(soothing music) (car horn honks) - Hello, I'm Bob Ross and I'd like to welcome you to series 31 of The Joy of Painting.

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

And if you've been with us before, please allow me to thank you for inviting us back for another series of painting shows.

Tell you what, let's start right off 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 show you what I got done up here.

Today I'm using an 18 by 24-inch canvas.

It's pre-stretched and double-primed.

And then I've just covered the entire canvas with a very thin coat of liquid white.

This is a wet-on-wet painting technique, so the liquid white is there only to make the canvas wet.

It allows us to actually blend color right on the canvas, rather than working ourself to death.

So let's do that.

Tell you what, we'll start off today with a little two-inch brush.

There we are, we'll take a little touch of phthalo blue.

Phthalo blue's a beautiful, beautiful blue color.

Just tap a little into the bristles.

We don't need a lot.

All right, let's go right up in here.

Now we'll start just making little X's, just little criss-cross strokes, that easy.

That easy, and we'll work all the way across the canvas.

Now we start at the top and work down, that way the paint is continually mixing with the liquid white that's already on the canvas.

And automatically, your sky will get lighter and lighter as you work down toward the horizon.

And in a landscape, that's exactly what we're looking for.

There, let the canvas work for you.

Allow the colors and the paint, everything to work together to make it easy.

This is a painting technique that you can do.

There's no big secrets here.

People who've never painted do this every day and it works for them.

All right, I think I'll have some water in this painting today, I love water.

It's easy to paint and we'll just take, we'll use that same old phthalo blue.

Just add a little more onto the brush.

Now still water is always level and I think today, let's have still water.

So pull from the outside to in, like so.

That's all there is to it.

We'll go to the other side and do the same, identical thing.

But I suggest you pull from the outside in.

If you start here and go across, it leaves a big line and it's very hard to work out.

There, so pull from the outside in.

And it leaves a little area in here that's sort of light, if everything works just right, it'll look like a sheen of light just streaking right across your water.

Sneaky, but it works great.

There we go.

Now then, I wanna darken the corners on this, so I'm gonna take a little Prussian blue.

Prussian blue is much, much stronger than phthalo blue.

It's a beautiful blue though, let's take a little of that and right up in the corners, I'm just gonna add a small amount of the Prussian blue, like that.

Now when the painting is completely done, these dark corners will help lead the eye toward the center of the painting.

There, that's really all there is to it.

And we'll put a little in the water too, we don't want it left out.

Just down at the bottom and let it work upward.

There, shoot we're in business already.

Thought today we would just do a little mountain scene, it's very pretty, very easy to do.

All right, now see even though we're blending across that, that little light area still, it remains in there.

Okay, we'll just blend that color 'til it's nice and smooth.

And we're in business.

Now comes the most fun part of the whole technique and that's washing the brush.

If you've painted with me before, (laughs) you know this is where I really have a good time is cleaning this little brush.

We wash our brush with odorless paint thinner, shake it off, then (brush thumps).

Then just beat the devil of it.

That really is the fun part of this whole technique.

Tell you what, today let's take, we'll use a little bit of phthalo blue, some alizarin crimson, little bit of black.

I wanna make a little mountain in here.

And I wanna make a dark lavender-looking color, very dark, very, very dark.

Maybe a little more crimson.

Proportionately, much, much more crimson than blue.

Kay, let me wipe the ol' knife.

And we just wipe the knife on a paper towel.

Now it's most important how you load the knife.

Take, cut across the paint and get a little roll that lives right on the edge of the knife.

Okay, let's go up in here.

Tell you what, put a little white with that and I wanna make a distant mountain first, little mountain that lives far away.

So I've added a little white and maybe, yeah.

Right in here, just decide where you think this little mountain lives in your world.

And drop it in, painting is a very individual thing.

We all see nature through different eyes.

And that's the way you should paint it.

There, all we're looking for is a nice top edge.

We could care less what's happening down below.

Our brush is good and dry and we'll grab it.

Because the Liquid white's on the canvas, you can literally move color, see there?

If you were working on a dry canvas, right now you'd be in agony city.

But because it's wet, it will move.

