(upbeat music) - Hello I'm Bob Ross and I'd like to welcome you to the 28th Joy of Painting series.

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

I'll show you how to put some of nature's masterpieces right up here on canvas.

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

So I'll tell you what, let's start out today and get right to it.

Let's have them run all the colors across the screen that you will need to paint along with us.

While they're doing that, let me show you what I've gotten done up here.

Today I have an 18 by 24 inch double prime, pre-stretch canvas up here, but you use any size that's desirable to ya.

I just picked this size because it seems to work well.

And all I've done today is cover the canvas with a very thin, very very thin coat of liquid clear.

And the clear is transparent of course and so it's very easy to put too much.

Very thin, very very small amount.

I thought today we'd just have some fun.

Let's do a little painting today that'll just make you feel good inside.

I'm going to start out and mix a brown color using alizarin crimson and sap green in about equal proportions.

I thought today I'd show ya how to make a painting that looks like it's on wood, but it's really on canvas.

It's very very simple.

And if you've never painted before, this is one that you can do, this is an easy one.

This one you'll have immediate success.

There, we just mixed the color up like so.

And as I say, this would make a beautiful beautiful warm brown.

And when you're mixing the green and the crimson together you can pick if you want it toward the greenish side or toward the reddish side.

Normally I sort of like it toward the reddish side, but that's just my personal preference.

Now we'll pick a little bit of titanium white and then mix it right into this brown color.

This is a very transparent color and I put a little white in there just to give it a little bit of opaqueness.

Alright.

Let's go up here and once again we have liquid clear up here, so I'm just going to try to make this look like old wood just about like so.

It really doesn't matter.

Just going to make so streaks up and down through here.

There and you can make them as dark or as light as you what them.

It's up to you by adding different amounts of white you can change the value of the color.

And just let it go.

Wherever, wherever.

Something about like that.

There.

Sometimes you might want to put a little more of the crimson in just to give it a little reddish tone, little reddish flavor.

Sometimes maybe even a little touch, little touch of black to make it look grey.

Just depends on what kind of wood you're trying to make here.

There.

That's continually mixing with the liquid clear that's already on the canvas.

There.

If this was not a wet canvas, you'd have a devil of a time trying to make this paint just slide on there.

But since it's wet with the clear, this is very easy.

And I'm sort of doing this in streaks so it looks like wood.

I want it to look like old boards that maybe somebody's just nailed together.

Alright.

There we go and that's really about all there is to it.

Once again, when you're doing yours, you change the flavor any way that you want it.

If you want it to be darker or more to the grey hue, it's up to you, any way that you want it.

Okay.

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

So let's do that.

We wash our brushes, since these are oil paints we wash them with odorless paint thinner.

I have a screen down here in the bottom of the bucket that I scrub the bristles against, shake it off.

And then just (wacks brushes) (laughs) just beat the devil of it.

I'd recommend if you do that in your living room you get some kind of protection because it'll change your whole decor in a matter of seconds.

Now let's have some fun, let's have some fun.

We'll take a fan brush, put in a little paint thinner, shake off the excess, and very lightly, very lightly, I'm just going to allow that thinner to work right down through here.

Just a little paint thinner, and it'll take a second for this to start working.

But paint thinner, and liquid clear have quite a violent little reaction and it'll make it look like wood grain as it begins to work.

And think about individual boards here.

And sort of change the grain a little bit.

There, and you can make this any old way that you want it.

This piece of canvas really is your world.

And on this piece of canvas, you have total and absolute power.

You can create any allusion that you want here.

See there, but just let that paint thinner work.

And if you have a little nervous twitch in your hand it'll pay you great dividends here.

Just let it wiggle and jiggle and carry on and it'll begin to look like old wood as it works.

Maybe over here, maybe this one sort of goes like it.

Wood grain is not always straight, it goes in every old direction.

Just sort of depends on how the old tree lived, if it had a good easy life or sometimes maybe the old tree had a rough life, and wood grain's all gnarly.

There.

Alright.

But you just do this til you have it the way you like it.

It's very very simple.

There.

And it doesn't have to just be with brown.

You can do this with any color.

