Just Before the Storm

[Music] Hi, welcome back, certainly glad you could join us today.

I thought today maybe we'd do a very nice little seascape.

I've got a lot of letters from people, asking me for a simple little seascape that anyone can do.

So I thought we'd do that today.

Let's start out and have them run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint along with us.

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

For this, I have my standard old canvas.

I use an 18 by 24 inch pre-stretched, double-primed canvas, but you use whatever size you want.

I took a piece of contact paper and cut an oval out.

And I... To cut the oval out, you can use something like an Xacto knife or a pair of scissors, it doesn't matter.

Stuck the oval onto the canvas, covered the inside with black gesso, just totally covered it with black gesso, allowed that to dry completely.

Now, on top of that, on the sky up here, I've taken Prussian blue and black.

I think I'll make a stormy-looking sea today, so I want something very dark and very moody, just Prussian blue and black, and covered the entire top.

On the bottom, I've used a little bit of black, sap green, and Prussian blue.

So, on the bottom, I just put a little bit of sap green, otherwise it's the same as the top.

So, you could do the whole thing, add a little sap green on the bottom, just to give it a little watery feel.

And with that, let's just start off and have some fun.

We'll take off today with the old two-inch brush and a little bit, just a small amount, of titanium white.

We don't need much paint, not much, just a little.

Just old titanium white.

And let's go right up in here.

And now, with that, let's just put in some basic little, little cloud things that are happening up here.

And I'm just using the corner of the brush, and just making like little, little Xs, just sort of let the brush play and just have fun up here.

See, it takes very little paint, though, very little, because we have the color underneath, when you touch it with white, that color comes alive.

Just absolutely comes alive.

There.

And we just sort of have to think and make up in our mind where, where does our big old clouds live?

These are big old, fluffy, mm, big old tough clouds, storm clouds, maybe, and we just sort of dance them in here and there, there and here.

Wherever you think they should be.

There.

It's very, very easy to do this, very easy.

Maybe there's another big old cloud that lives right here and you can tap in a few.

Use just the corner, making Xs.

Any way, that you sort of get an effect that you're looking for.

There.

Then we're going to come back and we're going to blend all of these, so even these areas that are very dark will end up with a little bit of paint in them.

Black canvases are so fantastic, because it allows you to make effects that, oh, they're almost unreal, and they're easy to do.

Very easy to do.

There we go.

And maybe a little color right in here.

Now, then, let me wash the old brush.

[laughs] If you've painted with me before you know, that's really the fun part of this whole technique, is just washing the brush.

So we'll scrub the old brush with odorless paint thinner, shake off the excess, [laughs] and just beat the devil out of it.

Now, be sure your brush is as dry as you can get it, and then we can go up here and very lightly just begin blending this.

Now you can blend it to any degree of darkness that you want.

In other words, the more that you blend it, it's going to mix with the color that's already on the canvas, and it'll get darker and darker and darker.

You can always go back and add a little more of the white, and we may do that, just to highlight some of the clouds.

So don't worry about it.

As you know, we don't make mistakes.

We just have happy accidents sometimes.

And by that, we just mean that, very soon, you begin to be able to work with anything that happens.

Anything that happens, and you can turn it into something that's exciting and wonderful.

There's nothing bad that happens on this canvas.

The absolute worst thing that could happen is that you take the paint off that you put on, reuse the canvas, and do the painting over, but even then, you've still learned.

And any time that you learn from practice, it's not wasted.

All right, I'll just use the same old brush.

I'm going to, I'm going to add a little more white.

I think we're going to brighten up our clouds a little.

As I say, in your world, you make them as bright or as dull as you want.

It's up to you, up to you, depending on the mood that you want.

There, just the corner of the brush, and just little tiny things like that.

See there?

For the purposes of TV, I think maybe we'll make them a little bit brighter so you can see them better.

But maybe when you do yours, you just want very quiet little gentle clouds.

