- Hey welcome back, certainly glad you could join me today.

You ready to do another little fantastic painting?

Good.

Tell you what, let's have 'em start off and run all the colors across the screen that you need paint along with me.

And as usual they'll come across in the same order as I have 'em on my palette, starting with the white and working around.

While they're doing that let me tell you what I've already done up here.

I have my standard old 18-by-24 inch canvas, and today I've taken a little contact paper and cut a design out of it and just stuck it on there.

And on top of that then I've put some liquid white and we're all ready to go, so I hope you are too.

Tell you what, let's get started.

Today I'm gonna start out with a two inch brush and go right into the least little amount of Prussian blue.

This is a very, very strong color.

It doesn't take very much.

Just tap a little bit into the bristles.

There we go, let's go right up here.

Now we'll start right up here.

We'll just use our little crisscross strokes and just dance in a happy little sky That's all there is to it, just have fun.

Sorta let it happen, there.

This is continually mixing with the liquid white and the color gets lighter and lighter as we work down the canvas.

For a little variation I'm gonna go right into some phthalo blue.

Same old dirty brush and I'm gonna retread over here and get the least little touch of phthalo green.

So we have phthalo blue and phthalo green.

It's such a fantastic day.

Let's just make a bright, shiny little painting that'll just make you happy, there we go.

Just use some of these beautiful little colors.

A little touch more color, there.

And let's have some water in this painting.

You know me, I'm such a water freak.

I've put water in just about every painting that I do.

Let's go down and I'll get a little more of the blue.

A little more of the blue, a little more of the green and all I'm doing is just tapping the brush into the color.

Pull out the tiniest little amount of color and then tap the brush.

There, that's all you have to do.

Now maybe the water would live right along in here somewhere so let's just go right across like so.

And we'll decide where the water's really at later.

Right now all we're doing is putting a little color on the canvas.

Okay.

Let's wash our brush.

We wash our brushes with odorless thinner.

Scrub 'em off good, get all the paint out.

Give it a shake.

(chuckles) Cover everybody.

Now with a clean, dry brush all I'm gonna do here, still using little crisscross strokes, is sorta blend my sky out.

You can make this sky as soft as you want it or you can leave it with some action in it so it doesn't look dead.

Very lightly go across, take out the brush strokes.

Okay.

Now then let's have some fun today.

We'll use the old fan brush.

We'll go right into titanium white with the fan brush.

Load a lot of paint into the brush, lot of paint.

We'll reach down and be right back, right back.

There we go, get the least little touch of bright red in it.

Least little touch.

Okay let's go up here.

Maybe up here in the sky there lives just a happy little cloud and he just sorta floats around up here and has fun all day, there.

Just sorta let it play wherever you want it.

And clouds are free, clouds are very free.

One of the freest things in nature, there we go.

Just maybe right along in there.

And I'll take a clean, dry brush and very gently, very gently I'm just gonna blend the base of it out, not touching the top yet.

Knock off the excess paint off the brush and I'm gonna grab it and lift it upward in a big circular stroke.

Very lightly, very lightly just blend it a little bit.

Isn't that a super way of making a happy little cloud?

We don't want this cloud to get lonely so let's go right in here and we'll put another little cloud right here, and you can put as many or as few clouds in your world as you want.

Just drop 'em in.

There we go, maybe one lives right in there, I don't know.

Just make a decision, drop it in.

Knock off the excess paint again, there.

I beat this big brush, it just removes the paint.

That way you don't have to go through the entire cleaning procedure.

Blend the base.

Sorta lift it up, tease it a little bit.

And then very lightly, very lightly just go over it.

Isn't that easy?

You've got a sky full of beautiful little clouds.

We'll wash this brush, there.

Okay, let's build us a little mountain today.

I think for that I'm gonna take a little bit of black, Van Dyke brown, and a little touch of Prussian blue.

There we go, just sort of mix it like so.

Pull it out as flat as you can get it.

Go in straight with the knife and cut across and get that little roll of paint right out in the edge of the knife.

Now then you gotta make your first major decision on where does your mountain live?

Maybe it lives right there.

Push this paint right into the fabric, get tough with it.

