The Joy of Painting 23x13

1. Hi, welcome back.

2. Certainly glad you could join us today because today is the last show of the 23rd

3. series.

4. Can you believe that?

5. 23 series, that's almost 300 half hour shows.

6. So I thought today we'd do a fantastic little winter scene that I think you'll

7. enjoy.

8. Let's start out and have them run all the colors across the screen that you need to

9. paint along with us.

10. And as usual, they'll come across right there.

11. Alright, come on up here and let me show you what I've got done.

12. Today I have my standard old pre-stretched canvas.

13. And I've cut out a little contact paper oval and stuck on it.

14. I like those little ovals.

15. So I thought we'd do one of those.

16. And I've covered the whole thing with a thin, even coat of liquid white.

17. So it's all ready to go.

18. So let's just do a very happy little scene today.

19. Since this is the last show, we'll do a happy little painting.

20. We'll start with a little alizarin crimson.

21. Just a very small amount.

22. Don't need much.

23. We don't want to set this guy on fire.

24. All we want to do is just put a very nice little pinkish glow in there.

25. Just making little criss-cross strokes.

26. Just little X's.

27. Something about like that.

28. That's all there is to it.

29. There, maybe I'll add just a little more.

30. A little bit more.

31. There.

32. Crimson's not a very strong color, so if there's any in here that you don't like, it's

33. very easy just to cover it up.

34. Tell you what, let's have a little water in this one.

35. Maybe we'll put a little crimson down here where there'll be some water.

36. and maybe I'll put some little clouds in there.

37. We'll take some crimson, reach over here, and let's get a little touch of the phthalo

38. blue.

39. Just a little. And we'll just mix them on the brush.

40. Something like so. Be right back, don't go away.

41. There. A little bit more maybe.

42. There we go.

43. We're making sort of a nice pinkish lavender color.

44. There, let's go right up in here.

45. Maybe in our world, our little cloud, it just sort of floats along.

46. You could do this with a fan brush or whatever brush.

47. I'm just using this one because it was handy, already had some color on it.

48. And I'm lazy.

49. There we are.

50. Very gently.

51. Just sort of, just put in a basic little shape.

52. We'll come back with a clean brush now and blend that.

53. All we're looking for, just a very basic little shape.

54. You can put a little stringy things here and there on them if you want them.

55. Whatever.

56. Whatever.

57. Clouds are very free.

58. Just sort of let them float around.

59. Now.

60. a good clean dry brush.

61. I have several of each brush going.

62. I'm just gonna blend that out.

63. Blend it, blend it, blend it, and then very lightly, very lightly, just go over

64. the entire thing using long horizontal strokes.

65. And that easy, we can create the illusion of a little cloud.

66. See how you can just, I wanna soften the edges.

67. All we're doing is just bringing them together.

68. Just like that.

69. Nothing to it.

70. Now, let's have another little cloud and we'll make it darker.

71. So I'll add a little Prussian blue, a little black.

72. Then I'll go right over here to the crimson again.

73. And back to my black and blue, and back to crimson.

74. I want this one quite a bit darker.

75. Let's go up here.

76. Now then, I have to decide where it lives.

77. There it is.

78. Maybe there's a little arm that hangs right out here like that.

79. I don't know.

80. Just sort of let them happen.

81. I'm just using the corner of the brush and just sort of winding it up.

82. Little tiny circles.

83. Tiny little circles.

84. There we are.

85. There we are.

86. As I say, this is the last show of this series, and it's always sort of sad when

87. we get to the last show.

88. But we're not going for long.

89. We've already got the next series planned, and we'll be back with you if you'll

90. have us.

91. The only reason we stay on television is because you allow it.

92. So if you like the shows, and you want to see more of them, or you want to see some

93. of the old ones again, because there's nearly 300 of them.

94. In fact, I think there is 300 of them.

95. Give your local station a call, let them know.

96. That's the only way they know what you want to see.

97. Just a clean brush.

98. There.

99. And once again, we'll just sort of blend that out.

100. Like that.

101. Let all those little things just happen.

102. There we go.

103. Very simple little sky.

104. Okay, let's have some fun today.

105. Let's make us a little mountain.

106. What the heck? I like mountains.

107. We'll take some black, alizarin crimson, little bit of the Prussian blue, maybe even a

108. little bit of Van Dyke brown.

