- Hi, welcome back.

Certainly glad you could join me today.

You ready to do a fantastic little painting?

Tell you what, let's start out today 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 tell you what I've already done up here.

I have my standard ol' pre-stretched double primed canvas up here, and I've put just a thin, even coat of the liquid white over the entire surface.

So it's all slick and wet and it's ready to go.

So, let's have some fun.

I thought today is such a fantastic day here.

We'll just do a happy little painting.

I've had a lot of request, people asking about how to do these great big fluffy clouds.

So I thought we'd work on something like that today.

So let's start out, we'll use the ol' two-inch brush, with a little touch of the phthalo bru, blue.

Blue, sometimes my tongue gets over my teeth and I can't see what I'm saying.

There we are.

Little bit of the blue.

We don't want much.

Let's go right up here.

Now maybe, right in here, we'll have just a little bit of, little bit of blue right in there like so.

We'll just let that float right on off into nothing.

A very small amount.

We'll put a little color in the sky so the clouds will show up.

Something like so.

This is just phthalo blue, and it's mixing with the liquid white that's on the canvas.

And automatically, you get a beautiful, smooth, even color in here.

If this was a dry canvas, you'd be in agony city about now.

Now then.

Without cleaning the brush, I'm go into the midnight black.

Just looking for a small amount of color.

Just a small amount, like so.

Now then, with the black on there and the little bit of blue that was left, we'll have a very nice gray color.

And I'll start at the top of the canvas, making little x's, little criss-cross strokes, and blend that right down into the blue.

Like that.

So that way, we graduate in color from a blue up into a nice gray.

And the more you blend this, the better it'll come together.

So you can't tell where one color stops, and the next color starts.

And, while we have that gray going, put a little more on the brush.

Maybe right down in here, we'll add a little bit more of the gray.

There.

Still making little criss-cross strokes.

And sometimes, sometimes it's nice.

I'm reach up here and get the least little touch of alizarin crimson.

We'll warm that gray up a little bit.

So we have black, and a little bit of crimson on the brush, but very small amount.

A very, very small amount, we don't want much.

We don't want to set the sky on fire.

I just wanna change the hue a little bit, the color.

The least little bit.

This will warm it up.

And today, I think we'll concentrate mainly on the sky, so I'm not too worried about down here.

There we go.

Now then, let me wash the ol' brush.

And as you know, we wash our brush with odorless paint thinner.

Be sure it's odorless.

And we never use turpentine.

I have a screen on the bottom of the can the I scrub the brush against.

Shake off the excess.

(banging and rhythmic beating) (chuckles) And just beat the devil, that's the fun part of this whole thing.

Now then, in this area right in here, I'm gonna go right into some titanium white, and the least little touch of yellow ochre.

Putting a little yellow ochre in there.

Just to brighten it up a little.

Just a little bit, we don't want much.

Don't want much, okay.

Now then, I'm just gonna go in here, come right up to this blue, and try not to intermingle them too much.

'Cause you know, if you put the yellow ochre into the blue, it's gonna turn green, and we don't want that.

There, just a very nice little light spot that goes right through there.

Now then, we can take a little black, and maybe here and there, there's an indication, of a little streaky cloud that floats through there.

We don't want many of those either.

Just put 'em in there.

Just a couple little happy things.

Then I'll take a clean brush, and I have several of each brush going here so I don't have to spend all my time washing brushes.

We'll just blend those.

That easy.

Now.

Now we can have some fun.

I think I'll just use a one-inch brush, though you can do it with any ol' thing.

I'll gonna go right into a little black, a little white, and I want to make just a grayish color.

Least little touch of phthalo blue into it.

But mostly just black and white.

There we are.

Okay, let's go right up here.

Now we have to start making some big decisions.

Where does our clouds live?

Let's just take, and use just the corner.

Just the corner of the one-inch brush.

And let's just begin laying in some very basic little shapes here.

