Painting with Wilson Bickford

I'm very often asked how I get the hazy atmospheric look in my work. Today's lesson is gonna focus on that technique. Join me next on "Painting with Wilson Bickford" for Misty Morning Haze. (soft music) -

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Support for "Painting with Wilson Bickford" is provided by the J.M. McDonald Foundation, continuing the example modeled by J.M. McDonald by contributing to education, health, humanities, and human services, sharing since 1952. Online at jmmcdonaldfoundation.org. (cheerful music) The View Center for Arts and Culture is an Adirondack exhibition and performance space featuring in person and online classes for creatives of all ages and abilities. Open calls, events and class schedules online at viewarts.org. Hi, thanks for joining me today. I've got a fantastic little lesson here to show you how I get that nice, soft, hazy atmospheric look in my work. That's one of the questions I get asked the most. People are always wondering about it. So today's lesson is gonna focus on that and I hope you enjoy it. I've started this canvas with some acrylic. Now I could have painted this with oil up to this point. I would just have to let dry thoroughly for a couple of weeks probably. This was acrylic. It'd be dry within an hour or so and you'd be ready to work on it. We're gonna talk about this set up stage and we're gonna put oils over the top of this. I actually have a sketch and a supply list you can get at the WPBS TV website that tells you all the tools that we're using and the colors and there's a sketch that you can use to transfer. I simply put graphite transfer paper beneath my sketch. I like to use a red pen so all my lines show up so I know where I've been. I traced everything on here. It's hard to tell, but there's a fence post with a pail on it right here. That has been masked out with tape like I always do. You've seen me do that a million times. That was drawn on and masked out before I dropped in this background. So I'm gonna give you a rundown on the actual paints and brushes that we're using today. For oil paints, I'm using cerulean blue, cadmium red light, Van Dyke brown, cadmium yellow pale, burnt sienna, and titanium white. I'm also using some white oil based coat and some clear glazing medium. Now for the acrylics, this is painted in acrylics up to this point. That way I can put the fog over the top with the white base coat. It's how I get that look. For acrylics, I used black gesso, white gesso, chrome oxide green, brilliant red, burnt sienna, cerulean blue and cadmium yellow pale. Now you might have variations of those acrylic colors. You just basically need a green, a red, a brown. For brushes today, I'm using a two-inch scenery brush, a number three fan brush, a number six round brush, a number two detail Scriptliner, a number two liner and a number two long Scriptliner. What I did is I traced the design on and then I used my number six round brush. I carefully painted in the barn. I left it a little darker red on this side, lighter red on this side. I took a liner with the black gesso. I put in all the little markings of the barn boards and the cracks, the windows, the doors, the roof was primarily cerulean blue, burying shades of that, a little bit of the burnt sienna for the rust. There'll be a reference photo of this online that you can actually look at to print off and use for your own. And the post was traced on here first and that was taped out before I dropped this background in. The trees were put in with green, darker green. I used a fan brush for the acrylic and used the yellow and chrome oxide green to put in the meadow, leaving it darker and darker as I came lower. So you just wanna get a nice farm scene like this that's put in and let it dry. That's the important part. It's easy to get the haze over the top of it once you have your background and it's dry, it's really, really easy. Like I said, this is one of the questions I get asked the most so I wanted to respond to it and show you. And like I said, this was put in the post and the pail were put in, not the wires but the post and the pail itself were put in first and drawn on and then taped out so they're not painted. I'm gonna paint those in with oils so they're are nice and sharp and crisp when they come forward outta the fog. So I hope there's no question with that. If there is, you can write to me and ask me about it but it's a fairly simple process. You'll see, once we get rolling. You can do this with oil like I said, you just have to let it dry completely and thoroughly before you move on to the next stage. Okay, from there, I'm gonna take my large two inch scenery brush and I'm gonna take some of the clear medium. To save myself brush washing, I'm not gonna start out with the white. I'm gonna start with the clear down here. This is gonna grade from the white base coat with some color in it down to just this acrylic that you see here. So rather than start with the white and then have to stop, wash this brush to put clear, I'm gonna start with the clear. I'm working backwards. That's part of my paint smart, not hard. Do it in a logical sequence. So this isn't gonna show up very well but I'm gonna put some clear