- Hi, welcome back.

Certainly glad you could join us today.

I thought today I'd show you a little painting that is so simple, that even if you've never painted, you can do this one, guarantee.

In fact, it's one of the little paintings that you see in the opening.

I thought maybe we'd show you how that one was done.

So, I tell you what.

Let me show you what I've got up here.

Today, I just have a plain, old double-primed canvas, and I've painted it with black gesso and allowed the black gesso to dry completely.

So, it's totally dry, and we're going to start out today, and just use a paper towel that I've wadded up here, and I'm going to show you how to take gesso, we use black, white, and gray gesso, in different combinations up here, and I'll show you how to make a little back painting, and then, we'll come back and I'll put a canvas up that has a finished gesso painting on it, and I'll show you how to color it.

It's that easy.

It's harder to tell you than it is to show you.

So, we'll just take our little paper towel, and I've just got a little plastic tray here that I picked up, and I'm just going to dip a paper towel right into a little bit of gesso, and let's go right up here.

First thing we want to do is figure out where our light source is, and all you have to do, maybe it's right here, just a little bit off center.

Start with the lightest area and begin working outward.

See?

Maybe this is the joy of paper-towel painting.

There, but you want this to be your brightest area in the painting.

So, we just start from there and we work outward.. outward, outward, outward.

There.

Isn't that fantastic?

These colored gessos are just unbelievable.

They do wonderful things for you.

They open whole new doors of imagination.

There we go.

Little bit more.

Notice, I always start back in the center with that brightest color, and if you get little buildups of gesso here, that's wonderful.

That's wonderful.

When the painting's finished, those little high points will grab the painting.

It makes beautiful things happen.

Don't fight with 'em.

Alright, little bit more, and wherever.

If you do a thousand of these, each one of 'em will be different, but what's so great about 'em, once again, even if you've never, never painted a painting in your whole life, this is one that you can do.

Recently, we had our teacher's reunion.

We had a gentleman with us, Mike Goracke, who had never painted in his whole life, and he works with a paint company.

So we got that rascal up in front of all these certified instructors from all over the world, and we had Mike paint his first painting, and he did a beautiful job, and this is the one that he painted.

There.

So I wanted to share that with you.

Okay, a little bit over in here, and once again, with this gesso, we don't make any mistakes because if you paint an area too light and you don't like it, all you have to do is take a little of the dark gesso and go back over it.

It's no big deal.

There we are.

Something about like that.

That's all we're looking for for a background.

Alright.

Little bit of the gray here and there cause I want this to be a little darker out on the edges, so that it looks like we have sunlight in the center and it's working outward.

So, I'm just using a little bit of the gray gesso right over the top.

See?

So if you don't like it, if it's too bright or too dull, you can change it that easy cause this really is your world.

In here, you can do anything, anything, unlimited power.

Now, normally, if I was at home doing this, I would allow this to dry.

Doesn't take but a few minutes since this is gesso.

I'd allow it to dry before I started the next thing, but here, we don't have that luxury.

So, I'll just show you how you go about putting the next layer on.

We'll just pretend that it's dry, but when you're doing this yourself, I really recommend you allow this step to dry completely before you do the next one.

It's just a little bit easier to do.

Now, this takes a very complicated tool.

This is called a foam brush.

That's all it is.

It's just a little disposable foam brush.

Now, where we have the light area, I'm gonna use black gesso.

Where we have the dark area, I'll use white gesso, and gray in the middle.

I want to graduate the color.

That's all we're doing.

So let's start and do some little background trees.

I'll take this little foam brush and go through a little bit of the black gesso.

Just load it up.

It doesn't really matter but something about like so.

Okay?

See, we have both sides with a little bit of black, and I hope that shows, and we go up in here, and we have to make our first major decision.

Where up here does our tree live?

All you do is touch, and as you work down, apply more pressure, more pressure, and automatically, your tree trunk will get larger toward the base, and trees normally look better if they're bigger on the bottom.

Zoom, there we go.

Something about like so.

So, you just put in as many or as few trees as you want in your world.

That's all there is to it.

It's really all there is to it.

There's no secrets here.

Now, I'm going to start going into some of the gray gesso, (makes sound effect with mouth) cause these over here, they're further away from the light.

