(soothing music) - Hello, I'm Bob Ross and I'd like to welcome you to The Joy of Painting.

This is a wet-on-wet painting technique and each week, I'll take you step by step through a beautiful oil painting.

If you've been with us before, I'm glad to see you again.

If this is your first time with us, drag up your paints and your big brush, come along and paint with us.

And let's go ahead and get started and talk a little bit about what we're gonna do up here.

I've already covered the canvas with a thin, even coat of Liquid White.

And this makes the canvas wet, makes it slick, it'll help us to blend color right here on the canvas.

And now I'm gonna have them graphically run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint this project with me.

And it'll come across in the same order that I have them on the palette, starting with a titanium white and working around.

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

Now I'm gonna start with a 2-inch brush today and go right into a small amount of alizarin crimson.

And just really tap the brush into the color.

Just tap it.

This assures a nice, even distribution of paint all the way through the bristles.

Kay, let's go up here.

Let's go right in here and just make little criss-cross strokes, little X's.

And put in a little, tiny bit of pink, just like so.

Using very little pressure, just apply it right on the canvas.

Don't want that to get too bright, we don't wanna set the sky on fire.

We just want a little pinkish glow in the sky.

Okay, now then I'll take the same old dirty brush, add a little more of the crimson and a tiny, tiny bit of phthelo blue.

Proportionately, we want much, much more crimson than blue.

And I'm just mixing this right on the brush to make a nice lavender color, nice purplish color.

Kay, let's go up here and sort of test it.

Now, sort of test it up here and if it's not the color you want, stop and change it, you can fix it.

This is your world and you can create any type of illusion that you want here.

You're the boss in this canvas.

You can do anything, anything.

Kay, little more paint.

And just sort of let that play around, I wanna add a little more blue to that, tiny bit more blue, there!

Today I thought we'd do a nice painting.

It's very soft and very quiet.

And it'll make you happy.

It's a very easy little painting.

There we go, and down here I'll just clean the brush off, just like so.

Okay, now then, let's clean our brush.

We clean our brushes with odorless thinner and be sure it's odorless, or you'll be working by yourself.

Shake off the excess and right down here I have a box I shake the brush into and then (brush thumps).

(laughs) This is where you take out all your frustrations, maybe the absolute most fun of this whole technique.

Okay, now let's take the clean brush and go right back up here and just blend the sky together, still using the little criss-cross strokes.

Still using them, back and forth, back and forth.

There we go, okay.

And you can blend this to any degree of softness that you want.

You can blend it 'til you lose all the little variations that you have.

And personally, I like to leave some of those in there.

But when you're doing your painting, you look at it and you do it the way that you want it.

Okay, there we go.

And that quickly, we have a very effective little sky.

And we'll just use long strokes here to take out any brush marks.

Okay, and that gives us a happy little sky.

Now then, let's take a little bit of the phthelo blue and the alizarin crimson, we'll just mix it together.

Still we have a little bit more of the crimson than we do blue.

We're still working with a nice lavender color.

Pull it out very flat and then cut across it, so there's a small roll of paint right on the edge of the knife, there you go.

Kay, let's go right up here.

Maybe there's a happy little mountain that lives right along here.

And you're really pushing this paint right into the fabric.

Really get firm with it.

You're not gonna hurt this canvas.

Shoot, they make tents out of it, it's tough.

Really push it in.

Use a lot of pressure, lot of pressure.

The only thing you're worried about is this nice outside shape here.

You could care less what's happening down here.

Okay, and that gives us a basic little mountain shape.

Now then, let's go back to our large brush and grab that and pull it, just pull it.

Now that's mixing with the Liquid White and automatically it gets lighter toward the base.

And if you can see the entire mountain, it should be lighter at the bottom than it is at the top.

And as we've said on previous shows, because at the bottom you have mist and now we have pollution and these things have a tendency to break up and diffuse light, so it looks softer at the bottom.

Now by just taking the knife here, we can create the illusion of highlights and shadows.

Just push very firmly.

You can take the least little touch of titanium white, we want these mountains to be far, far away, so they don't have much detail.

Just barely, barely touch.

The smallest amount of the titanium white and I'm rubbing it.

Okay, and let's put a little tiny bit right there.

Then we can just rub that right in.

See and it creates the illusion of all kind of things happening without you actually doing a whole bunch.

And it keeps that mountain looking like it's far, far away, far away, far away.

There we go, maybe a little touch right in there.

