- Oh hey, I'm certainly glad to see you today.

Today I thought we'd just do a painting that's maybe a little different and I hope you really enjoy it.

So let's start out and run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint along with me and they'll come across right about there, okay?

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

I've got my normal old pre-stretched canvas up here and today I've covered the bottom of it with liquid black and the top with liquid white and where they come together I've just blended them together and it's all wet and it's ready to go.

So, let's have some fun.

Maybe let's just do somethin' that's make you happy today, just a beautiful little painting.

Maybe we'll start with a little Indian Yellow and let's go right up in here.

We'll just start in here and Indian Yellow is very pretty, very bright yellow and it's also transparent.

There.

(muffled speech) And then we'll take a little touch of Yellow Ochre and add (mumbling) right here.

And the Ochre is a sort of gold color.

And we just let that blend right on out wherever.

This liquid black does some fantastic things, especially when you wanna show a scene that has a lot of nice warm mist in it.

It really grays all the colors down and works beautifully.

There we go.

Now then let's take, we'll use Bright Red, what the heck?

We're gonna make a pretty little painting today that really just shines.

There we are.

See there, just let 'em blend together.

We haven't washed the brush yet, haven't washed the brush.

Just let that go maybe right on off the canvas over here, we don't care.

There.

A little more of the red, I'll put a little bit right there.

Okay.

And just sort of blend that together and I'm using the little criss cross strokes, as usual.

Sort of let it go.

Now then maybe I'll tell ya what, right on top let's use, we'll make a lavender here, we'll use a little Alizarin Crimson, a little touch of Phthalo Blue and I just mix these on the brush, it really doesn't matter, whatever.

Whatever, just a little color, we don't need a lot.

There we are.

Now then, oh that's nice, I like that, I like that.

Sorta test it a little bit before we get too crazy and if you don't like it, change the color and you can take it to the blue-ish side or the red-ish side, whichever you want, whichever you want.

Okay.

A little bit more of the color and we'll fill up this side also.

We don't want him left out, he'll be sad.

There, just a little.

We just sort of fill up the rest of the top of the canvas with that.

Now, you wanna blend this until it's all together, 'till you can't tell where one color stops and the next color starts.

I'll tell ya what, I'll just get another brush here that's clean and dry, I have several of each brush going.

And when you're painting at home, you'll also find that having at least two of each brush, the bigger brushes especially, will save you a tremendous amount of paint, and time, and brush washing, because you use one brush for darks and one for lights and it really will pay you dividends.

There.

Alright.

(dinging) Time to wash this one and we'll just use a little paint thinner to wash it.

(dinging) (laughing) Beat the devil out of it.

We might as well wash them both, what the heck?

There.

(dinging) Actually, I just like to get even with the cameraman because he gives me a hard time.

Alright.

Let's take some black, we'll use Midnight Black, oh and some Alizarin Crimson, what the heck?

Just black and crimson today, maybe we'll just make a mountain outta that.

Pull it out flat, cut across, get our little roll of paint, lives right on the edge of the knife, there it is.

We have to make a big decision right off, where does our mountain live?

In our world, I think it's gonna live right there, right there.

There.

And we'll just do, we'll just put a happy little mountain in there, just a small one, we don't need a big complicated mountain in this one.

There.

Okay.

Put a little color on there and take off all the excess paint.

All we're looking for is a nice top edge at this point and we could care less what's happening down here and we'll take a good dry two inch brush and as usual we'll grab this and pull it down, just let it blend right into color that's underneath 'till it looks like it's floating there.

There.

A little bit over in this direction.

There we are.

(mumbling) we've just let that little mountain just float right up there in the sky.

Alright.

And it's also an excellent way of sort of laying out highlights and shadows in your mountain, just by using brush strokes you can begin (dinging) seeing all these things in your mountain without actually doing anything.

Now then, I'm gonna mix up, I'm gonna tell you what, let's take some Sap Green and the Alizarin Crimson in about equal parts, I wanna make a nice brown color.

And mix this quite thoroughly.

Usually we leave our color sort of marbled, but today I wanna mix this 'till we have a nice, nice mix.

Okay, let me clean off the ol' knife and I'll take a little bit of white, and we'll put a little of that color in it and see what we have.

Oh, that's a beautiful brown, isn't it?

