The Joy of Painting 23x10

1. Hi, welcome back. Certainly glad you could join us today.

2. And today, let's do a fantastic little painting together.

3. Tell you what, let's start out and have them run all the colors across the screen

4. that you need to paint along with us.

5. While they're doing that, let me show you what I've got going up here.

6. Have my standard old pre-stretched canvas up here.

7. And I've taken a foam brush and a little bit of black gesso and I've just painted

8. the bottom of this canvas basically with the black gesso and allowed it to dry

9. completely.

10. On top of that, I've added a little bit of liquid clear

11. And then I've put a mixture of Midnight Black, Phthalo Green, and a little bit

12. of Van Dyke Brown, just to dull it down a little bit.

13. And I've covered the entire black area with that.

14. Up on the top here, I've just put a little bit of the Liquid White, as we normally do.

15. So, it's all ready, and so I think we'll do a fantastic little painting.

16. Let's start out today with a small, small amount of the Indian Yellow.

17. A little bit of the Indian Yellow.

18. We don't need much. We'll just go up in here and

19. Just using little criss-cross strokes, just put in maybe a little area about like that.

20. And make it a little larger than you actually want it to be, because as we

21. work on this, the other colors will eat up the yellow.

22. It's quite weak when it's mixed with a liquid white like this.

23. Make it a little tiny, tiny bit larger than you want it to be.

24. And without cleaning the brush, I'm gonna add the least little touch, least little

25. touch of the bright red, not much.

26. And I'm gonna have some blue in the sky, I think.

27. So I put a little bit of red right around the edges, and it acts as a barrier.

28. It keeps the blue and the yellow from mixing together.

29. That's really the only thing that we're doing here.

30. You won't hardly see this when it's done.

31. It's just a barrier.

32. Because you know, if we get that blue up against the yellow, we're gonna have a

33. bright, bright green sky.

34. And I'm not looking for that in this particular painting.

35. Sometimes we do, but not today.

36. Not today.

37. So this little bit of bright red, once again, acts as a barrier.

38. There we go. And we just blend that together.

39. Something like that.

40. Well, let's just have some fun and see what happens.

41. I think we'll have some nice trees like we have shapes here.

42. Just all kinds of beautiful little things happening.

43. Just let it go from there.

44. There we go.

45. Now then, I'm gonna take a small amount of the phthalo blue.

46. Very, very small amount.

47. Doesn't take much. It's a strong color.

48. It's a beautiful blue though.

49. Very bright, shiny blue.

50. And we'll just fill in the sky.

51. Right down to that little reddish color.

52. There.

53. And then stop.

54. Okay.

55. Something about like that.

56. Now if you want to darken the edges, we'll add a little bit of Prussian Blue

57. right on the edges and blend that in.

58. And that way it gets darker and darker as it goes away from the slight area.

59. And it'll happen automatically for you by adding a little of that Prussian Blue.

60. Just shake off the excess.

61. And beat the devil out of it.

62. Now in the bottom of that can that I scrubbed the brush, there's a coated wire

63. screen down there that you scrub the brush against.

64. That allows the solid material to settle to the bottom and it keeps your paint

65. thinner relatively clean.

66. If you don't have that wire screen in there, all you do each time is just mix it

67. all up and pretty soon you have a nice mixture of mud in there.

68. Now then, with a clean brush, let's just gently, gently blend all this

69. together so you can't tell where one color stops and the next color starts.

70. There.

71. Something about like that.

72. See, that Prussian blue keeps that side up there very dark in comparison.

73. Okay, let me just knock off the excess paint there.

74. And we can come right over here and blend this side a little bit.

75. There we go.

76. And now we have a nice shiny area with a little bit of color that just flows right

77. up through there.

78. Knock off that excess paint again and very lightly, one hair and some air, just go

79. across and take out all the brush strokes and bring it together.

