The Joy of Painting 23x1

1. Hello, I'm Bob Ross, and I'd like to welcome you to the 23rd Joy of Painting

2. series.

3. First of all, let me thank you for inviting me back for another series of

4. painting shows.

5. And if this is your first time with us, let me extend a personal invitation for you

6. to drag out your brushes and a few paints and paint along with us each show, and I'll

7. teach you how to put some of nature's masterpieces on canvas.

8. I tell you what, let's start out today and have them run all the colors across the

9. screen that you need to paint along with us.

10. While they're doing that, come on up here and let me show you what I've got started

11. already.

12. I have my standard old pre-stretched, double - primed canvas up here, and today I've

13. covered it with a thin, even coat of liquid clear and liquid white mixed

14. together, because I want sort of a semi-transparent sky in this one.

15. So I've put a little clear in there just so that will happen.

16. So I tell you what, let's just start out today and do a beautiful little, maybe we'll

17. do a winter scene today.

18. And let's see what happens.

19. So let's start, we'll use a little two inch brush.

20. We'll go right into a very small amount of the phthalo blue.

21. Very small amount, don't need much.

22. Just pull a little bit out and then tap the bristles into the color.

23. See that assures a nice even distribution of color all the way through the bristles.

24. And that's exactly what we're looking for.

25. So let's go up here.

26. Maybe we'll have a nice light area right up here in the sky and let's see what

27. happens.

28. Let's just take this and go right up in here with a little bit of the phthalo blue

29. and we'll just do something sort of like that.

30. Sort of like that.

31. We'll just do a very simple little painting today that I think you'll find

32. very effective and a great deal of fun to do.

33. There, maybe something like that.

34. That's all we need.

35. And I have it slightly off-center.

36. I don't want it directly in the center of the canvas.

37. Slightly off-center.

38. But as you can see, the paint continually mixes with the liquid white and liquid

39. clear that we have on the canvas, and automatically we get this beautiful

40. blending effect.

41. If we were doing this on a dry canvas, we'd be in Agony City already.

42. But this makes it work. It's a lazy man's way of painting.

43. Okay, now then, without cleaning the brush, I'll go right into a small amount, and

44. very small amount, because it's strong, of the Prussian blue.

45. I want a little darker blue this time.

46. I'm going from the phthalo right into the Prussian.

47. So we have a graduation of color into darker blues.

48. Then we can go right up in here.

49. And once again, we'll just add a little bit of that blue right around here.

50. Like so. And just let it blend outward.

51. We want this to be the lightest area and get progressively darker as we work

52. outward.

53. Okay, add a little bit more of the Prussian Blue.

54. We'll go to the other side over here and do exactly the same thing.

55. Something about like so.

56. There we are.

57. But once again, this is mixing with a liquid white and the liquid clear that's

58. on the canvas and this beautiful blending effect will happen automatically.

59. Now then, I want it to get even darker as it works, Halbert.

60. So I'll take Prussian Blue, and I'll mix that with a small amount of Midnight Black.

61. So we have blue and black, or black and blue, whatever your preference.

62. There we go.

63. Then back up to the canvas.

64. See how much darker that is, though, because we put that little bit of black in there.

65. And we'll just finish filling up the sky.

66. Just like that.

67. It doesn't take long when you're using a big old two-inch brush.

68. Doesn't take very long.

69. Okay, add a little bit more of the color, the blue and the black.

70. Then we'll go to the other side and we'll fill it up.

71. Just like so.

72. Now comes the fun part.

73. Let me wash the old brush.

74. And if you've painted with me before, you know this is the most exciting part

75. of this whole technique because this is where I get even with everybody here in

76. the studio.

77. We shake off the excess.

78. And just beat the devil out of it.

79. And that really, that's where you take out all your frustrations and hostilities

80. and that's the fun part of it.

81. Now then, with a good, clean, dry brush, we can just begin blending this.

82. I just wanna blend it so you can't tell where one color stops and the next color

83. starts.

84. Just blend it till it's very, very soft.

85. There we go.

86. Now beat the brush just to take off the excess paint that you've picked up off the

87. canvas.

88. It's easier than going through the whole cleaning procedure.

89. It'll clean your brush right off.

90. Or you can just wipe it down in here, because if we have a little color down in here, I

91. think I'll have a little snow down here, and that'll just end up being shadows in the

92. snow.