We'll cut off a little roll of paint and go right up here and let's use that to just put the indication of some highlights back here on this mountain.

There we are, right there.

There, by not over-mixing this, now you'll get a variety of colors and shades.

There we go.

And don't fight that, let it happen, it'll make your mountain beautiful.

There, no pressure, absolutely no pressure, just allow that to float right down the mountain, that easy, that easy.

Just barely, barely caressing the canvas.

There we go.

Maybe there's a little light zinging right through there, wherever.

And for shadow color let's use some white and we'll use a little touch of that lavendar color that we made up with black and, just black and a Alizarin Crimson, I'll add a little touch of the Phthalo Blue to it, there.

But it's still sort of a lavendar color.

Cut off our little roll of paint once again and then go up in here and we'll use that for some shadows, just drop 'em in, just drop 'em in.

Put one right here.

No pressure, barely touch, come right through, see I pushed that little tip right there back.

You have unlimited power here, unlimited power, can do anything here.

There.

Now then, back to my highlight color and I wanna put a little do-er right there, I like to put these little projections in my mountains, but when you're doing yours, you do 'em anyway that you want.

So very individual.

There, see?

But just by doing that, you can make a whole nother plane in your mountain, give it more dimension, make it more interesting.

There.

And we'll just bring that right on around, maybe like so.

Little touch here and there, create the illusion of some little places up in the mountain.

Now, (dinging) good clean dry brush and we'll create our mist at the base of the mountain, just by tapping, following the angles, and then very gently, very gently lift upward, following the angles, so it's most important that you follow those angles, most important.

Over here, follow the angles in your shadows.

There.

And we can take that same color and every once in a while I like to just bring this out and let it go like that, makes it a little more interesting.

Alright.

And that gives us a pretty nice little mountain.

Here we go.

(dinging) There.

Alright.

We'll just take that same ol' brush, I'mma go into a little bit of that brown color that I made out of the Sap Green and the Alizarin Crimson.

Just tap a little bit onto the two inch brush.

Alright.

Now, then maybe back here in our world there's some little trees living here, just use the corner of the brush.

And all we're gonna do is just put in some very basic little shapes.

Okay.

Start making some decisions here about where your trees live and what they look like, use the corner of the brush, just the corner, see?

And the harder you push, the bigger it is.

Then you can begin putting in little tree shapes or bushes, or whatever you want 'em.

There.

But you have to make these big decisions: how many are there, where do they live, what's their names?

There.

Are they friendly or unfriendly?

All these little things, they just sort of help if you make up little stories in your mind, then these things become personal to you, they become your friends and it just sort of makes painting a little easier and more than that, it makes it fun and painting should make you happy.

Shoot, there's enough unhappy things in the world, painting should be one of those things that brightens your day.

There.

Something about like so.

And then let's find our little liner brush.

We'll take a little paint thinner and go right into that little lavendar color that we made for the shadows of the mountain, it doesn't matter, it's just a light color and it'll work.

Thin like ink, bring that brush to a sharp point, we can go up here and here and there put in indication of a little stick and a twig.

We need some trunks in these trees, we don't want to fall over.

There they are.

Cause then we'd have that old question: if a tree falls in the wood, nobody's there to hear it, would there be any noise?

And we don't want to confuse our minds, so we'll just put some trunks in here so they don't fall.

There.

(dinging) Now, I have several of these old brushes going, so I'm just gonna take another two inch brush here, take a little of the Sap Green, a little yellow, mix it together, a little Yellow Ochre, Indian Yellow, and here and there we're gonna pick up some Bright Red and we'll just vary these colors back and forth.

There, that's lookin' pretty nice.

A little rigid paint, just like so, push 'till you get some color on both sides.

There we are.

Push, that's what loads that brush, though.

Then you can come up in here and start making big decisions here.

What color is each little tree, what's it look like?

There we go, see I added just a touch of the Bright Red to that, change the flavor totally, completely.

And use just the corner of the brush and look at all the little (mumbling) you can make, that easy.

Little rascals live right there on your brush, all you gotta do is just shake 'em out.

But think about form and shape, when you do this don't just throw 'em on at random because then you're gonna be upset with me.

Then you're gonna be upset and we don't want that, we want you to be happy, we want this to work for you.

There, a little bit more of the Sap Green, oh that's nice.

Okay.