And your brush strokes will create the illusion of highlights and shadows right there in your mountain.

And that's about all I need.

That mountain's gonna be far away, very distant.

Now I go back to the solid dark color.

And, come right up in here.

Let's go right up in here.

I want you to see how dark it is.

Don't be afraid of it 'cause it's dark.

We're gonna put a few little highlights on it, but you decide where all the little protrusions on your mountain live, little bumps.

Maybe, yeah, how about one right there?

But it's that easy and there is no right or wrong here.

The only rule that we have here is that painting should make you happy.

You should enjoy it, and if it does that, then it's good, then it's good.

All right, I get letters from youngsters, some of them in their nineties, that tell me they never believed they could paint and they've tried this, and it's worked for them.

That's what makes this all worthwhile is to hear stories of success from all over the country and you can do it, you can do it.

There we go, now once again, I'm gonna pull this.

One of the rules if you're painting mountains, always remember if you can see the entire mountain, it's always more distinct on the top than it is on the bottom 'cause we have mist and now we have wonderful pollution that sorta lays around the bottom of the mountain and it breaks up and diffuses the light, so it looks softer.

There, now sometimes, tell you what, let's get crazy today.

Sometimes, sometimes, sometimes, while I got that color going, it's fun to take and reflect a mountain right into the water.

Now we're just looking for a basic little reflection here.

We're not too worried about it being exact.

In our world, we can do it close enough, like that.

Now sometimes, sometimes you may find, when you first start, it's easier to take the canvas off your easel and turn it upside-down and just basically re-paint the mountain.

If that works for you, that's okay, any way that it works.

Now, I'm gonna take, and just like we did, I'm gonna pull that color, just wanna pull it.

There, once again, the liquid white allows you to move color on here.

That easy, that easy.

All right, see and that gives us a basic reflection there, may not be exact, but it's close enough for what we're doing.

All right, let me wash the brush.

Wash the ol' brush, shake off the excess there.

(brush thumps) (laughs) I hit the bucket there.

There you go, just beat the devil out of it.

All right, I usually run the brush across a little paper towel, just to make sure it's as dry as I can possibly get it.

You don't wanna go up and touch the canvas with a wet brush.

There, keep your canvas and your paint as thick and firm as possible.

One of our golden rules is a thin paint will stick to a thick paint, so you wanna keep this as thick as possible.

I'm gonna take a little white, a little black, make just a touch of gray, something like so.

Little roll of paint again, we'll always load the knife, that little roll of paint.

I don't want very distinct things today, just want the indication of little things happening.

No pressure, absolutely no pressure.

Just let it float right across there.

Just wanna give some indications, but not a lot of detail.

Don't worry about it, just a little.

Sometimes we put a lot of indications, sometimes a few and it's really and truly up to you.

You decide what's in your world.

There, see make this little bump right there and you can take a little of this, give it a little pull, but I don't want it to be real distinct, just sort of a quiet little place there.

There, that easy, no pressure on the knife.

I know I say that over and over in the shows, but it's probably the single biggest mistake people make when they first start is applying too much pressure on the knife.

Then it looks just like you were icing a cake.

And that's all right, but it really looks better if the paint sort of breaks and by break, that just means it has holes in it.

And that's done by just a gentle pressure, very, very gentle pressure.

All right, something about like that.

And we can sorta just rub it a little bit, blend it out.

Once again, I don't want a lot of detail in this one, clean, dry, brush, and I'm gonna tap the base, following the angles here.

Always follow those angles and just blend it a little bit, just blend it, blend it.

Bring it together, like so.

That's all there is to it.

All right, now then, tell you what, we'll just take, that little brush working pretty good.

We'll just take that same mountain color, same old mountain color, sort of a lavender.

We'll tap a little bit right into that two-inch brush.

Don't be afraid of this brush 'cause it's large.

It'll do wonderful things.

Now then, let's decide, yeah there we go.

Maybe right in here there's a little foothill, lives right here, just a little footy hill right at the base of the mountain.

Just tap in the basic shape that you want it to be.

Maybe something about like that, it doesn't matter, it's up to you.

There, see there, now very gently grab it and lift up, tiny little strokes though, short little strokes and do it in layers.

