- (laughs) Welcome back.

Certainly glad you could join us today.

I thought today we'd do a painting that we use some black gesso on.

I believe you're gonna enjoy this one.

Let's start out, 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 have my standard old canvas up here, but today I've taken a piece of contact paper and cut an oval out of it, stuck it on the canvas, and then painted in inside with black gesso.

So we have a good dark surface.

On top of the black gesso, I've covered it with a very thin coat of Liquid Clear.

Very thin coat, takes very very little.

And with that, shoot, we'll just have some fun.

I'm gonna take, let's mix up a couple little colors here.

We'll take some Phthalo Blue, and some Alizarin Crimson.

Proportionally, much, much more crimson.

Now, put a little white out here, like so.

And I'm gonna make several different values of this.

Thought today we'd do a painting that, shoot, you won't even believe it's on a black canvas when you get done.

Over here, I'm gonna go a little bit more to the blue side.

There, we'll just mix up several little values, so we can just pick and play there.

However we want to do it.

Alright.

Maybe just a touch more white in that one.

There, okay.

Now then, let's just sort of decide where we want some of these things here.

We'll take a little bit of color, and it didn't take much color when you're working on a black canvas.

Doesn't take very much.

We'll just begin, just dropping in all kinds of little things like this.

There we are.

See there?

Okay, maybe some of that lavendary color, I'm just gonna pop them here and there.

Wherever, wherever.

There we are.

But isn't that a neat little way?

That black canvas, color just shows up so beautiful on it.

So beautiful, there's a little Phthalo Blue and white.

Look how that just jumps right out at ya.

As I say, when this is done, if everything works just right, it's hard to tell this is on a black canvas.

I like to paint on dark surfaces, they make some of the most gorgeous effects you've ever seen.

There, okay.

Something about like that.

Look how that blue jumps on ya.

Just jumps right up there.

Hmm, and you can make this as light and as bright as you want.

It's very simple, cause color, once again, on a black canvas, it just sort of jumps out at ya.

Just sort of jumps out at ya.

There we go.

Little bit more of the white, and we can just sort of play these colors around.

It's just Titanium White, it's all I'm using there.

Maybe, maybe up in here, let's just take I'm gonna grab another brush, I have several of them going.

Take a little white, and just put it down here, a little bit of Yellow Ochre in it.

Just a little Yellow Ochre, so we have white and Yellow Ochre.

And maybe, let's just make a decision, maybe right up in here is a little bit of light.

Just playing through here, and using just the corner of the brush, and I'm just sort of spinning it around.

Just (sings) spin it around, let it go, let it play in here.

Something about like that.

Alright.

Okay, now I'm gonna grab a very soft brush.

This is our blender brush.

Cause now I wanna begin blending all this together.

Very soft brush, tender as a mother's love, as my father used to say.

Very, very soft, very gentle.

Okay.

And with that, we can just begin putting in the indication of all kinds of little shapes and forms that happen out here.

Just sort of let them happen, don't worry about 'em.

There.

You can even give the impression that there's a little light zinging through there.

Just by doing that.

Maybe another little do-er lives here.

These are wonderful skies to do.

Practice with 'em, play with 'em.

Change the colors, you can use a multitude of colors in here and just wonderful things.

Mmm.

See, there we go.

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

Sometimes you can, if you want to, you can just tap.

Take that little soft brush, and just tap in a little Titanium White, and then very gently, very gently, just blend it.

It's that easy, when you have a brush that's this gentle, you can paint right over paint without any problem.

Without any problem at all.

Alright, want that to be just a little brighter, so I'll add a little more white and work from there.

There, tiny little circles.

Just blending it and then very lightly go over it.

Mmm.

Maybe down in here, a little bit of that color.

Just zinging through the clouds.

Alright.

You just put it wherever you want it, and maybe, maybe right in here I'll touch a touch of the Alizarin Crimson just to warm it up.

Maybe over here's a warm spot.

There.

See how you can change the flavor?

When you do this at home, and give it as a gift or, or even sell it if you're interested in that happy buck.

These kind of little things just are wonderful.

People enjoy 'em so much, 'cause they have a lot of color in 'em, and they're unique, they're different.

