- Hi, welcome back.

Certainly glad you could join us today.

I thought today we'd do just a beautiful little painting, and what I've done here is I've taken and covered the canvas with a piece of contact paper that has an oval cut in it, and then I've covered this whole area in here with black gesso, allowed that to dry completely, and we just went over that and covered the entire black area with a little bit of alizarin crimson and just covered the entire black area from top to bottom.

So I tell you what, let's start out, have 'em run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint this little painting with me.

And while they're doing that, shoot, let's go on up here and get started.

I thought we'd just do something that's very bright and happy, make you feel good inside.

Let's start out today with a little bit of cad yellow on the two-inch brush, and we'll just tap a little bit of color into the bristles like so.

There we go.

Okay, now today we have to make a decision right up front.

We have to decide basically where our horizon's gonna be, and we'll start there, and make sure it's not dead in the center of your painting.

Put it to one side or the other, a little up, little down, but not dead center.

Maybe right in here, start in that area and begin making little x's.

That'll be your lightest area right there.

And it's gonna pick up the alizarin crimson and all kinds of beautiful little things will happen.

Just like so, and work from that light area out.

Continually blending outward.

And as your brush picks up more and more of the crimson, automatically it's gonna get darker and darker in value as you work out from that lightest area.

There, now then, now we can do this as many times as we want to achieve a desired lightness.

But each and every time, you go back, you wash your brush, and be sure you start with a clean, dry brush.

Shake it off.

(banging) (chuckling) And just beat the devil out of it.

But as I say, now maybe we wanna make this really bright.

We could take a little titanium white on our brush and then go into the yellow.

There we go, now then, just load a little color on it.

Let's go right up here, back to our bright area.

Always start in that brightest area.

And then begin blending outward.

Always blending outward.

And you don't want to carry this dirty brush back into your light area or you'll lose that nice, bright area.

Okay.

One thing that you will find when you're applying color over a black canvas is transparent color.

Sometimes it's very difficult to rub that on there 'cause we use a very firm, dry, thick paint.

If you'll put the least little coat of liquid clear on here first, then you'll find it's very easy to put that color on.

But a very, very thin coat.

Probably the biggest mistake made is applying too much of the liquid clear.

(banging) And we can dry our brush again.

Now then, I just wanna blend this all out, bring it together, and we'll start doing some fun little things back in here.

There.

Very lightly go across.

Okay, now then, let's make us a mixture.

Let's make a mixture of, tell you what, let's use alizarin crimson, alizarin crimson and a little phthalo blue.

Proportionately much, much more crimson than blue.

The blue is many times stronger.

So use a lot more crimson than blue.

Sounds like a good song title.

There we are, now then, let me clean off my old knife.

And I just wipe the knife on old paper towel, shoot, any old thing, clean rag'll do.

Now then, let's just take, we'll just keep using this old two-inch brush, what the heck.

Just get a little color on it and tap it.

That loads the end of the bristles with color.

Just tap it, see, give it a little push, little extra push right there.

Now then, let's make some big decisions.

Maybe there's some beautiful little bushes that live right down here.

Like so, now then, begin thinking about very basic shape and form and all those kind of things.

And I like to do the bottom of the bush first and then work upward.

That way, automatically, automatically your bush will get lighter in value as you work upward.

Or your tree, this one's turning into a tree.

See there?

That's all there is to it.

And then we have a basic shape here for a very nice little tree.

Now over here on the other side, put a little more color on your brush.

Maybe there's another little bush lives right there.

And we're still using just the corner of the two-inch brush.

So often we avoid this brush because it's big, but it'll do some of the most beautiful little detail things of all the brushes we use.

Look there.

I love these little black canvas scenes.

They are so pretty, and you can make such beautiful things happen.

There, color stands out so good against this black gesso.

Now maybe in our world, shoot, we don't know, maybe there's some big trees that are way back in here.

And I wanna do these very subdued, very quiet.

You do this when the brush is almost out of paint.

These'll be the little background trees that are far away.

There we go.

And you just make a decision where they live and drop 'em in.

Now then, maybe there's another big tree that lives here in the front.

We'll make him a little bit darker so it stands out.

There.

But just sorta let your imagination go.

Make decisions where you think things would live in your world and drop it in.

That's really when you begin experiencing the joy of painting is when you don't have to spend all your time thinking about how to make a procedure, but what to make, that's when it really becomes fun.

That's when you really taste the freedom.

And to me, painting represents freedom because on this canvas, I can create any kind of world that I want, and so can you.

Any kind of world that you want.

I think I've mentioned in past series, I spent half my life in the military playing soldier.

In the evenings I could come home, take off my old military hat, and get out the paintbrush, and I'd create the kind of world that I wanted.

