The Joy of Painting 23x2

1. Hi, welcome back.

2. Certainly glad you could join us today because today I thought we'd do a

3. fantastic little painting that I think you'll enjoy.

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

5. screen that you need to paint this little painting that we're gonna do today.

6. And come on up here and let me show you what I've got done already.

7. One of my favorite things in this painting technique is black gesso.

8. And today, let's do one that has a lot of black gesso on it.

9. And I've put this on using nothing but a paper towel.

10. I just wadded up a paper towel and just sort of daubed it all over.

11. And I wanted it darker at the bottom than at the top, so I've really put a lot

12. down here and up in here, I've just sort of let it just play around and barely

13. touched.

14. Then I took a foam brush, I want a big tree in this painting, that's about all

15. I know.

16. So I put the basic shape of a large tree.

17. And now we're gonna take, and we're gonna do something a little different today.

18. Today, I'm covering this, as you caught me doing, with a mixture of liquid clear and

19. sap green.

20. Now I've taken and made this until it's very thin, almost like liquid white

21. normally is.

22. It's almost, it's not quite a liquid, but it's very, very thin.

23. And instead of putting liquid white on the canvas like we normally do, today

24. we'll put, well let's call it liquid green, what the heck.

25. And come on up here and let's finish doing that.

26. It's just like with a liquid white, a very thin, even coat, all the way across the

27. canvas.

28. And just sort of scrub it in.

29. It's that easy.

30. And with this liquid clear, you can make any liquid color that you want.

31. I think it's better to use sort of transparent colors, but you really can do

32. this with any color that you desire, and you will not believe some of the effect

33. that you can achieve with this.

34. but because this sap green is so transparent, all the little things that

35. we did with the black gesso show through, and already it's beginning to give the

36. illusion of a lot of little bushes and trees that are far, far back in the

37. distance, and I think I'll do a little scene that looks like we're deep in the

38. woods.

39. I really like those kind of scenes.

40. There.

41. All we're looking for is a nice, thin, even coat.

42. Now the black gesso, of course, is allowed to dry completely before you put the

43. liquid color on.

44. But we don't want the liquid color to dry before we start.

45. There.

46. All right.

47. Let me wash the old brush.

48. And we wash our brushes with odorless paint thinner.

49. Be sure it's odorless, otherwise you're gonna be the most unpopular person

50. in the house.

51. Shake off the excess.

52. And then just beat the devil out of it.

53. All right, now, let's really have some fun.

54. Let's take that same old brush, we'll go into a little titanium white.

55. Be right back, let me get a little touch, a little touch of cad yellow maybe and put

56. in there with it.

57. Now this is just titanium white.

58. A little bit of cad yellow mixed together.

59. Not much yellow, just a little.

60. Okay, let's go right up in here.

61. Now you sort of have to decide what's gonna happen where.

62. I'm just gonna take the corner of the brush and begin swirling in some little

63. patterns.

64. Now the sap green is very transparent.

65. The white is opaque.

66. So now things are gonna start happening.

67. Put a little more color on there.

68. There, and just swirl this.

69. I don't want to cover up every bit of the green.

70. I want some of it to show through.

71. And in some places, the white's gon na be so thin that you literally can still

72. see through it, even though it's opaque.

73. And play with this.

74. You'll be amazed at some of the effects that you can achieve.

75. Absolutely amazed.

76. This is one of the neatest things that we've ever come up with.

77. There.

78. But you can just make it look like the sun is zinging through there and all kinds

79. of beautiful little effects are happening.

80. Just sort of turn your imagination loose.

81. Let it go.

82. Let it go.

83. That's what painting is all about.

84. There, a little bit showing through the trees up here.

85. Wherever, wherever.

86. Okay.

87. Now then, I have several of each brush going so I don't have to spend all of my

88. time washing brushes.

89. So we'll take a nice dry two inch brush and very gently, using just the corner,

90. Just begin blending all that together.

91. And you can blend this to any degree of softness that you want.

92. So as you're doing this, step back and take a look-see.

93. Because it's very hard to see your painting when you're right up against it.

94. Just step back and take a look.

95. See if it's blended as much as you want it or not enough.

96. And you could always add more of the titanium white to make it brighter if you

97. want.