109. There.

110. Pull it out as flat as you can get it, then cut across and get our little roll of

111. paint.

112. Lives right out there on the edge of the knife.

113. And maybe our mountain, maybe we'll have a mountain, yes we will, right there.

114. See?

115. Really push that color right into the fabric.

116. Get tough with it.

117. This is where you take out all your frustrations, hostilities, and you don't

118. hurt a thing.

119. In fact, it's better if you get a little mean with it here.

120. There we go.

121. Something like that.

122. I don't know.

123. You make your mountain any shape that you want it.

124. You just sorta, just sorta let it go.

125. Let it go.

126. Mountains are different in different parts of the country.

127. So you paint them however they look right to you.

128. And all we're worried about is this nice top edge up here.

129. We could care less what's happening below.

130. We don't even concern ourself with that.

131. Nice, clean, dry brush.

132. We grab it firmly, really grab it, and begin pulling it out.

133. I want it to be very soft at the bottom.

134. Because if you can see the entire mountain, it's always more distinct at the top

135. than it is at the bottom.

136. Because at the bottom we have mist, and now we have wonderful pollution that

137. breaks up the light.

138. Just breaks it up and diffuses it.

139. And that's what creates that illusion of mist down here.

140. There we go.

141. Something like so.

142. See how soft the base of that mountain is?

143. And if everything works just right, you have a little touch of that pink down in

144. there.

145. And people will just go crazy trying to figure out how you did it, and that's

146. our secret.

147. Shh, don't tell them.

148. Don't tell them.

149. Now, let's put a few little highlights on there.

150. We'll use some of the titanium white.

151. I want to pull it out very flat, just as flat as I can get it, and I want a tiny

152. little roll of paint, very little on the knife, okay?

153. Now these back here, I wanna make them look like they're farther away.

154. So I'm gonna use very, very little paint on them.

155. Very little. I want almost no highlight on them.

156. Too far away.

157. Too far away. We'll give him a little friend right there.

158. Once again though, almost no paint.

159. This one, this one, this one.

160. We'll give him some.

161. And I'm really not looking for detail back here.

162. I'm gonna blend these out, push them far away.

163. Something maybe about like so.

164. I'm gonna mix up a little blue and white, maybe put a little black in there to dull it.

165. Don't want it too bright back there.

166. And put just a hint of shadow.

167. Don't want much.

168. Don't want much. Too far away to see detail.

169. Too far away to see much detail.

170. All right, let me get a, get an old two inch brush that's nice and dry and clean, and

171. tap this.

172. Be very sure that you follow the angles here though.

173. Just tap it, tap it, tap it.

174. The more you tap it, the softer it'll become.

175. Then lift gently upward.

176. Two hairs and some air.

177. But very gently.

178. So it just sort of disappears back here in the mist.

179. But it's very soft and quiet.

180. Alright, now this one, this old mountain.

181. There, he's in the foreground.

182. He's very distinct.

183. No pressure, absolutely no pressure.

184. There, I think you've heard me say over and over, one of the ways when I was

185. teaching my son Steve to paint,

186. that I got across to him how soft this was.

187. I told him just to pretend that his hand was a whisper.

188. And it floated right across the mountain with no pressure.

189. And now he may very well be the best mountain painter in this technique in the

190. whole country.

191. Because he certainly cannot paint me when it comes to mountains.

192. And he travels all over and teaches.

193. you'll get to meet him.

194. He does a lot of demonstrations and stuff.

195. If you do, go by and hassle him a little bit and tell him I sent you.

196. He needs to be hassled sometime.

197. There.

198. This is just a little blue, white, touch of black in it to dull it.

199. Okay, let me wipe off the old knife.

200. And we'll take a little bit of that, and let's put a few little shadows back in

201. here.