There's no bad guys in here, no guns.

This is a happy place, little squirrels live here and play.

And that's where I really wanted to be.

I didn't want to play soldier all the time.

Let's take a little paint thinner and go right into that same color with the liner brush.

But a lot of paint thinner, you want this to be very thin, almost ink consistency, turning the bristles.

That brings it to a nice, sharp point.

Let's go up here, now then, we can go in here, and we can begin putting in all kinds of little tree trunks, stems, whatever you want.

Just wherever you want 'em.

There.

See, just all kinds of little happy things.

Now if your paint does not flow like that, chances are, it's too thick.

Add a little bit more of the paint thinner, and I think that'll eliminate the problem.

But it should flow right over the top of this thick paint very easy.

And if you're using a thick paint, once again, and it does not flow, add a little more of the paint thinner, that's all you have to do.

There, and we can put some indications back here on these bigger trees.

All these little details here.

See, you always have a lot of sticks and twigs that grow out in the woods, so that makes it pretty.

Very nice.

There.

Shoot, maybe we can see the indication of something that, mm, there it is, big old thing that lives right there.

Let your brush wiggle and jiggle and have fun.

Tree trunks, sometimes, oh, they're all gnarly.

I hope that's a word, but you know what I mean.

They have wiggles and bends in 'em.

They've had rough lives.

Shoot, maybe they got stepped on, all kinds of things.

Now who knows?

But don't just make 'em all straight.

It gets very boring very rapidly.

There, now we can see the indication here and there of just little things that are protruding out from between the little limbs, all these little things.

And people think you spend tremendous sums of time trying to put this together, and don't tell 'em any different.

There.

You know, I get letters from so many people, and they tell me (banging) of their successes and how well this is working for 'em and the fact that people actually wanna buy their paintings, and they're very, very shocked over that.

They say, "Gosh, you know, I never dreamed anybody'd "wanna buy something that I painted."

Don't be surprised when that happens because people will like what you're doing and they won't believe that you're doing 'em.

I get letters from people say, "My family does not "believe I done this myself."

They will not believe, and money is not important.

Money only is a way, if you sell your painting, it's a way of, it's your report card.

it's people telling you that I enjoy your work so much that I'm willing to give you my hard-earned happy buck for it.

That's really a supreme compliment, even if you don't sell your work.

It's a big, big compliment.

I'm taking a little titanium white, a little bit of that same lavender color.

Let me get a little more white here.

There we go, lighten that up a little.

Now tap the bristles, tap 'em, there we go.

See how that pushes, but there's a little bit of paint.

You can see that little ridge that's left on the palette there, there's also one that corresponds to that on the end of your bristles.

That's what we're looking for.

Let's go up here, now with that, we can come in here and very lightly put in a few indications of just little highlights, see 'em?

We don't wanna get too much.

Just enough to show some little sparklies on these trees.

Not too much, there we go.

Over here.

Since our light source is right in the middle, we'll highlight the other side.

There we go.

All right.

You never believed you could do that with a big old brush I bet, and you can.

You really and truly can.

I'm gonna add a little touch of the phthalo blue to that just to blue it down a little.

And let's go right up in here.

'Cause we're getting away from the light source, I want it to get a little darker, a little more into the bluer cool tones.

Blue is a very cool color, where your reds and yellows and stuff are very warm.

So play not only light against dark, but warm against cool.

There, makes beautiful, beautiful effects in your painting.

And this big old tree up here, there we go.

We'll just put some happy little things hanging out here on him, too, or her, whatever the case may be.

There.

This is one of the neatest, nicest ways of painting trees.

And even if you've never painted before, this'll work for you, this is a very simple painting.

Very simple.

Guaranteed success.

But like anything else, the more you do it, the better you're gonna get at it.

'Cause with practice comes confidence, you're familiar with your tools and what they will do, you're familiar with the colors and how they'll behave, how they mix.

And one of the things we try to do is keep the number of colors that you need to do this very limited so you learn what each color will do and the characteristics of that color.

And it makes life easier for you.

I'm just gonna go in here and begin putting in layers, a few little layers of things, work in layers, always.

Just like so, do the thing that you believe is farthest away first, and then work forward, forward, forward.

Always working forward.

There we go.

There, see, but you just put layer after layer after layer.

All right, and things begin happening, see, there's a little thing left in here.

I'm beginning to see all kinds of happy little things.

And you take those, and from that, you create your painting, your composition comes right out of that.

You can really compose as you paint.

And that, too, becomes easier and easier with practice.

You can take the books that we have that go with the series and like take a tree out of one painting and maybe a lake out of another one or a building, and put 'em together and make all kinds of new compositions.

They're only intended as guides to help you learn the technique and to have an idea.