And when you're doing this, you need to have some basic shapes.

Don't just throw it in at random and think clouds will appear.

They just won't do it.

The rascals are lazy, they're like me.

Maybe over in here, maybe there's a big ol' cloud that floats around.

I don't know.

And when you do this at home, you paint them any way that you want them, because painting is as individual as people are.

You paint what you see, and what you want in your world.

We all see nature through different eyes, and we all have our own idea of the way we want things to look.

And I'm not trying to teach you to copy here.

The only thing I wanna do, is to show you technique, and turn you loose on the world.

Every day I get letters from hundreds of people all over the country that are doing some of the most beautiful paintings you've ever seen.

And that's so fantastic.

There.

Now then.

Just begin filling it in.

Just, as I say, decide where you want your big cloud to live.

And drop them in, drop them in.

There, and you can put all kinds of, maybe there's a little thing that goes right out there.

A little stringy thing.

All we're doing is putting in some basic shapes.

We'll come back and we'll highlight all these little things.

There.

Just all kinds of happy little things.

As I say, this whole canvas is gonna be mainly clouds.

There we go.

Maybe that one runs right on out, and has a little, maybe a little projection out there.

There.

But this will be huge clouds.

These are beautiful also if you're doing seascapes.

Sometimes it's nice to have these great big clouds floating around.

Let's see, leave some holes once in a while.

Let a little light shine through.

Really makes your cloud look special when you do that.

There we go.

We'll just let that run.

We don't know where it goes.

Somewhere off in there.

Now.

There's very little paint on the canvas.

It may look there's a lot, but there's very little.

We're using a brush that's almost dry.

Very little paint.

If you're not sure, if you have a thin enough layer of paint, take just a clean, dry, two-inch brush, and just do like so.

And that'll help pick up that excess paint, and blends it all together even smoother.

So that's all you have to do there.

And that'll remove, as I say, that'll remove that excess paint.

Now we can just pull that.

Because the canvas is wet we can move this color.

There.

All right.

Now then, we can begin putting some highlights on here.

Just begin putting some highlights.

And we can use a one-inch brush for that, or a two-inch, or fan brush.

Any of them work very well.

(rhythmic beating) There we are.

Let's use a one-inch brush today, what the heck.

The round brush also is excellent for this.

It works very, very well.

Now then, let's just take some titanium white, be right back, I'mma pick up the least little touch of the bright red, the least little touch.

Now then, pull the brush in one direction.

There.

Okay.

Now then, let's take and go right up here, and right to the, we'll go slightly above the dark area.

And just begin putting in all these beautiful little highlights.

Tight, small little circles.

There we go.

See 'em?

Okay.

Now then, just think about where light's gonna strike your cloud.

There.

One of the questions we're asked over and over again is where we come up with the ideas for these paintings.

Mainly, they come from suggestions that people write in.

People write every day and tell me what they would like to see.

And we try to paint what the majority of people write and tell us they want.

(rhythmic beating) And we'll take a clean, dry brush.

We're gonna do this in layers.

Very gently.

Very gently.

Just blend the base of it, a little bit.

Just the base.

We're not touching the top edges at all yet.

Now, very lightly.

And this is a big circular stroke.

See there?

Like that.

Don't go straight up, or it'll look like it's raining up.

And that sorta disturbs your eye when you look at it.

Very lightly, just caress it a little bit.

And that's all you need.

And we just do that in layers.

And we're gonna do that in several layers here.

You know, if you've been with me before in some of the past series, you know I love to show little creatures in all the shows.

Well recently, one of my neighbors brought me over a little baby squirrel that had fell out of a tree and the kitty cat had got and they rescued it.

And this is the way it looked when I got it.

Looks like a little drowned rat, doesn't it?

Now that's what he looks like today.

This has got to be one of the cutest little things that you've ever seen.

And Annette and I had raised this little rascal, and he's almost grown now.

We call it Bobette.

That way we both have our name in it.