202. There's one, now let's push that one back.

203. Come right on down here, go distinctly through it, and immediately, immediately, you

204. just pushed it back into the distance.

205. One right there.

206. Did you ever believe you had that much power that you could push mountains

207. around?

208. Shoot, when I go home, the only thing I can push around is a garbage cart.

209. There.

210. And I get to do that every Wednesday, come rain or shine.

211. There.

212. That's my job.

213. Garbage sits there and waits on me until I come home.

214. And I don't let it down. I always try to get it out.

215. There.

216. I decided maybe I want to change that a little.

217. Give it a little more right out there.

218. Because it's pretty.

219. See?

220. Maybe it comes right on out like that.

221. Something like that. I don't know.

222. I don't know.

223. Wherever you'd like to have it, that's where you should put it.

224. And we'll tap this one, following those angles once again.

225. Follow those angles, most important.

226. I want to create the illusion of mist down at the base of this mountain.

227. Over here, follow these angles.

228. Doesn't matter which side you're on, always follow the angles though.

229. Then lift upward.

230. That takes out the little tap mark, sort of brings it all together.

231. I just tapped in a little of that shadow color.

232. Maybe we'll have just a little do-er that comes out here.

233. Makes it look like another plane in the mountain.

234. Sort of sneaky, huh?

235. There.

236. Beat the brush, knock off excess paint, then we can blend that out.

237. A lot of times, all you have to do is just beat the brush very firmly, and it removes

238. the paint enough that you don't have to clean it.

239. And if you're like me, I'm very lazy.

240. I look for easy ways to do things.

241. Now then, let's take a little bit of that.

242. Oh, we got a little dirty brush here.

243. We got some, a little bit of Prussian blue, a little crimson.

244. Just sort of mix them together.

245. Let's go down here and let's put the indication of a little water down in here.

246. We'll just sort of pull that in.

247. Like that.

248. And from this side.

249. Let me wash the old brush there.

250. Get him cleaned up.

251. This really is the fun part of this.

252. Shake it off.

253. And then just cover the whole studio.

254. Now then, very lightly, we just go all the way across and bring all this together.

255. Just sort of

256. maybe in our world back here.

257. There's some little footy hills.

258. Let me mix up a little color here.

259. I'm gonna take a little white, some of that mountain color.

260. So it's basically a gray, sort of a bluish gray color is what I'm looking for.

261. Add a little more of the phthalo blue in there.

262. Or the Prussian, doesn't make any difference.

263. And for that, clean off the knife.

264. Okay, now just use the same old dirty brush, it doesn't matter.

265. Just tap some color right into the brush.

266. Give it a little push, a little ridge of paint's what we're looking for there.

267. Now, decide where your little footy hills live.

268. Maybe in my world, I think there's one or two right in here.

269. Just like so.

270. There they are.

271. Just use the corner of the brush and put in some very basic little shapes.

272. Very basic.

273. See there, that's all there is to it.

274. Now, very lightly, lift upward, upward, very, very short little strokes, though don't

275. make big strokes like that, because this represents little trees that are, oh, they're

276. a long way off.

277. Not a million miles, but almost, almost.

278. Maybe, maybe there's some more right in here.

279. But you separate them by leaving a tiny little light area in there.

280. And then they'll just separate right apart.

281. And you can put as many layers as you want, just doing something like that.

282. Lift, lift, upward.

283. Upward, maybe even, maybe there's even another layer, who knows?

284. In your world, you put as many layers of little foothills as you want, or as few.

285. Maybe you don't even want any foothills.

286. Totally, completely up to you.

287. Lift up.

288. I can.

289. Now, let's take the same color and pull downward.

290. Just pull it downward.

291. Straight down, though. It's important to come straight down.

292. There.

293. Now then, take a clean brush,

294. Pull that down a little more, just to smooth it out good, and come straight

295. across.

296. Like that.

297. And we have instant reflections.

298. That easy.

299. That easy.

300. Now we take our knife, take a little bit of the liquid white, maybe I'll add the

301. least little touch of pinkish hue into it.