You may want it to match the decor of a certain room or something and maybe you need it done in blue.

You can certainly do that.

The secret is the liquid clear and the reaction that it has with paint thinner.

There we go.

That's all.

Maybe over in here, say there.

Isn't that fantastic?

So, so simple.

Alright.

And as I say, if you've never painted before, this you can do.

Okay, now we've got a canvas that's beginning to look like old wood.

And it'll take a few minutes for this to work.

But while that's working, let's just have some fun here.

Let me clean off a little spot to work.

Let's take some black, we'll use a little bit of the Prussian blue, some crimson, maybe even a little bit of Van Dyke brown, what the heck we don't care.

Pull it out as flat as we can get it, and then cut across and get a little roll of paint, see that little roll of paint, lives right out on the edge of your knife there.

Okay let's go up in here.

Maybe back here in our world, maybe let's get brave, maybe there lives a happy little mountain back here.

Just something very simple.

And I'm just going to let it sort of fade off of the edges.

Just wherever you want it.

And you decide how many little peaks and bumps live in your mountain because you can create any kind of mountain that you want in your world.

There.

And we'll take our two inch brush, be sure it's good and dry, and pull that paint.

Just let it move here, give it a little pull.

There, that's all there is to it.

What I'm doing here is removing excess paint, and I want it to be misty at the bottom of the mountain.

Something about like yeah.

Alright.

Now let's come back, take a little bit of the titanium white, I'll put the least little touch of bright red into it just to warm it up.

Be very careful, the bright red is unbelievably strong.

A little bit will set your whole world on fire.

Once again, our little roll of paint.

Let's go up in here.

Now then, you have to make a determination, where's your light coming from.

I'm right handed, so most right handed people find it easier to have the light come from the right.

Left handed people will find that it's different for each person because left handed people have been forced to do right handed things their whole life.

Most of them can do it either way.

Maybe they have an advantage on the rest of us.

My brother's left handed and he can do things with either hand.

I have trouble working with just one.

I'm going to take a little thalo blue now, I want a brighter blue, a little white, mix them together.

Something like that.

Now when you're doing your painting use any color that you want.

The only thing that we want to do here is just show you how to make these effects.

What you make is totally, completely up to you.

Little roll of paint once again, because as you know painting is a very individual thing.

Everybody sees nature through different eyes.

And what you see is what you should paint.

That's the representation you should try to put on canvas.

There.

There's no right or wrong here.

Just makes you feel good let's you be creative.

I think we all have a little creative being that lives within us here.

Go back to a little bit of the white.

Maybe just put a little, yeah, a little bump on the mountain there just to break up that edge.

He needs his own shadow though.

And allow it to pick up a little bit of that white and pull it down.

Looks like light sort of dripping over the side here.

It's a very nice little effect and it'll happen automatically for you, don't worry about it.

There.

Now then, we get a good clean dry two inch brush and I want to create the allusion of mist right down here at the base of this mountain.

So tap, but pay particular attention to angles, see the angles coming down?

follow those angles.

Over here, go in this direction, just like so.

There.

And then very gently, two hairs and some air, just lift upward like that.

So that it creates a nice soft misty area right down at the base.

Okay.

Now we've got to make some more big decisions, what lives back here.

And our world, let's just take a mountain color.

That was Prussian blue, black, some brown, some crimson, and we'll add sap green in there too.

We just basically have all the dark colors thrown in.

Mix them up, wipe off the old knife.

There.

Let's have the fan brush.

Gonna load a lot of color in there, and maybe let's go up here.

Maybe in our world lives, yep you're right, a happy little evergreen tree, right here.

Maybe there's several evergreen trees, they live right here in front of this mountain.

There we go.

See?

That's all there is to it.

Give him a little friend.

Everybody needs a friend, even a little tree.

There.

Maybe, yep.

You decide.

Just sort of look at your painting because each person's painting will be different and unique.

Different in every way.

We don't try to teach you how to copy here.

We try to teach you how to be creative in your own right.

We only want to show you how to make effects.

There.

Because if you can paint one evergreen, you can paint a million.

It's up to you.

