("Interlude" by Larry Owens) - Hello, I'm glad you could join me today.

You ready to do a fantastic painting with me?

Good.

In the last series, we took a canvas and we put some contact paper around it and cut an oval in it, and we made a fantastic little painting.

And we had a such a positive response about it I thought we'd do another one today.

So, I tell you what.

Let's have 'em run all the colors across the screen that you need to do this painting with me.

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

While they're doing that, let's go on up here and get started.

Now as I say, I've covered this with contact paper around the edges.

And this is just ordinary contact paper that you can pick up at your local hardware store, grocery store, whatever.

Just cut an oval in it, stick it on the canvas, and I've put liquid white in the center here, as usual.

And we're ready.

So, we'll take a two-inch brush and I'm gonna go right into a little bit of alizarin crimson.

And all we want is just a very small amount.

So tap the brush into just a little tiny bit of the color.

A little bit.

Okay, let's go right up here.

Now then, right in here, just making little, little crisscross strokes.

I'm gonna lay in a little touch of that.

Just let it work right up like that.

See there?

Now, I'm gonna take a little touch of phthalo blue on the brush and mix it right into that crimson so it makes a beautiful little lavender color.

There we are, just tap the brush.

Okay, back up here, and we'll just lay in a little bit of that.

Hmm, beautiful colors.

We'll do a little winter scene today.

I like to do little winter scenes since I lived in Alaska so long.

They're sort of special to me.

There we go.

So now we have sort of lavender on each side and a little bit of pink right in there.

I'm gonna take a touch of that crimson color and we'll have some water in this painting.

So I'll just lay a little bit right in here.

There, that's pretty already.

Very soft colors, make you happy when you're finished with it.

Okay, let me wash the old brush here.

We'll scrub it against the screen that's in the bottom of the can.

Shake it off, (chuckles) and just have a good time with it.

All right, now, I want to take this clean, dry brush and just blend this together, very softly, still using little crisscross strokes.

Just blend it together.

Okay, now then.

Same old brush, and I haven't cleaned it.

Same old, dirty brush.

I'm going right into midnight black, and I'm going to tap some of that right in there.

You don't have to clean the brush because the black is so strong it'll just eat up whatever's on there.

All right, let's go up here.

Now I want some big clouds that are coming across here.

So just use the brush sort of sidewards, just sort of kind of like that.

We'll just make all kind of happy little things.

See there?

Okay, a little more of the black.

Maybe there's a nice, big thing that lives, yep, right out through there.

Wherever, wherever.

Just sort of let 'em play and have fun.

There's one, I see one right there.

Just pull that right on down.

There we go.

It's a super, super easy little way to make a very effective sky very quickly.

Now, while I have the black on the brush, I'm gonna put a little bit down here in the water.

Just pulling from the outside in.

Just right across.

There we go.

Good.

Okay, now then.

Take a clean brush, and I'm going to very gently bring all this together.

And this will soften all the edges.

And here, go all the way across.

And that's all there is to it.

We have a happy little sky.

Now then, let's build us a mountain today.

Tell you what, let's take black, I'm gonna take midnight black, a little bit of the phthalo blue, we'll throw a little crimson in there, too, a little alizarin crimson.

So we have black, crimson, and blue.

Pull it out very flat, go across, and cut off a little roll of paint.

There you can see it, okay?

Let's go right up in here.

Now then, decide where your mountain lives.

Our mountain is gonna live right there.

Using very firm pressure, very firm pressure, just push that son of gun right into the fabric.

Okay.

And there we are, and that easy, we have a happy, little mountain shape.

And the only thing that you're worried about at this point is this nice top edge.

You could care less what's happening down here.

That doesn't matter.

Only thing you're worried about is the edge.

There we go.

Okay.

Now, with the two-inch brush, grab this and pull it.

Because the canvas is wet, you can move the paint.

Look at that, that easy.

That easy.

You can move a mountain.

Isn't it fantastic to have that much power?

Now then, let's put some snow on that mountain.

We'll go right into the titanium white.

I'm gonna pull it out just as flat as I can.

And to that, I'm gonna add the least little touch of the bright red.

Least little touch.

Pull it out very flat, get strong with it.

Straight down, cut across, and get that little roll of paint.

Let's do that again so you can see it.

Pull it out very flat, cut across.

See that?

That's what you're looking for right there.

Okay, now then.

Just take the knife, no pressure.

Touch it, and just let it slide right along the mountain.

See how easy that is?

No pressure, no pressure.

There we go.

