(bright music)
- Hello, I'm Bob Ross and
I'd like to welcome you
to the 21st Joy of Painting series.
If this is your first time with us,
let me extend a personal invitation
for you to drag out your
little paint brushes
and some paints and paint
along with us each show.
Or just drag up the old easy chair
and enjoy a relaxing half hour
as we play some of nature's
masterpieces on canvas.
And for those of you've
been with us for a while,
thank you very, very
much for inviting us back
for another series of painting shows.
Tell you what, let's get right to it.
Let's start today and have
'em run all the colors
across the screen that you
need to paint along with me.
And while they're doing
that, come on up here
and let me show you
what I've already done.
Have my standard old 18 by 24 inch canvas,
but you use any size
that's convenient for you.
We just use this
because it sorta fits
the television screen.
The bottom of it I have
covered with a little bit
of black gesso.
And you can put it on with a sponge
or foam brush or just paper towel.
It doesn't matter, anything to cover it
and then let that dry.
Then we've applied some transparent color
down here on the bottom of this.
And today I've used a little sap green
and Van Dyke brown mixed together.
And it's still wet.
The black gesso has dried
but the transparent color
on top here is still wet.
Okay, and then the top we've just covered
with a little bit of liquid white,
and it just makes the canvas
nice and wet and slick
and it allows us to actually
blend color on the canvas
rather than working ourself
to death on the palette.
So I tell you what, let's just take off
and have some fun today.
Let's start with this
little two inch brush here
and we'll go right into a small amount
of the phthalo blue.
And all we do is just
pull a little bit out
and then tap it into the bristles.
By tapping, and turn the
brush over, tap both sides.
See that assures a nice
even distribution of color
all the way through the bristles
and that's what we're looking for.
And it's easy to add more color,
but it's a son of a gun to take it away.
So start with a little bit of color.
You can always add more if you need it.
We'll go right up to the top of the canvas
and we'll start, we'll
just do some little Xs,
little criss cross strokes.
And we'll work all the way across the top.
Now the color is continually
mixing with the liquid white.
And it creates all those
beautiful variations that we want.
Let me put a little more
color on the brush here.
There we go.
But start at the top and work down.
And that way our sky will
get progressively lighter
toward the horizon.
And that's exactly what we're looking for.
In a landscape you want things
to get lighter toward the horizon
and darker as they come
away from the horizon.
So by using the liquid white
and allowing the color to blend,
that effect happens automatically.
You really don't have to worry about it,
it just happens.
And that truly is the joy of painting.
There, we'll just work this right on down.
I thought today we'd start this series
with just a very basic little painting.
And if you've painted with us before
this'll be an easy one for ya.
If this is your first time,
then you can see one of the ways
this fantastic technique works.
Okay, now we just take and very gently
go across the entire sky.
This just removes the brush strokes.
That's all we're doing.
Okay, and that simple.
We have a happy little sky.
And that's all you have to do
to make a very, very basic little sky.
Now let's build us a little mountain.
I like the mountains.
We'll take some black,
little Prussian blue,
some alizarin crimson and
we just mix those together.
I'd even put a little
Van Dyke brown in there,
just to dull it down some.
Pull the color out as
flat as you can get it
and go straight down with the knife,
cut across so you have
a little roll of paint.
And that little roll of paint should live
right on the edge of your knife,
right on the edge of the blade.
Now then we have to make
our first major decision
in this painting.
Where does our mountain live?
I think in my world it's
gonna live maybe right there.
It is now anyway.
All we're doing here is
just pushing that color
right into the fabric,
right into the canvas.
And this is pre-stretched canvas,
we do not recommend the canvas boards
'cause they have the tendency
to absorb the liquid white
and you end up with a dry
surface almost immediately.
Maybe, maybe here, yeah, right there.
We'll have another little bump there.
Just wherever you want 'em.
And painting is a very individual,
everybody will see nature
through different eyes
and everybody has their own idea
of what a mountain should
look like, or a tree.
All we wanna do here is show
you how to make these effects.
What you paint is totally up to you.
We just wanna show you how to paint.
Just to get you, just to get you started.
