(instrumental music) - Hello, I'm Bob Ross, and I'd like to welcome you to the 20th Joy of Painting series.

Son of a gun, it's hard for me to believe this is the 20th series, but it is, and I'd like to thank you very much for inviting me back for another series of painting shows.

If this is your first time with us, let me extend a personal invitation for you to drag out your brushes and your paints and paint along with us each show.

I think you'll enjoy it.

Tell you what, let's start out today and have 'em run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint along with me.

And I think we'll just do a happy little picture today.

So, let me tell you what I've got done up here.

We have our standard old 18 by 24 inch canvas, but you use whatever size you want.

And we have it covered with a little bit of liquid white, just a thin, even coat, just enough to make the canvas wet.

And with that, we'll just take off, and we'll have a super time.

Start today, I think we'll use a little one-inch brush and we'll go into a very, very small amount of the phthalo blue.

Just a little bit.

Don't want much.

And let's make some, let's make some happy little clouds in our world.

Let's come right up here.

And, we'll just take this brush, and we'll just bounce in some nice shapes.

Now, when we're doing this, we're interested in the white area, not the dark.

So don't worry about the dark area.

We're gonna blend that all out.

All we're doing is putting in some color for the shadows of our clouds.

And this is one of the nicest, easiest ways of making very effective, great big ol' clouds.

There.

See, we're interested in this white area, once again.

Maybe there's another little cloud that lives in our world, right along there.

Wherever you think they should be, then that's exactly where they should be.

Just wherever.

And just use the old little one-inch brush, and just, I'm making tiny little circles.

Just tiny little circles.

There we are.

Okay, maybe I'll add a little color right in here too.

Just so there'll be a little color at the base of this cloud.

There.

Now then, let's take our little brush, this is a two-inch brush, and go right up in here, and very gently, I'm using just the corner of the brush.

We'll make little, round circle patterns here, just sort of wind it up, blend it together.

Allow it to blend with the white that's already on the canvas.

And that's the joy of this wet-on-wet painting technique.

The fact that it's wet allows you to blend color, right on the canvas.

Right on the canvas.

There you go.

Now, it's beginning to make a little sense.

See how those dark areas end up being the nice shadows and the white areas will end up being our clouds.

This is a great way to make clouds for seascape paintings.

Just great, big, fluffy clouds.

Works very nice.

There we are.

Now then, while we have this old brush dirty, tell you what let's do.

Let's go back into a little bit more of that phthalo blue.

Phthalo blue is a very nice color, it's a very warm blue.

I like that.

Just a little color on the brush.

Okay, let's go back up here.

Let's have some water in this painting.

If you've painted with me before, you know I'm a fanatic for water.

I love water.

And it's one of the nicest, easiest things to paint in this technique.

And today, maybe this one will be still water.

So we want these lines to be basically straight across here.

Cause as you know, still water is always flat, always level.

There.

Now, just very lightly, go all the way across, and sort of bring it together.

and that light area here, it'll remain in there.

There.

Okay.

Now, the most fun part of this whole technique is washing the brush.

So let's do that.

We wash our brushes with odorless thinner.

Shake off the excess.

(laughs) And just beat the devil out of it.

This is where you take our all your frustrations and hostilities and just have a good time.

Let's go into a little titanium white.

We'll use the old fan brush.

We'll make some little clouds.

I'll be right back, let me grab the least little touch of the bright red.

Just enough, a little bit more.

There.

Just enough to put a little pinkish glow into our little clouds.

Don't want much, don't want much.

Okay, let's go up here.

Now we gotta make big decisions.

We'll just use this brush and decide where our little clouds live.

And, we just come along here and sort of drop 'em in.

This also works very well with a little one-inch brush.

Very well.

Either way that you wanna do it.

Either way.

If you haven't painted with us before, one of the things that we try to do here, we try not to teach you just to copy.

All we're trying to do is teach you a technique and turn you loose on the world.

We use no patterns, no tracings.

All we do is sort of have an idea in our mind, and we just sorta let it happen.

And if you'll practice this a little bit, very soon you can enjoy the freedom of creating a painting right on the canvas.

Right on the canvas.

And to me, that's where it really becomes fun.

It's when you can literally create a painting right on the canvas as you're working on it.

You look at what you're doing, and you'll see things.

They'll just sort of happen.

And you learn to take advantage of whatever happens and use it to make your painting special.

And you can do that.

Okay, let's go back, (bangs brush on easel) get our old two-inch brush, and I just wanna now blend all that together.

Just blend together.

I'm being careful not to touch these top edges yet.

I'm just blending the blue and the white down here together, very gently, still using little circular strokes.

There we go.

Just sort of let that mix together.

I'm getting very close to the top, but I'm trying not to touch it at this point.

Very close, but not touching.

There.

A little bit up in here.

See?

Just sorta blend it together.