glazing medium down here. It's gonna give me something to blend into when I bring my sky color down, the fog and that mist I got lost in the mist one time and I didn't have the foggiest idea where I was. Go figure. Okay, so I'm gonna come up to about there, give or take, and then I'm gonna make up a fog color, what I consider a fog color. I'm gonna take some of this white base coat, a little touch of the cerulean blue and a speck of the cad red light. It should give me kind of a blueish gray, makes a nice fog color. You don't wanna get too much red. I almost borderline got too much red there. We'll see once I get it mixed in, eh, it's not too bad. I think I can live with that. Maybe just a touch more white with it to lighten it. Now I'm gonna scrub this in very thinly. I don't want it real heavy. I can already tell this one's a little bluer. This one's got a little more of the red in it, a little grayer. It's fine. Just to show you, I could live with that and I could put that on there but I just wanna show you to clarify, If you want it a little bluer put a little more blue with it. Now get a color that looks like fog to you. I'm gonna brush this on. There's nothing on the canvas right now. I'm brushing this on just like I was putting the white base coat on like I normally do only this time I have color in it and it's gonna take some elbow grease to scrub this in here and I'm gonna go right over my land and my barn. I'm gonna meet this clear medium down here where I left off with that and blend it away. See, this is gonna be the fog right over the building. Makes it very easy to get that effect. Everybody looks at my paintings and they say, "How did you get that nice fog effect?" See, just that easy. Don't put it on too heavy but the heavier you put it, the denser the fog is. I'm coming down into that clear medium so I'm gonna use a lighter touch and just kind of feather it away so it's gradually coming outta the fog. Pretty easy, right? Now, see this one shows a little better. If I wanted, I don't have to, it's an option. If I wanted, I could lightly just take some of that film off and it brings it back outta the mist a little bit. So you're gonna have to figure that out. It's adjustable just like the notches in your belt, guys. Figure it out. How much fog, how much atmosphere do you want in there? I have some samples here of other paintings just to get my point across. Now this is one I did very recently. Same idea. The lighthouse and the land were all painted in just like I'm showing you today. I didn't need a sky just like I didn't today. The fog takes care of the sky. Same idea. This one with the barn, that was all put in first and the birch tree and the bird were added after the fact over the top. Notice how they come forward. This one's the same exact idea, a little more work. I had to paint the doe in with acrylic back there and the trees. But again, I had no sky. The fog will take care of the sky and this buck was put in and he was taped out, masked out with tape just like we have the fence post and the pail today. He was painted in and or masked out, I should say and then, when the tape was removed, I painted him in but that's a really easy way to get that nice distance and that depth in your work, that foggy quality. So you just wanna blend that off like that. I'm going to take my number two Detailed Scriptliner with some white and a little bit of yellow. I'm gonna put a sun in back there shining through the mist. I kind of load it and flatten it out on two sides. Don't get it too yellow. A lot of people get this too yellow and then it looks like a kindergartner's representation. And I'm gonna have it low on the horizon. Like it's early morning, the sun's just coming up through the fog and notice I'm leaning one hand on the other here to steady myself. Don't get it too big. I'm gonna go a little bit lighter than that. See, how it's not showing up too well. I'm gonna add a little bit of white base coat and titanium white, both to that paint just to thin it down and to lighten it, needs to be a little brighter. It's gonna hinge on how light or dark your fog is. You wanna get a contrast. See, I want the sun burning through the mist like that. All right. Pretty easy. From there, I'm gonna spatter in some of the texture in the grass and I'll probably come back and add a little more a little bit later, but I wanna put some in right now so it kinda goes behind my post and whatnot before I start working on that. I'm gonna dip in and get a few drops of paint thinner on my fan brush with a little bit of white base coat and I'm sure you've seen me do this before where I just pull the bristles back, let 'em snap forward and you get that random spray of dots. I'll add more later, but I wanted to get some, like I said, in behind the post before I take the tape off and develop that. Okay, I'm gonna use a painting knife. You could use your little sharp Exacto knife that you trimmed that out with. I need to remove this tape. The heavier you apply that base coat and your color, the more fog and more density you're gonna have so if you want it really thick, pea soup fog, you just put it on a little heavier. All right, I'm going to go back to this number two Detail Scriptliner that I just