It'll give the impression of distant trees that live far away, they live right at the base of this old mountain.

What a view they would have.

Little touch of that color, and we can go right in here and give the indication of a little reflection of that, that easy.

Now then let me get a clean brush.

I have several of each brush here.

I wanna create the illusion of a reflection on this, that we dropped in here.

Normally we'd pull down, this time, pull up.

And I'm beating the brush just to remove excess color 'cause you're gonna pick up a little color and that will remove it, see there?

All there is to it.

Now, very lightly, go across and that'll give the indication of an instant reflection, that easy.

All right, now then, let's have some fun.

We'll take, we'll just use that same mountain color, so we had some blue and some black and some crimson, I'll put some brown in it and some sap green, basically all your dark colors.

Some sap green, all right, let me clean the ol' knife.

Now then, let's grab us a little fan brush.

There's one, number six fan brush.

Take a little color, just put a little bit of color right on the brush.

That's all there is to it, kay?

Now maybe, let's see if that shows up, might have to make it a little lighter to get it to show, so we'll add a little white, just a little touch of white.

Yeah, that's a little better.

Now then I'm just gonna take and grab that and lift upward, want it to look like little trees, little closer to us, but living very far away, very far away.

Just touch it, all you're doing is putting a little line of paint and then you lift it upward, could not be simpler.

There, there, that's all there is to it.

We'll take the knife, little bit of dark sienna and Van Dyke brown, mix it together, maybe a little white with it.

There you go, that's a nice color, I like that.

Just sorta play around with color 'til you get what you want.

A little roll of paint and let's go right up in here.

And with that, we'll just put the indication, maybe like, right there, see?

See, I'm sorry, I get excited.

I've painted like this for 20 years and I still get excited when I see it work.

So wonderful, I was a traditional painter for many years and I now call that my agony years 'cause I agonized over paintings.

Little bit of liquid white and we'll just cut in a little water line, just a little tiny water line.

This is sort of a light area that separates the two darks.

There, now if you put a little too much liquid white on there, and you think it's a little too strong, just rub it, it will just be absorbed into the color.

It'll go away, no problem at all.

There, all right, that gives us a pretty nice little background.

Let's see, we need to figure out what we're gonna put in here, so let's take, let's take (laughs), crazy time, we'll take some more of that.

We got some Prussian blue, sap green, crimson, brown, we'll mix up a pretty good pile of paint here, let's play a little.

All right, here's ol' two-inch brush.

We'll take him, load a lot of color into the brush.

And we have to sorta make some decisions in our world.

Let's just block in some areas.

Now then, maybe in our world, we're gonna have a big tree that lives right here.

We're not looking for a lot of detail here.

All we're doing is blocking in some basic shape.

This is sort of your bravery test after you've worked so hard to put in all those gorgeous things.

Then you come up here, some crazy, fuzzy-haired guy says, "Put a big tree right over the top of it."

But that's all right, there.

We'll decide where that goes later.

Maybe, we'll grab a little fan brush.

We'll have some more fun here.

Take a fan brush, load it full of that dark color.

Maybe there's some little, maybe there's a little peninsula right here, yeah.

When you paint, you begin to see things.

Let them happen, just let them happen.

Let them happen, don't worry about them.

Learn to compose as you paint.

Learn to take advantage of what happens.

We call those happy accidents and they can be your best friend.

There, maybe, yeah, maybe it comes right on down, right in there, about like that.

We don't even know where it goes over there, don't think we care at this point.

All right, just wanna create a little mist down here at the base and we can do that with a clean brush, like so.

Then lift slightly upward, sort of brings everything together.

There, course right underneath that, we'd need a reflection, we would need a reflection, so just pull it straight down, straight down.

It's most important that it goes straight down.

Reflection should be as dark as the object that's casting the reflection.

There, and then go across.

Give us a little instant reflection.

Now, maybe, tell you what, maybe there's a tree that lives right here.

We'll put some highlight on him so he'll show.

This one lives a little closer to us, so we can make out a little more detail on him.

There, just a, he's got a friend.

Happy little tree, lives right here, watches everything happen.