Mix it up, just like you're making a cake or something.

Just mix it up.

A little bit in here, right there.

Okay.

Good.

But this is a beautiful way.

(bangs brush) I just beat the brush like that to knock off excess paint.

It's a beautiful way to create a very effective, big, fluffy clouds.

Now we're just sorta lifting it up.

This will blend it all together, smooth it out.

There.

See there?

And then, very lightly, two hairs and some air, just gently, gently, gently blend the entire sky.

And with that, shoot, we have a pretty nice looking little sky.

And there wasn't anything to it.

Now then, let's get crazy.

Let's take, we'll use some midnight black, little Prussian blue.

Now, Prussian blue is much darker than phthalo blue, it's strong, whew.

Very strong color.

We'll put some Van Dyke brown, a little Alizarin crimson in there too.

But we're looking for a very dark color, it should look black.

Pull it out as flat as you can get it, and go straight down with the knife, and we'll just cut off a little roll of paint.

There it is.

It's right out at the edge of the knife.

Let's go up here.

Now, I want to make some tiny little mountains up in here, that are far away.

I don't want these to be very big, because we wanna create the illusion of distance here.

Using a very firm pressure, just literally push this right into the fabric.

And I don't want a lot of mountains today, that's about all we need.

With a two-inch brush, I'm gonna grab this and pull it.

Just pull it.

It does two things, removes excess paint and it blends all this together.

There we go.

Now, when we're painting mountains, as you know, you always want the top of the mountain to be more distinct than the bottom of the mountain.

Because at the bottom, we have mist and now we have wonderful pollution, and we have all these things that break up and diffuse light, and it creates this softness at the base of the mountain.

Let's go into a little titanium white, what the heck.

Very small amount.

Get a very, very small amount of paint on the knife.

Now then, barely touch, no pressure.

No pressure.

And I don't want this to be very distinct.

I want this to be very quiet, subdued, far away, gentle, soft.

Think about those types of words and stuff when you're painting, and it'll help your hand go much more gentle.

But very soft.

Don't want a lot of detail in this.

And we'll take a little bit of blue and white, and just the indication of some shadows, don't even want a lot of shadow back here.

Too much detail will ruin that illusion of distance.

Just enough, just enough to give the feeling that there's a nice mountain living back in there.

Now with a clean, dry brush, following the angles, always follow the angles, we're gonna very gently, very gently tap it and then lift it upward.

And that'll help also create that illusion of mist at the base of the mountain.

Shoot, let's get crazy.

Find another one-inch brush.

Or you could use your fan brush, whatever.

Take a little bit more of the titanium white.

Maybe in our world, maybe this old cloud right here, it just sort of drift right down in front of the mountain.

So, just a little white.

Little circles, tiny little circles.

Shoot, maybe there's one right here.

I don't know.

I don't know, just sorta look at your painting and make a decision.

Maybe it just sorta wraps this old mountain up.

We'll take a two-inch brush and just blend it together.

This is a super way of making mountains, that look like their just laying out here in the mist.

I lived in Alaska for many, many years, and you see some of the most beautiful scenery there.

God was having a good day when He made Alaska.

Beautiful.

Beautiful.

There, see that old mountain just lays up here in the mist now, and floats around, has a good time all day.

Now then.

Maybe we'll have some little foothills back here.

I like to do little foothills.

And we'll take some of that same mountain color, add the least little touch of sap green to it.

Little sap green, there we are.

But it's predominantly blue.

The one that's farthest away here, we'll make predominantly blue.

Okay, let me wipe my knife off.

And let's use, we'll use a one-inch brush, what the heck.

You could use your fan brush or two-inch brush, it doesn't matter.

Load a little color in there.

And let's go right up in here.

Now, we have to make a big decision.

Where does our little foothills live.

Maybe we'll have one coming right over here.

We'll start this one out back here, just using the corner of the brush and pulling straight down, gently.

Maybe a little foothill comes right over like that.

Wherever.

Once again, this is a very individual thing, painting is.

So, just sorta look at it and make up your mind how you want your painting to be.

Now then, when you're doing the foothills, especially layers of foothills, you want a little misty area in between, that's your separator.

So take the brush, two-inch brush, and just tap the base of it.

And you can tap quite firmly.

You can probably hear how hard I'm hitting the canvas here.

And then, very lightly, just lift it upward a little bit.

There.

Okay, now then, maybe we'll have several layers in here.

When you're doing landscapes, each layer, each plane, as it comes closer to you, should get darker in value.

So we'll use that same color, and I'll just add a little bit of that mountain color.

See, it's right here, I'll just add a little of that into it.

That'll make it a little darker.

Maybe a touch more of the green.

There we go.

Okay.

Now, maybe over here, we'll hold the brush up like this.

And that'll make tops that are a little taller, a little more distinct, cause they're getting a little closer to you.