One thing I should mention, when you look at the knife close up you'll notice that it's black.

We paint the knife black on TV so it doesn't shine, but my knife is like yours, it's just painted.

When they're new it looks just like chrome.

It's beautiful.

But if I use that on television the director would kill me when that started shining.

There we go.

We'll put a little touch of highlight right back there.

Now then, for the shadow color, we'll take some blue, some phthalo blue, white.

I'm gonna add a little black to that to dull it down.

Pull that out the same way.

Very flat, cut across, and once again we have that small roll of paint.

Okay, now then.

Touch, no pressure, and just give it a gentle pull.

See there?

That easy.

You can create a fantastic little mountain.

There he comes, right there, and there's another one, wherever you want him.

Just drop him in.

Then you can go back, and you can make this mountain shape change.

Isn't it fantastic that you can change a mountain that easy?

You can put a new peak on there, or you can take him away.

Whatever makes you happy.

Okay, good clean, dry brush.

There we go.

And just tap.

We want to create mist at the bottom of this mountain.

Follow the angles in the mountain.

Over here, go in this direction.

Always follow the angles in your mountain, then lift upward.

See how soft that makes the base of the mountain look?

Looks like he's just laying out there in the mist.

Okay, and that easy, we've got a happy little mountain.

Tell you what.

Tell you what, let's put a little footy hill in there.

I'm just going to take some white and go right into that same mountain color.

I want to lighten it up a little bit, and I'm just taking the corner of the brush.

There, you can see it, and pulling it right through the color.

Okay, let's go up here.

And maybe the little foothill lives right there.

Take the corner of the brush, touch, and just give it a downward pull.

Just downward.

See, you can just make all kinds of little things happen.

You have to make some big decisions, though.

Where does your foothill live?

Is there a lot of bumps, a few bumps?

There.

I have to make those big decisions.

All right, now then.

With a clean brush, I want to create mist at the bottom of the foothill.

So we'll just tap.

We're just tapping the bottom, just the bottom.

We don't want to touch this top edge at all, just the bottom.

And very lightly, lift upward.

And you have a foothill.

Now maybe, maybe in your world, maybe there's another layer of foothills.

Same color, only a little darker.

Use less white.

And see, now it stands out.

As things get closer to you in a landscape they should get darker, darker, darker, darker.

Now, while I have that color on the brush, watch right here.

Maybe there's gonna be some reflections in the water, and they live right about there.

All we're doing is laying some color on the canvas.

Then we'll take a clean brush, grab, and pull straight down.

And go across.

And that easy, we have instant reflections.

A little bit of the liquid white, and we'll put it out here and we'll pull it out very flat, and take the knife and cut across.

Okay, let's go up here.

Now we can go back in here and just cut in a little waterline.

Just a little waterline.

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

Just really get in there and cut on it.

You're not going to hurt this canvas, it's tough.

Maybe there's a few little ripples here and there.

But even these ripples, and the waterline, everything needs to be basically straight or your water will run right out of your painting, get your floor wet, then you're gonna be upset with me.

Okay, let's build some trees.

We'll take a big bunch of the midnight black.

We'll throw some van dyke brown in it, some crimson.

Shoot, we'll throw some blue in there, too, what the heck.

Looking for a color that looks black, but we want some blue in there so it has a blue base to it.

All right, and this doesn't have to be mixed very much.

Okay, let me clean the knife off here.

And we'll grab a fan brush.

We'll make 'em with the fan brush today.

That's the easiest way.

Okay, load the fan brush full of paint, just really pull it through there, like so.

Okay, look at all the paint that's in that brush.

That's a lot of paint.

Okay, let's go up here.

Now you have to make another big decision, where does your trees live?

I think it's gonna be a tree right there.

So just touch the canvas and give yourself sort of a little guideline.

And then just the corner of the brush, and work back and forth, back and forth.

And as you work down the tree, push harder, add more pressure to the brush.

And those bristles, watch.

See the bristles are bending downward, see?

See, that's bending down like that, okay?

I think you can really see that good there.

There we go, now then right on down, maybe to about there, wherever.

And he's got a little friend, right there, just like so.

And maybe, maybe there's another one right over here.

We don't know.

Just make a decision.

Decide how many trees live in your world and drop 'em in, just drop 'em in.

Shoot, I tell you what, I think there's another tree in my world and he lives over here.

And I like trees once a while in paintings that are crooked.

Just like politicians, gotta be a crooked one every once in a while.

There we go, just let that one bend right on over.