80. Something like that.

81. All right.

82. Now then, today let's just really have some fun.

83. I'm gonna show you a nice way to make a little tiny mountain that's very simple.

84. Very, very simple.

85. Let's start, let's use some Prussian blue.

86. Prussian blue and alizarin crimson.

87. I want this to be to the blue side.

88. So we're pretty close to equal proportions because the blue is much, much stronger

89. than the crimson.

90. Many, many times stronger.

91. Now, we'll cut off a little roll of paint, like that.

92. We don't want much color.

93. Let's go, come right up in here.

94. We're gonna put in a shape of a mountain here.

95. And I'm really, really trying to push that right into the fabric.

96. You can probably hear how hard we're scraping.

97. Just get mean with it.

98. Take out all your frustations, all your hostilities right here.

99. Just really, really try to push it right through the fabric there.

100. It will stain the canvas and it will be there forever.

101. Probably couldn't get it out if we wanted it out.

102. Now with a clean and very dry brush, we want to grab this and begin pulling.

103. I'm gonna take out all of it that I can.

104. Just act like you're trying to pull it right off the canvas.

105. Get it all off there if possible.

106. Because I want a very, very soft little mountain that lives far, far away back

107. there.

108. There.

109. I'm just knocking off excess paint that I'm picking up.

110. Now then, just begin blending the entire thing.

111. right over it, and just keep blending it until it gets as soft as you want it.

112. Now, if you have scraped off all the paint, you can blend this to any degree of

113. softness that you desire.

114. Now, take just the least little touch of titanium white on the brush, just

115. tapping the corner into a little titanium white, and begin tapping in nice little

116. misty areas here.

117. Very soft little misty areas.

118. I want this mountain to just sort of float back here.

119. Very soft.

120. Knock off the excess paint again.

121. And just gently, gently, gently go over it.

122. And you can keep doing this until you get it as soft and as distant looking as

123. you desire.

124. So you make a decision, you make a decision when you do yours, where your

125. mountain is, how soft it is.

126. Or you can make it very distinct, it's up to you.

127. I just want one that, it just sorta hangs around back here in the mist, a nice quiet

128. little mountain.

129. It's not a loud mountain.

130. Now I'm gonna add to that same color, add a little bit more of the crimson.

131. I wanna go a little more to the reddish side of lavender this time.

132. Just so there's a little change in flavor.

133. Okay, let me clean off the old knife.

134. We'll use that same old brush, it's not too dirty.

135. Add just a little bit of this color to it.

136. And let's go up in here, and maybe we have some trees back here in the distance.

137. I'm gonna start out by just tapping in a basic, very basic idea of where the trees

138. live.

139. Just a very, very basic idea of where these trees live.

140. I'm not looking for detail.

141. All I'm doing is making fuzzy edges.

142. Just a little fuzzy as it is.

143. At the same time, it's picking up the liquid white that's on the canvas and it's

144. creating a mist down here.

145. Can you see that misty area?

146. It will happen automatically.

147. Just sort of tap up and down, and you're just pulling a little tiny bit of that

148. color right down.

149. Maybe this goes, well, we'll just have it go all the way up here.

150. Because we can do anything in this world here that we want to do.

151. I just decided these trees live all the way off the canvas.

152. all the way off the canvas there.

153. And just tap.

154. And the more you tap, the more of the liquid white you'll pull down in here, and

155. the more mist that you'll create.

156. So you have to make a decision, how much mist do you want in your world?

157. And we'll use that same color, same color.

158. Take a fan brush, load a little color into the bristles.

159. Now then, we can go back, and here's where we begin putting the indication of a

160. little detail in here.

161. But you leave some of those little things that you tapped in with a two inch brush, so

162. it looks like little trees that are farther back than these.

163. And it creates another whole plane, another whole layer in your painting.

164. And that's what we're looking for.

165. These layers are what create the illusion of depth and distance in paintings.

166. And to me, that's very, very desirable.

167. I like paintings that have depth.

168. A lot of times you see paintings that are very flat.

169. They have no depth.

170. And to me, once again, that's just my opinion.

171. They're very, I don't want to say real unpleasant, but they bother me if they

172. don't have a lot of depth.