painted the sun with. I'll switch that out. I'm gonna do the pail. I'll take some of the white base coat with cerulean blue and just a speck of the cad red light should gimme kind of a bluish gray. Don't get too much red and you can tell by looking at the pail, it's lit on the side towards the sun a little more so I wanna go a little bit lighter with this color so I keep adding white til I get it where I think I want it, maybe something like that. And this will be the lighter side, cause it's facing the sun. So I'll go darker on the other side. So I'm gonna come around at least a third of the way on this pail. From the there I need to darken it. I'm gonna take more blue, more cad red light. I can even put just a speck of that Van Dyke brown in it, just need something darker. It looks a little more shadowy like that. The whole point obviously is to make it look round and see when I was in the acrylic stage with the barn, I did paint the handle. I forgot to mention that. I did paint the handle of the pail just because it was easier to do at that stage and see the backside of the pail here is getting lost a little bit so I'll have to adjust my value and bring that out. See right here, you can't really see the edge of the pail against the grass behind it very well, where this one stands out a lot better. So that's not a mistake, it's an adjustment. You always have to make these adjustments when you're painting. I'm gonna wipe that brush off and come in and just blend these two areas together so it looks gradually rounded like a pail. I'll have to make an adjustment on that backside. I either have to go a little lighter or a little darker but since it's on the shadowed side I'm thinking my best option would be to go a little darker. So I'll take just a hair more of the cerulean blue, speck more of the red, speck more of the Van Dyke brown, just darken it overall. If I go a little darker here and get dark enough you'll be able to discern that from the grass behind it. There we go. We just need an edge on the pail. Easy as that, that's one of those little things you constantly have to work out in a painting. It doesn't matter what you're painting. It's just a series of little adjustments. That's one of those adjustments. The inside of the pail is a little darker so I'm just gonna take more of the same colors, a little cerulean blue, a little bit of the cad red light to gray it and then even a speck of the Van Dyke brown. I'm gonna get just a little bit of that clear glazing medium on there just to thin it ever so slightly. It feels a little sticky on my brush. That comes from experience. I can tell it doesn't feel like it's gonna wanna stick on my canvas, so I know I have to thin it to down a little bit. That's really dark, maybe a little too dark. I'm gonna put a little bit of white with it, white base coat. And this is an ellipse, so make sure the ends aren't pointed like a football and when I'm not talking, that means I'm holding my breath to steady my hand. But look at the bright side, it gives you a break from listening to me gab all afternoon, right? (laughs) You didn't have to agree with me. I heard somebody in Idaho. They said, that's right. Okay, so I'm going to just round that off a little bit right there. I'm gonna swish that out. (cheerful music) To impart more vibrance into your meadow you can change your colors. I'm gonna use some of the cadmium red light with a little bit of white base coat and some paint thinner and I'm gonna put some orange flowers in here as well. You could also use blue and white. You could mix up the blue and the red with white and put purple in. It's all good. Now I need to do the post. I need something kind of brownish. So I've got Van Dyke brown. I have burnt sienna here. I gotta come back put some rust on that pail here momentarily too. So I'm gonna take Van Dyke brown, a little bit of burnt sienna, little bit of the white base coat just because it's already thin, get something in your mind that looks like a wooden post color. I'm adding thinner to the brush because I really need to thin it down to get this to stick. Now see we're putting all of this post and pail in in darker values and they're more distinct so it brings 'em closer out of the mist. That's the whole point. You see that wash of white base coat and color over the background really pushes that into the mist. It's a really easy effect to get and it's one of the questions I get asked all the time. See right here, I've gotta pay over that handle and I'm gonna lose it, but I'll come back with something a little lighter and bring it back. But I've used this technique for years on anything and everything and it's good for lighthouse scenes or anything, anything that has mist in it. I've done just basic landscapes and it's an easy way to get that misty quality and it makes people scratch their head and say, "How did you get that look?" It's very easy. You just have to put the background in first and let it dry. That's why I did this one with acrylic underneath. Like I said, you can do it with oil but you just have to have the patience to let it dry and wait it out. I'm not really a good waiter. Now in prepping for TV here, I could have painted that easily two weeks ahead of time and had it ready