98. You can do anything here that you want to do.

99. There, just gently blend it.

100. And leave some of these areas a little brighter when it's all done.

101. it will begin looking like light shining between trees, way in the distance.

102. And as oil paintings dry, they'll lose a little bit of their brilliance.

103. They'll dull down just a little bit, not much, but just a little.

104. So you make it a little bit brighter than you actually want it.

105. And by the time the painting's dry, then it'll calm down.

106. But then I had a fantastic way of making just a background that's almost unreal.

107. I love these kind of little things.

108. My mother loves these things.

109. She really likes these paintings that are deep in the woods.

110. Right now, she's not feeling too good.

111. She's in the hospital while we're making this show, so let's dedicate this one

112. to my mother.

113. She's my favorite lady in the whole world.

114. So mom, this one's for you.

115. I hope you feel better soon.

116. There.

117. Okay, now then.

118. Now then, I'm gonna take a little bit of the paint thinner.

119. I'm gonna take a little bit of, well, we'll use a little black, a little sap green,

120. be right back, just mix them together on the brush here.

121. Let me get a little more paint thinner.

122. Need just a touch more of the thinner.

123. There, you want this to be very thin, almost the consistency of ink.

124. All right, now then, let's go up in here.

125. Let's begin thinking about all kind of little tree trunks and sticks and branches

126. that live way back in here.

127. If you have the paint thin enough, it'll flow right over the top of this.

128. because the titanium white you put in there was very thick.

129. It's very thick. It's very dry paint.

130. Much drier than traditional oil paints.

131. And I know I hear this every day.

132. People go to the art store to get some very dry paint and they'll tell them

133. it makes no difference.

134. Just use whatever they happen to have.

135. It does make a difference, really.

136. If you have a soft paint, you just absolutely can't paint over the top of it

137. because it just blends together and we become mud mixers.

138. There.

139. And if you have a little nervous twitch to your hand, it makes much nicer tree

140. branches.

141. So just sort of let them wiggle and jiggle and wherever you think they should live, all

142. these little things.

143. And if it gets to where it doesn't wanna slide easy, all you have to do, add a

144. little more paint thinner to your brush.

145. There.

146. Okay.

147. Now then, tell you what.

148. Let me clean this.

149. Let's just clean this Liquid Clear and Sap Green off so I have a place to work.

150. We'll put a little of it over there.

151. Maybe we'll use it in a minute.

152. And let's take a little white, a little bit of sap green.

153. This'll be our highlight color when we get to it, and I'll just mix it and set it

154. over here, a little cad yellow, yellow ochre.

155. Ooh, we just leave it right there.

156. That's our highlight color.

157. Now then, for base color,

158. Sap green, and a little touch of yellow ochre into it.

159. Just a little yellow ochre.

160. Now we have two piles of color, our dark and our light.

161. Let me clean the old knife off here.

162. And I'll just wipe the knife on a paper towel.

163. Today, let me introduce you to a brand new brush.

164. Today we have a half size round brush.

165. This is a very small round brush.

166. I've used other ones in the past, but they were quite large.

167. This one's a half size.

168. It's much easier to control.

169. Tiny little brush.

170. And we load it by just tapping.

171. Just tap a little color right into it.

172. And let's go up in here.

173. Now then, maybe in our world there lives, just use a brush like so, tap in, maybe there's

174. a happy little tree.

175. He lives right there, right there.

176. There, let a little of that trunk show through.

177. Okay, and he's got a friend.

178. There's his friend.

179. You know me, I think everybody needs a friend.

180. Everybody needs a friend.

181. But look at that, isn't that a fantastic little brush?

182. Little rascal works, maybe.

183. Yeah, why not?

184. Let's have some nice little things that are living right over in here.

185. Think about general shape, and that's really all you have to worry about.

186. The brush does the rest of the work.

187. Just tap.

188. Just tap.

189. But do think about basic shapes.

190. And because we have the black gesso under here, we don't have to worry much

191. down in here.