I have several brushes here, I'm going to grab another one that's nice and clean and dry so I can just blend that out a little.

There we go.

Maybe, yep, you're right, we'll do this one here a little bit, too.

This is one of the simplest, easiest ways that I have ever found to make very effective little clouds, and it works.

That's what so important, it works.

There.

But just think about little things that are floating around here in the clouds, and just, just put them in.

Just put them in.

I'm going back to the clean brush.

Like that, and very lightly, just blend it a little.

Just blend it a little.

I don't want to blend it too much.

I don't want it to go away.

There, and you can do this, as I say, as many times as you desire.

Some people want clouds that are very distinct.

That's easy to do, you just do this as many times as you want, until it gets there, until it gets to where you want it.

Mmm, boy, that's a mean-looking old cloud there.

That's one of them old clouds that'll bring you a thunderstorm in a heartbeat.

All right.

I live in Florida, right close to Mickey Mouse's house, and we have a lot of thunderstorms sometimes.

Especially in the summer, there's a, there's a period there where almost every day we have a fantastic thunderstorm.

I sort of like them, because it's, it has a beautiful sound to it, and when it's over, everything is clean and fresh and beautiful again.

It's like God sort of washes the whole landscape.

There.

Okay.

But that easy, we have a pretty nice little sky.

We have some nice clouds, no problem at all.

And as I say, even if you've never painted, this is one that you can do.

Now, here, I had just a piece of old masking tape, because it, it helps me have a nice straight line across there.

That's the only reason I have it on there.

So we'll just take it off, and we have a very straight horizon now.

And with that, we can begin to really play.

Let me wash the brush, [chuckles] it's been awhile.

Just like to wash it.

[chuckles] There we go, we're in business now.

Now then, where we had that piece of tape, might need to add just a little bit of color.

So we'll take a little sap green, a little black and blue, and we'll just bring that color right up, right up there, something like that.

I know you probably can't see that, because I can't either, but we know now that there's paint all the way up to that line.

All right, now then.

Let's use the old filbert brush a little bit.

Put a little bit of titanium white on it, and let's just sort of lay out our basic wave shape.

This is one of the easiest ways that I've ever found to sort of lay out your waves so you know where it's going to go.

Just take a little paint, because it doesn't matter, anything you don't like, you can just wipe it out, and lay out a basic wave shape here.

Maybe the old wave comes over like that, goes off, and back in here, back in here there's another old wave, wherever you want them.

And back in here, we'll just have little ones.

See, and that wave will crash over in that direction, does that help?

We just sort of put a little line in there so it helps you see how the water's going to go.

But, that easy.

Now, then.

Wash the old filbert brush up.

I'm going to grab, maybe today I'll use a number three fan brush.

Sometimes I use a three, sometimes a six, whatever happens to be available.

Doesn't matter.

Doesn't matter.

Now then, a little bit of white paint on it.

Pick up a little touch of blue and put in there.

There, all right.

Now then, let's start way back in here, and just touch-- and let me exaggerate.

I'm doing a rocking motion, think about water [Bob makes "to-doo, to-doo, doo" sounds] like that.

Now, I'm really exaggerating, because I'm doing it very small.

Something about like so.

See there?

And automatically, that'll begin to create the illusion of little things that are happening back there.

All right.

Now, if this is going to be our wave, just take and go [Bob makes "zooooop" sound] right across like that.

There.

And while we have paint on the brush, we'll bring this right on down, over, like that.

All right.

Now, then, wipe all the excess paint you can get off the brush, or you could even wash it, and start with a fresh brush.

Now, then.

I want to take this color that we put right on the edge here and begin blending it back very gently, very lightly.

Just begin blending it back, trying to preserve a dark area right in there.

Just trying to preserve that, that's your good friend.

See there?

And those dark areas will end up being your waves.

There they come.

Something about like that.

