- Hello, welcome back.

I'm certainly glad to see you today.

Let's do a little painting today that I think you'll really like and let me tell you what I've already got done up here.

I've got a black canvas, as you can plainly see, but the thing that you might not be able to see on your screen at home is there's an oval cut out and put on here.

This oval is just contact paper and I've stuck it on then I've painted this black with black gesso, allow that to dry and then I've covered the entire thing with a mixture of a alizarin crimson and phthalo blue.

And in the center here, there's a little more crimson than there is out here.

I've let it get progressively darker toward the side, so it's brighter in the middle than it is out here.

So, I tell you what, let's have 'em run all the colors across the screen that you need too paint this fantastic little painting and we'll go on up here and get started.

Now let's start today with ol' two-inch brush go into a small amount of the liquid white and I'm gonna go right up in here.

You have to make a decision right off in this painting.

Where's your light area gonna be.

I think it'll be right there.

Now just take the liquid white and begin blending outward, making little crisscross strokes, but always blending outward once you start.

We wanna keep this area in here the brightest, but look how that shines.

Son of a gun, boy, you put that liquid white on top of that transparent color, it just comes alive.

There, now we can do this as many times as we want to achieve a desired lightness.

Okay, but the only big secret, be sure you wash your brush between each application.

Shake it off.

(chuckles) That's really the fun part of this.

Back to the brightest area.

Little touch of the liquid white and off we go.

There.

Isn't it fantastic that you can make a sky that's that pretty that easy?

Now very lightly, you can just sort of blend across it, take the brushstrokes out and have a look-see at what you have and if it's not what you want, this is the time to change it.

Don't wait til your painting's halfway through and then go back and say, "Hey, I wanna change the sky."

This is the time to play with it.

Tell you what, let's go into some alizarin crimson, little alizarin crimson, little phthalo blue, same colors I'm just gonna, just gonna tap some into the large brush here.

There we go, just tap.

Load a little color, I'm gonna use just the corner of this brush and let's go up in here and maybe in our world, maybe there's some little bushes and trees that live in here.

There they are, just some little indications that hang out over here.

There.

It's a very soft little painting we're going to do today, misty and quiet, pretty little rascal.

Okay, maybe over here, wherever you want it, just put in all kinda little things.

You have to make decisions where they live.

There, I wanna save that bright area and that's slightly off center, so it's not right in the center, slightly off center.

There's another one, see?

Just drop 'em in wherever you think they should live.

Now I'm gonna add a little bit more blue, so it gets a little bit darker as it gets away from this light area.

See?

Little darker, I hope you can see that.

It's all kinda little things happening there.

Looks like little tree branches hanging everywhere.

Little bit more to the bluish tone, bluish hue.

There, okay, while we have that dark color on the brush, let's go with the other side here and put a few little things in there.

These are just little background trees and bushes.

There we are.

Now then, tell you what, we want to put the indication here and there of some little tree trunks and some stems and twigs, so I'm gonna take a little paint thinner on my liner brush and go right into that same exact color.

I want this color to be very thin, water consistency, just, it'll flow.

Okay, turn that brush and bring it to a nice sharp point.

See how sharp it is?

So a script liner brush here has very long hair on it, so it'll hold a lot of paint.

Now then, I wanna just here and there, here and there put the indication of some little twigs and stems and all kind of things happening.

Let's go right in here.

See 'em?

Now just sorta let your imagination be your guide here.

Just drop 'em in wherever you want 'em.

Maybe there's one, there he comes.

But these little details here really make your painting stand out.

If you're in a group selling paintings, and you have all these little details, guess whose paintings are gonna sell?

And this painting is so simple, this is one of the easiest paintings in this entire series.

Even if you've never painted before, this is one that you'll have good results the first time you try it.

It's very, very easy and it's fun and maybe the most important thing, it's a striking painting.

It's really an effective little son of a gun.

I like this one.

There, maybe over here there's a stick and a twig, wherever.

You just sort a have to make some decisions where you think they live and put 'em in.

Look at that, but look at that light glow in there.

We can just see the light just, it's just filtering through there.

I've painted so many paintings and I still get excited when I see this work.

Guess that's the kid in me.

It never gets old.

That's one things that's so fantastic about painting.

