[music] Hi, welcome back.

Certainly glad to see you today.

I thought today we'd do something that's a little bit different, so 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 this crazy thing I've got going up here today.

I'm back to my good old black gesso.

I love that black gesso.

I've taken a regular old 18 by 24 inch canvas or any size that you want and I've just taken a paper towel with black gesso and just sort of daubed all over like that and just sort of put a design in here.

And I know it [chuckles] looks like a bomb went off in there, but hopefully it'll look better before it's over with.

Allow the black gesso to dry completely.

Now, all of it that has the black gesso and that I've covered with a thin coat of liquid clear.

And over that, I've put a mixture of Van Dyke brown, sap green, and a little bit of Prussian blue.

Not much blue.

And up here it just has liquid white.

And when you caught me I was just finishing up with a little bit of this dark color that goes right over the black gesso.

And all you need is just a thin, even coat.

The reason we put the liquid clear on there first is because that way, you can put a very thin coat, it's almost like a glaze, over the black.

If you just try to put solid color on there, you're gonna put so much paint that when you put a little white on there, it just, it's almost too bright.

So this allows you to do very gentle little things.

All right, now I'll just keeping using that same old dirty brush and go into small amount.

Let's use a little tiny bit of the phthalo blue.

Not much, but right on that dirty brush.

So I'm just going to mix it with that same color that's on the bottom of the canvas.

Don't need much.

And let's go right up here in the sky and see what we have.

There.

Just a little color.

Something like that.

So we have phthalo blue, the same colors that we have on the bottom here.

And we just sort of let it blend together.

About like that.

We'll come back with a clean brush and blend that a little more.

But the color's transparent enough that the black gesso things come through and it'll give that illusion of a lot of little things happening in the background without you hardly doing a thing.

There.

This black gesso may be one of the neatest things that I've ever invented.

I really hope you like it.

It has just about become a standard now in the art world.

And it was, as they say, you [chuckles] saw it first right here on The Joy of Painting.

All right.

We'll just bring that right on down.

Now, let's have some fun.

And I'm going to take a clean brush.

And I have several of each one going, so I don't have to spend all of my time just washing brushes.

Just want to blend this out till it's nice and soft.

And all it's doing is mixing with the liquid white that's on the canvas, and blending.

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

That's about all we need right now.

There.

The only thing that I'm really sure of in this painting is that I'm going to have a big mass of trees right here in this very dark area.

Other than that, I don't really care.

You really don't have to make a lot of decisions with this, you just have a general idea of what you want and you need to know the time of year and the time of day for light and of course, if you're doing a winter scene, you want it to look a little cold, summer scene, vice versa, whatever.

Without cleaning that brush, I'm going to go right into a small amount of the dark sienna.

So I still have all that bottom color and the sky color and I just added dark sienna right onto it.

And let's go up in here and just begin picking out some little background things.

I don't want a lot of detail because it's too far away.

There.

Just a few little things that are way back in the distance there.

There.

Sometimes it's sort of nice to take your brush and put it up here and just bend it sidewards.

And it'll make the indication of little trees that have little arms sticking out.

But that easy.

Maybe there's another one there, wherever you think they should be.

And all you're doing is just bending the brush.

But give him a little friend right in there.

However many you want.

It's up to you.

And I don't want to cover up all those little things made by the black gesso that are showing through because to me, those are very attractive, very pretty.

There.

Want it to be very soft and extremely misty.

You can add a little titanium white to your brush once in a while.

Very, very little.

Smallest amount.

Smallest amount and it'll look just like mist laying back here.

There.

Something like so.

Then we can find a few more darker bushes right in the foreground.

Right over the top of the mist.

And that mist will act as a separator.

It'll keep them apart.

There we go.

And there's not a great deal of paint on here.

There really and truly is a lot of different colors, but there's not a great deal of paint.

If you was to scrape that very hard, you'd get very little off of it.

Okay, back to our dark sienna, let's go near the side and do a little bit over in here too.

We don't want this one left out.

Maybe over here there's one of those sidewards trees.

I don't want them to be very distinct.

If they're real distinct, you'll lose that illusion of distance.

We'll do things that are very distinct in the foreground.

Back here, we only want suggestions.

There.

Once again, maybe the least little touch of that titanium to create a misty area.

And back to some of our darker colors.

There we go, just tap in an indication of some little distant bushes and things that are happening.

Now.

Let's go, let me find a knife here.

I'm going to mix up some color.