And we'll come back with a liner brush, and we'll put all kinds of little details in there.

But this is just an extremely, extremely simple way of making a very effective little wave.

Very effective, because seascapes sometimes can give you, they can give you a little problem or two.

They're not the easiest thing in the world to paint.

So, we try to simplify it to where anybody can do it, even on their first attempt.

I'm going to take a little of the cad yellow, a little bit of white, just mix it on the filbert brush right there, like that.

Okay, let's go up in here.

Now, everybody likes to have this wave where the light's coming through.

Some people call that the eye of the wave.

So we'll take this and scrub it in [Bob makes "rr,rr,rr" sounds].

Just really get in there and scrub it in.

Just really work it.

Let it just get darker, darker, darker as it works out like that.

Okay, that's really about all there is to it.

And you can make this as bright as you want, the same as you did the clouds, by just cleaning the brush, going back and adding more and more color.

Now, then, we'll take a very clean, dry brush, and using just the tippy-top bristles, I'm just going to wiggle it.

I'm really wiggling the handle more than I am the bristles.

See, the handle's going around and around, but the bristles stay right there.

Can you see that good?

There, and that's all we're doing, and you can turn this into, until it's so smooth, it's almost unbelievable, and then just work outward, outward, outward.

There, I don't want this to get too bright in this particular painting, because in my world, I think this a, this is sort of like a storm coming.

It's, it's getting pretty rough out here, so there wouldn't be a great deal of light coming through here.

But if you want to have more, please, please, feel free to do it.

We're not trying to teach you to copy here.

We're only trying to teach you a technique, and, and turn you loose on the world.

because, as I've said before, we all see nature through different eyes, and we all have different interpretations of what things look like.

And that may truly, may truly be the joy of painting is that you do your thing, you paint your world, the way that you see it, and the way that you want it on canvas.

There, because art is a very, very individual thing.

We all have different ideas of what we want, and they're all good.

There isn't good or bad, it's just, does it make you happy.

I have still a number three fan brush, since it was handy and dirty, load it with the white paint.

Now then, this is the fun part.

Let's think about the water just crashing over, [Bob makes "tchoo"sound] make little sounds.

Just make little sounds, see?

[Bob makes "tchoo"sound] There, there it comes.

Just think about how it crashes over.

This old wave has traveled a long way.

It finally got here, at the shore, and now it's crashing over.

It's going to create a lot of foam.

Makes a beautiful sound, beautiful sound.

There.

Something about like that is all we need for now.

And we'll take a filbert brush, and take a little bit of black, a little bit of the Prussian blue, and a touch of white.

There we go.

So I'm making sort of, mm, put some alizarin crimson there, too, I want that to be more of a, ooh, that's nice, more of a lavender-type color, but lavender to the blue side.

Okay, let's go up in here.

Now then, we'll take this brush, and let's put the shadow, we're putting the shadow in first for the foam.

There it comes.

old water's turning and crashing and churning and, boy, it's just having a ball back here, mmm.

There, all right.

I have two filbert brushes going here, so I can sort of work back and forth without having to stop and clean them each time.

They're not as much fun to clean as the big brushes, so we'll just, we'll have a couple of them.

Something about like that.

Now, then, we can go right up to the top of that shadow, and we can put the indication in here of some, some nice foam.

Each time you load your brush, wipe it off, get it nice and clean, or at least wipe off the excess paint, then go back and reload it.

There.

Wiping it.

A little bit more paint.

Then we can come back with fresh paint, and just keep right on splashing here.

[Bob makes "tchoo"sound] Just sort of tapers off into nothing.

Shoot, well, we got that, maybe there's... Maybe back in here, some little splashes that are happening.

This is pretty rough water, so we need some little, some little doers that are going on back in here.

Who knows, who knows, maybe there's even a little bit in here.

Not as much, not as strong, because we want the center of interest to still be in here.

There.