Zoom.

Gotta make all those little noises or it doesn't work right.

There we go, sorta let that pull right out through there.

Like so.

Then back to our large brush and I wanna grab that and pull it.

Since this is wet you can move the color.

You can move paint right on the canvas, there.

Just sorta let it disappear right down here into the mist.

Okay now then, let's take some titanium white and dark sienna.

Gonna mix that together but leave it marble like that, don't over-mix it.

We're gonna take and cut off once again, that little roll of paint and go right up here, no pressure.

No pressure.

Just touch and let it flow right down the side of the mountain, but no pressure.

Just pretend you're a whisper floating across the mountain.

There.

There we go, alright.

Just let the knack bounce some clay on, think about where there's little peaks and ridges and where the sunlight would bounce through there and sparkle it all up.

Wherever you want it.

Now then, let's take a little white, some Prussian blue and some Van Dyke brown.

Maybe a touch more of the white, there, very nice.

That'll be our shadow color.

Once again we've cut off that little tiny roll of paint, there it is.

Let's go right up in here and just touch, zoom, and just follow the angles right down the mountain.

Just like that.

There, I want to keep that side quite dark.

I want this to really stand out.

Now then take a clean, dry brush, and I several of each brush goin' here so I don't have to spend all my time cleaning brushes.

And here I'm just gonna tap, just tap, following the angles in the mountain.

If you come straight across like that it's gonna cut it off like somebody took a big knife and just cut the bottom of it off, and we don't want that.

Now very lightly, two hairs and some air, lift that upward, upward so it just looks like it's sitting right out there in the mist.

Take the fan brush.

This time I've dipped the fan brush into a small amount of the liquid white.

Liquid white first and then into titanium white, only to thin the paint a little.

Now then let's go up here.

I thought today we'd have some happy little clouds that have floated down here, right down into the mountain here.

Right in front of him, just floated down.

Maybe they got tired and decided to rest awhile.

Sat down here on this mountain, take life easy.

There, see.

That's all there is to it.

Just let him float right on down there.

And you put 'em wherever you want 'em and as many as you want.

Clean, dry brush, very gently, very gently.

Now then, we'll just stir these up a little bit.

Very lightly.

The paint we use down here though is very firm, very dry and you can paint right over the top of it without it turning to mud.

Be sure you have a very dry paint.

A lotta times I have people write and tell me that they went to the art store to buy paint and they said, "Oh, it doesn't matter what kind of paint you use, you can do that."

Be sure the paint is very, very dry.

If not you're gonna be angry with me.

I want this to work for you.

Going back to the same old mountain color here.

Cut off a little row and maybe there's another mountain that lives here.

Since we're doing a good, tall vertical painting today we can have several ranges of mountain.

See just, once again block in your basis little shape.

This is good because it'll give you practice with a couple layers of mountains.

There, take our big brush, grab it and pull it.

There we go.

But you can make layer after layer after layer.

It's a super, super way to make friends with a knife.

Okay, go back to our highlight color, our cyan and white.

Touch and flow right down the side of the mountain.

Just touch it and flow, that's all there is to it.

Touch it, let it go.

There.

Tell you what, I'm gonna get the little knife.

That little rascal works so nice sometimes in these smaller areas.

Get my shadow color and let's go there.

See how that little knife just sneaks right in there?

We just put a little bit of shadow right along there.

Wherever.

Maybe have that highlight sorta wiggle and jiggle, there we go.

Just let your imagination be your guide.

You're only restricted by your imagination.

There we go, just tap.

Once again you want this misty area at the base.

That's the only thing you have to separate is that little soft misty area.

All I'm doing is banging the brush a little bit to knock off the excess color.

Now very lightly.

(whispers) Just whisper light, whisper light.

Isn't that fantastic that you can create two rows of mountains, two ranges of mountains that easy?

But you can, you can.

You can do anything.

Alright let's have some fun.

Maybe we'll make some little foothills back here.

We'll take some little touch of the phthalo green, a little blue, a little bit of brown.

Get some more white in there.

Green, the blue, the brown.

Need enough to get a brush dirty here, there.

Not so much, lemme clean my knife off here.