So, when we're done, the gray gesso will be a little bit brighter, and we can go right into pure white.

There.

See the variation.

That's all there is to it.

Maybe we'll just do a couple of white ones here so you can see how they're done.

We've painted the whole forest here in just a second, but that's really all there is to it.

You just sort of work back and forth and wherever you want 'em to go.

Maybe over here on this side, maybe here's an old tree that's got a yonk in it, a little crook in it.

Trees aren't all straight.

Some of them have old crooked areas.

It doesn't matter.

Back into our gray and our white.

Same basic thing.

The further you get away from the light source, the lighter you want these to become, and when we paint it, you'll understand why.

A little bit of the gray there.

Zoom.

When we apply oil color over the top of this dry gesso, then all of this makes sense.

Now I've got a little script liner brush.

It's just our regular script liner brush, and I'm going to add water.

I'm going to use water like we normally do, paint thinner, just to thin the gesso, so it's nice and thin.

Okay?

Then we can go up in here, and we can decide.

There's always little baby trees living amongst all these big ones.

So, we can put little delicate trees and sticks and twigs.

If you have enough water, this will just slide right over it.

There, and we can begin applying all kinds of little limbs and arms on these trees, wherever you think they should live.

That's exactly where they should be.

There we go.

See that?

Already, it's beginning to look like it's deep in the woods.

You know what's neat?

When you're done with these, some people look at it, and they like the black and white gesso version as well as they do the colored version that you end up with.

So, this is an excellent way to study value, just black and white.

When I was a young pup and went to art school, this is one of the things they had us do to learn to paint.

We would take something like tempera paints, just in black and white, and we had to do entire paintings, so we understood value.

This is a lot more fun and a lot easier.

There we go.

And back in here; pretty soon, you don't even know where these little limbs and arms, who they belong to.

Doesn't know that it matters.

It's just filler for the background, and I'm not going to sit here and paint each and every one of these trees.

i just want you to see basically how these trees are done.

Something like so, and as you work across over into here, and you get into the white trees, then you'll use white gesso to make it's arms.

About like that.

I'll put a few on this old tree here, just a (growl sound), old crookedy limb, just so we can see what he looks like.

There.

Give your trees character.

Don't just make 'em perfectly straight with arms that come out both sides.

Let your brush just have an imagination all on its own.

Let it go.

As you play with this, you'll begin to shade areas.

By that, I mean you'll take a combination of the gray and white and mix it together and you can shade the side of trees where you know light will be coming from.

It's unreal what you can do with this.

You can actually paint things like little barns or whatever with gesso and then just come back and put an oil glaze basically over the top of 'em.

It's that easy.

Okay.

Let me just do one or two little white ones so you can see how they're done.

Over here on this side; so you can just bring little white arms right off him.

Little more of my water here.

There we go.

Now, if you use your good liner brush for this, as soon as you're done, as soon as you're done, wash it.

Well, with a good amount of water because your little liner brush, if you let that gesso get hard in it, umm, you've earned your brush.

I don't want you to have to go buy a new brush.

There.

Take care of your brushes and they'll last for many, many years.

Another little thing, it's real good, have some limbs coming from over here, where you don't know where they are.

They're back over there somewhere because the trees didn't just stop right there.

Let some limbs come from over here.

It doesn't matter from where, but it'll make your painting look more realistic.

Some little sticks and twigs, little bit of gray gesso here and there to make some gray arms, but isn't that neat, how you can make a whole forest that easy?

That's all there is to it.

So I say, I'm not going to just spend the whole time period that we have here showing you just how to do background trees.

In the one that you see in the little opening, there's one big monster tree.

We can go back to our little foam brush, put some black gesso on it.

Let's go back up in here, and I just use the foam brush to do this.

Just figure out where he lives and go (growls), gotta make all those noises, and put a big 'ole tree.

He lives right there.

I wanted him to come right across.

There.

These little disposable foam brushes work very good for this.

There, see.

He's got a bit arm.

It lives out here, one over here, we don't know; wherever you want him.

You can go back to your little liner brush, and once again, you can add all the details that you want into your painting, all the details you want.

I'm just going to put a few in to show you how they're done.