for TV and done it with oil, but I usually don't do it that way. I usually use acrylic for this phase of it and then I switch to the oils after the fact. So I wanted to show you how I do it so there's no question and no smoke and mirrors going on. This is how I would normally do it just like the ones I just showed you, the samples I showed you were all done with acrylic first and then I added the oil and by putting the oil over the top it still has the nice luster and shine of an oil painting. It doesn't look like it was with done with acrylic. Okay, from there, I'm gonna go back to I switched the brush out. I'm gonna take a little bit of burnt sienna, a little bit of this titanium white, get a rusty color. I don't want the pail to look like it's brand new and somebody just hung it out there. I'm gonna put a few little imperfections of rust on the pail. As it wraps around on the shadowed side it'd be a little darker so I'm gonna take more sienna and not the stuff I just added the white with, darken it down a little bit. The rust would be a little darker on this side, on the back side. I need to put some wood grain on the fence post, so I'm gonna take this thicker titanium white, I'm using that instead of the base coat because it's thick and it'll hold the brush to an edge. I wanna flatten the brush out like a little chisel. I'm gonna take white with some burnt sienna, maybe just a speck of the Van Dyke brown, something lighter, kind of a brownish gray, notice how I'm chiseling the brush up nice and sharp. So it's nice and sharp, like a little razor. If I hold it the skinny way, I can come in and put the grooves and the wood grain. All it is is a tree trunk. That's all fence post is so I'm just putting the bark texture and the grooves in it as it wraps around the other side, away from the sun let it just kind of slowly disappear and subside. So I just let it run, let the brush run out of paint. It's actually pretty easy. I'm gonna swish that out. I'm gonna take a little more white into that mixture and just to touch more sienna. I wanna brighten that up a little bit, just to give it a little more three dimensional feel and roundness. Okay, I'm going to take some Van Dyke brown, a little blue and some of the white base coat, I'm looking for kind of a blue gray. I need to reinforce the handle on the pail. If I fold, if I flatten this brush out on two sides or I could use the liner I have the number two liner here at my disposal. I gotta go a little bit lighter on this handle where the post is dark. So it brings it out so you can see it. Pretty easy, right? Yeah, pretty easy. Okay, from there, I'm gonna take my number two long Scriptliner and I need something for that rusty wire. Sounds like a baseball player, doesn't he? Batting eighth, number 34, Rusty Wire. I'm gonna take this and flatten it out on two sides. The paint is quite thin. Thin paint gives you thin lines and I really have to thin it down quite thin with this brush. I'll take some of the excess out of the brush on the palette like this. And I'm just very carefully going to put on my wire. It's not showing quite well enough. I'm gonna add a little bit of Van Dyke brown to it and darken it down ever so slightly just for more contrast against the background and maybe one dangling off here. The one down here on the other side is broken off. There's the wire. I need to put some grass around the bottom of this post to kind of anchor it in a little bit. So using this same brush, I'm gonna take white base coat, some yellow, and a little bit of the cerulean blue, get a lighter greenish color, yellow green. Again, I've gotta dip into the thinner pail. I'm flattening it out like a little chisel and right at the base, I wanna pull up some grasses to kind root it in. So I hope you are able to give this lesson a try and try it with some of the other subjects like I showed you. It's a really easy way to get that misty look. I wanna bury this in. The clock on the wall tells me it's time to go. I'm gonna take this and just kind of soften that in at the base. I can add a little more spatter of the flowers down there and until next time, stay creative and keep painting -

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Support for "Painting with Wilson Bickford" is provided by the J.M. McDonald Foundation. Continuing the example modeled by J.M. McDonald by contributing to education, health, humanities and human services, sharing since 1952. Online at jmmcdonaldfoundation.org. (cheerful music) The View Center for Arts and Culture is an Adirondack exhibition and performance space featuring in person and online classes for creatives of all ages and abilities. Open calls, events and class schedules online at viewarts.org -

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All 13 episodes of "Painting with Wilson Bickford" Season Eight are now available on DVD or Blu-ray in one box set for $35 plus $4.95 shipping and handling or learn the techniques used to paint Sundown Beacon with the in-depth Paint Smart, Not Hard series of Wilson Bickford instructional DVDs. Additional titles available. Order online or watch or download directly to your computer or mobile device. More information at wpbstv.org/painting. (cheerful music) (slow music)