There, now using a big brush
and very firm pressure,
I wanna pull this down.
The only thing we're
worried about right now
is this nice outside edge.
We could care less
what's happening in here.
But once again,
because we have the liquid
white on the canvas,
the color is blending with
that and as you can plainly see
automatically as it goes down
it gets lighter and lighter in value.
And once again, that
will happen automatically
when you have the liquid
white on the canvas.
And it's just an oil base,
white paint that allows
you to do all this.
You can just blend it right on down
and already that mountain looks like
it's almost sitting out there in the mist.
I tell you what, let's wash the old brush.
That's the fun part of this.
That's the fun part.
Shake off the excess and just,
(chuckling) just beat the devil out of it.
As I say, that's the
part that's the most fun.
There we go.
Let's take some titanium white today.
And we'll reach up here and
I'll get a very small amount
of the dark sienna.
Don't want much, just
a little dark sienna.
A little bit, maybe I'll even
put a touch of the bright red in there.
Oh that's nice.
I just wanna flavor this a little.
Just enough to flavor it a little bit.
Now when you do yours,
you make the determination
how much you want.
Let me wipe the knife here.
And we just wipe our knife
on a clean paper towel.
Then we can cut off our
little roll of paint again,
so it's right on the edge of the knife.
And let's go up in here, no
pressure, no pressure touch.
And let that knife just
float, let it float,
let it float right down
the side of the mountain.
Think about where light would strike.
Okay let's go right in here.
Zoom, gotta make those little noises
or it doesn't work right.
There.
Just pull.
See there how easy that is though?
And you can change it to
any color that you wanted,
any color that you wanted.
Sometimes I like to do
this with a grey color
that looks like stones and rocks and,
depends on where you live.
Maybe in your world you
don't want a mountain.
Then you can paint this scene
and it'll be very beautiful
without a mountain.
It's up to you.
It's really up to you.
As we mentioned earlier, painting is,
is as individual as people are.
There.
Now then, we have to start thinking about
little things maybe, in my world,
I think there's a little light
gonna strike right there.
So we'll put a little
touch of light there.
And we'll take some white,
we'll use a little bit of
that mountain color with it.
And a little bit of phthalo
blue with it, what the heck.
Maybe a little more blue there.
And with that we'll make
us a nice shadow color.
Now this shadow color should
be lighter than the base color
that you put on your mountain.
But certainly darker than your highlights.
So somewhere in between.
You have to reach a happy medium.
Once again our little of paint, okay?
Let's go up here.
Now if this one's gonna
be the farthest away,
we'll do this little rascal first,
put a little bit of shadow right there.
All there is to it.
Now watch, watch.
Come distinctly through
and look how it pushed
that little devil back.
Bet you didn't realize
you had that much power.
But on this piece of canvas you have
total and complete power here.
You can do anything that you wanna do.
You can move mountains, rivers, trees.
You can determine what your world is like.
There's tremendous amount
of freedom on this canvas.
And that's what makes it fun.
That's what makes it fun.
Now then, and you can come back in here,
see this line is very straight.
Now we can come back in here
and we can put all kinds
of little ridges and bumps
and little places where the mountain goat
would have to live up here.
He's gotta have a little home too.
We'll just let that run right on down.
Okay, but each one of
these little projections
needs a little shadow.
Needs a little shadow
or it just won't play.
It'll go hide.
See how that little shadow
just brought it right out?
Watch though, maybe it
goes right over here.
I don't know.
Don't know, it's up to you.
You have to make these big decisions.
There.
But notice the angles here.
All the highlights are
going in one basic angle.
All the shadows are
going in one basic angle.
They vary a little, but overall,
overall they're going in the same angle.
'Cause if light's coming through here,
it's only gonna strike on a given angle.
Now with a good clean, dry brush
we can tap the base of this a little
and create the indication of mist
that lives right down at the bottom
of this big ole mountain here.
Lift gently upward, upward,
following the angles in the mountain.
And that removes the little tap marks
and brings it all together.
Over here go in this direction.
Tap a little and blend.
There.
Alright, now maybe we'll
get a little crazy today.
I like to do that.