But he is the most precious little devil.

And as I say, he lives with me, and he sorta has free run of the house.

He just runs around and tears up everything.

(rhythmic beating) But he's getting a little old for that, we're gonna have to, gonna have to turn him loose pretty quick.

Just about grown.

There.

(rhythmic beating) Now, same thing, I'm just working in layers, to create those big fluffy effects.

Now, once again, and this is so light, so light.

Gentle, very easy, very easy.

Whisper.

And then just very lightly caress it.

Blend it all together.

(rhythmic beating) And I'm beating the big brush between each of these blending procedures, only to remove the excess paint.

By beating it, you can take that paint off the bristles without going through the whole cleaning procedure.

Okay, and we'll go right up in here, and add a little highlight here.

Just the same, basic ol' thing, over and over.

This is an excellent painting to teach you how to do clouds.

Once you do this one, you'll never have any problem with clouds again.

They'll be easy from now on.

Just because you've taken the time to practice.

There.

And you can do it, you really can do it.

Every day, as I mentioned before, I get so many letters from people who never believed they could paint or do anything creative like this, and they're having just marvelous success.

Then that's wonderful.

(rhythmic beating) So, let me hear from you, if you try this.

Send me a photograph of what's happening.

Every once in a while we put 'em together and we like to show 'em on the program here, and I just enjoy, I enjoy seeing 'em.

It really makes all this worth\while.

Just that fact that people are taking this method of painting, and creating some of the most beautiful masterpieces.

And it makes people happy.

They may not hang in the Smithsonian, but they certainly look good in our living rooms.

There.

Okay, and as I say, we just do this over and over and over.

And work in layers, always working in layers.

That way you'll have distance and depth in your cloud.

They won't just be ol' flat clouds laying out here.

We want our clouds to have some life in 'em.

There we go.

We have a lot of skies like this in Florida, where I live.

Especially in the afternoon.

And they're so pretty.

Maybe over in here, just wanna work 'em around and look, and see where you think there oughta be things.

There we go.

There's another one.

See, this will also help you expand your imagination.

Painting, if you paint for any length of time, your imagination will just sorta go amuck, as they say.

Because imagination may be the most valued thing that an artist has.

(rhythmic beating) And it, like anything else, develops with practice.

The more you use your imagination, the better it becomes.

It's like a muscle in our body.

You want it to expand and get bigger, you use it.

Take it to the point of exertion, then it grows.

It's the same with your imagination.

(rhythmic beating) If you don't use it, it just gets tired and lazy.

There.

Okay, but always in circles here.

Don't ever just go straight up.

It really will look like it's raining up.

But by the same token, if you want to show rain coming out of the bottom of this cloud, all you have to do is grab a little of this dark and pull down.

I really don't wanna do rain today, but should you want to do rain, or show what rain way off into the distance, all you do is just grab, see like that, and pull it downward.

(light scratching) That's all there is to it.

Ain't that a wild sky?

And you can do that in just a couple of minutes.

There.

(light scratching) All right.

Maybe just a touch more of the gray down here, and we'll just let this come way down.

Little bit more of the crimson.

And just blend it all together.

Very soft, and very gentle.

(light scratching) Now then, maybe maybe in our world, maybe way back here in the distance, maybe there's a little hill.

We'll just take some gray, which is just the midnight black, and I'm just working a very small amount of it into the bristles.

Very small amount.

Maybe the least little touch of the phthalo blue with it.

Not much.

Not much.

Just enough to tint it a little bit.

Okay, let's go right up here.

Maybe there's a nice little foothill that lives way back in the distance here.

Or a little mountain, depending on where you're from.

There we go.

And we'll put a little point on it, and let it come right on down.

And all we're doing is just barely tapping with a two-inch brush, very simple.

Now then.

Just follow the basic shape we want.

(light tapping) There.

Just want this to be far away.

Now then, at the base of this, I wanna create the illusion of mist.