If you paint a million paintings in your life, you're never gonna be satisfied and the next one's gonna be your masterpiece and there's always something to learn.

Every time you paint a picture you learn something that will help you when you do your next one.

'Kay, let's go with the other side of this and put a few into this side.

Don't want him left out.

There, big ol' strong one there.

And by making these on the side bigger, stronger, it gives the illusion that this is further away than here and it sorta wraps the painting around and it's very pleasant to the eye.

There we go.

Now then, cleaned off my little brush and I just wash it in some paint thinner and wipe it on a paper towel.

I wanna put the least little indication of the tiniest little bit of foliage, but not much, not much.

Be right back, grab a tiny little bit of blue and a little bit of titanium white.

This is phthalo blue, alizarin crimson and a least little touch, least little touch of titanium white.

'Kay, now then, here and there I just wanna put the indication, just barely, so it just barely shows.

I don't want it, I don't want it to be too bright, 'cause this is too far away and I want to retain that misty appearance.

Now, in your painting, if you want it brighter, just add a little bit more white and it'll really stand out.

It's very individual.

However you want yours to be, that's exactly the way it oughta be.

Okay, maybe, maybe, yep, right there.

We can see just a little indication of some nice little things that are happening back here on this tree, but not much, we don't want much.

Okay, let's go on the other side now.

And here, a few little things, there's a few.

These are so subdued, I hope they show up on your set.

There we go.

Maybe, yep, there's one, just sort of pick 'em out.

All you're doing is just sorta looking around and deciding where they live, dropping a few little things in.

There's one.

There's another little one.

Maybe down here, just a few happy little things growing around the bottom.

Shoot, we got it.

And that's really all there is to it.

Okay, let's have some fun here.

Let me get, there we go.

Get an ol' two-inch brush here that's not dirty.

I'm gonna put some of that same lavender color into the bristles, just tap a little bit in.

'Kay, now I'm gonna come right down here and go right into the cad yellow, little touch of yellow ochre, just sorta mix 'em together on the brush, little Indian yellow.

Here and there, the least little touch of the bright red.

And by mixing color on the brush you end up with a multitude of colors happening on the brush.

You don't have just one flat old dead color.

it's all kinds of effects going on, see?

Tap, give it a little push, that loads the end of the bristles.

Now then, maybe in here there's some soft grassy areas.

All you have to do is just begin touching, just touch, tap, see there?

Look at 'em go.

Very gentle, you can make this look absolutely like velvet.

There.

And darker and darker and darker back in here, 'cause it's going back into the shadow areas.

'Kay, come right on down here and you just sorta work in layers, completing the most distant layer first and coming forward, forward, forward, always working forward.

There.

Now if you wanna brighten an area, maybe you want a light coming right through here and right in here.

I went into a small amount of just straight titanium white, you see?

And all you have to do is just barely touch and that'll highlight right where that light area is, but don't overdo.

If you overdo, it'll kill the effectiveness of it.

See?

Now that gives the impression that there's a light shining through there, but if you do too much, it's just gonna look too bright.

There, tell you what, let's do, maybe there's some rocks and stones that live out here.

Take some van dyke brown, pull it out very flat, as flat as you can get it.

Go straight down with a knife, cut across and get our little row of paint.

There it is.

Okay let's go up here.

Now, maybe, maybe right in here somewhere, look at there, just touch, give it a little sidewards pull.

We're just gonna put the indication of just a few little rocks and stones and some dirt showing here and there.

There we go.

Wherever you want 'em.

Now then, now then, titanium white, little dark sienna.

Mix 'em together so they're marbley.

I don't know if that's a correct word or not, but you know what I mean.

It's not over mixed.

There's all kinda streaks going through it.

'Cause those streaks are still on the knife, see?

'Kay, now then, you can take that and just let it sorta bounce along barely touching, graze it, caress it, there, softly, very softly.

very softly, see?

But it's just like when you put snow on the mountain, you need it to break and it leaves some holes and stuff in there, so the dark shows through.

It looks like dirt and rocks and stones and, shoot, you can even put a big stone right there, wherever you want it.

Put some dark underneath 'em, stand 'em right up there.

I know that's hard to see.

When we get the little grassy areas around though, then it'll stand out.

Then it'll stand out.