Wherever, you just make a decision in your mountain, you put it wherever you want it.

And then we can tap that and blend it a little bit.

And that mountain should look just like it's just laying there and just floating in the sky.

Very soft, very quiet.

Okay, let's have some fun.

Now maybe there's a little footie hill that lives right down here.

So we'll just keep using this old 2-inch brush.

We wanna take a little blue, a little bit of crimson and I'll just mix them right on the brush.

We'll add a tiny little bit of white in there too.

So we've got alizarin crimson, little bit of phthelo blue and a touch of white, okay.

And I'm just tapping the brush, just tapping it.

Let's go right back up here.

Maybe there's a little foothill that lives right here.

And all you need's just the corner of the brush.

And just begin laying in some basic shapes.

Just sort of let your brush touch and pull downward.

Touch, pull downward, straight down.

Straight down and maybe they come right on down here, wherever you want them.

A little more paint, there we go.

There they are, just right on down.

Now then I wanna create the illusion of mist right under the bottom of this foothill.

So I'll take a clean 2-inch brush and we'll come right here and tap firmly.

Maybe you can hear that, tapping very firmly.

And that'll create the illusion of mist at the base of these foothills, just like so.

Okay, and then very lightly lift upward.

Just lift straight up, straight up.

And then blend it out.

Kay, maybe, tell you what, maybe there's another layer of foothills in there.

So let's go right into the same color, alizarin crimson, phthelo blue, but I want it a little bit darker.

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

Kay, let's go right back here.

Let's start right here and maybe we'll just bring this one down and let it drop.

There it is, there it is.

Just right on down, right on down.

See it's a little bit darker, so it stands out.

Might even add the smallest, smallest touch of sap green to that, the smallest touch.

I just wanna begin giving the indication of a little green far, far back there.

Kay, then we'll take our clean, dry brush and once again I wanna create that illusion of mist down here at the bottom, so we tap very firmly, very firmly.

And you're using just those, there you can see, just the top corner of the brush.

Strike the canvas, just like so.

Just like that and that easy, you have mist right at the bottom of that foothill.

And then lift upward, there.

Isn't that something?

Okay, we'll wash the old brush here.

I like to wash the brush, that's the most fun part.

(brush thumping) (laughs) 'Course everybody in the studio's covered.

Okay, now then let's begin putting some little things that are happening way, way back in the distance.

I'm going back to this lavender color I made and add a tiny, tiny bit of sap green.

Just the smallest amount and all I'm doing is tapping, just still tapping.

Kay, let's go right up here.

Now maybe back in here, way back in here, there's just a little soft hill, lives way back here, very gentle.

There, and we're gonna put layer after layer after layer of little hills back here.

Now if you live in the Carolinas or someplace that have the beautiful, beautiful hills, this is a super way to make them.

You can make all those beautiful mountains that you have in that area the same way.

Just leave this big one out.

There we go, little bit more color on the brush.

And maybe, I tell you what, maybe there's one that comes from this direction.

I wanna add a little touch more of blue in there.

There we are, that's better.

Now we want them to get a little darker as they get closer.

So all we're doing is just tapping very gently.

Okay, okay, little more of the green into that color.

And you have to make almighty decisions here.

Maybe this one comes right down.

There it is, look at that.

See now each time you do this, you're creating plains in here and each plain that you add into your painting makes your painting look deeper, shows much more depth in it.

And of course we're not interested in that almighty dollar, but if you should be, that's what sells the painting.

There we go, there we go.

See, just layer after layer after layer.

I tell you what, let's have some fun.

Let's have some fun, let me grab a fan brush here.

And we'll mix up same old color, phthelo blue, alizarin crimson.

And I'm gonna add a little bit of white to that.

Little bit of white, there we go.

Little bit more of the crimson, good.

Kay, let me wipe the knife off.

Now, we're gonna load this fan brush full of paint.

Just really load it full.

Wiggle it in there, kay let's go right up here.

Maybe back here lives a happy little tree, little evergreen tree.

Now, just sort of touch it to give you a center and then give it a little upward push.

Sometimes we make evergreens by pushing down, sometimes by pushing upward.

Today I thought we'd do it upward.

Look at all the little things happening there.

Look at that, look at that, cute little tree.

And we don't want him to get lonely so let's give him a happy little friend.

His little friend lives right there.

Trees need friends too, we all need a friend.

There he is, okay.

And you know what happens, if there's two trees, sooner or later, the little son of a guns are gonna get together and here's a little tree.