They're just not the standard old painting that you see.

Okay.

Now you can play with this as long as you want to create any effect that you desire.

Any effect that you desire.

Okay, now then.

What are we gonna do down here on the bottom?

That's about all I'm gonna do on top.

I'm gonna take Alizarin Crimson and Sap Green, in about equal parts.

In about equal parts.

And with that, I'm gonna mix it together, to make a gorgeous brown color.

Alizarin and Sap.

There we go.

Okay, let me clean the old brush off, the old knife off.

And we'll just take a two inch brush.

Now the bottom of this, I just want to cover with this beautiful brown color.

Just gonna cover it.

Right over.

Something like that.

Now maybe when we get up in here, we'll turn the brush and start.

Start using the top corner and let's begin finding little individual shapes that live in here.

There we are.

See, we just let them come right on up and play in here.

Wherever you think they should be.

These will end up being little trees and bushes that live far back in the background.

Just using the top corner of the two inch brush.

It's all you need.

This old two inch brush will do wonderful things for you.

Now if this old brush ever bothers you because of its size, you can do everything I'm doing here with a one inch brush.

It's just a little slower, but it'll certainly work.

It'll work.

There.

And we don't put restrictions on you.

We just want to teach you a technique, and turn you loose on the world.

You do it any way that you want, cause painting should be free.

Should be free.

Each person sees nature through different eyes.

And that's what you should paint.

My tree just keeps getting taller and taller doesn't it?

That's okay.

There.

Something about like so.

I'm gonna take my old script liner brush.

A little paint thinner.

Quite a bit of paint thinner, I wanna make some little tree trunks and limbs and sticks and twigs that live in there.

So thin the paint til it's, look at there, it's almost running.

It does run.

Turn the bristles, just turn 'em in there.

Loads it full of paint, bring it to a nice sharp point.

Let's go up in here.

Now, in our little tree up here, we're gonna have a few little limbs and sticks and twigs.

You decide where they are.

We don't even know how many's in there.

Don't know that we care right now.

We're gonna put leaves on these trees, so most of them will disappear, but a few of 'em will show through.

A few of 'em will show through.

Maybe back in here, there's a few little duders.

Cause they live all through the woods, any time you have trees and bushes, you've gotta have all these little sticks to hold them up.

Hmm, it's where my little squirrel plays, yeah.

Okay, now then.

Shoot, that old one inch, or two inch brush is working pretty good.

I'm gonna take it and tap it right into Yellow Ochre.

I'm just tapping one corner into Yellow Ochre, just give it a little tap.

Just a little, let's go up in here.

Now, with that, let's see where we're at.

I wanna put the indication, gorgeous, gorgeous, works.

I'm gonna put the indication here of all kinds of little leaves and things that are on this tree.

There.

See, but leave some little spots that are dark, don't cover them all up.

I know, I know, it's such a temptation.

When it gets working well and you get excited about it, to cover up all the dark areas.

If you do, then you have no depth in your little tree.

He won't play with ya.

Isn't that a neat little tree?

Just made with the top corner, of the old two inch brush.

We can take a little Alizarin Crimson and add to that color, just to change the flavor a little.

And maybe, maybe I'll leave these like they are, and sort of in the foreground here, we begin to pick out other little individuals.

Still just using the top corner of the brush.

It's that easy.

Alizarin Crimson and a little bit of, there, oh, that's beautiful.

There we are.

Alizarin Crimson and Yellow Ochre.

That's all we're using.

That's all we're using.

Maybe this one here, it's up to you, you decide.

But don't highlight all of 'em, leave some of 'em like they're far far away.

They don't have any highlight on 'em.

Maybe a little more crimson, just to change the flavor.

I'm putting crimson in there just to change the flavor a little bit.

So one bush will stand out from another.

There we go, look at the depth in there already, just from doing something like that.

Over here, let's go over on the other side, er, right there.

Let's put a little duder in there.

Okay.

But you can put as many layers of trees and bushes in your world as you want.

That easy, that easy.

This black canvas, once again, color shows up so much stronger on it than it will on a plain white canvas.