Just still varying back and forth between different colors, all the yellows, a little bit of the Bright Red, and Sap Green.

That's a pretty little tree there.

Maybe right here, there's another one.

Okay, now a little, some little do-ers that live down here at the bottom, all kind of little bushes and gotta have a place for the little bunny rabbit to hide.

And by doing one at a time, putting 'em in front of everyone that you have on there already coming forward, forward, that creates that illusion of distance, gotta leave some dark areas back there, though, for the shadows, otherwise it just won't look right.

And we'll put a few right in here.

Okay.

But look at all the layers in there already, already you can see deep in there and we can take the knife and scrape through, put a few sticks and twigs and just little things that live in there.

Now, maybe we'll just use that same, we'll just use a little Van Dyke Brown and Dark Sienna mixed together.

We're gonna come right here, put some land in there and that'll probably be hard to see against this liquid black, but in just a second I'll put a little highlight on there and it'll jump right out, jump right out.

There.

Okay, I'll mix up a little bit of brown and white, maybe even put the least little touch of the Bright Red in there, very little amount of that, just enough to change the taste a little.

See, barely touch, this is just like you were putting snow on the mountain, but barely, barely touch.

Barely touch, caress it, gentle.

And then we'll take our fan brush and we'll just use some of those same colors, the yellows and little touch of the red here and there.

I wanna pop in a few little grassy things that are living out here on the dirt and just let them work their way down.

That'll break up that straight line and the edges on the dirt and bring it all together.

There.

It also gives my little friends a place to hide when they come down here, maybe we'll put some water down here and they can come get a drink then.

We've certainly showed a lot of little critters in this series and I hope you enjoy all them little devils 'cause they are so special to me, so special and I like to share.

I get a lot of letters from my young friends all over the country and they're watching those little rascals and they're learning about how fantastic they can be and that does some good things, if people just understanded all these little creatures.

Shoot, we gotta take care of 'em, if we don't, nobody will.

Alright let's take, I'm using that same brown color, same ol' brown color.

I'll tell ya what, let's just have a big tree right here, you know me and my big trees.

Here he comes.

All we're doing now is just dropping in a basic shape, we're not looking for any detail at this point whatsoever.

(mumbling) there we go, we'll make that decision later.

Take a little white, I'm going right back into that lavender color, it's almost a gray, it's more of a gray than a lavender.

Take the ol' liner brush wish some paint thinner, (moaning) there, put some wiggles and jiggles in there.

Okay.

But, see, let that ol' brush twist and turn and all these little things just happen in there, don't fight 'em, 'cause that's what'll make your tree interesting is having all these little wiggles in your trunk.

Alright.

Go back to my brush here that has the highlight colors on it and we'll take a little of the red and yellows, mix 'em together.

Alright and let's go up here.

Maybe this tree has some beautiful colors on him too.

I think I'll go a little bit more into the red-ish color.

Oh yeah, that's nicer, I like that.

Just find the flavor that you like and drop it in there.

There.

Put some little leaves on him here, give him some little arms and there, see 'em?

And it's just the corner of the brush, that's all we're using, all we're using, just the corner.

Don't get greedy and get it all.

There.

Little bit right in there, we'll just let it drift right into nothing.

Let's try a little bit of the Yellow Orchre on the brush too, right there.

See, we'll put a nice little bush lives there like that.

Okay.

And maybe, I'll tell ya what, let me find a little more of the Sap Green, there it is.

Maybe back here is a little, oh yeah, there it is, you knew it was there, you knew it was there, didn't ya?

Just drop that right in.

Alright.

Okay, I'll tell ya what.

Maybe we'll have a little water in there, we talked about the possibility of a little water.

Find a fan brush, there, I like that one better.

I'm gonna take some white, Liquid White, mix it with Titanium White, be right back, don't go away, don't go away, a little Phthalo Blue mixed right in with it.

I put the Liquid White in there only to thin this color a little bit because, as you know, a thin paint will stick to a thick paint.

Now that maybe in our world right here, maybe there's a happy little stream just floatin' along and it falls off, splashes a little, just works it's way on down here.

This is just Liquid White, a little Titanium White, a touch of Phthalo Blue in it.

Push here and there to give it a little ripple and splash 'cause there's stones underneath the water that you don't see and it causes little do-ers to happen in the water, all these little things.

Just think about a little stream bubbling along here and playing now, all kinds of little things.

