- Hello, here we are again, ready to go.

Hope you have the easel set up and your almighty palette ready, we'll paint a fantastic little picture together.

I'm gonna have them quickly run across the screen here all the colors that we have on the palette, so if you haven't caught those in one of the previous shows, you can pick up all the colors that we're using.

I thought today we'd do a very quick happy little waterfall.

Last week if you were with us we did a waterfall that was way off in the distance, this time I think we'll do one that's a little bit closer.

So I'm gonna start today with a little tiny bit of thalo blue, and I'll mix a little Van Dyke brown with it, and we'll just throw in a quick little sky here, something about like so.

And, while I have the blue on the brush, I'll go right into a little bit of thalo green, and we'll put some water in here, there we are, just to give us some nice little water indications.

OK, now, let's wash the brush real quick, and we'll move right along.

OK, now we'll go into a tiny bit of alizarin crimson, let's just warm this up a little, we'll put just a tiny bit of crimson right here.

A little crimson, we don't want to set the sky on fire, just want to give it a nice, warm glow.

A little bit into the water.

There.

Now let's bring all this together.

Just using little criss-cross strokes, back and forth, sort of like you're making x's.

OK. Just very gently bring that together so it's nice and evenly blended.

OK, let's take and put a, let's put a little mountain way in the background, I use a little bit of Prussian blue, Van Dyke brown, a touch of crimson.

We'll have a little mountains way back in the distance back here.

Something like so.

Just a little small one.

Now with the large brush, I'm just gonna take and pull that down, so it blends it out on the bottom.

There we are.

We just want this mountain to literally just disappear, right at the bottom there.

OK, we'll take a little bit of white, and I'm gonna put the least, least little amount of permanent red in, just to put a little warm glow on the mountain.

Tiny, tiny bit of permanent red, it's very, very strong.

OK, let's run a little highlight, right down through here.

Don't want these to be too bright, they wanna be far away.

Very soft.

Maybe there's a little highlight striking right in here.

And right down this ridge.

For the shadow's side we'll take a little Prussian blue and white.

There we go.

And, just drop some happy little shadows in here.

And let's just let this one wander around and play here a little.

Let your heart take you wherever you wanna go.

Maybe there's another little peak right there.

Each highlight beats its own private shadow, so just give him a shadow, so he stands apart.

OK, with a clean, dry brush now, I'm just gonna tap the bottom of this, just to create some mist.

Over here we'll follow these angles, then lift upward.

Want this one to be very soft, very far away.

OK, now let's take a little bit of Prussian blue, Van Dyke brown, a little, tiny bit of sap green, we just mix it on the brush, put a little white with it.

Let's make a happy little foothill, comes running down here, there he is, just let him wander down here and have fun.

All we're doing is tapping the canvas.

Now you can take and lift gently upward to make it look like little trees, way, way, way back in the distance there.

There we are.

Now then, maybe, let's do another one, that was a lot of fun.

We'll take some blue and brown, sap green again, this one we want to be a little bit darker, because it's closer, and we'll just have one run right down through here.

Alright.

It creates a lot of depth in your painting, and we can just take the bottom of it and pull down, and create our reflections.

Gently lift upward, make it look like little trees.

There we are.

Just make all kinds of little projections back here.

Now, very gently I'm gonna just wipe across, to turn it into reflections.

OK, we'll take a little bit of magic white, and make a little waterline here.

This is just straight magic white, remember our golden rule here, a thin paint will stick to a thick paint.

So this is very thin, so it will stick right on there.

OK, let's dull that one a little bit, too bright.

And a little bit right out here.

Now we could take a fan brush using the same dark colors, blue, brown, a little sap green, and we could just drop a few little indications of trees back here, maybe these are a little closer, just like so.

Don't want to get too much detail yet.

Let's darken this one up, it's closer.

Then, with just a little tiny bit of yellow, on the brush here, I'm just gonna put a little highlight so it looks like this is beginning to get close enough that we can see things, just here and there, very little.

OK, that gives us a nice background for a little waterfall.

Now.

Let's take the large brush, put some Prussian blue on it, and a little Van Dyke brown, and here we need to figure out where the waterfall's gonna be, have to make almighty decisions when you're the creator.

And let's just say it's right here.

Pull straight down, all we're doing is applying some darks so our light color will show on top.

And, let's throw some down here.

OK, clean the brush, and we'll be ready to go here.