Let's take, I'll use a
little of the mountain color
and we'll go right into some yellow,
I got a little cad yellow
here, a little yellow ochre,
we'll just use the same
old two inch brush.
Doesn't matter, maybe a little touch
of the sap green here and there.
Maybe in our world there
lives some little trees
that sorta grow right up
the side of this mountain.
And to do that all you have
to do is take the big brush
and tap, but most, most important here,
we need to follow these angles.
Need to follow these angles.
If you don't, it just
absolutely won't look right.
Vary the colors between darker
green and lighter green.
Back and forth a little.
Just a little, maybe sort of determine
where you think a little
tree would live right here.
And how far up the mountain it would grow
before you reach the tree line.
Or, the place where it gets too cold
and too high for trees to live.
There.
If you've painted with me before
you know I lived in Alaska
for, well over a dozen years.
And I just absolutely fell in love
with the fantastic scenery that's there.
God was having a good
day when He made Alaska.
It is gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous.
There we go.
But these kinda sights
are pretty common there.
Now we'll take a clean, dry one inch brush
and very lightly, little short strokes.
I wanna grab that and lift upward.
Just lift it upward, upward, upward.
And sorta let it blend together a little.
And you just sorta work
back and forth here.
But gently, gently lifting upward.
Always going upward.
Think about the little trees,
even though they're
going at an angle here,
they would still grow straight up.
So keep these lines going straight up.
Sometimes the tendency,
the mountain go this way
to make your trees like that.
And it'll look like the big
giant sneezed or something
and blew 'em all over.
We don't want that.
And you can even touch a little
dark color here and there.
And just pull up the indication
of some that are a little darker.
You can continually
play this back and forth
between the darker greens
and lighter greens.
And it's a nice way of making
very effective little trees
that are growing up the
side of this mountain.
There.
Okay, shoot that's so much fun.
I tell you what, wash the old brush again.
I just look for reasons to wash the brush.
(chuckles)
Alright, we're in business again here.
Let's take, let's get crazy.
Let's have some fun.
We'll take some Prussian blue,
some Van Dyke brown, some midnight black,
maybe even a little sap green.
We'll just mix all those together.
Just mix 'em together,
make a big ole pile of dark color here.
It should look black, should look black.
Okay, now then, tell you what,
let me wipe the ole knife off.
Fact, we'll get a, let's get a fan brush.
Shoot, that's fun.
I'm gonna load the fan brush
full of this dark color,
both sides, a lot of color.
Let's go right up in here.
Maybe in our world there's a little,
maybe there's a little
foothill that lives right here.
Tell you what I'm gonna do,
I'm gonna add a little,
little bit of white to that,
I wanna lighten it just a little,
oh that's much better.
Went a little bit lighter.
There.
But there's some little footy
hills that live right here.
Some evergreen trees are growing on it.
And they're much closer to us.
Much closer to us.
So they're darker, they're much darker
than this background back here.
Just tap 'em down with the fan brush.
This is one of the neatest ways
that I've ever come up with
of making the illusion
of a lot of little trees
that live far away.
There we go.
And you determine how many
and where and all that.
There we go.
Now then,
we can take a clean, dry two inch brush
and I'm just gonna tap
the base here a little.
I wanna create a little bit of mist
at the bottom of these trees.
And this tapping will cause
the liquid white to come through.
And a little bit of that color will show.
Lift upward, just to
take out the tap marks
and bring it all together.
See there?
There we go, there we are.
Now then,
maybe, maybe in our world,
we'll just use that same old fan brush,
it's working so well
here, let's keep going.
Load a lot of the pure dark color on it.
Let's go right up here.
Maybe there lives a happy little
evergreen tree right there.
We just use the corner of the brush.
And just go back and forth, see there.
That easy.
And let's give him a few friends.
We don't want him to get lonely back here.
My gosh, with a scene like
he's got to look at here,
he'd have to invite all of his
friends over to see it too.
This is just, this is just too nice
for him to keep for himself.
There's a little one.
Put the little guy right
up here in the front row
so he can see all of this too maybe.
There we go.
There we go.
Notice how these little
misty areas make those trees
really stand out.