There we go.

Now, where does it go, where does it go?

I have to make some big decisions here.

I don't know where it goes.

We'll just let it run right on off the canvas, then we'll worry 'bout it later.

Little ripples here and there.

I did that in a super easy, nice way to make a stream, it looks pretty good that quick.

I'll tell ya what, we need somethin' on this side to hold that stream together and we'll use some more of that same ol' brown color and let's have a nice tree right there.

There he comes.

And all we're doing, all we're doing, once again, is just putting in a basic shape, maybe we'll have a nice tree on this side too, we don't want it left out.

There we are.

And maybe there's some little bushes that live right in here, wherever.

You put your bushes wherever you think they should be.

And we'll take our brush that has the highlight color on it, tap a little color and let's come right in here, oh yeah, oh yeah, there it comes and we'll put some nice little leaves and stuff on there, change the flavor a little here and there.

And off we go.

There.

See, you can create beautiful, beautiful things just using the corner of a two-inch brush, you really can do that.

I'mma go into a little of the red-ish color, oh yeah, a sparkler, there's a sparkler right there, right there.

Now that one will attract your eye to it.

When you start using these bright red ones, be careful not to put too many in because it'll make your eye go sort of crazy.

Maybe there's one in there.

Wherever, wherever.

I see where I wanna go now.

Maybe let's do this, let's just do this.

Take a little of that brown color, just fill this in, come right on out, that'll hold our stream in so it doesn't get away.

Them son-of-a-guns sometime will get away on you, just run off and leave you.

So let's come right down here, put some little grassy things right on that stream, there they are.

Just tapping though, all we're doing is just tapping.

There.

And maybe back in here, yeah, you're right, you were right, there's some more little bushes and all kind of little things that hide in there, there they are.

Now then, let's get crazy, shoot, we got a minute left here.

Take a little bit of the Liquid White, put it out, to that I'm gonna add a little Dark Sienna, a little bit of the Bright Red, not much, but I have a very, very thin color now.

Take our fan brush, load it full of Dark Sienna and Van Dyke Brown, just mix 'em together like so and then we're gonna go down here and run one side through that light color.

So now I have dark on one side, light on the other, maybe we have a big tree, we do now, (vocal noises) lives right there.

And that way you can do both sides at once.

(vocal noises) Have another one.

And you put as many or as few in your world as you want.

Maybe here's a, oh my gosh, there's a huge one there.

There is a huge one there, darken him up a little.

Alright.

We're gonna have a big tree, we might as well have a big tree, maybe we'll have another one.

Sometimes you get started with this and you can't stop, it gets to be fun.

Now, you take our liner brush, liner brush, come in here, maybe there's a few ol' limbs that hang out here, this is that same brown color.

Just let a ol' limb hang off in here, wherever, wherever.

And you just put as many or as few as you want in here, as many or as few.

There's some back here on this one, maybe they're behind that one.

There.

I'll tell you what, maybe we'll put a few leaves on this so we don't have to be real careful about where we put these limbs.

Alright.

This ol' big guy here, he'd have a monster that hangs way out over here, I know, I know, I know he would, at least in my world he does.

Got some arms sticking up.

Now then, sometimes I like to show a little reflected light on the back of these trunks, so I'm gonna take, let's use a little touch of Prussian Blue and I'll mix a little white, we use Prussian Blue because it's very dark and very strong and I'm just gonna tap the least little touch of a little reflected light on the back of some of these tree trunks down here, the least little touch, the least little touch.

And we'll take a little dark and just tap and this is a way you can create a feel of bark on your tree, I mean, when it dries it will feel like real bark.

There.

I'll tell ya what, I'll find a fan brush, we'll use number three, it's layin' here, I'm gonna use black and maybe a little bit more of that Prussian Blue in it.

Let's come up in here and just take that little brush and tap in an indication of a few little branches that live up in here, just black, touch of Prussian Blue, or you could use brown if you wanted to, it's up to you, up to you.

There.

Oh, right over my mountain, that's alright, we know it's back there.

There we go.

Alright.

Now then, just leave that color on there and go in a little yellow, that'll instantly turn green 'cause it has blue in it and we'll tap in a few highlights.

There we are.

Just here and there.

And with that, shoot, I think we got a pretty nice ol' painting, gonna call that one finished.

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

(light music)