Let's take some black, a little Prussian blue, some Van Dyke brown, a little sap green.

Same basic colors that we had before.

All right, let me wipe off the old knife.

But the predominant color here is black.

Most of it is black.

We put the other ones in there just to flavor it a little bit.

I'm going to just load the brush by tapping it right into the color.

Just tap it.

Let's go right up in here.

We have to make some big decisions.

Using just the corner of the brush.

Now let's begin just laying in all kinds of very basic little patterns.

This is going to be a big clump of trees back there, I think.

That's all.

We'll start laying in some very basic little shapes.

And because we have that black gesso in there, we have to do very little, very, very little in the way of putting in our darks.

They're already there.

In fact, the worst thing you can do is cover all that up.

All those little light areas in there will look like light come right through the tree.

That's the reason I put that on with a paper towel rather than a brush.

If you put it on with a brush, you just have solid color and I'm really looking for these little light areas.

It'll drive people crazy if they don't know how you did that.

[chuckles] Shh, that's our secret, don't you tell them.

Just between you and I.

There we go.

Down in here I want that to be quite dark.

Like so.

Boy that would be a fantastic place for one of my little critters to live.

In the last show, I showed you Steve being introduced to one of my little squirrels.

Now, Steve had never played with a squirrel.

I'm going to show you him again while I'm doing this.

I'm just going to be putting in some of this little dark area.

And we'll show you, this is in my backyard in Florida.

And Steve finally got enough nerve up to let the little squirrel jump on him.

But isn't he the cutest little devil?

I mean the squirrel.

[laughs] Steve's a little big to be cute.

When this was made, Steve was, what's Steve?

24 now, he's 24.

A little short guy, he's six foot five.

He calls me Shorty.

Now then, let's take our liner brush, go into some paint thinner.

Take a little brown, grab a little white there too.

There, nice color.

A little brown, a little white.

Van Dyke, dark sienna, both mixed in here.

Hope you enjoy seeing those little critters.

Okay, just pull that to a nice point and let's go back in here and here and there and there and here.

Let's put the indication of a few little limbs, sticks, trunks, twigs.

Whatever that live back in here.

I don't want them to be real distinct, but enough that they stand out.

There.

Maybe add a little more white to this one.

There we go.

A little more paint thinner.

Let's have a nice one, yep.

Lives right there.

And let your hand wiggle and jiggle and make all those little crazy things.

I have people write and they tell me they can't paint because their hand shakes a little.

Shoot, you have an advantage.

Use it.

There's no reason that one can't paint.

No reason.

I have one lady who paints with us, lives in the Boston area and she's totally blind and she paints along with us.

Just from listening.

That's one fantastic lady.

Takes a lot of nerve to do that.

And she does it very well, I've seen some of her paintings and you wouldn't believe what she's doing.

Would not believe.

So if she can do that, the rest of us don't have any excuse.

There.

This one's got a little more brown and it doesn't matter.

I just happen to hit a little more.

However you want them.

There.

Now then.

Let's take, well, this brush doesn't have too much on it.

We'll just use it.

Let's have a little bit of the yellow ochre.

Be right back, I'm going to get a little dark sienna.

Put in maybe a little more.

There.

Cad yellow, yellow ochre.

We'll use some Indian yellow before it's over with, and even some of the bright red.

Just load a little bit of color, just push, so you can see how that's, see that little ridge right there?

There's one just like it on the bristles and that's what we're going to use.

And we can come in here and very lightly, I don't want a lot of color back here.

Oh, that's perfect.

That is perfect.

Just a little, just a little.

Don't overkill.

I want just enough to make you stand out a little.

I want this to be a very subdued, quiet painting back here at the back.

A little bit more of the dark sienna, yellow ochre, a little Indian yellow in there.

There.

See that, how that works?

But I'm using just the corner of the brush, I'm not using the entire brush.

And this will work with a one inch brush, with either one of the round brushes.

The oval brush, the one inch oval brush will do it just as good.

Just whatever your preference is.

Practice a little bit with all of them and find the one that works the best for you.

And then that's the right brush for the job.

There.

There we go, there we go.

I love to do little paintings like this, especially with this black gesso.

It just makes it so easy.

So easy.

There.

But you've already got a whole clump of trees there.

That easy.

All right.

Now maybe, maybe, let's see, I'm going to add the least little touch of the bright red to that, we need a little sparkler in there.

A little sparkler, but I don't want it too bright.

Maybe even then go into the least little touch of the titanium white and I'm going to come right in here.