Shoot, mix 'em up.

Let's have some fun, maybe there's some little grassy areas that live in here.

Let's go, we'll go right into a little bit of yellow, I'll grab a little black, when you touch that there, it makes a beautiful green color.

A little yellow ochre, indian yellow, little bright red here and there.

Once again, tap that brush, get that little bit of paint right out on the end, let's go back up here.

Now you gotta make some big decisions here.

Maybe there's some grassy areas that live up here.

Where they live, make a decision, and begin dropping 'em in.

Begin dropping 'em in, see there, work in layers, though.

I know you get tired of hearing that, but it's so important.

Start with the area that's farthest away and work forward.

And you know what I'm beginning to see here?

I bet you've seen it already, too.

Wouldn't this be a perfect place to have a happy little stream that lives?

Maybe we'll do that.

Just looks like a natural place to have one.

Tell you what, tell you what, let's do that.

Let's take, see, you get crazy sometimes when you do this, but that's all right.

You know, if you're a painter, you're allowed to be a little different, people expect that.

So take advantage of that.

Cut off a little roll of paint right on the edge of the knife, there it is, let's go up here.

Decide where your stream bed's gonna be.

Maybe it's gonna live right in here.

I'm just putting some dark on so our water'll have some place to run.

Just van dyke brown, a little dark sienna.

This'll be our ground area now.

Maybe, maybe, maybe it'll fall, let's have it fall right here, what the heck.

Shoot, you can do anything, you can do anything.

Anything that your heart can imagine, you can do.

At least on this canvas.

There, a little brown and white.

Tiny little roll of paint.

And I'm just gonna let that barely graze here and there.

Just want an indication here and there of a little highlight, not much, just a little.

Just a little, make it look like all kind of little land areas in there, but look how color comes out against this dark canvas, it sparkles.

Just absolutely sparkles.

You can just put it on little things like that, and who knows, and then go back with your dark color, your browns and stuff, and change that into rocks just by pulling down a little bit.

Allow a little bit of that white to touch it.

I hope you can see that.

But you can create all kinds of illusions of stones and rocks and little shelves of stone there just by changing the angles.

Just change the angles.

There we go, little right there.

That'll turn out to be a big stone when we're done.

Now then, shoot, let's get crazy here.

Let's take a fan brush, gonna dip it into the liquid white, and we'll go here, go into titanium white.

I put the liquid white on there only to thin the color.

Only to thin it, that's all, 'cause a thin paint will stick to a thick paint, but you can't reverse that easily, it's a lot of trouble if you reverse it.

Maybe we'll put the least little touch of phthalo blue, and I mean least little touch, just enough to give it a hint of blue, all right?

A lot of color in the brush.

Let's go right up here.

Gotta make some big decisions.

Maybe our water starts back here somewhere.

We don't know where it comes from, phew, falls over.

Then every time it falls, when it hits, there's gonna be a little splash.

There it goes.

Now if you have trouble making this go over without it mixing with all your color, add a little more of the liquid white.

Once again, that thin color will slide right over there.

Where do we want it to go?

How many little waterfalls do you want in your world?

And maybe, shoot, maybe some of 'em disappear there, come out around here, and drop over.

Doesn't matter.

You can create any illusion that you want on your canvas.

Maybe they come way out here and drop.

This water just bubbles through here.

You can almost hear it.

There's very few sounds in nature that are prettier than listening to water trickle over rocks and fall.

I dream one day of having a home right beside a little bubbling steam like this where you can just set and listen to it all day or all night, whatever.

Now then, let's go back, take our brush with our green on it, a little green, yellow, grab some of that ochre.

Tap a little color into the bristle.

Now then, let's take a little of that green and push that right back.

We want this to be higher than the water so it looks like it's coming from behind it.

There, see there?

Isn't that something?

And the beauty of this, you could still turn this back into a happy little meadow, for example, if you wanted to.

It's not too late.

It's not too late.

You can just create all kinds of things yet with it.

There we go.

See, just layer after layer.

Let's go on the other side and do a few little things over there, same basic idea, though.

See, just tap in all your little grassy areas wherever you want 'em.

Maybe we'll make this one a little higher back here, there.

So it contains the water, we don't want the water slipping over the edges there and get the whole field wet out here.

We don't want that.

But maybe in your world you do want that.

If you do, it's okay, you can do that.

Let's put some... Let's put some happy little things here.

We'll just take some titanium white and just color on the canvas.

Grab it and pull down.

Pull straight down and allow that color that's on the canvas to mix with your white.

That creates all kinds of nice little effects, very nice.

Straight down though, it's most importantly to go straight down, if it goes at an angle, it's not gonna look right to you.