And tell you what, let's take a one inch brush and I'm gonna go right into some of that color with a one inch brush.

Just load both sides with a little bit of color.

Let's go right up here.

Now maybe we just take the corner of the brush and maybe there's a happy little foothill that lives right along there, see, there he is, there he is.

You knew he was there didn't you?

Straight down, straight down.

Now with our big brush I want to create mists, so tap that firmly, firmly.

(scraping) See there?

That easy, that creates the illusion of mist.

We'll just take the same old brush, maybe we need another foothill.

I wanna add a little bit of alizarin crimson to that, a little more of the Prussian blue.

I want to darken it.

Each layer of foothills as they get closer to you should get darker in value and darker in color.

There we go.

See there?

By this being a little darker, now it'll stand out.

It becomes an individual, it's different.

There we go.

And you can just make layer after layer after layer in your world.

Wherever you want 'em and as many as you want.

There now, once again I want to create that illusion of mist at the base.

So take your big brush and really get tough with it on the bottom down here.

Don't get tough up here, but down here just beat the devil out of it.

This is where you take out all your frustrations and hostilities, there.

It's also where you need a good, strong easel.

If you don't have a good, strong easel it's probably just gonna fall over on you, you don't want that to happen.

This particular easel I made myself out of a platform ladder.

It makes a super, super easel.

Good and strong, and you can use it to do a lot of other things.

My friend Dana had to put plaster on his house the the other day so he just took the easel head off and used his ladder to do some plastering.

So you can too, it has multiple uses.

I'm mixing up just some blue, brown, black.

All the dark colors, little bit of sap green in there too.

We need a very dark color.

Very dark color, there we go.

And you're gonna need a pretty good pile of it.

Okay lemme find, there's a nice looking fan brush.

Let's go right into this.

Load the fan brush full of color, both sides.

Right up here now.

Maybe there's some little trees that lay way back here in the distance.

Notice this color is darker.

This color is darker so it stands out.

If it wasn't darker it wouldn't look right.

You ever looked at a painting and maybe you didn't know exactly what was wrong with it but your mind told you, "Something's not right?"

A lot of times it's something as simple as the fact that the color does not get progressively darker as it works forward.

There, just lift up.

Like so.

Well we've made one heck of a mist here, haven't we?

We don't make mistakes though, we have happy accidents.

Very soon, very soon you learn to work with anything that happens.

Now I want a big tree there.

This son of a gun, boy the sun shined on him and he got a lot of water.

Life was good to him so he really got big and strong.

Big ol' tree.

Now then let's take, create us a reflection.

Because this is wet you can make this paint slide and move see, that easy.

Just grab it and pull it and lightly go across and instant reflections.

Now then let's take, we'll use some yellow, some yellow.

Little bit of green into it, and just mix these colors on your brush.

Let's go up in here and let's put the indication of some nice, shiny little grassy things that are far away.

I'm just pushing upward with the brush.

There.

That's all there is to it.

Just make a little peninsula that, there he is, lives right out there and we got him.

I wanna take a little touch of the brown and white, this dark sienna and white, put the indication of a little tree trunk in there.

Little more of the dark green and we can put just a few little highlights on this big evergreen here.

We don't want any highlights back here, they're too far away.

We want him to have a few right there though.

A little liquid white on the knife, get us a little of that.

Let's put us a water line right up in here.

Just like so.

Really cut that in, act like you're trying to cut a hole right through the canvas.

Very strong, hard.

A few little ripples here and there.

Now then, we have to start making some big decisions.

So let's have some fun.

Let's go up here, we'll get some black and some Prussian blue.

What the heck, just black and Prussian blue, and let's make a decision.

Maybe in this particular painting right here I want some dark color.

Just really get in there and wipe it on.

Just maybe right along in there.

Doesn't matter how you put this on, you could put it on with a paint roller.

Start a whole new fad, just drop it in.

We need some dark in order to show some light that we're gonna put on there.

Let's make a couple of big trees.

Back to our fan brush since it's already dirty.

Maybe there lives in our world a big evergreen right there.

And there he goes.

There he goes.

Big, strong evergreen tree.