All right, now I'll go right into a little touch of the cadmium yellow, yellow ochre.

Sooner or later, I'll hit all the yellows and a little bit of the red.

I wanna make a nice green color because you had blue and black on your brush, when you go in here, you'll get green instantly.

Now then, we can come right along in here and place just a few little highlights on this tree.

That'll snatch it right out from that background.

Little more color and we'll put a few highlights on this little rascal.

Maybe in our world here, maybe there's a few little grassy things that we're beginning to see, don't want a lot of detail yet, just a few little things far away.

Little sparklers, there they go.

We don't know where they go over here, don't know where they go.

Take a little bit of our brown and white we used.

And we can put the indication of a little land mass here, see there?

That simple, little bit of land.

Little touch of the liquid white just to give the indication of a water line right in here.

Don't want a lot of color, just a little here and there.

See how that works, it's neat, huh?

Now then, we gotta decide where this big tree lives.

Here he comes, here he comes.

He comes right on down, this is just dark color.

Just a lot of dark color.

Maybe, maybe he comes all the way down here.

I don't know, that's the beauty of painting like this.

You really don't have to know exactly where everything's at, it just works.

Little paint thinner, liner brush, that brown color.

Here and there and there and here, we'll just put the indication of a little limb, little trunk lives in there.

Don't have to worry about it very much.

Let's take, we'll use some of that yellow, greens, mix them on the two-inch brush though.

Let's go right in here and let's just begin picking out some highlights.

There, just the corner of the brush, all you're using.

There you are, now if you've got a very thick, dry paint up on the canvas, you can put this right on here.

It'll go right on the top without mixing together.

But the paint on your brush has to be a little bit thinner than what you have on the canvas already.

It'll always pull toward the thickest area.

There we are, now our yellows are made just a little bit thinner, so that works automatically.

There, maybe on down like that.

Now I'm gonna change the flavor a little bit, add a little bright red, a little yellow ochre.

Maybe, yeah you're right, right there.

There's another little tree, bush, whatever you wanna call it, wherever, we're still just using the corner of the brush.

That's really all there is to it.

And I'm gonna dip the brush into a little touch of paint thinner, wanna make it just a little thinner.

I'm gonna go over several layers of paint here.

There, but if you add paint thinner, add the smallest, smallest amount possible.

You don't need much, don't need much.

Tell you what let's do, let's have some fun.

Clean off a little spot to work here.

Even with my palette this big, I still run out of room.

We're gonna take black, brown, mix them together.

Now then, over here I'm gonna take a little bit of white and black to make a gray color.

There, something about like that.

Kay, now, we're gonna take and add paint thinner to this.

I want to make this very thin.

As we mentioned earlier, a thin paint will stick to a thick paint.

So now, I wanna show you an easy way of making a fantastic effect, but we need to thin these colors.

But if we hadn't started with a very thick, dry paint, this wouldn't work.

So be sure you, I hate to keep talking about the paint, but it is important.

I get so many letters from people that say they're having problems and when I begin to talk to them, the problem usually evolves from starting with paint that's very thin.

Start with thick paint, then each layer gets thinner.

Today, let's use a little oval brush.

I'll go through the dark color, through the dark color, both sides.

Now one side, one side only, I will put it in the light color.

So you got dark and light.

Now watch, watch, you can make the indication of little stones all in one stroke, like that.

That easy, that easy.

Now, pull a little reflection down, like so.

Come across, go back to our little brush that has the grassy color on it.

Put in a few little highlights here and there, just a few little duders.

Now, back to this and maybe there's a little, yep, little stone lives right there and wherever you want them, you just drop them in, several little stones, put some little grassy things.

Right around here, look at there, see it brings it all together, little yellow ochre in there too.

Just brings it all together, makes it fit.

There we are, now this little rascal out here, pull down a little touch of reflection.

Go across, take our small knife and we'll put just the indication of a little water line here and there, sort of bring it all together, just to bring it together.

Shoot, I think we got a finished painting here.

Really hope you've enjoyed this and hope you'll join us for the rest of this television series and from all of us here, I'd like to wish you happy painting and God bless, my friend.

(soothing music)