93. We're not really worried about it.

94. Because you know, we don't make mistakes.

95. We just have happy accidents.

96. You learn to work with anything that happens in this technique.

97. We don't use any patterns, we don't do any drawing.

98. We just sort of let it happen.

99. And very quickly, you learn to create on canvas.

100. Okay, let me wash the old brush again.

101. I just like to wash the brush.

102. Now then, I'm gonna go right into some titanium white with the old two-inch brush

103. here.

104. And just load a little color right on the brush here.

105. And let's go right up in here.

106. I wanna make this very bright right here.

107. If this is gonna be our light area, let's start right in here.

108. putting in some of that titanium white and let it blend outward.

109. Let it blend outward.

110. It'll mix with all those beautiful blues and black colors that we have in there.

111. Start in the light area and then work outward.

112. Outward, outward, outward.

113. Something like so.

114. I'm gonna beat the brush.

115. Once again, just take off the excess paint and blend out this direction.

116. And then sometimes, let me wash the old brush again.

117. I'll show you something that's really fun.

118. Sometimes it's nice to load a little white.

119. A little bit of the titanium white.

120. Then I'll reach right over here, be right back, right back.

121. Get at least, let me say it again, least little touch of cadmium yellow.

122. Just want to sparkle this, maybe a touch more.

123. There, that's beautiful.

124. Just want to put a little bit of yellow right up in here.

125. Now, don't put too much yellow, because the yellow against the blue will turn

126. green.

127. And in this particular painting, we're not looking for a bright green sky.

128. I just want a little yellow flavor.

129. Right up in here.

130. There.

131. And we, once again, will blend that outward.

132. Now you can do this as many times as you desire to create a desired lightness.

133. You can go over it and over it and over it.

134. But I would recommend that each time you clean and dry the brush so you don't drag

135. the dark color back into this beautiful light center here.

136. Okay, just knock off that excess paint once again.

137. And we'll blend out in the other direction.

138. There.

139. That easy.

140. That easy. That's all there is to it.

141. And then very lightly, two hairs and some air.

142. Just very gently go right across it.

143. And we have a very nice little light area in here.

144. And that'll be our light source in this particular painting.

145. Okay.

146. There we go. Get the old brush good and clean.

147. Now then, let's have some more fun.

148. Let's take a little white, a little bit of the black, a little bit of the Prussian

149. blue.

150. We just mix this color right on the brush.

151. Something, I'm looking for a blue-gray color.

152. Something about like so. And I'm gonna tap the brush.

153. So I'm sort of pushing forward.

154. like that and get a little bit of color right out here on the end of the bristles.

155. Let's go up here.

156. Now maybe back in here there's some beautiful little foot eels that live in

157. here.

158. In our world, maybe, yep, you're right, they live right along in here.

159. And by just using the corner of the brush and tapping, we can put the indication

160. of all kind of little things back in here.

161. We just sort of let them blend right on out into, they just sort of fade away into

162. nothing.

163. Very soft, very gentle, quiet.

164. Just beautiful little things that live back here, right under the sun.

165. Very lightly, lift it up.

166. Little tiny, tiny short strokes.

167. Tiny little short strokes.

168. Just lifting upward, upward, upward.

169. Like that.

170. It'll give the indication of little trees that live way back in the distance, far, far

171. away.

172. Now then, let me grab another brush.

173. I have several of each going.

174. I'm gonna take a little tiny, tiny bit of white.

175. I wanna create the illusion of a nice misty area right in here.

176. So a little white, titanium white.

177. Just tap a little.

178. So we have a nice soft area in there.

179. Then I'll take the same color, just black with a little Prussian blue in it, load it

180. back on that brush, just like we did before.

181. And maybe right in here, yep, maybe there's another little doer that lives right in

182. there.

183. Simple.

184. But that little misty area in between is what separates your layers.

185. It's all it takes is a small misty area.

186. And as you know, as things get closer to you in a landscape, they should get darker

187. and darker in value.

188. There.

189. Lift upward once again.

190. I tell you what, let me show you, let me show you.

191. I get carried away sometimes.

192. Let's take a little more of that black, a little more of the Prussian blue, a little

193. touch of white, make that same color.