302. A little touch of crimson, not much though.

303. Just enough to flavor it.

304. Cut across, get our little roll of paint.

305. And we can go right up in here.

306. And then let's just begin cutting in a little water line.

307. Push very hard, act like you're trying to cut a hole, right in the canvas.

308. You're not gonna hurt this canvas, I don't think.

309. Sure as I say you won't, somebody will tell me they did.

310. But normally, you're not gonna hurt it.

311. It's very tough, very strong.

312. Guess you could take a running start and hit it with a knife and put a hole

313. through it, but other than that, it's pretty difficult.

314. Pretty difficult.

315. And maybe we'll just let that come right on over, I don't know, wherever.

316. Maybe there's even a little doer out here in the water.

317. Sometimes it's nice to have a little thing like that.

318. All right.

319. Tell you what, those little footy hills are so much fun to make.

320. Let's make another one.

321. Let's make another one.

322. Just push the brush though.

323. Load a little color right in there.

324. I want this one to be a little darker now than the one in the back.

325. And maybe, oh maybe it comes from up here somewhere.

326. Who knows?

327. It comes right on down and out into the water.

328. But this will help create an illusion that that goes way back and hides back

329. here in the background somewhere.

330. Isn't that neat?

331. It's a lot of depth in your painting and you've done very little.

332. Done very little.

333. Because painting should not always just be hard work.

334. It should be fun.

335. And we really try to make it fun here.

336. We try to make it enjoyable.

337. For many years, Annette and I traveled all over the country teaching.

338. And during those periods, we began to realize exactly how much fun it could be.

339. Because we met so many people, and people were happy.

340. They were just amazed at the results of what they were doing.

341. People who never believed they could paint.

342. And that may be the true joy of painting, is when you share it with other people.

343. I really believe that's the true joy.

344. Whether you teach them to paint, or you give paintings to them as gifts, or your

345. personality just improves because you paint.

346. Because sometimes it makes you, it makes your personality a little better.

347. If you're in a better mood and you've accomplished something, you feel better.

348. And the people who love you then, they're a little happier to be around you.

349. So even that.

350. It can be a joy of painting.

351. Alright, just using a little bit of that liquid white still.

352. Just putting in just a happy little water line there.

353. We don't know where that goes.

354. It can get carried away and just go everywhere with it.

355. Now then, maybe find a clean brush.

356. Maybe down here in the foreground there's a little snow.

357. Why not?

358. We can start out here, we'll use the old two inch brush, little bit of the titanium

359. white.

360. Just load a little paint on there.

361. And make an instant decision, where's your snow live?

362. Maybe in our world, it's right there.

363. Just pull in a little bit of snow.

364. See there?

365. That's basically all there is initially.

366. Then I'm gonna take a one inch brush, and we'll go right through some of that dark

367. colored brush.

368. Blue, some crimson.

369. Put a nice dark color.

370. Pull that brush in one direction.

371. One direction, like that.

372. And we go up here, and let's have some little bushes.

373. that live out here on this.

374. Just push upward with the brush.

375. Take that rounded side toward the top, and just push upward.

376. And you can make all these happy little bushes.

377. Maybe we'll have a whole line of bushes, who cares?

378. When you do it, you decide.

379. Make them anywhere you want them.

380. We just have a whole line of little bushes that live all the way across here.

381. Now then.

382. Maybe Jack Frost has touched these little bushes and they've got some snow on them.

383. So we'll dip the one inch brush into the liquid white.

384. Then I'll go through titanium white.

385. Be right back.

386. Let me get a touch, just the least little touch of the alizarin crimson.

387. I wanna just warm it up a little.

388. Pull it in one direction.

389. Load a lot of color into the bristles.

390. A lot of color.

391. Alright, let's go up here.

392. Now, with a rounded corner,

393. Clear up again, just push and you can make little bushes, little snow-covered bushes

394. here that look like lace.

395. They're so gorgeous.

396. There.

397. But these are just fantastic.

398. But don't kill all your dark.

399. Once again, this starts working and it feels good and you get carried away and

400. you can kill all that dark in a heartbeat.