There.

Okay, now then.

I tell you, let's take a little bit of the dark sienna and the white and we'll make a happy little tree trunk.

Got that little roll of paint again, and let's go right up here.

Just barely touch it, just touch.

The canvas will pull off what it wants and give you back what's left.

That's what my tax man says, too, "We're gonna pull off what we want "and give you back what's left."

Of course, there ain't nothin' left.

There.

Now we got little trunks in there.

Now we'll find a one-inch brush and go right into a touch of the phthalo blue and into the midnight black, and we'll reach over here and grab some white.

Just put it right in there and make a very dark blue, very dark.

Okay, let's go right up here.

Maybe there's some happy little bushes that live underneath these trees.

Now we're putting the dark in here only so the light will show when we put it on.

That's the only reason we're using this dark right here.

Okay, a little bit of dark underneath.

You know already that's going to end up being the reflection.

You knew that.

See, just pull it down, and go across, instant reflections.

Now then, let's put some snow on those bushes.

I'm gonna dip right into the liquid white and go into the titanium white.

Add a little touch of red to that, a little touch of the bright red.

Let me say it again: little touch.

Eat up your whole world in a second, that red is so bright.

Pull this brush in one direction, load a lot of paint into it.

See, it has a curve because you pulled it in one direction.

Okay, let's go up here.

Now with the rounded corner to the top, touch and just give it a little, tiny push, just enough to get the paint to stick.

There we go.

Touch and do one bush at a time, form your little bush.

Remember, he's an individual, he has a personality all of his own.

I'm gonna put a little touch more of the liquid white on my brush.

If your paint will not stick add more of the liquid white.

Remember our golden rule: Thin paint will stick to a thick paint.

Now here I've reversed the brush and I'm tapping downward.

I want to make some reflections in the water.

That easy.

Clean, dry brush.

Now is when we find out if you have a delicate touch.

Whisper light, whisper.

Just barely caress it, and then go across.

It's just three hairs and some air.

Now then, tell you what.

We'll take some white.

Let's put us a little snow bank right out here.

All this needs a place to set so it doesn't fall over in the water and make a big splash.

Okay, angles here are very important.

Very important.

Little bit of the liquid white, it'll cut us in a little waterline.

This puts in a waterline and also cleans up the edges.

If you've got some little ragged edges down here, this is when you clean 'em all up and make 'em pretty.

There we go.

Okay, now with the clean point of the knife, just gonna scrape in a few little sticks and twigs, wherever you want 'em.

Okay, now I have several fan brushes going.

I'm gonna take a little bit of the liquid white, a little phthalo blue, and we'll make a nice blue color here.

You knew that, though, when I went in with phthalo blue.

Okay, see there, brush is loaded quite well.

Okay, let's go up here.

Now then, let's a put a little bit of snow on these trees.

Don't overdo, don't overdo.

The contrast here, the dark against the light, is what makes this painting so pretty.

Don't overdo, just enough to give the indication that there's a little snow laying on these evergreens.

There, and as they go down, let 'em get darker, darker, darker, darker.

Not as much light's gonna get down toward the bottom.

It's gonna be in shadow more.

All right, I think we got a nice little thing happening over there.

Let's go on the other side and play some now.

Maybe there's a nice evergreen that lives over here.

So, once again, load that brush full of paint, a lot of paint.

Okay, let's go right up here.

Maybe this one, maybe he goes way up here, we don't know.

There we go.

See, and he just works right on down, like there.

Like there, cover up that beautiful mountain that you made.

Now this is a good way, you know, trees really cover a multitude of sins.

If you have a place in your painting that's not so great, put a tree over it.

That's an easy way to cover it up.

I said that in class one time and a lady says, "Well, I'm gonna have nothing but a forest "in my picture 'cause I'm gonna cover up the whole thing."

There.

Now then, back to my one-inch brush and pick up some of that dark-blue color.

Pull it in one direction, and go back up here.

I'm gonna put in some happy little bushes.

Push upward, bend that brush, don't let it slide, though.

If it slides you're gonna get that, and that's bad.

If that happens to you, just cover it up with a nice little bush.

That easy, you can fix it.

There we go.

Okay, now then, back to my one-inch brush that has the white on it.

A little bit of liquid white, a little titanium white, and the least little touch of bright red in it.

Least little touch.

Load that brush full of paint.

Tell you want, let me hold it this way.

Look at the end of it, look at all the paint.

Probably the biggest single mistake made is not putting enough paint into the brush.