194. I'm just putting it on the fan brush.

195. As you paint like this, you begin seeing things.

196. I just see a wonderful place here.

197. Maybe, maybe, maybe there's some bigger trees.

198. Yep, right there.

199. Just tap with a fan brush and pull downward.

200. Give it a little downward pull.

201. And we'll make the indication of a lot of little trees that live right up here on

202. this hill.

203. That easy.

204. That easy.

205. Just tap them though, it's all it takes.

206. all it takes.

207. Maybe they just sort of blend out over here into nothing.

208. We don't know where it goes. Don't know that we care.

209. There.

210. Back to my old two inch brush that had that color on it.

211. And we just sort of bring that down so it all comes together.

212. Very soft.

213. Don't be afraid of this brush because it's large.

214. It will do wonderful, wonderful things for you.

215. All you need is a little bit of practice, an idea in your mind, and off you go.

216. It's really all it takes.

217. There are no secrets here that we don't give you.

218. You really can do this.

219. Every day I get letters from people from all over the country that say, you told me

220. that I could do this, and I tried it, and you're right, I can do it.

221. I really can do this.

222. Now then, time to start making some big decisions here.

223. Let me wash the old brush again.

224. I just like to wash the brush.

225. There.

226. Now then, maybe back in here we're beginning to have a little snow.

227. We said we was gonna have a winter scene, so I'll take white, just titanium white, but

228. maybe we'll put the least, least little touch of that cad yellow into it.

229. Since we had a little of that in the sky, maybe a little of that would be reflecting into

230. the snow back there.

231. But see, I just loaded the brush by pulling it through the paint.

232. So there's a little paint on both sides.

233. Now let's go up here.

234. Now then, you have to make a major decision.

235. Maybe our snow lives, yep, right there.

236. And all you do is pull.

237. When you're painting snow, angles are extremely, extremely important.

238. So pay attention to the lay of the land here.

239. How you want the snow to flow.

240. And I want it to come slightly downward, but not a great deal.

241. Just so it looks like there's a little incline there.

242. And by pulling those strokes in that direction, that will happen automatically.

243. Automatically. You don't have to worry about it.

244. Just think about the angle that you have in here.

245. a little shadow right in here.

246. Taking a little of that gray color and pulling back this direction.

247. And I'll show you why here in just a second.

248. Let them blend together so you have a little shadow area.

249. There.

250. Now then.

251. Maybe in our world, go back to the plain white, maybe in our world we'll have

252. Yep, how about right here?

253. We'll change the angle and let it come right through, see?

254. See, see, there it is.

255. Just pull it.

256. You can do anything in your world that you want to do.

257. That easy.

258. By changing this angle,

259. We have a whole different plane in that painting.

260. And it pushes that and that and that way back further.

261. And planes in a painting, different planes, each one of these is a plane.

262. Not an airplane going by.

263. Each one of these planes helps create that illusion of depth and distance in your

264. painting.

265. And I like a lot of depth and distance in my paintings.

266. I think that's what makes painting spectacular.

267. Oh, I just had another idea.

268. This little hill here, let's do this.

269. Let's do this, let's do it.

270. Take a little of the Prussian blue and the black, mix it together.

271. I want this to be pretty dark.

272. I'm only putting a small amount of white in this.

273. I want it to be a little darker than the background color.

274. Little bit more white, there we go.

275. And you just mix these colors on the brush.

276. Once again, don't worry about it.

277. Just mix them on the brush.

278. Let's go up in here.

279. Maybe on this little hill, there lives a happy little tree, right here.

280. Right there.

281. There.

282. If you've painted with me before, you know.

283. I have a lot of little squirrels and other animals that live with me.

284. And this would be a good place for my little squirrel.

285. He could sit up here and look all out over the countryside and see what was happening.

286. And my little squirrel certainly is nosy.

287. He'd want to know.

288. Maybe later on in the show we'll show you some of those again.

289. Right now I have five of them that live with me.

290. Sometimes that's worse than having five children.

291. We'll have another little tree over here, what the heck.

292. But all you're using is a corner of the fan brush, and you just sort of push

293. downward.

294. Just push downward like that.

295. And as you work down the tree, you push harder and harder, because you want the

296. branches and the limbs to get larger and larger.