(rhythmic beating) And to do that, take a clean, dry, two-inch brush.

And I'm just gonna tap it, firmly, right at the base.

Right on the bottom.

Just tap it.

And that'll blend the liquid white, and automatically, that illusion of mist will occur.

Lift it upward, very lightly, and that easy.

We got a happy little hill that lives way back here in the distance somewhere.

Let's see, we'll just take ol' dirty brush here.

And we've used, my gosh, well over three quarters of the entire canvas just doing the sky.

And you say my, my gosh Bob, you didn't leave enough.

You didn't leave enough room down here to do something in the bottom.

Well, we have a little time left, so let's just have some fun.

We'll take some van dyke brown, little dark sienna, a little black, little crimson.

Whatever.

Maybe even the least little touch of sap green in there.

Okay.

(tapping) Now then.

Let's have, back in here.

Let's put the indication, of some little trees.

(light scraping) Just little bushes and trees that live way back in here.

(light scraping) There they are.

See, just happy little thing, and I'm just using the corner of the two-inch brush.

That's all we're doing.

(light scraping) And just worry about very basic shape, that's all we're looking for at this point.

Very, very basic little shapes.

Nothing else.

(light scraping) Now then, maybe that comes, we don't know where it goes.

Don't know that we even care at this point.

(light scraping) Now.

We have, in reality, we've put nothing down here.

This is all just, watch what happens now.

Make a decision, touch it with a little bit of phthalo blue with the brush, very little, and make a decision where you think water would be underneath here, and just pull it straight down.

Straight down.

That'll blend with the liquid white that's on the canvas, and automatically, automatically we can create the illusion of water, just by going across like that.

There.

Now we'll come back and we'll put all kind of highlights and all that stuff, okay.

Okay, I'll just keep on using the two-inch brush here, what the heck, you could use round brush here, one-inch brush or whatever.

Just go tap a little bit of color right into the corner of it here.

Right into the corner.

We'll use some yellow ochre, little indian yellow, cad yellow.

Maybe a touch of the bright red here and there.

Let me reach up here and get the least little touch of green.

There.

Alright, now.

Just using the top corner of the brush, let's just go in here, and tap in some beautiful little highlights on these little trees and bushes.

And we vary the colors.

I don't wanna use the same colors over and over.

But I'm just gonna vary 'em so it'll look like there's a lot of bushes rather than just a few.

See there?

(tapping) Okay, grab a little bit of black on the brush, mix that with yellow, that'll make us a nice green.

There.

Now you can do this in fall colors, or spring colors, whatever.

It's very individual, you sorta look and make a decision.

Ooh, nice one, nice one there, a little bit of red in that.

There we go.

There's another one, whatever.

(light tapping) As I say, you can do this with a round brush very nicely, and make the same effect.

Same, identical effect.

There.

But layers, always layers, if you want that illusion of depth in your painting.

There we go.

If you wanted spring colors, for example, in the greens, I'd use a little phthalo green, rather than sap green.

That'll give you much brighter, more sparkly greens.

I don't know if that's a word or not, but you know what I'm saying.

Greens that are vibrant, jump out at you.

If you're looking for spring.

There, maybe another little bush lives right there.

See, and don't worry about the bottom 'cause all you gotta do is just pull 'em down, like so, and they become part of your reflections.

That easy.

Now then, with a clean knife, we can go back up in here, and just take the point of the knife and scrape in the indication of some trunks, and twigs and sticks, and all those little things that live out in here.

But mainly in the dark areas.

Mainly in the dark areas.

There we go.

And maybe, in our world, grab ol' two-inch brush.

(tapping) We'll take a little yellow, grab a little black here, make some green.

Now, when you lower this brush, tap it firmly into the color.

See, and give it a push, so that the tips of the bristle are loaded there, see.

Give it a little push.

That's where the paint's at now.

It's right at the tip.