And he lives right here beside them.

Just like so, okay.

And you're painting, you put as many trees as you want.

I'm gonna put three right there.

Maybe, I tell you what, let's have a little tree, little tiny tree, lives right there.

And we make him the same way, only smaller.

Just make him a little smaller.

And go out and study trees, make friends with trees.

You know I talk about going out in the woods and sitting around and talking to trees.

There's nothing wrong with that.

That's the way you learn what makes a tree look like a tree, spend some time with nature.

Let it become your good friend.

I'll put some more trees right out in there.

See there, you can just put trees wherever you want them.

Tell you what let's do, let's take this brush and see right here at the base, I'm gonna take this brush and just begin picking up some of that color and tapping.

All I'm doing is tapping.

Now I'm gonna begin adding a little color to that, a little yellow ochre, little cad.

yellow.

Just very lightly I'm gonna begin creating little highlights on all these little hills.

Just let them all blend together.

Just a nice, soft little meadow back here.

I'm gonna add a little indian yellow and here and there, little touch of bright red.

Tiniest little amount of the red though.

There we go, just to highlight a little.

Don't get carried away.

All right, okay.

And I'm just sort of mixing all of these yellows and reds together on the brush.

There we are, just let them go.

There, see how that begins to soften and that creates the illusion of depth.

And that's what we're looking for.

All right, I'll tell you what, let's go back into this same old color, the blue, the crimson and the white, get the old brush all loaded up here.

Lot of paint, let's go back up here.

Maybe in here, some more little trees.

Just give it a little push upward.

And once again, in your painting, you put as many or as few trees as you want.

But the more you make, the more practice you get.

And if there's a secret to painting, it's practice.

It's practice, the more you paint, the easier it becomes.

It's like anything else.

When you first started tying your shoe, probably didn't work first time, you had to practice it a few times.

And now you can do it without even looking.

And it's the same way with painting.

Pretty soon you can do it and it's almost, it just happens, you don't have to worry about how to load this brush.

You can spend your thinking time worrying about composition and begin looking at things in the painting.

That's when it's fun.

That's when you truly experience (laughs) the joy of painting.

Maybe, tell you what, maybe right here this old tree, he didn't make it.

In nature you have trees that, maybe somebody stepped on it when they was little and they got a little (groans) a little hurt in them.

And they died, but you have dead trees in nature too.

So, put some of those in your painting, it makes them look real.

Okay, we'll just drop in another little tree or two.

Okay, then once again, we'll just grab the bottom of that and let it go.

Tap it right on out.

Then we can take our liner brush and I'll use a little bit of the liquid black on it.

And just put a little indication here and there of a few old limbs that are still hanging off these dead trees back here.

Isn't that easy?

Look at her, okay.

Now then, take some more blue and some more crimson.

There we go, all right let's come right down here.

And here comes another hill and all we're doing is initially laying in the base color.

The dark color, just like so.

And don't cover it completely, leave some of these areas that are light in here.

These will create all kinds of beautiful effects when you're finished.

And as you know, if you've painted with us before, we don't make mistakes, we have happy accidents.

(laughs) So, learn to work with these things.

Anything that happens, learn to use it.

Learn to use it, let it be your friend.

Sometimes you have a tendency to fight painting and just work with whatever happens.

Whatever happens, there we go.

See and you begin creating the curvature of the land here, the lay of the land.

Just sort of let your mind wander and enjoy.

Painting should make you happy.

It should really make you happy.

There we go, you know the one thing, if painting teaches you nothing else, it teaches you to look at nature.

I get letters every day from fantastic people that say, "Bob, I've looked at the tree in my front yard ever since it was a little baby, and I never really seen it 'til I started painting."

And that's true, that's so true.

Painting, it teaches you to see, to appreciate.

Pretty soon, you're riding down the street and you say, "Oh, my gosh, look at that tree.

That tree's made of sap green with a little blue in it or that cloud can be done with a fan brush."

'Course, you have to be careful, you'll wreck the car when you're doing things like that.

But okay, I'm gonna add the least little touch of white and a little bit of red right on the brush, just tapping it in.

Just tapping, okay.

Maybe there's a little light that plays right through here.

I want this to be a little bright area, right in there.

So all I'm gonna do is just sort of tap that on in maybe, like right there.

Right there, right there.

We'll just take, go right into a little bit of yellow.

Add a little green to that, I'm using all the yellows here.