And people who look at your painting, even if they don't understand, if they don't understand exactly what's wrong with it, their mind will tell 'em something's not right in here, and it will disturb them.

So try to keep these lines coming straight down.

There we go, now then, we can have some little splashy, happy things that come out through here.

And some little shimmers across the water just by taking the brush...

Shoot, whatever you want on there.

Just drop 'em in, a few little splashes and foamy areas that are floating out through here.

There's no limit to this, wherever you want it to go.

Okay, tell you what, we'll take a little dark color here.

Let me take a little of that lavender that we mixed up, how's crimson, a little phthalo blue, tap a little into the brush.

Now then, maybe there's a little peninsula that comes right out through here.

You know me, I like them old big trees, so maybe we'll put a big tree in here.

We have to have a place for him to set, so we're just putting some dark color in here so our light will show.

That's all.

And we can go back to our brush that's got the green on it and the yellow ochre, little touch of the bright red.

Little indian yellow, all the reds, just tap it.

Now then, just come right on down here, but angles are very important, follow these angles that you put in here, see?

Just let that work its way right on down.

Right on down.

There.

Now maybe, yeah, that's nice, I like that.

Tell you what, maybe in our world there lives... We can have anything we want in our world.

But maybe there lives a nice little bush right here.

We just take a one-inch brush, push in.

Indication of a couple little bushes that live right in here, wherever you want 'em.

Wherever you want 'em, doesn't matter.

And I'll just take that and go right through some yellow.

Because it has a little blue on it, we'll get a nice green color.

Little yellow ochre on it, okay, now, maybe we'll just put a beautiful little bush in right there.

Leave some of these dark areas though, don't kill 'em all.

That's what separates all your little bushes.

Those little dark areas are your good friend.

Ooh, there's a nice one, got a lot of yellow ochre in it.

See, that's a happy accident.

Happy accident, that's a gift, enjoy it.

That's a gift.

Maybe, shoot, maybe there's some right down in here.

We don't know, wherever you want 'em.

Now then, tell you what, tell you what, we can take just our clean knife, and here and there, just scrape in an indication of a few sticks and twigs wherever you want 'em, let some of the black canvas show through, that's all we're doing.

But it helps create that illusion of distance and depth in your painting.

Okay, let's have some fun.

This is the moment of truth.

Let's bring a camera right up here, and let's pull the contact paper off.

And we'll just zip that right off... like so, isn't that something?

That is pretty, I like these kind of painting.

And you know me, shoot, there's a minute or two left here.

Let's have us a happy tree.

We'll just take the knife, maybe, maybe we'll have an old birch tree that lives right here.

Let's just let it run all the way up here.

Now you could've left the birch tree inside of the oval, but I sorta like it when it sneaks out a little bit.

But when you do your painting, you make that decision.

If you want him to live inside that oval, you put that rascal in there and keep him in there.

There, this is just straight van dyke brown.

Just making a basic tree trunk.

Now you could also do this just by taking the fan brush and making one stroke, and you can create a trunk in one stroke.

Just thought we'd do it with a knife today, just a little different.

There.

Okay, that gives us a basic trunk.

Now then, let's take some titanium white, a little titanium white, pull it out as flat as you can get it, cut across, and we have our small roll of paint, see, right on the edge.

Here's our light, so maybe it's gonna hit right here, and just sorta pull around a little.

But when you do this, let me exaggerate, grab it and pull around, hope you can see that.

See there, and that gives a roundness to your tree.

There we go.

Wherever you want him to go, here he goes, bloop, bloop.

Helps to make those little noises.

Of course people look at you a little strange, but that's all right, that's all right.

Now then, we'll take some paint thinner, some paint thinner.

A little bit of brown.

We want this to be very thin, though, ink consistency.

Okay, let's go up here.

Now then, maybe there's a big old elm that lives right here, and you can let it come right on out of the oval if you want to, it's okay.

It's yours, you can do with it anything that you please.

Here's one, comes right up in the sky, maybe it comes right on in front.

Maybe there's just a little shorty there, gotta have some of those, too.

Wherever, wherever.

See, there they go.

And right on up here.

There, but just make all kinds of happy little tree limbs and things that make you happy.

Now a few on this other one right over here.

Like that.

Shoot, this little old tree's coming right along here.

This is a beautiful painting.

I really hope you try it, you will find it works very well, it's an easy little painting.

You can do it without any problem.

Tell you what, let's sign that.

We'll take a little bit of red, come right in here, and we'll sign her, and with that, we'll call this one finished.

I hope you've enjoyed this.

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

(light music) - [Voiceover] This program is brought to you by North Light Books, publisher of over 200 how-to books and videos for fine artists and graphic designers.

And by Langnickel, manufacturers of selected artist brushes.