Because, when you do yours, you're going to see it totally different, and it's going to be better.

Going to be much better than this one, cause you'll have unlimited time and patience, and your imagination is probably better.

So, you'll make beautiful things.

When you're doing these, I'm gone put transparent color over this pretty soon.

Try all different color combinations.

Transparent and semi-transparent color makes beautiful, beautiful things.

Now, down here on the bottom, we're going to put some little indications.

You could do it with a paper towel.

I'll just use this little foam brush.

Think where light's coming through.

I'm just gone take a little foam brush and just touch, just touch.

You can do it with anything.

See there?

Just gesso, just white gesso.

I'm going into some gray gesso, but I want the edges to be nice and bright.

There, see.

Maybe over here on the other side.

Just a little bit more of that, to sort of bring all this together.

It's up to you where you want these things to live.

Back into the gray so it gets a little duller.

Here and there, we can even take a little black.

Just play these back and forth, so you get all these beautiful variations.

There, maybe right in there, whatever.

Doesn't matter.

You can use the brush any way you want to, sideways, straight on, and each way will create new and unique different effects.

Little more of this gray.

Maybe right in there, like that.

Now maybe we want to put a little path in there.

I'm using a little black and a little gray mixed together here.

Figure out where your path lives, and just take this little foam brush and basically lay it in.

See there?

That's all.

That's all.

Then just like when we're normally painting, we need to lay that path down in there a little bit.

So we put a bush over here on this side, just like so.

I want the front of it to be darker than up there because it would be closer to the light source.

About like that.

Okay, I think that will pretty much show us how to do the little background.

As I say, I would let it dry between each and every layer.

Now, I want to show you the completed painting.

So, I've went ahead and I've got a canvas here that's all dried, that I've prepared exactly the same way.

So, allow me to step in front of this for just a second, and change this canvas and put up one that's already finished, so I can just show you how easy this painting is.

Once you have your gesso in there, it really makes it very simple to do.

I think at this time, we ought to have 'em run the colors across the screen that you need to do yours along with us.

Okay, while they're doing that.

Imma take a little bit of Liquid Clear and cover the entire canvas, just enough to be sure that the canvas is covered from one end to the other, but a thin coat, just a thin coat.

Once again, allow your gesso to dry completely before you do this, because you cannot mix oils and gesso together while you're painting.

You have to let the gesso dry in between.

There.

This is the hardest part of the whole painting.

If you can put the Liquid Clear on, the rest of it's easy.

There.

Even like this, got a hair there, even like this, this is very effective.

People like these just in black and white.

Alright, and that quickly, we have the entire thing covered with a very thin, even coat of the Liquid Clear.

Okay.

I'm just using long horizontal and vertical strokes to assure that it's distributed across the canvas evenly.

Now, if you're in doubt and you think possibly that you may have too much of the Liquid Clear, I would take a paper towel and wipe it.

What's left will be just right.

Now then, let me show you how easy this is too.

Imma go right into small amount of phthalo blue, phthalo blue.

Very little paint's required for this painting, very, very little.

You can always add more.

Let's go up here.

Start at the top, and all we're doing in reality is putting a glaze, right over the top of our gesso.

Isn't that fantastic?

This makes some of the most gorgeous little paintings, and they're wonderful to do for friends and family because they'll just be amazed at how fast they happen.

Imma take that rag down to just the tops of these little bushy-looking things that we made.

There.

This Liquid Clear is one of the neatest things we've ever come up with.

It really does work.

Now, isn't that gorgeous?

It's a deep blue.

Now the edges of it, I'm going to take a little Prussian blue.

Prussian blue is much stronger than phthalo blue.

It's very, very strong.

Take a little of the Prussian blue and just do the corners.

In order to make this look lighter, you need to make the corners look darker, and we'll accomplish that just like so.

Alright, and that's far as I'm going with that.

Now maybe, let's see here.

I've got several brushes going.

Right in here, watch.

I want to take Indian yellow.

Once again, you need very little paint.

Indian yellow is transparent.

Okay, let's go up in here.

That's the reason I picked the Indian yellow over the other yellows we use.

Imma start right in here.

Ahhh, we'll just cover the whole thing.