A little more of the color on my two-inch brush.

'Kay, let's go back up here.

Come right down in front of that and that'll push that dirt right down into the painting.

There we go.

That easy.

I like little paintings like this.

Now this one, as I mentioned earlier, has an oval on it.

If you wanted to do this painting without the oval, all you do is leave it off.

Paint the whole canvas with black gesso and take off.

This makes a beautiful full size painting.

Just because I have the oval on here certainly doesn't mean that you have to.

There we go.

See, and you're just working down, down, down in layers, always in layers.

Now then, let's have some fun.

Let me find a fan brush here.

Maybe there's some trees that live in there.

Let's go right into midnight black.

Load a lot of paint on the brush, lot of paint, lot of paint, both sides full.

See there?

Okay, let's go up here.

Maybe there lives in our world right here a nice tree.

Comes down to about like that.

Okay, make him just a little thicker.

We make him a little stronger, little bigger.

Now, he has a friend, lives right there.

That tree's name is Bill.

See it pays to give 'em names.

There, make friends with 'em, what the hay.

Maybe, maybe, maybe, there we are.

There's one right there.

See, we just let them grow right off the same spot.

Now then, take my liner brush, paint thinner on it.

Once again, we want this paint to be very thin, very thin, so it'll flow.

Let's go right up here.

Now then, let's decide where some limbs live on this tree.

Maybe, there's one right out through there.

See?

But the paint should be so thin that it just flows right off your brush.

Maybe, yeah, there's one up here.

There we go.

Make it just how limbs would grow on this old tree.

This is your tree, so you decide.

Wherever you want 'em, however you want 'em, that's the right way.

There, maybe this one comes right on back across.

We don't know.

Limbs go all kinds of ways.

There.

One up in there.

Okay, one over here.

I recently was doing a show for one of the PBS stations and we did a painting like this only big, great big, and then we auctioned off for the PBS station, make a happy buck.

Ah, people really like this one when they can see it up close.

It's a beautiful, beautiful painting.

And we travel all over the country doing shows for PBS stations and charity groups.

So if we get to your town, I'd sure love to have to opportunity to meet ya and talk with ya, so come by and see us.

And if you wanna know when we're gonna be in your area, just drop me a card with your name and address on it and I'll put it with our mailing list and when we get to your area, I'll let ya know.

We'll drop ya a little card.

There.

And you can just send it to the address that's on the end of the show.

They send everything to me.

Here I'm just adding some more little grassy areas in.

There we go.

But just layer after layer after layer.

See, maybe you wanna strengthen this a little bit.

I wanna make that a little more distinct right in there.

Go back, this dark color, dark color makes that light just jump right out at you.

Okay, little bit of grass right in here.

Shoot, we can just bring this right on down.

Isn't that fantastic?

And as I say, if you've never, never painted with me before, this is an excellent painting for your first project.

It's so nice and it works well.

It works so well.

There, now the more you tap on this little grassy area here, the softer it'll become.

It will absolutely get to where it looks just like velvet and that's very nice.

Okay, let me find a one-inch brush here.

We'll just use this same ol' one we were using.

Go right into some blue, some blue, and some alizarin crimson, and we'll just mix these on the brush.

Okay, I want some very dark colors here.

This should look black, it should look black.

I'll be right back, I wanna get a least little touch of paint thinner.

I wanna thin it just a tiny bit, 'cause I'm gonna apply this over color that's already on the canvas.

So one of our golden rules is a thin paint will stick to a thick paint.

So if you start with a very thick base color, then you can put lighter colors over the top of it, thinner colors.

Now, I wanna put the indication of some silhouetted leaves in here.

So all we're gonna do, just use the corner of the brush.

Oh, I'm killin' all my beautiful little tree limbs, but that's all right.

We know they're there.

Sometimes that helps give ya an idea of where to put this if you have limbs on your trees.

There, maybe that comes right up into here.

We don't know, wherever you want 'em.

These are just little loose leaves.

They just sorta lay around all day and have fun.

There we go.

Good and dark.

Now, we'll add that color.

Maybe there's some bushes that live right here.

We'll just push in a little bit of color.

We need that dark so our light'll show.

We'll have a little bush or two that lives there.

There he is.