Now, a good, dry, two-inch brush, or you could use a one-inch brush for this, if you're a little bit more comfortable with it.

Makes no difference.

And once again, we want to blend this together, so it's as soft as silk, just like so.

There.

Something about like that.

And I beat the brush, just to knock off excess paint.

And sometimes, in our world, we'll take a little Van Dyke brown, a little bit of the dark sienna, maybe even a little black, mix them together.

Maybe in our world, way back, waaaaay, way back in the background, let's go up here, maybe there's a little headland up here.

You know, just a little projection of land that comes out into the water.

Something about like so.

It's very dark, it's very far away, but we can still make it out back here.

Take a little bit of white and put in there to make little highlights.

Same color, I'm just adding a little white to it, so here and there we can see just a little indication of things that are going on.

There.

Like that.

Now we have to wash the old brush.

Go back to our white paint, pick up a little, and I'm going to just, just splash a little water right up here on this headland.

There, something about like so.

Maybe you can even see a little [Bob makes "tchoo"sound] here and there.

See, it's really splashing right there.

Maybe there's some big rocks in the water, we don't know.

Just makes it very interesting and very pretty.

Now, then, going back to the old filbert.

I like the old filbert today.

Doesn't matter, you can use anything.

And we can begin putting in the indication here of all kinds of little foam patterns and this water's churning pretty hard here, so we're going to have a lot of little things that are going on.

[Bob makes "tchoo"sound] There.

Now, this is where you really bring your little seascape together, all these little things that are happening.

There we go.

As I say, this is a very, very simple little seascape.

This is one I'd recommend when you first start, and as you work, farther and farther, you can do seascapes that, my gosh, you won't even believe.

But this is a good way to get started, to get a feel for it.

Just to get a feel for it.

There we go.

We have so many fantastic people all over the country that are painting, they're painting scenes that they never believed possible.

[chuckles] And maybe more interesting is their family and friends didn't believe they could ever do it.

That's nice when, I've got letters from, from young friend's mothers, that said "my son or daughter is painting, and they're doing paintings that I can't hardly believe, and they've never had any lessons, other than watching the show on television."

And from that, they become very interested in art.

They begin to experience a little success.

And, as you probably know, nothing in the world breeds success like success.

So, if you have a few good experiences with painting, then you, then you sort of get hooked on it.

So, try these paintings that aren't too difficult at first.

Become comfortable with them.

And then, as you become comfortable, go into more difficult things.

I've taken a little bit of paint thinner, mixed it with some titanium white and a little bit of of the Prussian blue, have the liner brush, very thin paint, fill the bristles full, let's go up in here, and now we can come back and begin putting the, the icing on the cake.

You can just put all these little things in here.

This is what gives your, your painting character, looks like a lot of detail in it.

And if you have time, you can set and do this and make all kinds of gorgeous effects.

Gorgeous, gorgeous effects.

And this is really what'll make your seascape special.

Very, very special.

There.

See there?

Just little things that are happening, where the water's splashing and playing and having fun, but we're using that same stroke, sort of a rocking stroke.

Now, you have sort of a weird angle here, and it looks a little strange, but it'll look right for you.

By weird angle, I mean the camera gives it a little angle, this looks a little higher than it really is.

All right.

And we can bring things all down through here, put details in the water.

There.

As you paint more and more seascapes, spend more time studying foam patterns.

That may be the hardest part of painting seascapes.

These little foam patterns here, though, are what make or break a seascape.

These are just dropped in very easily, but as you paint more, you'll want to put more and more detail into them.

There we go.

You can get carried away with this, and just make some of the most gorgeous scenes.

There.

Maybe something about like that.

Sometimes, it's nice to take the least little touch of that white we had, with a little bit of yellow in it thin it down, thin it down with a little paint thinner, and you can come back and just highlight this, just to, just to make it sparkle a little.

Don't overdo.

This is too dark of a painting for this to be real bright.

Now, then.