Oh, there's a beautiful little bush.

He lives right along in here.

Just pick him out, there he is.

There he is.

Darker, darker, darker, down toward the base.

Down toward the bottom, don't let him get too bright on you.

There.

Highlight him with a little touch of the yellow ochre just to change his flavor a little.

I see another one right there.

See these little things that you just drop in at random all of a sudden begin, they look like little things back in there.

You're not too concerned when you first start, then just sort of let them go wherever.

But then as you begin painting, all these little things that were happy accidents turn into beautiful little things.

Don't fight them.

Learn to enjoy them.

Let them happen.

Well, I'll tell you what.

How about, let's do this.

Maybe, yep, you're right.

Lookie here.

Maybe there's a nice little grassy area that lives right along in there.

What a gorgeous place to have a little grassy area.

Back underneath all these beautiful trees.

There.

Okay.

And just think about the way you want the land to go here.

That got a little brighter.

See, that'll look like a whole different plane.

Just by making it a little brighter.

Hit a little bit more of the yellow ochre in that one.

Just sort of vary your colors back and forth.

Shoot.

It's unreal what you can do.

Absolutely unreal.

Let me get my liner brush here.

Have a little bit of brown on it.

Just a little bit of the Van Dyke, not much, just a little.

I'm going to put a few little sticks and twigs back here too.

Need a little more thinner.

If it didn't go real easy, real smooth, add a little thinner.

There we go.

Some of them very light, can't hardly see them.

Other ones a little darker.

All right, all right.

A few over in here.

Okay, a touch more of the color.

But just wherever you want them.

Now, I see something.

I see something.

Let me find a fan brush.

There.

Dip that into a little bit of the liquid white and then go into titanium white.

And I'll be right back, I'm going to get the least little touch of phthalo blue and put in the least, whew, tiny little bit.

So strong.

So strong, I see something here.

it's just, I have to do this.

[chuckles] Watch here.

I have to do this, watch, watch.

Over.

[Bob makes "tchoo" sound] It's just a perfect place for a little waterfall to just sneak out from behind there, come crashing down.

And it splashes right along in there.

See it, see it?

There it is.

And it just sort of starts from there and begins working out.

Begins working out.

Again, I see all kind of things.

Now, watch, watch, watch.

Look, pull down.

Straight down and it's going to pick up that color that's underneath.

Here it comes.

Now, go across.

Back to our fan brush that has that color on it.

And very lightly, just grazing the surface.

Just make the water slick and shiny.

That easy.

There.

Isn't that fantastic?

You can do that, that easy.

That easy.

Now, we need a little something over here to contain it.

Because we have that black gesso underneath, we don't even have to put anything on there.

It'll just go right in.

Brighten it up with a little touch of yellow so you can see it a little better.

There we go.

Now it shows up.

Now, watch.

Okay, let's take, I'm going to use a little black and Van Dyke brown mixed together.

I need to mix up, I'm going to take some liquid white and put it right out here.

Just a little bit of the liquid white.

And to that I'll mix some dark sienna and Van Dyke brown.

I want to make a very thin brown color.

All right.

Okay, let me wash off the old knife there.

We pull this brush through black and brown and then half of it through that thin color we made and let's have, right in here.

Yeah, just a bunch of little stones.

Just a bunch of little stones live right in there.

There they are.

But you can make both sides of the stone in one stroke just by doing that.

There.

And, of course, the water's got to [Bob makes "tchoo" sound] sneak right over there.

[Bob makes "tchoo" sound] Got to make those little noises.

[chuckles] Just doesn't work without those little noises.

And, and back to another brush and let's pull this down.

I'll tell you what, maybe this comes on right around here, I don't know.

Where do you want it to go?

In your world, you decide.

Maybe it comes right on around and it's mixing with the color that's on the canvas and automatically you get all these beautiful shades and hues.

Just very lightly go across.

We have instant reflections there.

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

I want it to stay sort of subdued in this particular little painting.

I feel it would be quite dark.

Just let it just sort of skim across there.

All right.

Now then, let's finish up some little grassy areas right in.

Just sort of let them flow back here.

Farther, farther back.

Wherever you want them.

Here and there I'm going to touch the least little bit with the titanium white, so it looks like there's a little light zinging through there, but not much.

Not much, if you use much, it'll ruin the illusion.

Too much.

There.

See there, though, how you can make all those little hills?

There we go.

Okay.

But once again, there's not a great deal of paint on the canvas.

Because you have a black gesso on there.