Maybe, oh what the heck, maybe there's a bigger one over here and that'll be the last tree.

We'll just sort of let this wander off on the edge.

There we go.

Maybe there's one there that's, he's not totally straight.

He didn't want to be a telephone pole when he grew up.

There.

He just wanted to be an individual.

You decide.

Where ever.

I didn't know I was going to do a forest, but that's okay.

You put as many trees in your world as you want.

As many as you want.

Let's get brave, over here on this side, big old tree.

We need a daddy tree here, there he is.

Big tall guy.

There strong tree.

Alright, maybe another one.

We really are going to do a forest here today.

Something about like it, it doesn't much matter.

We just want to put in some happy little indications of trees and bushes that live back in there.

Let's take some white, a little dark sienna, mix them together.

And we'll make a bass brown, cut off a little roll of paint once again.

Practice loading you knife with that little role of paint if you're just starting.

That little roll of paint works for everything.

and we'll put the indication here and there and there and here.

Lots of little tree trunks that live way back in there.

We don't know how many's there.

You can cut in the indication of some trunks.

Maybe the trees passed away.

Because that happens in the woods, and he just leaves his trunk hanging there.

There.

Now, we just use that same brush.

What the hay, we'll go right into some, oh cad yellow, yellow ochre, Indian yellow.

Just sort of mix them on the brush.

But since there was blue and black in these colors, then we're gonna automatically get beautiful greens.

Okay, load a lot of color in the brush, see both sides are full.

Let's go up in here.

Now, we said our light was coming from the right in this painting.

So place more emphasis on the right side of the tree then the left.

You knew that.

I know, there just a reminder.

And a little bit in here.

And each one doesn't have to be painted totally in.

Because you won't see each one, especially down toward the base here.

We just need little indications.

There.

See?

That's all there is to it.

And leave the base of the tree darker than the top.

There, because not as much light's gonna hit the bottom.

Not as much light.

It's dark and shadowy down there, that's where all my little animal friends live.

See my little squirrel Pea pod, he lives up here in the tree and then the little bunny rabbits and stuff, they live down here at the base.

Maybe we'll show you some little squirrels in the series.

I've got some little friends I'll show you.

Okay, let's go back and find a two inch brush.

Take a little bit of that color right there, and I'm going to pull it straight down.

Straight down.

Let's make a nice reflection down here.

Maybe this is water.

Pull it straight down.

That easy.

When I was traditional painting, painter, one of the hardest things to do was reflections.

Now it's one of the absolute easiest things there is to do.

That's all there is to.

Pull it down, go across, and it creates that little allusion.

And we can go back to our little fan brush.

Yellow ochre, the color that was on there, once in a while a little bright red.

And we can go back up in here and let's make some decisions.

Maybe there's some little bushy areas back at the base of these trees.

Wherever you want them, that's where they live.

Right there.

Just wherever.

Make it all jagged so you have little places that maybe you can take a canoe and sneak back in there and big 'ol trout live in there.

I like to fish, but I'm not a very good fisherman because I caught them and take them out of the water, take the hook out and put a band aid on them, give them a little CPR, pat them on the tootoo and put them back in there.

So they'll be there the next time I come.

Take a little of the liquid white on the knife.

And just cut in indication here and there of a little water line that just sort of floats around.

Just sort of a little light area just between these darks.

There.

That's all there is to it.

But act just like you're trying to cut a hole right through the canvas.

Right through the ol' canvas.

And canvas is tough.

Chances are you're not going to hurt it.

You'd have to take a running start and hit it to damage it.

Okay, let's get a small brush.

Now a small brush in our style of painting is a one inch.

(laughs) That's all right.

I want to pull it through that same dark color in one direction.

Notice that the brush is straight down, pulled in one direction, load a lot of paint in it.

So then when you turn it, it has a rounded corner.

We want that rounded corner toward the top.

Let's go up here.

And maybe we'll have some little bushes and stuff that live back here in our world.

Just push in, don't let the brush slide.

Just give it little upward push, bend it, bend the bristles, just bend them.

See, and it'll help create that nice leafy looking effect.

Maybe comes out like it, we don't care.