297. And down here at the bottom, all you gotta do is take a little touch of this

298. white on the two inch brush, grab a little of that color,

299. Intentionally grab the color because that'll make a shadow right underneath, see?

300. And just pull it.

301. It'll give that little tree a place to set on there.

302. You don't want him just sitting up there sort of floating.

303. There.

304. And once again, begin thinking about angles in your snow.

305. See there?

306. Now you can take, maybe there's a little bush or two little grassy areas down here

307. at his foot.

308. Take that same color and just sort of push upward a little bit.

309. That'll help create that illusion.

310. And you can grab and clean up the bottom of the little grassy areas same way until

311. you have it just as smooth as silk.

312. We just put the indication of a little trunk here and there.

313. I don't want a lot of detail.

314. This is too far away in my world.

315. Just some indication.

316. See, we just pull through and you can turn a few trees into a whole forest back here.

317. Scratch through the paint and it'll give the indication of a little trunk here and

318. there.

319. Maybe there's a little stick or twig.

320. Whatever.

321. Whatever.

322. Shoot, let's get crazy.

323. You know me.

324. Shoot, this would be a wonderful place.

325. If my little squirrel's gonna live there, I'd have to have a house too.

326. So let's come right in here.

327. Let's have us a little cabin lives right here.

328. Now, one of the easiest ways, take your knife,

329. And you may not be able to see that, but scrape out a basic shape.

330. It does two things.

331. It allows you to lay out your little cabin without being committed, and it removes

332. excess paint so the next layer goes on easier.

333. See there?

334. But you can scrape out the whole basic little shape, and you're still not

335. committed at this point.

336. There we are. Now then, let's take

337. Let's take a little Van Dyke brown.

338. We load that little roll of paint on the knife by pulling it out flat.

339. Let's do a back eave back here.

340. It's just Van Dyke brown, that's all it is.

341. Pull down. There we go.

342. Give him a nice little side there.

343. Over here, just pull down.

344. Now if you haven't painted with us before, one thing that I should mention, the

345. paint that we use is extremely firm.

346. It is much firmer than traditional oil paints.

347. Much, much firmer.

348. That's the only reason we can paint wet on wet.

349. In other words, do the whole painting while it's still wet.

350. If you put a very firm paint up here first,

351. And then you can put thinner colors right over the top of it without becoming

352. a mud mixer.

353. And if you've painted before, all of us have experienced a little mud mixing.

354. It just comes with the territory.

355. Nobody has a monopoly on mud mixing.

356. We all get a chance at it.

357. Take a little Van Dyke and white and mix it together.

358. But see how flat you pull it out?

359. Flat as you can get it.

360. Cut across, and then we have a tiny roll of paint.

361. There you can see it, wonderful.

362. knife there, lives right out there.

363. And very lightly, touch, and just let it float.

364. Just so it's barely touching.

365. I want this side to be lighter than the back side back here.

366. Just barely touch.

367. Barely touch.

368. Maybe there's a, maybe there's some boards here.

369. We'll just take a little Van Dyke brown on there and just touch, make the

370. indication of some little boards.

371. Here we need a few, something like so.

372. And maybe we have a little window or two over here.

373. We can just take a small edge of the knife and just sort of scrape us out a little

374. window indication.

375. Then I'll use a little bit of the midnight black.

376. Nobody's home today.

377. Or he didn't pay his electric bill.

378. Don't see any wires running to his house anyway, so.

379. There, give him a little door so he can get in and out.

380. But when you're painting, make up little stories like it.

381. Your family and friends will look at you like you're a little weird, but that's

382. all right.

383. Artists are expected to be a little different.

384. But it really helps you.

385. If you make up little stories, then you can see these things in your mind.

386. And anything that you can see in your mind, very quickly you can learn to put on

387. canvas.

388. Here we're just doing a cabinectomy.

389. In other words, we're cutting off whatever we don't want to get our perspective

390. and everything right.

391. Now, we have a roof that we need to put on.

392. So we'll take the white, pull it out very flat.

393. Here's a little trick.

394. If you want to get your edges nice and straight, just lay the edges all in first

395. using the straight edge of the knife.