That dark color's already in, so you don't have to apply very much paint.

It takes very little color to actually do this.

Very little color.

And maybe, let's really get crazy here.

Let's just cut off our little stream.

It comes right across here.

Got to have something to contain it.

There it is.

Okay.

Now then.

Let's take a brush that's got a little of that dark color on it.

Maybe right in here, tap in a few little things.

I'll have a little tree right there.

Just a little tree.

Give him a little trunk.

Just some brown and white on the liner brush.

[Bob makes "tchoomp" sound] There we go.

Just brown and white thinned with paint thinner.

A few little arms here and there.

We can come back.

Put a little highlight on there, just a little.

All right.

So now we have a little tree that lives right there.

Right about there.

Let's get crazy.

You know me, [chuckles] you know me.

Let's take some Van Dyke brown, a little black.

A little black, a little crimson.

Put a little crimson in there too, yeah.

In my world, here goes our beautiful trees back here.

[Bob makes "shooo" sound] Be brave.

This is your bravery test.

We'll just have us a big tree that lives right there.

We'll give him a friend, [Bob makes "tchoo" sound].

Have two big trees.

Just drop those rascals right in there.

There, and maybe they sit out here on a big rock.

Big old rock that lives here on the edge of the water.

Maybe it's all been washed away except that.

And we take a little white, a little dark sienna, a little touch of the Van Dyke.

Get us a small roll of paint and then just touch, just graze.

[Bob makes "tchoo-oo-oo-oo" sound] Something like that, just let it graze.

Work right down like that.

Allowing the paint to break, no pressure.

Absolutely no pressure.

A little Prussian blue and white.

And on the one side here we can put a little blue, mix a little reflected light on there.

Let's have some fun here.

We got a minute or so left.

I'm going to take my filbert brush and turn this into great big stones that are all around the edge of this.

There we are.

Just, here they go.

[Bob makes "ploomp, ploomp, ploomp" sounds] However many you want, however many you want.

There, see how you can just give the illusion that there's all kind of stones and rocks down here at the base of this couple of old trees?

It's all you have to do.

Take our fan brush, a little bit of that thin paint on it.

Clean up the edges.

Looks like a little water lines around the bottom.

There.

Something like so.

Now then.

Let's go up here and put some stuff on the big old tree.

Let's put a few little limbs on the bottom, then on the top, shoot, we'll just put in some nice leaves.

Got to have a few little limbs down here, though.

Here's an old limb that comes off and goes every which wiggledy way.

Like that.

Maybe just one on this one.

And you can take a little bit of that thin brown and white.

Actually, you could double load this little brush and do this all in one stroke.

However, however.

Put a few little things here and there and there and here.

And here's one that comes out.

Maybe it comes around in front.

Another one here, another one there.

There.

On the top, maybe those limbs, maybe they still have some leaves on them, so we'll take a little dark paint here on the old two-inch brush and just put the indication of some nice foliage that lives right up here.

Oh, there goes my beautiful tree I worked so hard on in the background.

But we know it's there, no big deal.

We know it's there.

There.

You know, if you have time, I love to look at photographs of paintings that people have done from watching this show.

So if you have time, drop us a line, we'd love to hear from you and we'd love to see the paintings and as time permits, every so often we put them together in a little board and we like to show them to you.

So, drop us a line, let us see what you're doing and let us hear about the successes that are going on in your life.

There, a little touch of paint thinner.

I want to thin down, use that same dirty brush and go into a little bright red.

That'll make a very dirty red color.

Very dull.

All right.

Maybe we'll highlight the tree with that.

Ooh, I like that.

That's not very bright.

That's just enough so it shows up against the trees that are in the background.

Just a little, right in there.

But think about the shape, don't just hit at random.

Mm.

I like that.

I like paintings that aren't real bright.

But they're a little harder to do than paintings that are extremely bright.

Now, when you're doing yours at home, you do it in any color that you want.

Any color that you want, because this'll work if you done it in bright greens or whatever.

It really doesn't matter.

It's an individual thing.

There.

Once in a while I just like to use these colors that are a lot more muted.

All right.

Something about like that.

And shoot, we can take the old liner brush, put a few little sticks here and there and there and here.

We're about to the point of having a finished painting.

You could take a little touch of the blue and the white, make that shadow come right on down to really make it interesting.

Right across the rocks.

And I think with that, we'll call that a finished painting.

I hope you've enjoyed it.

Try the black gesso and let me know how it works for you.

From all of us here, happy painting and God bless, my friend.