Little touch of the red, touch of the red, it's very strong.

Kay, let's go back up here.

Now then, we can begin just tapping on some highlights here.

See there, look at that.

Look at that, and begin, once again, begin thinking about the lay of the land.

Just sort of let it flow because on this piece of canvas, you can create anything, anything, there we go.

See now, if you wanna create little hills, it should be brighter on top than it is down here.

And that gives the illusion of a little hill, like a light striking up here and let it get darker, darker, darker, darker as it works down.

Just let it go.

You know I've painted thousands and thousands of paintings, and I still get excited when I see it work.

It's so fantastic, there we go.

Look at all the little hills and little ridges.

And you can do it, you can do it.

There we go.

See that little bright area's just, it just shows that little sun striking right through there.

Be pretty when it's done.

Little touch right there, okay.

Let's really have some fun now.

I'm gonna go right into the midnight black and I wanna add a little bit of Van Dyke brown.

Just mix it right on the brush, lot of paint.

Lot of paint, kay let's go up here.

Maybe there's some big trees that live in here and I think one lives right there.

And all I'm gonna do is just tap, just tap.

Just come right down, like so.

Just tap it in and I have several fan brushes going here, so I don't have to wash them.

Take a little bit of the white right on this brush and watch here.

We're gonna come right down this edge, right down the edge.

And we'll put some highlight right on that tree and that easy, that easy, you have a nice, strong tree trunk.

That was fun, let's do another one.

Let's do another one, same color.

Little brown, little black.

Now you have to make a decision, where is it trees live in your painting?

I know, right there.

There he comes and all these trees aren't perfectly straight like telephone poles.

Let them have a little character.

Trees are like people, each one has its own individual personality.

Oh, I feel there ought to be one right there, right across the mountain.

Every tree's different.

Once again, spend some time with nature.

Go out and talk to a tree, don't matter if people think you're crazy.

Us painters you know, they think we're a little weird anyway, so that's all right.

That's all right, tell you what, maybe, kay right here, we'll have a smaller tree that lives right here on this little hill.

We'll push him back like that.

Kay, let's go over to the other side here.

We don't want this side to have all the trees so we'll put, there's one, right there.

Just prop him on.

This is just black with brown.

Big one, right there, big old tree.

Little more of the brown, big old tree.

He comes right down like that.

See there, look how easy they are to make.

Then we'll take our other fan brush that has the white on it and very quickly, you can just go right along here and just drop on a little bit of highlight.

Remember which side the light's coming from.

And if you're right-handed, it's normally easier to have the light coming from the right.

If you're left-handed, it'll vary from person to person.

Kay, let's go right along here.

And just drop on some little things, like so.

Just like so, okay.

Let's take a liner brush and I'm gonna put a little bit of the liquid black out here on the palette.

Take our liner brush and I'm gonna add a little, tiny bit of thinner to it so it's very thin, turn that brush.

Bring it to a nice point, let's go right here.

Now then, here and there, just drop on a few happy little limbs, little arms on the trees.

Yeah, oh tree's got some arms.

See, just wherever you think they should live.

And old pine trees always have old broken ones all over.

Look at that, look at that.

This is just liquid black with a little bit of thinner in it.

And you can put as many or as few as you want.

Few back in here, we don't want this old tree to be left out.

There we go, okay let's go over here.

Put a little bit right there, right there.

This is a very nice painting.

If it's your first painting project, it works very well.

If you've painted with me before, it's a painting that'll give you a lot of fun.

There, gives us a few indications of some limbs.

Now then, let's take the old fan brush and I'm gonna use some of the black still.

And we'll drop a few little leaves on these trees, okay, let's go right up here.

Now we touch and give it a little upward push.

Make little smiley faces.

Just sort of make a decision where you think they live.

Drop them in, drop them in.

Maybe, look here, there's a few on this old tree.

Just like that.

Let's put a few on this little tree.

Leave some of the old trunk showing.

Some on this one.

All kinds of things happening.

And just let them go, just let them go.

We'll give this tree some.

There, see them?

All kinds of leaves here.

And let some of the sky show through.

And I'm gonna go right into a little bit of the sap green with a touch of yellow on it and come back and very gently highlight some of these.

Isn't that easy?

You have a beautiful old tree.

And I think with that, we just about have a finished painting.

So, I think we'll call that one done.

And from all of us here, I'd like to wish you happy painting, God bless.

We'll see you next time.

(soothing music)