some highlight on there.

496. Now then, we want to set that path down into the painting.

497. Let me get another one inch brush here.

498. Little bit of the liquid white.

499. Load it full of color.

500. Now to set this path down into the painting, watch here.

501. Push a few little bushes that come right over it.

502. See?

503. There's another happy little bush.

504. And we just push that path right back.

505. Look at there, it just disappeared.

506. We don't know where it's going now.

507. And we don't care. Like so.

508. Then we can take the knife and very gently scrape in a few little sticks and twigs

509. here and there.

510. Let a few go right on over like that.

511. And we'll take liner brush, a little bit of paint thinner on it, and let's sign

512. this and we'll call it finished.

513. I really hope you've enjoyed this and I thank you for joining me today.

514. I look forward to seeing you again in the very near future.

515. From all of us, happy painting.