That's why they're so important.
That's your separator,
that's your good friend.
That's your good friend, take care of him.
Take care of him.
And you put as many or as few
as you want in your world.
One thing that we're trying to do here,
is just to teach you a method.
We're really not trying
to teach you to copy.
That's the reason we have no patterns
or we don't do any tracings on the canvas.
We wanna teach you freedom
with this technique.
And turn you loose on the world.
Just absolutely turn
you loose on the world.
Because once you know the technique,
you can do anything.
Take a little blue, a
little tiny bit of blue
and white and a little
bit of the dark sienna.
Pull it out flat and get a
least little roll of paint
right out here on the edge of the knife.
And let's just make the
indication here and there
of a little tree trunk.
Right in there.
Or right, we don't want many,
'cause you wouldn't see all of 'em.
Oh you're just gonna see
a little here and there.
And you can just,
'cause you've picked up
some paint on your knife
you can just make the indication
of some little sticks and
twigs and all kinds of things
that are just projecting out of that.
Because in the woods, in the
forest, they're always there.
Now then, I have several
fan brushes going.
Let me just grab another one here.
Let's put some highlights on that.
We'll take a little,
little bit of the color
we made the trees out of,
'cause it has blue in it.
And mix it with some cad yellow
and a little yellow ochre
and a little Indian yellow,
what the heck.
And we'll make us a nice green.
If you want it darker,
add a little more of that tree
color to it and instantly,
because it has blue and black in it,
see, it gets darker.
That easy.
Let the paint work for you.
Let's go up here.
Now then our light's coming from the right
because our mountain tells us that.
So we wanna place more emphasis
on the right side of the
tree than on the left.
Then we just put the
indication of some highlights
that are showing through on these trees.
Now sometimes, sometimes
this gets feeling good.
And you cover up all the dark.
We don't wanna do that.
If we lose all that nice dark
then our tree becomes flat.
It's that darkness that's deep in the tree
that creates the illusion of shadows
and makes depth in the tree.
Otherwise it'll be a
very flat, little tree.
We don't want that, we
don't want any flat trees.
We want trees that, the son
of a guns have personalities.
They're like people, each one's different.
Some are tall, some are short.
Some are heavy, some are thin.
They're like people.
I mean this painting can
really and truly become
a world on its own.
You can find anything
that you want in here.
You can find peace, you can
find calm times, anything.
It's right here.
Shoot, let me get off my soap box here
and find a brush and let's get crazy.
Let's make a, let's make a
big evergreen right there.
And for that, I'm gonna, tell you what,
I'm gonna pick up the old oval brush here.
We'll go right into that same tree color.
Now this is the oval brush.
The end of it, let me hold
it up here so you can see.
The end of it's sorta round.
And it's easy to distinguish,
'cause it has a black handle.
And the rest of 'em have white handles.
Easy to tell the difference.
Okay pull it like that til it
comes to a nice, sharp edge.
Let's go up here.
Make a decision.
Maybe our big tree, we're gonna have one
that's gonna live right there.
We start out by just making a little line.
That sorta gives you a guide.
Take just the end of the brush.
Now this is gonna be one
of them big evergreen trees
that sorta saggy.
The limbs hang over.
I like this brush for
making these kinda trees.
See how the limbs hang.
Oh, I like that.
But you can do this with a one inch brush
and have straight limbs.
You can do it with a fan brush.
I use a fan brush very often.
Or you can do it with a two inch brush.
It all works very well,
but if you want these hangy
down looking limbs like this,
I find it much better
to use this oval brush.
There.
Now then all we're doing here
is just placing in some
very basic little shapes.
Just think about the arms on this tree
that live out here.
Where you want 'em.
There.
Maybe this old tree lives, I don't know,
somewhere down in here, we don't care.
I don't know, that was fun.
(chuckles) I like making
trees with that oval brush.
I tell you what, let's make another one.
Let's make another one.
Maybe our other tree, maybe
we'll have one right there.
And we start out the same way,
just make a little line.
And, back and forth, back and forth.
Just sorta let that rascal
come right outta that brush.
It lives in there.
He lives in there.