There.

But you can create just layer after layer after layer like this.

And it enhances your painting tremendously because it creates that illusion of depth.

Back to our two-inch brush, and once again, once again, we wanna create that mist.

See how that mist in between separates?

It's your best friend.

Take care of it.

Take care of it.

There we go.

Now lift upward.

And maybe, I'll tell you what, let's have one more.

Let's have one more.

I'm adding a little more of that dark color right into that same original pile.

One more.

And then, maybe it lives right here.

But it's darker in value.

It's a little darker.

There we go.

And we'll let him come, maybe, right down in here.

I don't know.

There.

But each layer, each layer needs to get darker in value.

To keep that feeling of distance in the painting.

And I know I repeat that over and over, but it's so important.

So important.

You don't want just a flat old painting.

Shoot.

We want a masterpiece here.

And you can do that.

Once again, we're gonna tap that base, just like so.

Very lightly, lift it upward.

There.

And maybe, we're beginning to get down here to where there are a few reflections, so we'll take a little paint on the two-inch brush, grab it and pull it straight down.

It's most important that these reflections come straight down.

Most important.

If you go at an angle like this, it won't look right.

See, even there, it doesn't look right.

Now very lightly, go across.

Very, very lightly.

Just enough to blend it and give it the feeling of water.

It's one of the nicest things about this technique, it's instant reflections.

(chuckles) Now then, we'll take a little of the liquid white, put the least little touch of the bright red in it.

Just, least little touch.

Just enough to flavor it a little bit.

Be careful, because very quickly, this can get really intense in color.

Now we just cut across.

That's all there is to it.

Go up here, and we'll just put in, just the indication of a happy little waterline that lives here.

Now, if you get one that's maybe a little too strong or too bright, just go back and rub it.

The more you rub it, the lighter it'll get, because it'll just be absorbed right into the color that's underneath.

No big deal.

And if you've painted with me before, you know without question that we don't make mistakes here.

We just have happy accidents.

But you learn to use anything that happens.

Okay, maybe, right there.

And, little ripples.

But notice how all these lines are basically straight.

If they're not, it's gonna look like your water's gonna run right outta your painting and get your floor wet, and you'll have to tie a bucket on one side.

(chuckles) We don't want you to have to do that.

Now, tell you what.

Clean off a little spot.

Let's take some black, Prussian blue, brown, crimson, sap green, all those same colors, but with no white in it.

So very, very dark.

Very dark.

Looks black on the palette.

There.

Okay, let me clean my knife.

And I just wipe the knife on an old paper towel.

Find a fan brush here.

Let's take the fan brush, and go right into that color.

Load a lot of paint onto the brush.

Both sides.

See, the bristles are, there's a lot of paint in there.

Okay, let's go up here.

Maybe back in here, in our world, there lives, well there does now, anyway, there lives a happy little evergreen tree.

And we just use the corner of the brush.

Just the corner, and as you work down the tree, add more and more pressure so that the bristles bend downward much, much more.

Look at there.

Isn't that a nice way to make a happy little evergreen?

Let's give him a friend.

You know me.

I think everybody, everybody should have a friend.

Friends are so important.

There.

Alright.

Maybe, shoot.

In our world, maybe there's three trees here.

You can put as many or as few as you want.

The only thing that we would like to teach you here is how to make a tree.

You decide how many trees you have in your world.

Maybe we'll have some, maybe there's a little reflection down here.

Just put some general shapes, we're not looking for detail.

Not looking for detail.

Just very basic little shapes.

Shoot, who knows?

Maybe there's some land there too.

You can just push up with the fan brush, a little bit down for the reflection.

And let's take, we'll use the old two-inch brush, and grab this, decide where water and land meet, and pull straight down once again.

Straight down.

Son of a gun.

Instant reflections.

Go across, and that easy.

That easy.

And see, these reflections, you can push 'em.

See how you can push 'em?

Because the canvas is wet, you can do that.

You can do anything here.

Oh this canvas, you have total and absolute power.

Unlimited power here.

(laughs) When I go home, the only thing I can do is take the garbage out.

But here, I can do anything that I wanna do.

Let's take a little of the dark sienna and a little white, get a little roll of paint on the knife, and let's put a little indication here and there of a little tree trunk that lives in these.

There.

Don't want a great deal.

Don't want a great deal, just enough to Just enough to indicate there's something in there.

And you can just take the point of the knife, and just scrape through and make little lines and sticks and all those little things.

Tell you what, let me grab another fan brush.

I have several of them going here.

And let's take and go into a little yellow, this is cad yellow, a little touch of that color we made the tree out of, since it has blue in it, as soon as we touch the yellow, turns beautiful green color.

Maybe a little yellow ochre too.

I want a dark green here.

Once again, load the bristles quite full.

A lot of color.

Let's go up here.