401. And then you have no depth in your little bushes.

402. See, you can look back over the top of those bushes and see little things behind

403. it.

404. That's where the little bunny rabbit hides.

405. He lives back in there.

406. Stays warm, because it gets cold out here.

407. Really gets cold out here.

408. Okay, now we can take the brush that had the white on it and just sort of clean

409. up the edges.

410. Just a little, here and there.

411. Sometimes you can grab a little of that color.

412. Now if you want to make it look like the snow's really thick, take your knife, little

413. roll of paint, and just sort of drag it across like you did on the mountains up

414. here.

415. Just drag it so the paint breaks.

416. Just so it breaks a little tiny bit.

417. Just enough so it shows.

418. See there?

419. And it really makes it look like it's, there's depth to that snow.

420. It's not just flat.

421. Not just flat.

422. And let's see, we can take the knife, just scratch in a little stick and twig here

423. and there.

424. Kind of have some little sticks to hold all this together.

425. Shoot, those little rascals will get away.

426. Got to have a skeleton in there.

427. Let's get crazy. You know me and my big trees.

428. Let's take some Van Dyke and a little dark sienna mixed together.

429. Pull it out very flat.

430. Cut off our little roll of paint.

431. Right out there on the edge.

432. And then make a big decision.

433. Maybe we'll have a tree that lives right here.

434. This is your bravery test.

435. Because you go right over your mountain, the sky, everything.

436. Just like so.

437. There.

438. This is your bravery test.

439. This will check you out.

440. after you've worked so hard on your painting, come along here and stick a big

441. old tree trunk in there.

442. All right.

443. Let's do two then.

444. If you made it through the first one, this one ought to be easy.

445. There.

446. And I like to just put them in with dark brown first.

447. Dark sienna, Van Dyke.

448. And then come back with a little bit of titanium white, small roll of paint, and

449. touch, and just barely give it a little pull.

450. Little right there on the edge.

451. Makes it look like a little birch tree that lives out here.

452. I have two old crows that live with me.

453. I mean real crows, I'm not... And both of them have been shot.

454. Now they'd left to sit out here.

455. Somebody shot both of them.

456. Not at the same time.

457. But they live in a big cage behind my house and I take care of them and take

458. them food every day.

459. They live pretty good.

460. They've got sort of used to their situation.

461. And the Audubon Society told me they could live up to 20 years in captivity, so

462. I think this is gonna be a long relationship.

463. Alright, little bit of paint thinner, little bit of Van Dyke Brown and Dark Sienna.

464. I wanna put a indication here and there of a few little branches on this old tree.

465. Just here and there.

466. Just like so.

467. And if your paint does not flow, add a little more of the paint thinner to it.

468. Because a thin paint will slide right over the top of this thicker paint.

469. There we are.

470. As I say, this really is your bravery test to jump up here in the sky and start

471. putting all these little things in.

472. But I know you can do it.

473. I know you can do it.

474. Because you can do anything that you believe you can do.

475. And if I believe you can do it, you certainly know you can.

476. There, one tree.

477. This one's in the front, so we'll do him last.

478. Give him some little arms that stick up in the sky.

479. As I say, that's for my crow to sit on.

480. There, of course we'll have to get an elevator to get him up there.

481. Neither one of them can fly anymore.

482. There we go. But they don't know that, they still try.

483. And maybe a little arm right there.

484. Wherever.

485. And you can put all kind of little gnarly things that have been broken off.

486. Just makes it look a little more realistic.

487. And when you have a lot of time, you can really play with this.

488. Put little doers everywhere.

489. Maybe there's a little grassy thing here and there.

490. Whatever.

491. I think it's time for the moment of truth here.

492. So let's bring the camera right up here.

493. Let's take the contact paper off, see what we have.

494. Isn't that fantastic?

495. I sort of fooled you.

496. I didn't tell you about the black on there.

497. But try this one.

498. You'll really like it. I think we'll sign this one.

499. Call it finished.

500. I hope you've enjoyed this painting and this series.

501. If you have, let your TV station know.

502. And until next time,

503. I'd like to wish you happy painting, and God bless, my friend.