Doesn't matter, anywhere that you want it.

Anywhere that you want.

Now then, one of our golden rules and if you've painted with us before, you certainly know this, a thin paint will stick to a thick paint.

The paints that we use here are very thick, they're very dry, they're not like normal oil paints that are soft and creamy.

Very dry.

So then we can take and put layers of thinner paint right over the top of it without waiting for it to dry between each so layer.

So I've dipped the brush into liquid white.

Now I'm going to pull it through the green, so I've got a little sap green here.

Just pull it same way, one direction, lot of color.

See when you turn that brush over, then you have a rounded corner that goes toward the top.

Okay let's go up in here again.

Now let's pick out individual little bushes and stuff to live in here.

You don't have to push hard.

Do one little bush at a time, he's your friend, take care of him.

Vary the color a little bit here and there, little bit of the yellow ochre sometime, just to change the flavor.

There we go.

See?

One little bush at a time though.

Think about these little rascals, they're your friends.

In a painting, these create depth.

So take care of them, you want them to work well.

There.

You can put a little bit and let me say that again, a little bit, of paint thinner on your brush and go into color if you don't want to change the value.

Because the liquid white, since it is white, needless to say, will change the value a little bit.

It'll make the paint brighter and a little lighter.

A little paint thinner will just keep it the same only make it thinner.

Okay.

Maybe, I'll tell you, I know, I know, I know.

Let's take a little Van Dyke brown, a little dark sienna mixed together.

Let's have a little path.

You need a way to get up in here to put your canoe in the water to catch that trout.

Make up little stories when you paint.

It really helps if you know in your mind what this world is like.

Then it's more personal to you.

You have a better time when you paint.

And painting should be relaxing.

It should take you to a world where there's no worries, there's no hassles.

Little brown and white just barely touch, just graze, just like you were laying snow on the mountain.

There, see there.

Now we have a little path.

Now we want to set that path down into the painting.

Take and put some bushes that come right over the path.

See how that pushes it right down in there?

We don't know where it goes back here, we don't care where it goes, it's just a happy little path, it takes us back into a part of our painting that's very special to us.

There.

Something about like that.

See, wherever you want them.

All kinds of little doers live back in here.

There we are.

Then we can come back, take our knife, and in bushes there's always little sticks and twigs and limbs and arms that hang out and through here.

You can take the knife and just scrape right through the paint.

And just allow the canvas to show through.

And it looks like all kinds of little sticks and twigs and just little things that live in there.

These show different layers or planes in your painting, and those planes, that's what creates the illusion of depth.

I know you've looked at paintings and they look flat to you.

That's the reason, because little things like this haven't been done.

So you can put little hanging down limbs on the evergreens back in here.

Wherever you want them.

All kinds of little things.

Maybe a little stick lives over here.

Just sort of let your imagination take you wherever you want to be, like that.

You can also take the script liner brush, that's our only small brush, put little thinner on it, we'll use a little bit of brown just to show you how.

But the big thing here is make the paint thin, it should get very thin and the liner brush has very long bristles on it, there you can see them against that, very long bristles that hold a lot of paint.

So, don't be bashful, fill it up full of paint.

And you can come back and you can put in little limbs and twigs and sticks and things that live here.

Wherever you want them.

Just let them go where it's dark and then you can use a lighter color so it shows up.

There.

Because there's little twigs and sticks in the woods that are light colored.

Something about like that.

That's all there is to it, many or as few as you want.

Shoot I think we've about got to finish painting.

Let's sign this rascal.

For that we'll take paint thinner once again.

And I use bright red, but you use any color to sign your painting that you would like.

One of the things that I get a lot of letters, it's over and over say, how do I sign my painting, what do I use to sign my painting.

That's very individual.

Let's go up here.

Some people use initials, some use their entire name, some use last name, some use first name.

You come up with a way of signing your painting.

And however you sign it, make it consistent.

So that 100 years from now when collectors are looking for your paintings, they'll know what to look for.

And they'll know that on this day, you had a fantastic day and today you experienced the joy of painting.

And from all of us here until the next show, I'd like to wish you happy painting and god bless my friend.

(upbeat music)