173. because our world, the way I see it, has a lot of depth, and that's the way I like to

174. see paintings.

175. But once again, everybody has their own idea, and that's the way it should be.

176. And here and there, I'm gonna touch a little of this sap green, a little bit of

177. cad yellow on that same brush, not much, not much.

178. In fact, you might have, yeah, I guess you can see a little bit.

179. I don't want much, I just wanna, here and there, and there and here, put the

180. indication that you can make out a little green back in here.

181. Just illusions.

182. We can go back into that lavender color.

183. When you do yours, you do it the way you want to though.

184. I only want to show you how to make effects.

185. What you make is totally and completely up to you.

186. Completely.

187. Now, just take a clean, dry two inch brush and gently lift that.

188. Gently lift it.

189. You wanna get crazy already?

190. Tell you what, let's do.

191. Tell you what, let's do.

192. Let's have some fun.

193. I'm gonna take the little fan brush, number three fan brush, little bit of liquid

194. white and the least little touch of the titanium white.

195. I'm just using that liquid white to thin the titanium white.

196. Got it in and down, there we go.

197. Now then, let's go up here.

198. Maybe, in our world, there lives, right in here, we're gonna touch and go, shoom.

199. way back in there is a tiny little waterfall.

200. Don't make it too bright, too distinct, it's too far away, just the indication.

201. Now when you do yours, if it comes out too bright, just very gently work over it and

202. that'll soften it because it'll pick up the color that's underneath and it'll get

203. darker and darker until finally it just goes totally away.

204. Alright, now we can go back to our two inch brush and in our world,

205. We're gonna have a lot of mist down here that's created by that waterfall back in

206. there.

207. And all I've done is just barely touched with just the corner, the least, least

208. little amount of the titanium white.

209. Oh, I can't say that enough.

210. The least little amount.

211. Because against this black, it will show up so strong, it's unreal.

212. Be very careful.

213. Add just tiniest bit initially, and you can always go back and add a little more

214. if you want to.

215. Tiniest little bit.

216. There we are, very gently, very gently.

217. Can fluff it and bend it and just go over it.

218. I think that a nice, easy and effective way of making little misty areas down here.

219. All those things just set in there.

220. I lived in Alaska for about a dozen years, and you see sights like this.

221. They're absolutely gorgeous.

222. Absolutely gorgeous.

223. I always believed that God was having a good day when he made Alaska.

224. Because some days, you know, things just go better than other days.

225. I think he was having a spectacular day when he made Alaska.

226. Everything was working well for him.

227. There.

228. Okay, shoot.

229. And that makes a very, very effective little background.

230. Very simply.

231. Now then, let's get into the foreground here and have some fun.

232. Let me move this lavender color we made over there somewhere.

233. Let's just take black. Midnight black.

234. Midnight black.

235. Cut off a little roll of paint.

236. Let's go right up in here.

237. Come right down in here.

238. I wanna make, I wanna make, maybe there's a nice cliff gonna be right in there

239. somewhere.

240. And I'm just sort of laying out in my mind where I think some of these, there comes

241. one right there.

242. See it'll come like that maybe.

243. Something like that, I don't know where it's gonna go.

244. Just wanna have a basic idea of what kind of things we'll have in here.

245. And you know me.

246. I love water.

247. And if you had these nice cliffs there, chances are you'd have a little waterfall, so let's

248. do that.

249. I'm gonna dip the brush into a little bit of the liquid clear.

250. And then with that, we'll go into some white, a little titanium white, least

251. little touch.

252. A phthalo blue and a phthalo green.

253. Least little touch.

254. Takes very, very little.

255. I don't want a lot of bright color here.

256. In fact, I might add a little black just to dull it.

257. Ooh, that's what I'm looking for right there.

258. It has a blue and greenish hint to it, but it's mostly gray.

259. All right, let's go up here.

260. Make a big decision. Maybe our waterfall is right here.

261. Comes over and goes pew.

262. And if you make that stroke quickly, you will find that it works better than trying

263. to go real slow and do it.