Also, another thing that can be done that's very easy, find old filbert here that's half-clean, you can take a dark color, some blue and black, a little green, and you can come back up in here with the filbert and you can literally just punch holes in the foam, see?

You can just punch holes in it, wherever you think they should be.

So it looks like there's openings in there.

So, if you get a little, little more foam pattern here than you want, just go back and punch a hole here and there, that's all.

That's all.

No big deal.

[chuckles] As I said earlier, we don't make mistakes.

We just have happy accidents.

Now then, I'm going to take the contact paper off, and let's see what we have here.

So this is the moment of truth.

Let's just grab it and pull it off.

[Bob makes "zoop" sound] And that doesn't make too bad of a little seascape, for your first time, or if you're just beginning to paint.

It's a nice little seascape.

But you know me, I don't ever leave well enough alone.

So tell you what let's do.

[chuckles] Let's take a little black, a little bit of the Van Dyke brown, mix it together here, and maybe in our world...

Shoot, that's too nice to leave alone.

I've got to have a big tree that lives right there.

[Bob makes "sshwoo" sound] Be brave.

This is your bravery test.

After you worked so hard to create a beautiful little seascape, then this crazy guy tells you to drag a tree right through it.

You know what's worse?

The only thing worse than one tree is two trees.

So, let's be brave.

Let's be brave, because we can do anything, anything on this piece of canvas, anything.

A little sap green right into that same color.

I want to put a little base color in here.

I need something for my little trees to set on.

They're sort of just hanging out here in space.

So, same color, with a little sap green in it, just to give it some dark so our light will show.

Shoot, let's take, oh, I'll use that little fan brush.

I'm going to take it, a little dark sienna in it, and black, but mostly black.

I want this to be sort of a gray color, with just a little indication of a little dark sienna in it.

Now, we can just go up here and touch, and give it sort of a little round pull.

Just touch, don't want this to be too bright, because we have a pretty dark sky here.

Pretty old dark sky.

Just enough to show a little indication of light on this old tree.

That's how we sort of separate them.

But when you do this, pull it sort of round.

By round I mean, [Bob makes "soop" sound], like that.

And once again, I'm exaggerating, but it'll give the tree sort of a round effect.

Okay, see how easy that is?

Now, then, let's take some paint thinner, and I'm going to go right into the midnight black.

I want a lot of black color, but I want it to be very, very thin.

Very thin, because you know our golden rule: A thin paint will stick to a thick paint.

I've got paint all the way up halfway up the handle of the brush here, but that's alright.

[chuckles] It's alright.

But the paint is very thin.

And maybe there's some old palm leaves, laying out here and blowing in the wind.

This is the easiest way I've ever found of making them.

Just use a very thin paint, figure out basically where you want them to be, and then just give them a little pull, something like so.

There.

That old palm tree's had a rough time, hasn't he?

There.

Where I live, there's a lot of palm trees.

They're gorgeous, gorgeous trees.

I like them.

There, maybe that's just a little rascal's hanging up here.

He's trying to make it.

The wind's sort of blowing him around today.

But he's doing alright.

We'll have a big one out here.

Maybe he goes clean off the canvas, who knows?

It's your world, so you make it any way that you want it.

Another one out here.

Maybe there's another one coming out through here.

Out through there, wherever.

These are going to be mainly silhouettes.

Mainly, so, a little sap green, a little white.

And here and there, you can just put the indication of a little, I don't want much.

It's going to ruin that illusion of darkness.

All right.

Grab another fan brush, take a little yellow, a little sap green, put it right in here.

Pretty dark.

And let's put some little grassy areas down here at the foot, a pretty dark green color.

A little dark sienna in it once in awhile, just to do like that.

We can take the liner brush, a little bit of color, put a few little, little things that hang like that, just to bring it together.

And I think we have a nice little seascape done.

It's very simple.

I hope you try it, because this one will work for me.

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

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