192. Most of your dark color is already in.

193. It's already in for you.

194. Maybe we'll have a little, how about something like that.

195. And these little paintings will just sort of happen.

196. If you just start playing and looking at them, they just really sort of happen.

197. Because you begin seeing little things that live back in here.

198. And the more that you paint, and the more that you practice, the more that you're

199. able to visualize these.

200. You really don't have to trace and have patterns and all that stuff on here.

201. You really can learn to be creative as you paint.

202. And it's like anything else, it takes a little practice.

203. Chances are you didn't drive the car real well the first time you tried, but

204. with a little practice, got very good at it.

205. Of course, the other day I met a driver I think had never done more than that

206. first time.

207. He almost ran me off the road.

208. All right, now then.

209. We'll just use that same brush, and I'm gonna dip it into a little touch of the

210. liquid clear.

211. That'll be our thinning agent.

212. Because as you know, a thin paint will stick to a thick paint.

213. And the color that we put up there was very thick, very dry.

214. Now then, by just pushing, see the edge of those bristles now has a little bit

215. of that light color on there and the liquid clear has made it a little thinner.

216. So let's go up in here.

217. Now think, if this is our light source right in here, think about light just

218. zinging right through here.

219. Just making all kinds of beautiful little things in there.

220. Wherever you think they should live.

221. There.

222. Don't kill all your dark.

223. This starts working well and you have a tendency to get carried away.

224. Something like so.

225. And this other little tree here, we'll give him just a touch of highlight

226. right there.

227. There. Okay, a little bit over in here.

228. Think about shape and form when you're doing this.

229. Don't just hit it random.

230. You won't be happy with me.

231. And this one, we'll put a little bit on him.

232. Something like so.

233. This would be a fantastic place for my little creatures to live.

234. I have all kind of little creatures.

235. Shoot, I got squirrels and crows and just everything.

236. Tell you what, I'm gonna put on a few more of these while they're doing that.

237. Let me show you one of my little creatures.

238. This is a, I'm gonna have him bring up a little raccoon here that I played with.

239. This came from one of our rehab ladies close to where I live named Carmen Shaw.

240. I borrowed him. He's a loner raccoon.

241. but he's the cutest little devil.

242. And he's so much fun to play with.

243. But they do grow up and they get a little nasty sometimes.

244. One of them little rascals can.

245. So if you're raising a raccoon, be careful when they grow up.

246. They're pretty tough little characters.

247. But when they're babies like this, God's never made a more delightful little

248. thing.

249. And they're just like feeding a little baby.

250. They just lay there and when they're done, you pat them on the back and they

251. burp.

252. I get sort of carried away with these little characters.

253. Shoot.

254. My mother lives with me, and her and I have all kinds of these little characters.

255. Isn't that precious little devil, though?

256. See the milk running out of his mouth?

257. He's not very neat.

258. There. Okay.

259. and some little things here and there, and work in layers here.

260. I'm just varying the greens back and forth, little cad yellow, little Indian yellow,

261. little yellow ochre once in a while, and now and then, least little touch of bright

262. red.

263. And the bright red, believe it or not, is your duller.

264. It will make the green turn brownish, so use a little bright red when you want to

265. dull the color.

266. There.

267. But mostly greens in this particular painting, I think.

268. And then once in a while I dip back into the liquid clear just to get a little more

269. of the thinner.

270. Just to make it thinner.

271. You could use paint thinner.

272. I like sometimes to use this clear because when it dries, any place that you put the

273. clear will have a nice shine to it.

274. It's almost like the painting was glazed.

275. Think about how the little bushes and stuff, I know, I know, I know, I see

276. something here.

277. Let's take, you know me, I get crazy.

278. Let's take a little of the Dark Sienna and the Van Dyke Brown and White and mix it

279. together.