It doesn't matter.

Like so, with Indian yellow, but notice we intentionally let a little of that blue come down.

The reason is because when we touch it, now with this yellow, it's going to create a greenish cast.

It's not going to be bright green, but it'll give the indication to the eye that there's green there.

Now, if you want it bright green, you could use Sap green, which is a very transparent green, or you could just allow more of the blue to come down, either way.

Now, Imma take some of lizard and crimson, Sap green, mix it together, little more of the crimson than Sap.

I want it to the reddish side.

Okay, let me wipe off the old knife, and take a little bit of that on a two-inch brush, and to that, let's start at the base.

I want this to be the darkest.

So we'll start here and work upward.

There.

So it'll give it a very dark look back in there, and you bring it up to wherever you want it to stop.

But isn't that gorgeous?

It's so easy.

Once again, if you've never painted in your whole life, this is one you oughta try.

This is one you oughta try cause you can't make a mistake with it, it's so easy.

Now, some people are very happy and very satisfied with their painting if it stops right there, and it's up to you.

I'm gone pull a little bit of that color up so it looks like there's some on these tree trunks.

Sneaky, huh?

You can do that if you want to.

Let's make this brighter, like the sun, you know when you walk through the woods, you can see the sun in the background, and it just burns through the trees and it's so bright.

Sometimes you can't hardly even make out the tree trunks, it's so bright.

Imma take just the corner, there you can see it, see just the corner of the brush, and go right into a little bit of the white.

Okay, let's go up in here.

Figure out where the sun lives up in here.

In my world, I think it's right behind this limb here.

Start right over the limb, cause once again, to me, when you look at the sun that bright, it's like it just burns right through the tree branch, and you can't see it.

It's probably something in your eyes.

I'll have to get an optometrist to explain all that to me, but this is the way I see it.

There, but just go right over it, but look at that sun coming through there now.

For a long time, I wanted to make effects like this, but I didn't really know how to do it and make it look right.

Then when they came out with all the gessos like this, it made it so easy.

Now, anybody can do it.

Anybody can do it, and in your world, you should be able to do anything that you want to do.

Alright.

You have to decide how bright the sun is and how far it goes out.

Totally and completely up to you, but lookey there.

It's so bright, it almost hurts the eyes.

Sometimes it's fun to make like light rays zinging through there.

Now, you know if the whole painting is wet, that's hard to do because when you pull it across there, it's going to take your wet paint, but this is dry underneath.

The gesso is dry.

So we can....

It's easier to show you.

All you gotta do is just decide where it lives.

See?

Touch it and then give it a little pull.

Zoom.

Cause you're not going to destroy anything.

Isn't that easy?

See the light coming right through those trees?

See?

Just wherever.

Look at it.

That easy.

Isn't that exciting?

I've painted thousands of paintings and I'm sorry I get so excited about this, but it amazes me how beautifully this works.

There, and maybe even, I don't know, wherever.

You make the decision, but that easy.

You can have a painting that's just, that's just absolutely unreal.

Then it's just a matter of going back and you can add in all kinds of little details that you want.

You can put little sticks and twigs.

You know the little squirrel we've shown in some of the other shows?

Good time to paint your little squirrel in here, anything else that you want.

Once again, I wanna make this a little greener.

I've got a few minutes left here.

Let me find my brush that had the blue on it.

There we are.

Imma add a little more of that blue right here.

Show you how you can change this so easy.

Maybe, now that we can take our little Indian yellow color, and this'll be come brighter green.

It's up to you.

You have to make that decision.

However you want it, but that's pretty good.

That's pretty good.

As green as you want it.

There.

Alright, and put our light rays back in, and that's basically all there is to this little painting.

When you do it, experiment a little.

You'll find all kinds of wonderful things that you can do that I hadn't even thought about yet.

Let's take a little bit of red, and I'm going to sign this little rascal.

We'll sign it up here so you can see it.

Zoom, and with that, I think we bout have a finished painting.

I really hope you try this one, and I'd love it if you'd send me a photograph of what you do because it's unbeilievable some of the pictures we're getting, and people are doing fantastic things.

Until I hear from you, I'd like to wish you happy painting and God bless my friend.

(soft music)