- Hi, I'm glad you could join me today, because today I think we'll do a fantastic little winter scene and I think you'll really like this one.

So I tell you what, let's start out, have them run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint along with us.

And they'll come across in the same order as I have them on the pallet, starting with white and working all the way around.

Okay, I have my standard old 18 X 24 inch canvas up here and today we've taken a piece of contact paper and we've just cut a design out, sort of a little half circle type thing in whatever kind of design you like.

Then I've covered this with liquid white.

So it's all wet and slick and it's ready to go.

So, let's have some fun.

Sometimes when we do winter scenes, we use so many blues and cold colors that they're almost uncomfortable, so I sort of like to make very warm winter scenes.

We'll start with a little Alizarin Crimson today on a 2-inch brush, and just tap a little color right into the bristles,like so.

Let's go right up here and maybe right in here we'll just use our little criss-cross strokes, put in a happy little sky, just making little X's.

It takes very very little color, because if you're not careful, you could set the sky on fire, and we don't want to do that.

We don't want to set it on fire.

All we want to do is warm it up a little.

There we go.

Okay, maybe we'll have a little of that same color down here.

If it's going to be a winter scene, we'll have some snow in here, and this will come through and make some very nice highlights and shadows in the snow.

It's also a good way to clean all the excess paint off your brush.

Now then.

Let's take-- we just mix it on the brush here, we'll take little more of the Alizarin Crimson, get a little touch of the Phthalo Blue.

Proportionately much more crimson than blue and you can just mix these on the brush, see?

Like so.

You don't have to worry about it.

Try and make sort of a nice lavender color, and you can take it to the blue side or the red side, depending on what kind of mood you're in.

Today is such a beautiful day, let's just make a very nice, very nice lavender, sort of to the reddish side.

And let's just go right up in here and just drop that in, like that.

Still using the criss-cross strokes.

There.

And maybe we'll use a nice little cloud that comes right out here.

We just take the brush and tap.

Just tap it wherever you want.

It's up to you.

It's up to you.

It's very individual.

And maybe down in here, we know, we can just scrub in a basic little cloud shape we're really not looking for a lot of detail at this point, all we're doing is just building us a happy little sky.

There.

And we can take a little bit of that same color and once again, just lay some of it down here, where we know there's going to be snow.

At this point we really don't care where it's going to be.

Anything we don't like we just cover up.

We're not committed at all.

Okay, let's do the fun part here, let's wash the old brush.

As you know, we wash our brush with odorless thinner, and we shake off the excess, and just beat the devil out of it.

I really recommend if you're going to do this at home, don't do this in your living room, or your popularity is going to go down about 38 points in one brush cleaning.

They make a thing called a brush beater where you put it down in the bottom of a trash can, you shake the brush inside of the can, then beat it on this rack.

All of it's done inside the can and it contains every bit of this.

And just to stay in good around the homefront, I really recommend you get some kind of procedure not to do this in the living room, or wherever you paint.

Take a little bit of the Titanium White on the fan brush just a little, both sides full of color.

Okay, let's go up here.

Now then, maybe there lives in our world a beautiful little cloud and it just floats around up here in the sky, it just enjoys looking over the scene.

Just use the corner of the brush, that's all we're using, just the corner, making tight little circles.

There.

Very, very tight little circles.

And we don't know where this goes, maybe just sort of disappears up here.

We'll just sort of leave it to your imagination.

There.

A little more white down here, maybe there's a big old floater that just floats around down here close to the horizon.

Alright, now then.

With a clean, dry, and it really needs to be clean and dry, 2-inch brush, we want to blend just the base.

We're not touching the top at all.

Just the base.

Very gently, and you just sort of wind it up, blend it together on the base.

On the bottom.

There.

Very gently.

And we're only using the very top corner of the brush.

That's all that's touching the canvas.

There, see there?

Just a little.

Mix it up, wind it.

Now, very gently, big circular strokes will lift that.

This fluffs your cloud up.

There.

Just fluff it up, very lightly.

(mumbling) Just blend it a little, and that whole thing will come together just as neat.

And then you go back in here.

Maybe in our world there lives another little cloud right here.

Work in layers, though.

Do the cloud that in your mind is the farthest away.

And then work forward.

Maybe he's got a little arm sticks right out like that.

There.

Okay, back to our cleaning.

Dry, 2-inch brush, and I do the same thing over again.

That's all there is to it.

Okay, fluff it.

And very gently, just blend it.

Isn't that a beautiful way to make a very effective little sky?

And you can do that.

You really can do it.

It's quite simple.

Okay, tell you what.