And we'll use the fan brush, and take a little, tiny bit of the magic white, and add to firm white, thin paint will stick to a thick paint, so I've thinned it just a little bit here.

And we'll put some little ripples in the water.

Just touch the canvas.

Now, to make the waterfall pull the brush straight, and let it fall, pshoo, that's all there there is to it, straight, fall.

And it'll pay you to wipe the brush in between because you're gonna pick up a little bit of that blue.

Tchoo.

Just pull it over, let it fall.

That's why they call them waterfalls.

OK, let's go over here, pull it over, and let it fall.

Over, and it falls.

Wipe some of that blue off the brush, over, and fall.

And that's how easy it is to make a little waterfall.

Now with a little more of the magic, a little more titanium white, we can begin letting it hit and splashing, have all kinds of little fun things happen down here.

OK now, we need to determine what's gonna contain this water, so let's take Van Dyke brown, just straight Van Dyke brown, and we'll begin building some little, some little cliffs and rocks, something's gotta contain this, be sure your rocks are higher than the waterfall.

One thing that you have to remember, water's probably the laziest thing in nature, it will not climb a rock just so it can fall and be pretty for you.

It'd be nice if it would, but it won't do it.

Alright, let's just fill this in with a lot of Van Dyke brown.

And, over here, let's come right along like this, let this big old stone just play there.

A lot of paint.

Just like so.

Now, we wanna makes these stones look flat on top, so I'll take a little burnt umber, mix it with the Van Dyke brown, maybe just a little touch of yellow into it.

There we go.

Now, wanna try to make this look flat on top, so this, when it comes across, needs to be like so, to keep it flat, across here.

Just let it go.

Say it, Van Dyke, burnt umber, yellow.

Let's have this one just sort of come around, there.

OK. Now, angles, most important thing here, bring these angles down.

A little bit of light color, just a tiny, tiny bit, probably the biggest mistake made is putting too much highlight under here, and you lose that beautiful darkness.

Just enough to create a little illusion of rocks here.

OK, little tiny bit over here, and you can do this, like so every once in a while, just to break it up a little.

There we are.

Angles so, most, most important.

Now let's play with the water a little, maybe it comes up in here and splashes and has fun, tchoo.

Little more of the magic white, be sure your paint's a little bit thinner than what's on the canvas already.

I'm having so much fun with rocks, think I'll build another little happy stone that comes right out through here.

Just using the Van Dyke brown.

And a little bit of our highlight color.

Just let that work and play.

Little pull downward.

OK, let's take a little bit of the water over here, and, I'm going crazy with stones today, let's just bring something down like that, maybe there's a big stone right here in the front.

Remember this is your world, so anywhere you want a stone, that's where it should be.

There we go, we'll just fill all that in.

Creates a lot of depth by having all these different planes in the painting.

And, let's put a little bit of highlight on here on this happy little stone.

Just let that knife barely, barely touch.

Barely touch, it almost touches the canvas.

And we can just begin creating all kinds of almighty stones, rocks.

OK, now, let's build, let's build some happy little things here, using Van Dyke brown and some burnt umber mixed together, little bit of sap green in it, and let's just put, right over here, just a happy little tree, sitting up here on this rock.

Like that.

Maybe I'll, maybe over here, oh, there's an almighty tree.

That's where these big brushes really work beautiful, when you wanna make big things.

Alright.

Here, you have to make decisions here, where does it go, where is the bottom of this tree?

Let's just let it run right on down here and we'll decide that later.

OK. Let's put a few little limb indications back here, just here and there, like that.

And, we'll highlight it with a little brown and white, least little touch of blue, just to put a little highlight on there.

OK, now we'll take some magic white, to thin the paint a little bit, we're going to, little bit of yellow, little bit of sap green.

Yellow and sap green, a lot of paint on the bristles, and let's put some happy little leaves back in here, just let these little leaves just fall off your brush, all kinds of little things happening.

And go out sometime in the woods, and, and study trees, talk to trees, whatever it takes, tree needs to be your friend if you're gonna paint him.

Probably out in your yard you have some beautiful trees that you can look at, study what happens in a tree, what makes each one an individual.

Study nature.

I really, I really have some hangups about nature being destroyed, I would like to see nature remain the way it is.

I would like for my son, his grandchildren maybe, when he goes back to Alaska to be able to see a real moose, not just pictures of one, so appreciate what we have.

Let's put a big old tree trunk right up through here, this is just straight Van Dyke brown.