When you paint on black canvas, that color will just pop, it'll jump right out at ya.

You don't need as much color.

Okay.

Let me grab an old two inch brush here.

I'm gonna go right back into some of the dark brown.

This is the brown we made from Alizarin Crimson and Sap Green.

And maybe, yeah, I'm gonna put a few little dark bushes that live right here in the foreground.

Cause all of them, maybe this light isn't hitting.

And you just continually play light against dark.

Dark against light.

That's what makes it show.

There.

Something about like so, about like that.

Anything that we're not happy with, we can change it.

(laughs) Cause as you know, we don't make mistakes, we just have happy accidents.

I'm gonna take a little bit of white, little bit of that dark color, and mix it together.

Something like so.

Alright.

Maybe, maybe I'll pull a little yellow in there too.

A little Yellow Ochre, yeah that's nice, I like that.

Cut off a little roll of paint, right on the edge of the knife.

Maybe there's a little path that lives out through here.

If there is, you have to decide in your world, where it lives.

And all you do is just rub it like so.

Something about like that.

Something about like that.

Wherever you think it should be.

There.

Okay, maybe I'll have it come all the way down.

Wherever, wherever, it doesn't matter.

Anything that we're not happy with, we'll just change it.

No big deal.

Okay.

Now, I think it's time for your bravery test.

Maybe in our world, let's use the old Filbert brush, maybe there's an old tree that lives out here.

An old tree.

Now, you have to decide where the tree lives.

As I say, this is gonna be your bravery test.

(grunts and laughs) Just drop it in, drop it in, I know that's scary after you worked so hard, but the paint's very thick here.

Very thick, I'm using the Filbert brush, cause it leaves a heavy layer of paint on here, and I want that.

I like, I like it.

Let's give him an arm here.

See, you decide how many arms your old tree has.

And how many foots he has, there's an old foot hanging over there.

And trees grow about any old way, shoot.

Yeah, I'll get brave here.

We'll give him another arm.

About like that.

There.

But any way you paint a tree, chances are, somewhere that's a tree that looks like that.

Years ago, I tried painting portraits, and you know, I had a hard time, because number one, I couldn't capture the essence of what a person, what makes a person an individual.

But the other thing was, if you paint a landscape, and it doesn't come out just right, somebody else will come along and say "Hey, I've seen that place."

Maybe I used to fish and play there.

But if you paint a portrait that has one eye square or something, I guarantee you, everybody's gonna notice it.

(laughs) So, I gave up portrait painting.

My portrait teacher told me to go paint bushes and trees, cause that's where my heart was.

So that's what I did.

Take a little bit of that brown color we had, and very lightly just barely touching.

Just let it graze, and the high points on there.

Cause remember the paint's thick, the high points on there will pick up this color.

Look at that, maybe this limb, maybe it's in front, it's up to you.

If you want it in front, you put it in front.

Can do easy.

Very easy.

There, but gentle touch, just enough so the paint comes off.

Let it just barely graze.

Barely graze, you can make some gorgeous, gorgeous effects.

Then we'll sort of blend it back, makes the limbs look round.

That easy, that easy.

This old Filbert brush does wonderful things.

There we are.

Okay, gonna take our liner brush, gonna paint some tree limbs on here.

Might as well get a lot of paint thinner.

Once again, we're gonna thin the paint, til it's almost ink consistency.

Not quite, but almost.

Something like so.

And with that, then you have to sort of start deciding where all the little limbs live on your tree.

Cause they're here.

They're here.

Maybe I'll put a bunch of limbs on these.

I'll tell you what.

You know, every so often, we like to put together painting photographs that people have sent and show 'em to you.

Now today, let me do that.

This is paintings that have come from people all over the country, who are just watching the show, and they've picked up the brush, and they've treid it.

Aren't they fantastic?

They really and truly are.

And a lot of these people have never, absolutely never touched a brush before in their life.

And they're doing paintings like these.

I'm so, I'm like an old mother hen here, I get so proud when I see what people are doing.

And everywhere I go, in letters I receive everyday, it brings a whole new eras of confidence to people.

Because if they can do this, and they never believe they could do, then they know they can do anything.