Ole tree now sometimes
they'll hide in there,
you have to sorta force 'em out.
But isn't that a fantastic way
of making some very beautiful evergreens?
Now, shoot, you know me.
I think everybody needs a friend.
So we're gonna give him one right here.
Right there.
There, see, there he comes.
And we're not concerned in this area.
That's all so dark, we'll
separate all that with highlights,
all that with highlights.
Let's take a little bit of that
color we had for our trunk,
and we'll just touch with the knife.
And just once again, we're
not gonna see much of it.
All we wanna do here,
is just show a little,
just here and there.
Just wherever you think it should show.
Like that.
I think I'll was the
ole oval brush out here.
Let's have some fun with
some highlight colors.
Okay now then for
highlights I'm gonna take
a little of that tree color
and mix it with the cad yellow.
And the yellow ochre and a
little of the Indian yellow.
But mix all these colors on the brush
so you have a multitude of
things happening on the brush.
You don't end up with one dead ole color.
Alright, now then think about your light.
It's coming from the right.
Now we can go up in here
and just begin putting in the indication
of some beautiful highlights
that live right here on this tree.
See 'em?
There they are.
There.
Let's just put some in.
But this is where you make
all those old hangy down limbs
and we're going straight in
with the brush, straight in.
And just touching.
Just touching, letting those
top part of the bristles,
just the top part of the bristles touch.
Right there, see there?
Now then, let's go over
on the other side here.
And do the same thing for him.
If we left him out, shoot
he'd probably be angry.
Probably be angry.
We don't want that, we want
happy trees in our paintings.
(chuckles) I get some letters some times,
people say everything
in your world is happy.
And that's true.
We try to keep everything happy in here.
Shoot, if you want bad
stuff, watch the news.
In this world, we only
have pleasant things.
There.
Now then, sometimes it's fun.
I'll just dip this into a
little bit of the liquid clear.
And I want a real thin
color, much lighter,
but I use the clear to thin it.
And then it'll, it's very thin paint now.
You can go back up here and pick out
where you think light would
really zing through here.
And just put on a few sparklers.
Don't over do this.
Don't over do.
'Cause it gets good.
Just here and there.
But that clear thins the paint.
If you've painted with me before
you know our golden rule here
is a thin paint will
stick to a thick paint.
We use very firm paint until
we get to the highlights.
And maybe just a few over in here,
I don't want too many on this tree.
Just a few, there.
Alright, we're alright there.
Let's have some fun.
Now we have a transparent color here.
This was sap green and a
little bit of Van Dyke brown,
just to dull it.
I'm gonna take pure
white, just titanium white
on the two inch brush.
You have to make a big decision,
where is your water?
I want some water in here.
Touch this and pull it straight down.
It's important that it
comes straight down.
Then that sap green and Van Dyke brown,
they'll make some
beautiful, beautiful colors.
And it's fun to prepare this
canvas when nobody's looking
and when you do this,
especially if you're painting for someone,
they think it's magic.
Now we go straight across.
And that'll create the illusion of water.
That easy.
Now take a one inch brush, put
a little liquid white on it
and go right through some of that color.
Just a nice green color.
And let's back in here, put the indication
of just a happy little bush
or two that lives right here,
right on the edge of the water.
Something like that.
Little Van Dyke brown, a little
dark sienna mixed together.
And we can put the indication
of some land back in there.
See there?
That easy.
A little bit of brown and white,
put a little highlight on it.
Shoot, we're in business.
A little bit more of that color.
Maybe there's a shoo, looky there.
Little bank lives out here too, see,
just sorta let that go,
barely, barely touching though.
And a little bit on the other side.
See, we can put another bank over here.
In your world, you make these decisions,
decide where all these little things live.
Take a little touch of the
liquid white on the knife.
And we'll just cut in a little water line.
And this separates, just separates.
It's just straight liquid white.
A few little ripples here and there.
Shoot we 'bout have a finished painting.
I think that, I think
we'll call that one done.
But this is a good example of
how easy this technique is.
So I look forward to seeing
you in the next show.
And until then, happy
painting, God bless my friend.
(bright music)