264. Make it quickly.

265. Watch here, you can make one there, be right back.

266. Now, take a little touch of the black on the knife, maybe there's a stone that

267. lives right in there.

268. Maybe a little stone.

269. And we'll take a little white, a little black, a little of that lavender color, make

270. sort of a grayish

271. grayish lavender highlight, and we'll just drop a little highlight right there on

272. that stone.

273. There.

274. Alright.

275. Now then, a little more of that color, same color.

276. And the waterfall is on this side too, see?

277. And now you have a little stone that lives up there in the middle of the

278. waterfall, and he gets to watch all this beautiful water just fall right over in

279. there.

280. Something like that.

281. And we'll take a two inch brush, grab the bottom, and lift upward.

282. That'll blend it all together, and I want it to be darker down here, because in

283. my mind, there would not be as much light striking down here.

284. So this will calm it down, and the liquid clear that's under there will begin mixing

285. with it, and it'll all come together.

286. Now then, now then, let's take, we decided where our cliffs were, now let's bring

287. them right out here in front of our waterfall.

288. But decide where your cliffs are, put your water in, and then put the waterfall

289. in front of the cliff.

290. Make that old jagged rock.

291. Old jagged one.

292. Tell you what, while I'm doing this, every year our little newsletter has an art

293. contest where we get people to send in entries and I'd like to share with you

294. this year's winners because I'm so proud of what these people have done.

295. It's absolutely fantastic.

296. But can you believe some of these paintings that are being done all over the

297. United States?

298. And there you see my young friend Earl Glen Russell.

299. That little rascal can paint, you just ca n't believe.

300. And he's about 10 years old now.

301. I had the opportunity to meet him when I was in Missouri.

302. He continually amazes me at some of his ideas.

303. Do you see that silhouette he made of his, his mother's a photographer, and she

304. took a picture of him and they cut out a silhouette,

305. and he painted a picture in it.

306. And that's something you might want to try.

307. It makes a very unique and wonderful gift.

308. And Earl, thanks for that idea and for sharing it with people all over the

309. country.

310. I'm gonna take a little black, a little white, a little of the dark sienna, mix

311. them together so they're marbled.

312. Cut off a tiny little roll of paint.

313. And let's go up in here and begin thinking about a little color laying up here on top

314. of this.

315. You have to make some big decisions though about your cliffs.

316. Where do they live?

317. Maybe they come like that.

318. We don't know.

319. Don't know that we even care.

320. There.

321. Just put those little rascals in there.

322. Something like so.

323. with almost no color.

324. Just grab it and sort of pull down.

325. There's just the least little touch of color on the knife.

326. Almost nothing.

327. You want to keep it dark under there.

328. Keep it dark.

329. See there how that cliff just jumps right out at you?

330. Just black, a little white, a little dark sienna.

331. But it should be a very nice gray color.

332. Very nice grayish color.

333. Let's go back to our black.

334. Maybe we have a projection that comes out here.

335. Maybe it comes all the way over, like that.

336. There.

337. These are some ruffle cliffs.

338. There we go.

339. Bring a little highlight down.

340. Like that, least little touch downward.

341. Not much though, just a tiny little bit.

342. Tiniest little bit.

343. There.

344. And, and, and, and, there, see?

345. Just sort of let these things happen.

346. Just let them happen.

347. Make layer after layer, wherever you want them.

348. But see, you don't have to put anything on that black gesso.

349. It just makes all your little dark areas for you automatically.

350. Automatically.

351. There, wasn't there some fancy

352. The letters I get in some of the paintings that I see.

353. We should have an award for the most improved painter, because I have a very, very

354. special friend that, he lives in Louisiana, a young fellow that's been painting, and

355. his painting has improved so much.