Let's take the old round brush today and I'll make some little background trees back here, just some beautiful little things, maybe we'll even put some snow on them, who knows?

Let's go right up in here, we'll take-- let me mix up some color.

Let's mix up some Phthalo Blue and some Alizarin Crimson We'll just make a nice lavender color today.

And this mixture proportionately, much much more crimson than blue.

Because the blue is 100 times stronger than the crimson.

There we are.

And if you want to tell what color that is, you need to take a little bit of white and mix it up.

It's hard to tell, that just looks black.

That's a little bluer than I really want, so I'll add a little more of the crimson to it.

See?

You can change your mind, you can change the taste, the flavor, whatever.

Maybe you want it into the bluish side.

It's very individual.

It's up to you.

Now then, let's use the old round brush today, it's a fantastic brush, make some nice little trees and stuff.

And we'll just tap a little color right into the bristles.

Tap firmly.

See there?

It's hard to see, the old brush is so dark.

There we go, just tap it.

Now, then.

Let's just make some nice little things right in here.

Wherever we want to, and begin tapping.

All kinds of little things.

There.

A little more color.

You know, it's interesting, in one of the earlier shows I showed my little pet squirrel and we got so many cards and letters I'm going to put that little rascal up there again and let you see, because he was the cutest little thing.

This is how it looked when we first got him, and that'll give you an idea, he's sitting on Annette's hand.

Now there's what he looks like today.

He's just the cutest little devil, we call her Bobette.

And she is a mess.

But she lives with me, has a great big cage, we call Squirrel Hilton.

Oh!

Got me on the nose there.

Son of a gun.

Squirrels are something else.

But she's about to the age where she's not going to be friendly anymore.

About ready to go back to the wild.

So we'll turn her loose here very soon.

But she is something else.

I thought you might enjoy just seeing that little rascal.

All I'm doing is just tapping in some basic little tree shapes.

I have a tremendous love for these little creatures.

And devote a lot of my free time into helping them and taking care of them.

Whatever I can do to make their life a little easier.

And if we're going to have animals around, we all have to be concerned about them.

Help us out.

Shoot, if you've got a little creature that lives in your yard or around where you're at, help him out a little if you can.

You'll find they're very enjoyable and they bring hours and hours of pleasure just watching them play.

There we go.

Now, then.

We have our basic shapes in and we can take a liner brush and put a lot of trunks in there if you want to or we can just take the point of the knife and scrape in all kinds of little tree shapes, little trunks, little stems, little sticks.

Whatever.

Now, when this dries, people look at your work and they'll think that you spent hours with your little one-haired brush doing all these.

And you won't tell them any different.

All you do is up the price a little if you're selling your work.

There.

Okay.

I have several of these old round brushes going, let me grab another one here.

I'm going to dip it into a little bit of the liquid white.

And the liquid white is only to thin the firm white, because remember our golden rule.

Remember our golden rule, a thin paint will stick to a thick paint.

And go right back and get a little of that Bright Red here.

I want to put a little pinkish glow into this.

There.

Now just tap, see?

That's how you load this brush.

All you have to do is tap it.

Just go up here.

Now then, go slightly above the dark and just begin tapping it.

All kinds of little snow-covered leaves.

In Alaska where I lived for so many years we have ice fog and it would cover everything and just make everything look like this, it was absolutely spectacular.

You never think about Alaska, and cold countries like that being beautiful in the winter.

But some of the most beautiful, beautiful scenery happens in the winter.

There.

And I loved to sit inside my warm house and look out at it.

There's a reason I moved back to Florida.

In my old age, the cold winters just sort of got me.

There we go.

And maybe right in here there's another one.

Now, you don't have to kill all the dark.

Leave some of that dark in there.

It makes it look like things are hid back there in the shadows.

There.

See how that old round brush just makes all those little lacy looking things?

Very rapidly.

There we go.

Tell you what, this big one back here, I'm going to take a little paint thinner, a little of Dark Sienna, and we'll just thin it down to this like ink and let's just put the indication of a little tree trunk back here.

It's big enough, maybe we can really see a tree trunk in here.

There.

And you can put as many or as few limbs on your tree trunk as you want.

Now, that little touch of the liquid white, a little bit more of the Bright Red, Titanium White, just mix them together on the brush, give it a good tap, tap.

And let's go up in here and look at the basic shape of your tree, think about where the light would play through here and hit it.

Worry about form and shape.

See?

There's another little thing right there.

These are really fantastic little paintings.

And, as I've mentioned every so often, if you're interested in selling paintings, these paintings will sell like hotcakes.

Probably more for color than for content.