There we go.

OK, just fill that in real nice.

There, maybe there's a limb that just travels right up through this way, your tree, so you put limbs where you want em.

OK, let's take a little bit of the titanium white with just a touch of umber in it, burnt umber, and let's just put some bark on like yesterday.

Touch it, pull it to the side.

There.

Let it run right on up the tree.

OK. Now, back to the magic white.

Little magic white, some yellow, and I want a darker color on this tree, so I'm gonna use a lot of sap green on it, lot of sap green, want him to be darker than the one that's behind him.

And we can throw some happy little leaves right out here.

By being darker they stand apart a little better.

There we go.

Now, let's make a happy little bush, right out here, let's put some little brighter colors on him, so he stands out and shines.

And on down here at the bottom there's all kind of little things growing out here on the stone.

OK, maybe this one right here covers up half the tree's foots.

This is a very nice little painting, it's a lot of fun to do, it'll teach you a great deal, it's a good practice painting.

It's also good for putting a happy buck in your pocket once in a while.

There, maybe a little grassy thing over in there somewhere.

And you can also use the fan brush if you'd like, and just bring all this together very gently.

Maybe right out here there's a little weed that grows almost on the other side.

OK. Now, with the palette knife, just a clean knife, scrape a few little trunks and limbs in here.

One of the important things when you're doing this is, don't kill all this dark area, you really need it, otherwise your painting will become very flat.

You need the dark.

It's the only way you can have light.

OK. Let's go over here to the other side, I think that tree needs a little trunk.

Just touch, touch, touch Van Dyke brown, little bit of highlight on it, this is brown and white, just enough to give it some little indications.

OK. Now, let's highlight that tree, a little magic white, a little yellow and sap green, there we are.

And, let's just put some purty little leaves out here on this one.

OK. And down here at the tree's bottom, let's put a nice little bush right here, this is yellow ochre, beautiful color.

Maybe there's a little bush trying to live down here on this stone, life can get rough down there.

OK, few little sticks and twigs here and there.

But you're beginning to see now, how really very simple it is to do a happy little waterfall it's, no big secret.

It's quite easy to do.

I'm just throwing a few little sticks here and there.

OK now, we can take the fan brush, little bit of magic white on it, little bit of firm white, and now we can begin bringing the water all up through here, just touch and bend the brush so it bends upward, and pshoo, once again, tchoo, it makes it look like water's dripping down, but you pull it upward, and do it in a real fast little motion.

Water's just going right on out, little bubbly stream out from here.

OK. Now another thing that you can do just to make it look a little more finished, anytime you have these big cliffs with little things growing on, you should always have a lot of little roots that hang over, just take your fan brush with a little tiny bit of color on it, and pull, like so.

Just pull it, makes it look like little roots hanging over, ain't that something?

There.

Just hanging there.

Now, dry the fan brush off.

Maybe we'll take the liner brush, a little Van Dyke brown, and we'll put a couple little stems and stuff up through here, maybe, maybe there's a little limb that comes right up through here like so.

This is just a thin oil, just about any type of oil will work, just thins the paint down a little bit, you may thin it with paint thinner if you desire, be careful because paint thinner will bleed, like ink on rice paper, be very careful with that, the oil is slick it moves much easier.

And we'll have a limb coming right across the front.

When you're doing little trees and stuff, one thing to avoid, don't have a trunk and then limbs coming just off each side, because some of the limbs are in front of the trunk, some are in the back, so have them come across, there we go, and just gives us a little something right there.

Few little sticks and twigs, just little finishing touches.

And I think I'm beginning to piddle right now, so I'm gonna take a little bit of the oil, little permanent red, I think it's time we signed this one and called it finished.

OK, work your oil in there to your paint, it's just like water, and turn the brush to bring it back to a nice sharp point.

OK, lets go right along in here.

And when you have this oil very thin like this, it's just about like writing with a pen.

Another way you can sign your name is just take the back of your liner brush, and you can scrape right through the paint, your signature will be there.

OK, I think we just about have a finished painting here.

Well this is a very, very fun little painting to do, it teaches you a great deal, and I hope it helps you.

If you've enjoyed this, you know let your PBS station know, that's the only way we know what you like.

Let us hear from you once in a while.

So on behalf of all of us here at this station, we'd like to wish you happy painting, and we're looking forward to seeing you again next week.

Until then, have a super day.

("Interlude" by Larry Owens)