And that indicates by size that he's closer to you.

He lives right here in the foreground, there.

There we go, just wherever you want him to live.

Maybe yeah, let's say he has a friend right there.

There.

And just sort of work back and forth, that's all there is to it.

These little evergreens live right there in your fan brush.

Sometimes you have to sort of push 'em out though.

Okay.

Shoot that brush it too slow, let's get serious here.

Take the two inch brush, pull it through the paint in one direction, one direction.

Load a lot of color into the bristles and maybe right here lives just a happy little bush and all we're doing is putting in the background color for the bush.

We'll come back and we'll put all the beautiful little highlights on.

Right now we're just putting in some nice background color.

Just push that brush, bend it.

Just bend it.

Something like so.

Now then, we find the fan brush.

I'm gonna dip it into the liquid white and then into titanium white.

So we have liquid white, titanium white.

The liquid white is only to make it thinner.

Let's go up here.

Maybe the water's comin' right along here.

It's just havin' a good time and oh my gosh, flip, somebody has pulled the cork out and there it goes, see?

Just let it fall and it splashes down through here and it just wanders on around wherever you want it to go.

See there.

Push upward to make those little foamy things.

Just let it wander right on down.

Okay lemme get a one inch brush, gonna dip it into the liquid white once again to deaden the paint.

Then into some sap green and yellow, a lot of paint in the bristles.

And let's begin putting some beautiful little highlights on some of these bushes and trees here.

There, think about individual bushes.

Don't just throw this on at random.

Little yellow ochre, little Indian yellow here and there.

Maybe just a touch of the bright red.

Now we need something for this to stand out.

Let's take Van Dyke brown and we'll go right there and we'll make a little rock, just a little rock for it to stand on out here.

Maybe, yep, it comes right over in here.

Wherever you want it.

Take a touch of that mountain color and we'll add a little highlight there.

Look at that.

Now then, I wanna just pull that down on this side there.

A little bit of our water splashin' up against the edges.

And back to our one inch brush and get some more sap green, some yellow here.

Now let's put a happy little bush here and there.

Maybe some grow right down here, see?

Let 'em grow right down like that.

Let's go on the other side.

Over here, there.

There lives a nice bush.

Think about individuals though, I can't say that enough.

Can't say that enough.

A little touch of the bright red there just sparkles it up, makes it really shine.

Maybe right here.

There, tell you what let's do.

We need somethin' for this side to stand on too.

Back to my Van Dyke brown and let's come right along in here and we'll put a happy little stone that lives here.

See just fold down.

Like that.

Look at that.

Okay, little bit of the highlight color.

Just pull it across, angles are very important when you're doing this.

Angles, angles, always look at your angles here.

Fold a little touch of it down.

I want this to stay dark underneath though.

There we go, now.

Back to our fan brush, we can splash a little bit of water up on there.

That cleans up the bottom of that, brings it all together.

Makes it really look nice.

Tell you what, I wanna go into a little bit of titanium white.

The least little touch of phthalo blue, let's get crazy today.

Just a little bit of the phthalo blue.

Maybe there's a little blue bush that lives right there.

Once in awhile somethin' like that really sparkles your painting up.

Then we can come right on back down in here.

See that, pushes everything right back into the distance.

Now, take a touch of brown and white.

A little indication here and there of a tree trunk, a little bit of highlight.

Don't want too much.

Like so.

Scratch in a few little sticks and twigs.

Now then, let's have some fun.

Let's bring the camera right up here.

I'm gonna take the contact paper off now.

Just pull that right down.

And look at that, isn't that fantastic?

Now then, watch here.

The old clock on the wall's tellin' me it's about time to get outta here but I want to show you how you can bring this right out of this painting.

Look at here.

See there?

Let this evergreen just protrude right out.

I love these shapes made with the contact paper and some of the fantastic effects you can get with it.

Look at there, a few highlights on it.

Just like so.

What do you think?

I think we have a finished painting and I really hope you've enjoyed this.

Give it a try, you can make all kinds of different shapes.

Once again, you're only limited by your imagination.

And from all of us here, happy painting and God bless.

(relaxed guitar music)