280. And leave it sort of marbled like it.

281. Don't over mix it, just leave it sort of like it.

282. Get a little roll of paint right on the edge of the knife.

283. Now then.

284. In my world, there's gonna be a little path here.

285. Just a little path, right through here.

286. Like that.

287. There, just start, let it get wider and wider as it comes towards you.

288. Look at that.

289. See how that color just jumps out at you against that dark background?

290. That blank gesso's one of the neatest things we've ever come up with.

291. I really love it.

292. The more you rub this, the more it'll pick up the green color underneath.

293. There, and the darker it'll get.

294. So you have to make decisions.

295. Maybe, I don't know where this path's gonna go.

296. Guess we better make a decision here pretty quick.

297. Maybe it comes on out here, I don't know.

298. Wherever you want it.

299. And in your world, you decide where you want your little path to be.

300. And maybe you want to paint a little raccoon setting out there on it.

301. You can do that.

302. You can do anything that you wanna do on this piece of canvas.

303. Absolutely anything.

304. Let's mix a little more of our highlight color here.

305. And all I'm doing, once again, is tapping.

306. Sort of give it a little push.

307. So there's a little touch of paint right under the end of the bristles.

308. And begin thinking about, well, maybe right in here.

309. Maybe there's a happy little bush that lives right there.

310. Just think about the shape of that little rascal.

311. Let it come right on out to the path.

312. Get darker and darker and darker down toward the base.

313. Use less pressure.

314. Barely touch it, just let it graze down in there.

315. There, now then, maybe up in here.

316. How about right there?

317. This one is a little darker.

318. Little darker, it's back here more in the shadows.

319. So he's a little quieter.

320. Just a happy little tree that lives back here and he watches everything.

321. He's got a little friend right there.

322. There he is.

323. I like landscapes so much, I think, because when I was a kid, we lived way out in the

324. woods.

325. They had to pipe sunlight in where we lived.

326. It was so far out.

327. And I spent a great deal of time in the woods, and there wasn't many other kids

328. around, and I had to learn to play with the creatures that were in the woods.

329. That's why I like animals and little squirrels and raccoons and all those

330. things so much, because they're very special.

331. Very special.

332. And when I got older, I guess I didn't lose that, still like them.

333. I wish I could take them all home with me.

334. After a while you have to sort of draw the line somewhere.

335. Otherwise your house looks like a zoo.

336. There we are.

337. Okay, now then we can take, we'll just take a little fan brush here.

338. That's number three fan brush, doesn't matter.

339. And you can soften these edges very gently so it looks like they're in shadow

340. underneath some of these little bushes and stuff.

341. And it's a nice way to clean it all up and bring it together.

342. There, very gently, just soften them.

343. We gotta start making some big decisions here pretty soon.

344. We'll put a couple more little sticks in it, think about it for a minute.

345. Use a little bit of the Midnight Black with paint thinner.

346. Maybe there's a nice tree trunk right there that we can see.

347. Paint should be extremely thin though.

348. Very, very thin.

349. There.

350. Maybe there's a little tree right here that we can make out.

351. here and there, wherever.

352. And you put a few in that are lighter color here and there if you want to.

353. Just look at your particular painting, because every painting that's ever done is gonna

354. be different.

355. No two will ever look alike.

356. And that's what makes it so fantastic.

357. You don't want your paintings to just look alike.

358. There.

359. Alright, let's start on this old big tree.

360. That's the fun part of this whole painting.

361. I'm gonna load a fan brush with just Midnight Black.

362. Just midnight black.

363. There. Okay, now then.

364. With the black gesso, we have a basic shape in here.

365. So all we have to do is just sort of fill it in good and dark.

366. There we go.

367. Maybe a little tree, maybe it goes right on off like that.

368. There.

369. This is gonna be a huge tree.

370. I want the edges to be sort of gnarly.

371. Is that a word, gnarly?

372. You know what I mean, all bumpity.

373. Maybe it comes down like that.

374. Maybe there's, yeah, let's do this.

375. Maybe there's a big old root that comes right out here in the path nearly.

376. Because if you're walking down the path here and you get tired, that's just where

377. you'd sit and maybe you had a little picnic lunch.

378. You could sit there and kick back, put your foot up, watch the little squirrels

379. play.

380. Yeah.

381. I like to do that.

382. I'm a big time hunter.

383. I take my camera to the woods and shoot them with a camera.

384. There.

385. Okay, do the other side of the old tree.

386. Here it comes down, maybe like that.

387. Maybe like that. This tree's got a lot of arms.

388. There.

389. In your tree, you decide how many arms you want it to have.

390. And put them wherever you think they should be.

391. And if you look around, maybe out in your yard, you've got a big tree that you'd

392. like to put in your painting, you can get a basic idea and a basic shape

393. just from that tree.