396. Excuse my arm for a second.

397. And this will make it a little easier when you pull down.

398. See, now everything will be straight on the edges.

399. There.

400. And there are no firm rules in this.

401. I only want to show you ways that things will work.

402. As you paint every day, you're gonna find new ways that are much better than what

403. I'm showing you.

404. Use them.

405. Painting is an individual thing.

406. If it works for you, then it's wonderful.

407. And that's really all that matters.

408. If you're happy with it, and it's what you wanted, that's the only rule.

409. The only rule is that you really should enjoy this.

410. Let's take a little white, bring it right up to the cabin there.

411. Like so, we'll bring a little right down in here.

412. Right, over in here, a little touch of that color, a little blue, a little

413. black, and just sort of blend them together.

414. Let's really have some fun now.

415. I've got several little things.

416. I'm gonna mix up a crazy color here.

417. I love this color.

418. We're gonna take alizarin crimson and sap green in about equal parts.

419. Mix them very well. Normally we don't mix color too well.

420. Mix it very, very well.

421. Very well.

422. And it makes a gorgeous brown.

423. Just absolutely a gorgeous brown.

424. Let me wipe the old knife off.

425. I just wiped the knife on a paper towel here.

426. Okay, and we just run the old fan brush right through it.

427. Load both sides, full of color, a lot of paint.

428. Now, there may be in our world, there lives, let's start it right there.

429. You know me, if you've painted with me before, I like these old big trees.

430. Something like so.

431. Maybe he's got another arm.

432. Comes right down.

433. Oh, I said big tree.

434. We're gonna have a big tree.

435. Maybe there's even an arm back here.

436. Like that.

437. Wherever you think they should be.

438. This piece of canvas is totally your world and you can do anything here that you

439. want to do.

440. Take a little bit of that brown we made, mix it with some white.

441. That is just one of the most gorgeous brown colors.

442. It sounds horrible when you talk about green and red mixed together.

443. Ooh, a little roll of paint.

444. There's our light.

445. And in our world, maybe there's just a little light zinging right through here

446. like so.

447. I'm just touching the canvas with that little roll of paint.

448. Just touch it. The canvas will pull off what it wants.

449. Give you back what's left.

450. Just wherever you think light would zing through here.

451. Something about like so.

452. Now you can make this entire tree with a knife if you wanted to.

453. It's up to you.

454. Just a little faster with a fan brush.

455. There we go. A little bit over in here.

456. Wherever, wherever.

457. Then let's firm up this dark edge and just let the knife bounce and graze and barely

458. touch.

459. You want this to be rough.

460. When it dries, this will actually feel like bark on there.

461. If you just let it bounce and graze.

462. There. Okay, something like so.

463. There we are.

464. Now then, let's go to our little liner brush.

465. We'll use a script liner brush.

466. Put some paint thinner on the brush.

467. We want to thin this paint.

468. Get quite a bit of paint thinner.

469. I want this to be thin like ink.

470. And roll the bristles in there.

471. Roll it out so they come out very, very sharp.

472. Okay, now then, let's go right in here and think about where some little tree limbs

473. would live on this tree.

474. But your paint should literally flow on here.

475. Should literally just flow.

476. And if it doesn't, add a little bit more of the paint thinner.

477. If it's not flowing, normally that's the problem.

478. Normally that's the problem.

479. There.

480. Maybe there's a big old worm here that comes right on across.

481. There we are.

482. But you let your tree go wherever you want it to go.

483. Just move it around and play and carry on.

484. Something like so.

485. There.

486. Now we can just dip that clean brush right into a little bit of liquid white, put

487. a little snow right around the bottom here.

488. Just sort of fill that in.

489. Tell you what let's do.

490. Let's take a little more of that brown color.

491. Let's have, maybe there's what remains of a little fence right here.

492. Something like so. All we do is touch.

493. Come right across, put a little bar.

494. Maybe there's a little thing there.

495. Little bit of that white right along the edge.

496. Little right on there. Okay.

497. Take a little touch.

498. Maybe a little shadow right there in the snow.

499. Something like so.

500. And we'll just put the indication of a little path here, and with that, I think

501. this whole painting will be about finished.

502. Hope you try this one. It's very simple.

503. You'll enjoy it.

504. You'll have fantastic results.

505. So with that, I think we're gonna call this one finished.

506. And from all of us here, I'd like to wish you happy painting, and God bless, my

507. friend.