356. And his name is Mark.

357. And he has really come a long way.

358. And he's a very special friend.

359. And we should mention that he also gave us a painting that was, I've watched him

360. since he first started painting and his painting has improved so much.

361. It's nice to see that.

362. Let's take, let's take some black, let's go back in here and grab some of that

363. phthalo green, a little crimson, some brown, just dark colors.

364. We'll put some Prussian blue in there too, what the heck.

365. Back to my fan brush.

366. We need some nice evergreens up in here.

367. Maybe, maybe in our world, yep, we're gon na have a big evergreen that lives right

368. there.

369. And today I'm gonna push upward.

370. Push him upward.

371. There.

372. And we'll just put in a basic shape here, and then we'll come back and we'll

373. put a few little highlights on him so he stands out a little better.

374. All we're looking for right now is a very basic little shape, something like that.

375. We better have one on the other side too, I don't want it left out.

376. Right there.

377. Push upward, start with the corner of the brush, and just push upward, like that.

378. Upward, upward, upward.

379. There we go.

380. Maybe, maybe, yeah, what the heck, a little friend lives right there.

381. but push upward. This makes very nice evergreens.

382. In some parts of the country, the evergreens seem to grow with limbs that

383. sort of protrude upward.

384. In other parts of the country, they sort of go downward.

385. Just depends on where you're from and what you're used to seeing.

386. And we try to show you different ways of doing them, and you pick the way

387. you like.

388. Little bit of yellow added to that same color will make a beautiful green.

389. And then we can come back in here and put in a few details.

390. I don't want this to be too bright.

391. Just enough so that it stands out good.

392. You can see that rascal in there.

393. There we go.

394. Darker, darker toward the base.

395. Let's do this one on the right over here.

396. We don't want him left out.

397. Something like that.

398. Let's go back to our old two inch brush, create a little misty area right down there.

399. Takes very little white.

400. We'll just let that mist float all up around these big cliffs.

401. We don't know where it goes.

402. Somewhere like that.

403. Little more of the white.

404. Maybe the water comes, there it is.

405. Right out, there it is.

406. We'll just go right on out like that.

407. Take a little white and just pull it straight down.

408. And then very gently, just go across.

409. And we have instant water.

410. And then I'll just use that same old brush and go into a little yellow, little sap

411. green, yellow ochre, Indian yellow.

412. Here and there I'll touch a little bit of the bright red.

413. Yep, I think there's a little grassy thing that lives right there.

414. Just a little grassy thing.

415. There we go.

416. There.

417. See there?

418. Maybe I'm gonna get the small, little small round brush.

419. Maybe we have a happy little tree, yep.

420. Since we have a dark in there, all we need is highlight, basically.

421. See that little tree?

422. There he comes.

423. There he comes, this little round brush just does beautiful little details like

424. that.

425. A little more color, maybe there's another little bush.

426. And he lives right in there.

427. Wherever you think a little bush should live, that's where you ought to be.

428. There's another one.

429. Take a little bit more of that titanium white, come right in here, and we'll put

430. the least little touch of color right in there.

431. Just pull straight down with the white, though, and then go across.

432. And let's take the old liner brush, little bit of white.

433. I want to make a little tree that lives right here.

434. Just a little happy tree, right there.

435. Right there.

436. Back to our little round brush, let's put a few little highlights on him.

437. Don't want too many, just a few.

438. Just a few.

439. And maybe over here on this side, you can see a little grassy area.

440. This is where we were standing when we saw this scene.

441. Right there.

442. A few little bushes.

443. We'll just use a fan brush, pop in a few little bushes over here on this side.

444. Push upward.

445. Just a couple little things like that.

446. And a little touch of the liquid white.

447. We'll put in a little shoreline.

448. And then we about have a finished painting.

449. But isn't that a nice little painting?

450. And it's easy to do.

451. Give it a try and let me know how it works for you.

452. I think you'll really enjoy it.

453. You could even put a few little rocks in the water and things like that to bring

454. out detail.

455. Until next time, from all of us here, happy painting and God bless, my friend.