And a lot of people buy paintings more for color than for content.

Because they're looking for something to fit a specific need.

There we go.

Let's go all the way over here on the right and put a little bit on this nice tree over here.

We don't want him left out, he thought I was about to forget him.

He'd have been angry with me.

Nobody wants to be left out.

Okay, and other one right there.

Or wherever.

But notice the dark areas in between.

See those dark areas?

That's what gives dimension and shape.

Don't kill all those dark areas, they're your very good friend.

And we can go back in here, just scrape in a few little sticks and twigs, but mainly in the dark areas.

Put them mainly in the dark.

And this is just a clean knife.

However many you want.

Now, time to really have some fun.

Let's take the old big brush, we'll go right into Titanium White.

Just load a lot of white paint in there.

And it's time to make some very big decisions in our painting.

Okay, now then, let's go up here and make a decision.

If we're going to have snow in here, we have to start deciding where our snow's going to live.

So, make a decision, just put your brush down here, and this big brush will do this very rapidly.

And just pull.

See there?

That's all there is to it.

Just pull it.

And begin deciding where all these things are.

Be concerned with the lay of the land, now.

Begin worrying about angles.

There.

And just let it flow right out there.

Very nice, easy way of laying in a great deal of snow very rapidly.

And sometimes you can touch a little touch of the Phthalo Blue.

And just blend that in, and it'll create the illusion of shadows here and there.

And it also makes cool areas in your snow so it's not all too warm, that way you have some cool areas.

Alright, and we'll just take out all the brush strokes.

It becomes very smooth.

Now, we'll take a fan brush, a little bit of liquid white, a little Titanium White, a little touch of that Bright Red again.

And we'll just mix them together right on the brush.

Let's go up here.

And then, by pushing upward we can make the indication of some little bushes and stuff that grow right down these snowbanks.

It's a nice way of covering up these edges, it brings it all together.

There.

Just wherever you think they should be.

Just push upward.

And allow the bristles to bend.

Then we take the bottom of it, and blend it right in.

Super easy way of making some very effective little areas in your painting.

And it pushes all--look how those bushes there now are all pushed back in there, only because of these little things.

And you're working with planes.

And those planes cause dimension and depth in your painting.

Okay, shoot.

We're having so much fun.

Let's get crazy.

I'm going to go right into some Phthalo Blue here.

Not much.

Not much.

In fact, there was still some white left on the bristles from the snow.

A little Phthalo Blue.

I'm going to put a little water in here, you know me and my water, I like to have water in all my paintings, nearly.

Touch, and pull straight down.

You just have to make a decision where your water lives.

Touch and pull down.

Now, once again, this blue is a very cool color.

It'll really do nice things against all these pinks and stuff that we have in here.

A very cool color.

Maybe there's just a happy little pond here that comes right around in there.

I don't know exactly.

We'll decide that later.

Pull straight down.

Most important to pull straight down.

Now get a clean brush.

I have several brushes going here so I don't have to spend all my time washing brushes, as much fun as it is, and as much as the camera people hate it, we won't do all that.

There.

Now, that quick.

That gives us a nice little watery area.

Now, take a touch of the liquid white on the knife, a little Titanium White, and we'll mix them together.

Liquid white and Titanium White.

The liquid white is in there only to thin the Titanium White a little bit.

And I've put at least a little touch of the Bright Red in there.

Now, cut me off a little roll of paint, and let's go up here.

Now I'm going to put a little snow lane right along in here, so we touch and just sort of let it work its way right off the blade there.

Get a little more paint.

There.

See how well that works?

Maybe comes right around the corner here.

We don't know.

Just put it right around.

That easy.

Now, then.

Clean off my old knife.

Let's go back to our round brush and our lavender color.

We'll tap a little color into the bristles.

Just like so, just tap it.

Maybe over in here.

Maybe?

Yep.

Yep, there is now.

We'll put a happy little bush or two that lives right here.

Now, I want to leave this little bit of water showing through so you can see that there's water behind there, I think it'll make that look nice.

Okay.

Underneath that, we'll pull a little bit of that color down.

There.

Now, then.

Now, we'll take the other round brush, a little liquid white, a little bit of the Bright Red, not much.

Be very careful of the Bright Red.

It'll set your whole world on fire in one heartbeat.

Okay, let's go right up here, got the brush loaded up and let's put in some nice little frosted areas right on these bushes.

Once again, work on one bush at a time.

Don't get too carried away, we have plenty of time.

Don't worry about it.

One little bush at a time.

There.

See there?

And if you do one at a time, then you have depth.

I know you get tired of hearing that, I really think it's important though.