Now then, let's put some highlights on these little trees.

Don't wanna overdo.

If you put too much highlights on here, too many highlights, then it loses it's effectiveness.

We want these to be quite dark.

Look at there.

And that's all there is to it.

Darker, darker, darker.

Now, maybe down here, there's some little grassy things that grow on this.

And you can just make those by pushing up with the brush, that's all.

Very easy.

Now.

Let's have some land under there.

We need something to hold those trees up so they don't fall over in the water and make a big splash.

There.

Little Van Dyke brown, little dark sienna mixed together.

Like so, we'll take a little touch of that brown and white.

Just make the indication of a little land there.

Little bit of the liquid white that we had left over.

And we'll just put in a little waterline.

This waterline is your separator.

It's a light between two darks, and that separates it, and makes it, makes it stand out.

Alright.

Tell you what, we'll just use this big brush.

Ready to have some fun?

If you've painted with me before, you know that I love to make big trees.

So let's do that.

I'll use the old two-inch brush today.

The old two-inch brush.

So often we avoid this brush because it's big and we're afraid of it.

A lot of paint.

Wiggle.

Wiggle, wiggle, then sharpen it, just like you would a knife.

Look how sharp this brush is.

There, you can see.

It's very sharp.

Let's go up here.

Now then, maybe in our world lives a big evergreen tree.

Right there.

Just touch the canvas.

Now, we use just the corner.

Just the corner of the brush.

And just go back and forth, and begin laying in all of these beautiful little limbs and stuff that live here on this tree.

There.

Okay.

Tell you what, we'll have another one.

You knew that, didn't you?

You knew I'd have a friend out here.

There.

Okay.

Now then, let's have some, maybe there's some big, leafy trees, not evergreens that live here.

There.

Let's just push in some, push in some nice leaf and branch shapes.

Look at there.

And when you use a big brush, you can do this very rapidly.

Now, let's go on the other side.

We need some over here too.

Now, you can do this with a one-inch brush if you wanted to.

Works just as well.

Just as well.

This is just a little bit faster.

A little bit faster.

There we are.

Okay.

Just bring it right on down, right on down.

Now you have to start making big decisions.

Okay, we'll just put it there.

A nice bush lives there.

Tell you what, let's get crazy.

Maybe.

Maybe it just goes all the way across.

In your world, you can do anything that you want.

If you want this shrubbery and bushes and trees to come all the way across, then do it.

Do it.

Alright.

Now then, we can just take a clean knife, and just make the indication of little sticks and twigs, just by scraping, just the point of the knife.

We're gonna cover most of those up, but some of 'em will show.

We can even use a little brown and white, come right up in here, put the indication of a trunk.

Not a great deal of detail, just a little.

Little over here.

Cause these are gonna be deep in the old tree here, you're not gonna see much of them.

But they're there.

Now then, let's take, we'll dip the brush into a little of the liquid white.

One-inch brush.

We'll go right through, I'll use a little cad yellow, grab some sap green up here.

There we are.

Cad yellow, sap green, pull the brush in one direction, load a lot of color in it.

Okay, let's go up here.

Now then, think about all your little leaves and stuff here that would just shine and, oh, they would sparkle out here in the sun under this big mountain.

And when you're painting, make up little stories.

Think about the scene that you're painting, become part of it.

Make friends with a tree.

Shoot, you can just drop all this stuff in.

And let it go.

Darker, darker, darker as you work down toward the base of the tree, though, darker, darker.

Add a little yellow ochre here or there, a little Indian yellow sometimes, just just to change the flavor.

Wherever you want 'em.

There we are.

Little touch of bright red even, here and there.

It's up to you.

Up to you.

There.

And you choose even the time of year.

Let's go on this other big tree over here.

Maybe over here, there lives, there lives this big tree.

Think about individual shapes and form inside of this tree.

Don't just throw it on at random.

Think about, think about the limbs inside the tree that give it shape and form.

There.

Okay.

Darker, darker, darker, down here toward the base.

Much darker.

Let's have a bush right here that has red flowers on it.

Look at that.

See there?

Just by putting a little bit of red on the end of the brush, you can do that.

Here lives another one.

Just do one bush at a time, though.

One at a time.

There they go.

Okay.

Just wherever you want 'em.

Shoot.

It's coming along pretty nice.

There.

Okay.

And the other side, over here, we'll put in some little bushes here.

And you can use the brush sidewards.

Just push upward and create all kinds of little things.

Just like so.

Alright.

I'm gonna put a little path in here, use a little Van Dyke brown, we got just a second left, so I'll throw that in.

A little brown and white.

Give this indication of a little path.

Then all we need to do is put a little bush over the top of it, and it sets it right down into the painting.

Shoot, I think we have a finished painting.

With that, I'm gonna wish you happy painting, and God bless, my friend, I'll see you next show.

(instrumental music)