There, now push, barely touch the canvas.

It's a gentle, gentle little touch.

See, maybe right here there's another happy little bush.

One bush at a time.

There we go, and work in layers.

That's what helps create the illusion of depth.

Okay, there's one.

There's one.

I tell you what, I want another tree.

See, you can change your mind.

I'm gonna have a tree that lives right here.

There he is.

I don't want this one big tree to get lonely.

Trees are like all of us, they need friends.

Now he has a friend.

If I had a beautiful little place like this I'd have to have a little cabin out there, so let's do that.

Now probably one of the easiest ways to paint a cabin is to take your knife and just scrape out the basic shape.

This does two things: Probably the most important, it removes the thin paint, the loose paint.

But it also allows you to lay out your cabin without being committed.

Let's take a little van dyke brown, just do that, that's all we need to do.

A little brown, a little dark sienna mixed together.

And we'll put in the front, there we go.

The other side, zoop.

See how quick you can build a little cabin?

Over here, zoop.

Gotta make those little noises or it don't work.

A little dark sienna and white, and just barely touch, just like you're putting snow on the mountain.

That'll make it look old.

Maybe we'll straighten that out a little bit.

There, that's better.

That's better.

A little more of the van dyke brown, put a little door in there.

We'll go right around the edges, sort of outline that door so it stands out.

And you can just cut through this and make it look like little planks.

Now we need some roof on there.

Guy that lives here is gonna freeze to death if we don't give him a roof.

So come right down and put some snow right on his roof.

That easy.

Now over here on this side, he's gotta have some snow over there, too.

Look at that.

Now, let's have, here's some snow out in front.

He'll have a little path.

And he walks right down this path and goes over here and fishes for that great, big trout that lives out there.

Okay, now we can take a little more of the liquid white, titanium white, a touch of the bright red, and we can put some bushes around his little cabin.

There they come.

Look at there.

And that easy, you've got a little cabin, little walkway.

See, a happy little snow picture, it's nice and cold.

But yet, it's still warm.

Now then, tell you what, let's have some fun.

As I mentioned at the beginning of the show, we have contact paper up here, so let's take it off.

Maybe we can come right down in here and watch.

I'm gonna grab this.

Come right up here and watch, watch what happens.

Just pull that right off and look at there.

There we go.

Isn't that neat?

Of course we ruined our tree over here.

So watch here.

We'll go right back into the dark color, and let's just give this tree a shot of vitamins.

See, we can come right back.

I like to do these ovals and allow part of the painting to project out of the oval.

Just like so.

See, there's our tree.

We gave him some vitamins and he grew right back.

And he had a friend here, right?

So we don't want him to be left out.

And that easy, you can go right back in there and put his friend back in.

And it's sort of like a vignette, but not.

Not exactly like it, it's a little different.

And it creates a very nice mood.

And if you're interested in that happy buck these will certainly sell.

People like these paintings.

Now I'll take a little of the dark sienna and white mixture and we'll put a happy little tree trunk in here.

Now, you might notice these edges are blue.

That was a little sneaky, huh?

I had painted the canvas blue in advance, and the liquid white is so opaque, if there's some blue in here it'll go right over it.

You don't have to worry about it, it'll cover it right up.

And then when you pull your contact paper off there it is all around the edges.

And it really gives you a nice painting, but try it with other colors and you can make all kinds of things happen on the edges here.

And you can put different colors, and you can fade paint in.

I get carried away, you could do so many things with this.

So many things.

I'm getting letters from people all over the country and they just say all kinds of beautiful things are happening.

Try it, you'll see what it can do.

Look at there.

Just this little bit of the phthalo blue and white.

Just to put a little of that on there.

Look at there, not too much, just sort of touch.

There we go, like that.

See, and as it gets down here, darker, darker, darker, darker, darker.

Okay, now we can take the knife, and evergreens always have some old dead limbs.

Just grab it, see, take the point of the knife, give it a little a pull.

See, making little dead limbs hanging.

Let's do a couple on the other side over here, too.

We don't want them left out.

And I think we just about have a completed painting.

So let's sign this one.

Now I just take my liner brush, dip it right into the some liquid clear, and go right into the bright red.

Now you want to make this color very thin, almost like water.

Okay, let's go right up here.

Maybe I'll sign this one right here.

Like so.

I hope you've enjoyed this painting.

Give these ovals and different shapes a try.

Use the contact paper, you won't believe the things you can make.

Until next time, from all of us here, happy painting and God bless.

("Interlude" by Larry Owens)