Now maybe right along in here, maybe there's a little bit of a little grass growing right along here.

Some happy little things.

All you have to do is just tap it.

That's all there is to it.

(tapping) There we go, just tap.

And you can put layer, after layer, after layer of just beautiful little grassy things that are floating right down in here.

Now, once again, if you get a little of that color into your water, don't worry about it, 'cause all you have to do is grab it, and pull it down, like so, and go gently across, that's all there is to it.

Now then.

Let's have us a little waterline there.

For that, we'll take a little liquid white, a little titanium white.

Just mix 'em together.

I put the liquid white into the titanium white.

Only to thin the color.

I'm gonna take the least little touch of blue in that, just a, ooh, that's nice.

That's nice.

Okay, now, take a little bit of that on the knife, small roll of paint.

Now then, let's go right up in here, and just sort of pull this.

Just let it wiggle, and pull, and we'll make like a sandbar or bank that lives right out there.

See here, just pull it.

You can just make all kinds of little things.

That easy.

That easy.

And then we can go back in here if you want, put in a few little lines and stuff, just to smooth it out, bring it all together.

Wherever you want 'em.

Wherever.

Okay, tell you what, let's take us a round brush here.

We'll go right into some brown, dark sienna, little bit of black, what the heck.

Now then, let's come right up in here.

(tapping) And let's just tap in the indication of some happy little trees.

We're just using the ol' round brush today.

(tapping) There.

See there?

But all we're looking for is very basic shapes.

That's all we're looking for at this point.

We'll come back and we'll put highlights in here.

But right now, that's all we want.

Just little shapes.

Let's go on the other side and do some things over here, too.

We don't want it left out.

Maybe over here lives big tree.

Great big ol' tree.

(tapping) Then he comes right down like so.

Maybe he lives up here in the sky.

This is the big boss tree here.

He looks around and watches everything.

King of the mountain.

King of the mountain right here.

This would be the tree my little squirrel would wanna live in.

There we are.

You can just tap this on, you could put this on with a paint roller, it doesn't matter.

Any ol' way you wanna.

There we go.

All we're doing is just filling that in color, just blocking it in, basically.

Now then, I have several of these brushes.

I'm gonna take another one.

Put the least little touch of liquid white on it.

And go right into a little bit of yellow, a little bit of green.

Tap it firmly, tap it firmly.

Get a little yellow ochre once in while, too.

That's nice.

Now then, go right above the dark.

Look at that, look at that.

This ol' round brush just does beautiful, beautiful things.

But you can put all of these little highlights in.

There we go.

See, and think about all kinda little individual things that are happening in here.

There's limbs in here.

These are not just at random.

Don't just hit it random.

You want your tree to have character.

You want it to be a special tree.

Think about shape and form.

And maybe down in here maybe down in here there's a ooh that's nice, it's got a little red in it.

A little of the bright red.

And there's a happy bush.

Lives right there.

And he's got a little friend right there.

But see how easy these things are to make using this ol' round brush.

And you can grab the bottom of that, and just pull it down.

Just pull it down.

That color right into the water.

Go across.

That easy.

Take a little van dyke brown, and we'll turn it right into a little bit of land there.

A little white and brown for highlight.

Drop that right in.

Like that.

Little touch of our liquid white.

See there?

Then you just scratch in a stick and a twig and all those things.

Okay, let's go on the other side here.

Over here, same basic thing.

Look at that, though.

Isn't that a fantastic little painting that you can do in just a couple of minutes?

Well, the ol' clock on the wall tells me to it's about time to shut it down for the day.

As I'm finishing up here, I'd like to extend the invitation for you to try this painting, and see how it works, and let me know.

I really would like to know how everything goes.

I'll just put that in there.

Take our big brush.

Tap in a little grassy area like so.

And I think this one's about done.

That easy.

Hope you've enjoyed this one.

We're gonna call that one finished.

And from all of us here, happy painting, and God bless.

(jazz music)