There we go.

Now, go back to our...

This is liquid white, mixed with a little bit of Titanium White, then go right in here and put all of our little snow-covered ground areas.

There.

Alright, and this reflection, we pull it straight down then we go gently across.

Then we go back in here with our clean knife and just scratch out a few little sticks and twigs, wherever you want.

There we are.

Now, tell you what.

Shoot, maybe let's take some Van Dyke Brown, get us a little roll of paint maybe right up here, lives a happy little tree.

There it goes.

Just like so.

Just straight Van Dyke Brown.

Then we do the other side.

Now, let's give him a friend.

Shoot, we don't need him to be alone.

Life's too short to be alone.

Too precious.

Share it with a friend.

There.

Now, let's take a little Titanium White, a little roll of paint on the knife, and let's have--maybe this is a birch tree.

What the heck.

Touch, give it a little pull around.

Give it a little pull.

Birch trees may be one of the easiest kind of trees there are to make.

And if there's not birch trees in your area, shoot, you can paint any kind of little tree that you want.

Maybe you want to paint a big maple tree in yours, or oak tree, or whatever.

It's okay.

A little paint thinner, a little bit of the Van Dyke Brown.

Turn the bristles.

Turn it, it brings it to a nice sharp point.

Let's go right up in here, we'll put the indication here and there of some little trunks, or little limbs.

Off the trunk.

I'll get it straight here in a second, bear with me.

There we go.

Wherever you think they should live.

There.

Okay, there's another one.

There's one.

And try not to make all your limbs just perfectly straight, put some character in them, shoot.

Tree limbs grow every which old way.

Whatever makes them happy.

They're independent little devils.

Maybe there's just one old one that's sticking out here.

Shoot, like that.

Whatever.

We don't care.

See?

You can have as many or as few as you want in your world.

I like that.

Let's make a different kind of tree.

Let's go over here.

Shoot, tell you what.

Let's make--we'll just use the fan brush.

Let's make a tree that lives right about... Big old tree.

There.

Big old tree, we'll give him another arm right there.

See?

We draw the trunk in right there.

That easy.

Now, then we can take a little bit of the white, and this time instead of pulling it around like a birch tree all I'm going to do is touch the canvas, maybe this is a different kind of tree.

Show you how to make two or three different kinds of trees.

All you're doing is just touching it with the knife, though.

Just touch.

The canvas will pull off what it wants, give you back what's left.

There.

And as you work around it'll get darker and darker and darker.

A little bit of brown there.

And all we're doing is just touching the canvas.

This makes a very effective tree.

And when it's dry you can almost feel that bark.

Everybody will want to touch your painting.

There.

Just be sure it's dry before you let them touch it.

Because that'll upset you, if somebody touches it while it's wet.

Let's put some limbs out here, just using the Van Dyke Brown, the liner brush, a little thinner on it.

There we go.

We don't know where it goes.

Wherever.

Wherever.

Every tree's an individual.

It's different, so chances are no matter how you paint it somewhere there's a tree just like that.

There.

Okay, maybe there's a baby tree that lives right here.

There.

And when spring comes, he's going to have leaves all over and he'll be a beauty.

He'll be a beauty.

Okay, let's put some bushes down here around its foots.

Got to have a bush or two down there.

Maybe it comes right on out like that.

Okay, then our other round brush with a light color on it, liquid white, Titanium White, a little Bright Red.

And I'll put the Bright Red, and I'm going to give this a nice pinkish glow, makes it a little prettier.

As I mentioned earlier, it keeps it from being so cold that it's distasteful.

Makes it a beautiful little warm scene.

There we go.

Maybe in our world, maybe at one time a long time ago, maybe there was an old fence here.

Maybe a couple of old posts still hanging out.

Little highlight on them.

Shoot, who knows.

Maybe there's still a wire or two hanging in there, wherever you want them.

Up to you.

A little Titanium White, and go right in here now.

Grab that, pull it right on over.

Look at that.

See?

Sort of brings it all together.

Shoot, that easy.

Tell you what.

Let's bring the camera up here, and let's take the contact paper off and see what we have.

This is the moment of truth right here.

I love these little contact paper things, they're so pretty.

And, as we'd mentioned before, if you're out selling your work, these son of a guns will sell.

I think I'll sign this one right here.

And call him finished.

I hope this is one you'll try.

Because it's a beautiful, beautiful little scene.

It'll make you happy inside.

And as we mentioned earlier, that's what painting's all about.

That's the joy of painting.

From all of us here.

Happy painting, and God bless, my friend.

(lighthearted guitar music) - 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.