Absolutely anything.

All you have to do is believe, practice a little bit, and off you go.

Personally, I think that's true of anything in life.

You just, if you can believe it, you can do it.

There, see?

All kinds of little limbs.

Now you could really take a lot of time and put just hundreds of little limbs on here.

Little tiny rascals that live everywhere, and it's gorgeous, as you know, on TV here, we have this mean old director.

If I go past 30 minutes, she has no sense of humor at all.

So we'll try to get this done in time.

But when you're doing yours, take your time.

You don't have the same problems we do here.

Put a lot of limbs on here.

Put a little squirrel lives in there.

Maybe paint Peapod in there, or you can put a little bird in there.

Anything that you want, any old thing that you want.

There we are.

Now remember the contact paper's right there, so we don't care over here, we can do any old thing.

Don't worry about that, we're gonna pull that off at the end of the show.

Alright.

Maybe there's an old dead one hanging right there.

(grunts) That's where my little squirrel would sit if he was there.

That's where he would sit.

He likes those limbs where he can watch what's going on all over the yard.

There.

Okay.

That gives you an idea of what you can do.

As I say, you can spend a lot of time just putting in tree limbs and stuff.

Put in all types of individual little limbs there.

And it's gorgeous.

There we are.

Now then, let's take our old brush that's got the dark brown on it, maybe get a little Van Dyke Brown here.

Van Dyke, cause it's even darker.

It's not as transparent as that other is, and I want that very dark, to push that path back in there.

Mix a little Dark Sienna with it too.

Give it a little push.

There.

All those little rascals just go far back in the distance.

Maybe there's some little duders here, I don't know.

Wherever you want 'em.

Maybe there's a whole line of 'em that go back.

All we need to do is get 'em in dark first.

Okay.

I'll tell you what, (laughs) let's get crazy.

I'm gonna take my old Filbert brush.

Take it through brown on one side, the other side, I'm going through this light color.

Just like so.

Let's go up in here, and maybe, maybe there's remains of an old fence here.

Maybe an old fence there, get a little more color on there.

Maybe this really a ragged old fence, we don't even know wherever we want it.

There comes one.

Maybe it comes on around sort of like that.

Load a little more color on the brush.

Right here, maybe there's still an old rail or two left.

Just a couple.

Most of them are long gone.

Now take a little Yellow Ochre.

Let's put the indication here and there of some little highlights on these bushes that we dropped in a little Alizarin Crimson in there.

Just a change of flavor, oh yeah.

I like to make bushes with this two inch brush, just to show how easy it is to create some of these illusions.

Shoot, if you can do it with a two inch brush, and do it pretty good, think how well you can do it when you use a small brush.

Just a way to get you interested in it.

Alright.

And a few little duders out in here.

Might even be a few little things showing right in here.

Up to you, you decide where they're at.

There.

Back to our little liner brush.

Put a few little sticks and twigs and things, that grow right in here.

Maybe, I'll tell you what let's do, let's get crazy, maybe there's a tree that lives right there.

Maybe he died.

Nothing but his old skeleton hanging around here.

But he still has a place in nature.

There.

Just to sort of bring everything together.

Alright.

Put a little bush right there, and that'll help push him back into the painting.

Something like that.

Shoot, I think we're about to the point where we can take the contact paper off here and see what we got.

That's always the moment of truth.

That's the moment of truth.

Just straighten out the bottoms there a little.

I like to, I'm gonna highlight these just a little more.

These little fence posts, just wanna make them zing.

You can do that, just like so.

There, now they stand out.

Alright, let's take the contact paper off, and see what we got today.

This is the moment of truth.

Isn't that fantastic?

These little paintings with ovals are so unique.

People absolutely love 'em.

Absolutely love 'em.

I think this one's about ready for a signature.

We'll take a little bit of red, and let's sign this one.

Let's sign him right here.

Call him finished.

Really hope you've enjoyed this painting.

Also hope in this show, you enjoyed seeing the paintings that other people, all over the country are doing.

If you have time, take a photo of what you're doing, send to us and let us show it.

Until next time, happy painting and God bless my friend.

("Interlude" by Larry Owens)