394. And drop that rascal in.

395. And you're not committed.

396. Trees grow, they're like people.

397. They grow just about every way imaginable.

398. Every way imaginable.

399. And all are wonderful.

400. I go back to my liner brush, put a lot of paint thinner in it, a lot of paint

401. thinner.

402. I want to make this very thin, very thin.

403. Now then, maybe here and there, we'll just put the indication of a few more little

404. branches and stuff that are just sort of dripping off there.

405. They just hang around and have a good time.

406. There we go.

407. See, wherever you want them.

408. Wherever.

409. And when you're doing this, don't just try to copy.

410. Do what you want to do.

411. Art, painting, should be very individual.

412. Very individual. We all see nature through different eyes.

413. And you should paint what you see, not what somebody else tells you is right or

414. wrong.

415. Paint what you want.

416. Maybe there's a big old lamb that lives right there.

417. Got to make those little noises or it doesn't work.

418. There we go.

419. See? There he is.

420. That easy.

421. Little more of the paint thinner.

422. Maybe we'll have, maybe there's one over here that just goes right on off the

423. canvas.

424. It doesn't matter. As I say, trees are so individual.

425. Any way that you want them, that's the right way.

426. Now then, we'll take a little Dark Sienna, Van Dyke Brown, mix them together.

427. About like so.

428. We want it marbled.

429. Pull across, get our little roll of paint.

430. Now then, this is the fun part.

431. Touch, no pressure, no pressure.

432. Let it just float down the tree.

433. Just float.

434. Barely, barely touching.

435. Barely touching.

436. Just float.

437. This old tree limb out here.

438. See there?

439. No pressure.

440. I know you get tired of hearing me say that over and over, but that's the secret

441. to it.

442. That's what makes that paint break and look like that, is the fact that there is

443. no pressure on the knife.

444. It's just like, well, if you've painted mountains with me in some of the previous

445. shows, it's the same principle.

446. No pressure at all.

447. And if you learn to do that, then you can use this knife to do, you can do

448. entire paintings in some of the series we've done in the past.

449. Entire paintings have been done using nothing but the knife.

450. Then we'll take a little white and Prussian blue.

451. I want a very dark blue.

452. And over here, on this side, I'm gonna put just a little hint of blue.

453. And that's to indicate like a little reflected light just plays through there.

454. Just here and there.

455. And go back, take our black, and then we can pull limbs over the top of other limbs.

456. You have to make decisions, which limb's in front, which one's behind, and you

457. can do that.

458. See, that pulls that limb right directly in front, that easy.

459. That easy. Now, back to our little half size round brush.

460. Little bit of the highlight color.

461. And down here around his little foots, we can begin putting in some little grassy

462. things that live in there.

463. Back in here, very dark.

464. This is behind the tree.

465. It'd be in a lot of shadow.

466. Very darko.

467. There.

468. And just put in all kinds of things.

469. This little brush works so well.

470. I don't know why I didn't have it a long time ago.

471. There.

472. See, I just let all those little things happen.

473. And this is what begins creating those illusions of depth and distance.

474. There we go, something like so.

475. We can take our liner brush, a little bit of that brown and white.

476. Some of these larger limbs here, you can put a little touch of highlight on

477. them.

478. Somethin' like that.

479. Somethin' like that.

480. And sometimes you can get a little crazy.

481. Maybe right up in here, we just draw a little silhouette maybe.

482. Little silhouette.

483. Here's my little squirrel.

484. Put him a big bushy tail.

485. and he sits up here and he watches the whole world go by in this beautiful little

486. forest.

487. See?

488. Just a little silhouette.

489. That's probably Peapod, the pocket squirrel.

490. We showed him in one of the earlier series.

491. All right, I think we're about to the point we can sign this one.

492. Take a little red, come right down in here.

493. and we'll sign it.

494. Certainly hope you've enjoyed this painting.

495. Try these black gesso paintings.

496. I believe you'll find that they work so fantastic, even if you've never painted, these'll

497. work for you.

498. From all of us here, I'd like to wish you a happy painting, and God bless, my friend.