Now grab another brush and I'm gonna dip this into a least little touch of liquid white and then go back into my yellows, grab some sap green.

Load the brush full of color, full of color.

Pull the brush in one direction, one direction.

See that loads a lot of paint right on the end of the bristles, one direction though.

Okay, now if you have a lot of paint loaded into this brush, it takes very little pressure when you touch up here.

If you don't have enough paint you have to hit hard and it sort of smushes, you know?

It'll get all muddy on ya.

But with a lot of paint, all you have to do is use a very gentle touch and just give it a little push, just enough to barely, barely bend the bristles.

Okay, reload the brush, put another little bush in.

Look at there.

And put in little layers, leaving some dark areas in between.

It's most important that you leave those little dark areas.

Maybe back in here there's a happy little bush or two, about like so.

About like so, just wherever you want 'em.

And we can have some of these just come right down from their foots, there.

Now with a clean knife we can scrap through and allow some of that black to show through and it looks like little sticks and twigs.

Hope you can see those.

They are here, if you can't see 'em, they're here.

Looks like all kinda little sticks that are holding up your bushes.

See?

Just wherever, put one right over there.

You can see it over the top of that light color.

It really adds some detail to your painting.

Okay, tell you what, on this particular, I wanna show you how to bring this tree forward.

Watch here, all you gotta do is take a little color like so and you can pull that rascal right on up into the foreground.

That easy, and once again that helps create the illusion of depth.

You can see grass between this tree and this tree and how there's distance between 'em.

Just one of those little things that'll make your painting look a little special.

Little limb right there.

Okay, now then, I'm gonna take, this is some dark sienna and white.

Get the least little touch of bright red, least little touch.

Pull it out very flat, get a very small roll of paint on the knife, tiny little roll.

Now if our light's coming from there, maybe there's a little light that just bounces right through here.

We'll put some on, then I'll show you how to mute it to calm it down.

Little light hitting right on those tree trunks.

Now we'll clean the knife and just begin touching, tapping.

It's just a clean knife, so the color mixes together and that'll subdue it, make it quieter, but it'll still leave a little sparkle out here right on the edge of these trees where maybe a little light's just shining through.

Okay, let's do this one.

There, see that tree?

Little bit right here, wherever you think light would hit.

Okay, shoot, speaking of trees, let's have some fun.

Let's have some fun.

I'll just use the ol' big knife, big knife or small knife, pull out van dyke brown, get a roll of paint.

Now maybe there's a big tree that lives right over in here.

I like to these ol' big trees in my painting, but if you don't wan it in yours, leave it off.

Watch here though, watch here, watch here.

Excuse my arm for just a second.

Maybe this limb comes down.

There he comes.

This is your bravery test.

This is your bravery test.

Okay, maybe, yep, you're right.

It's another big limb right there.

There's a lot of paint here, lot of paint on.

When this one dries it'll feel like real bark.

Maybe there's another limb comes off in this direction.

There.

Okay, need a big ol' root holds up this monster tree, another one there.

Now then, tell you what, we have this color.

It was, oh, white, little bit of dark sienna, little bright red, pull it out very flat, get our roll of paint.

Pull it out, roll of paint, that easy.

Okay, now then very gently, very gently just let this touch, graze, and just slide right down the tree.

You just barely, barely touch it.

No pressure, just like putting snow on a mountain, only on a tree.

See?

No pressure.

Over here, a little bit right there where the light's coming through.

There, now my other side, we'll take a little blue, phthalo blue, little white, and let's just put the indication here of a little reflected light here and there.

There, just sparkles it up, gives a cool color.

Little bit more of our brown.

Can lay that in here, sort of bring all that together and just let it work right around, like so.

And you could take a little brown on the liner brush and put the indication here and there of a few limbs.

In my world, I think this little tree's, it's dead, but there's still a limb here and there hangin', not many.

Okay, tell you what let's do, let's have the camera come right up here and I'm gonna take the contact paper off and let you take a look-see.

Isn't that fantastic?

To me, these are some of the most beautiful little paintings.

And I think with that, I'll sign this one.

Take a little bit of bright red and go right up here.

Certainly hope you've enjoyed it.

As I've mentioned several times, this is a very nice painting if this is your first attempt, so give it a try.

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

(easygoing instrumental music)