The Best of the Joy of Painting with Bob Ross

(upbeat music) Hi, welcome back. Certainly glad you can join us today. Today I thought we'd do a little winter scene that's just a lot of fun. So let's start out and have'em run all the color across the screen that you need to paint along with us. While they're doing that, let me show you what I've gotten done already. Have my standard ol' canvas up here but today I've taken a mixture of liquid clear and liquid white, both of'em, and covered the entire canvas. And it's very wet, and slick, and all ready to go so. Thought today we'd just have some fun. I want to start out today first thing and make some brown. I'm gonna use some sap green and alizarin crimson at about equal proportions. I sort sort of like it to the reddish side but you make your own decision, there we are. This makes a beautiful brown. Something about like that. M'kay, let me wipe off the ol' knife. As I say, I thought today we just have some fun. Let's jut do something just a little bit crazy. Gon' take a ol' two inch brush and go right into some of that nice brown color that we made. And this one's hard one to do, ready? How 'bout something like that? Just drop in a little bit of color here and there, and there and here. I'm going to dark sienna. It's a little bit different in color, just a change of the flavor a little bit. And, okay, little van dyke brown, what the heck? We just put some streaks on here. Maybe over on the other side let's go right about there. And I'm just putting in some browns. I want a very warm painting. This is gonna end up bein' just some little background colors. Now then, gonna wash the ol' brush. And did you know we wash our brushes with odorless paint thinner? Since these are oils you need paint thinner to get the paint off your brush. Not supposed to hit the bucket though, like I did. (laughs) I'm just shaking it in the trash can there. Take a little bit of titanium white now to the brush. Same ol' two inch brush, and let's go back up in here, and I'm just gonna begin taking a little of that white, and just allowing it to blend together. I just wanna make a very warm little background so. In between these colors, I'm just gonna add a little white here and there, and there and here, and let'em blend, 'bout like that. Really don't worry about it, there. There is no right or wrong here. If it makes you happy and you enjoy it, there we are. See, and that's really about all I'm gonna do for the little background. 'Bout like that, shoot, while we got that ol' brush goin' we can put a little down here. I'm gonna have a little winter scene that's very warm, so this brown will be our shadow color 'cause it's a very warm color. How's that? And we can wash the brush again. Actually I just look for excuses to wash the brush. There we go. Shake it off (laughs) and just beat the devil out of it. All right, maybe in the back here, in the background somewhere, we'll take a little of that brown we've made, grab a little white too, paint thinner, quite a bit of paint thinner, and I wanna make this very thin, almost like ink but not quite. There, turn the bristles in there, that brings it to a very sharp point. All right, let's go up in here. Now then back in here I just want to begin putting the indication of some happy little trees that live far away. There. These just little background trees so it don't much matter. There we are and you can put as much detail on yours as you want. There, little limbs, and sticks, and twigs. Maybe, yep, they're right, he's got a friend right there and, you know me, I think even a tree needs a friend. There, a little more of the color. There. Once again, these are just gonna be little background trees so we're not too concerned about'em at this point. Not too concerned. There. Maybe right in here. Something like so, this is a good painting to give you some practice making little tree limbs, all the little things that sometimes give you a little problem till you practice a little. All right, there's one. Okay. Just some little indications will go on the other side over here, little more paint thinner. We don't want this side left out so we'll put in a few over here too. But see if you have enough paint thinner this will just slide. You wanna be careful when you're putting liquid mediums on the back not to get to much of the clear. I want a little bit on there 'cause I want it to have some translucence but not too much. There, just all kinds of little doers that live in there. Back in the woods this is where all the little squirrels and rabbits hide. There we are. All right, little more of the paint thinner. And we'll put, (groans) there's an ol' gnarly one right there. Maybe something stepped on him when he was just a little baby, put a little unh in'em. That happens sometime. Yeah, all trees aren't straight. All of'em aren't future telephone poles. Some of them have personalities that are just wonderful. Just like people, some tall, some short, some heavy, some real skinny. Trees are the same way. They're individuals. Look at there, there's one that went right off the canvas. All right, now sometimes it's fun and if you had just enough liquid clear on there you can take just paint thinner on a fan brush and flick it a little bit. And it'll make the indication and it takes a while for this to work but you'll begin seeing little places where the paint thinner begins eating through the liquid clear and it'll look like little tiny leaves and stuff on your trees. There, and sometimes it takes upward of 10 minutes or so before it works. And we'll just splash a little right around in here. Before the paintings over you'll begin to see some of it. Now, the more clear you put in your background the more of this that'll happen but it'll look like little things that are happening back in the distance, really neat. There, 'bout like that. Now let's grab, tell you what, I like this little two inch brush. Let's use it. Put a little white on it and I'm gonna go right into that brown we made out of alizarin crimson and sap green. Little white, just to make it a little bit brighter. And we're just tapping one corner in there. 'Kay, let's go back in here and maybe there's some little background bushes living in here. Just take the brush and we're just tapping with the top corner of the brush. And we'll begin putting in basic shape. We're not looking for detail, only basic shape. Don't worry about it. There is no right or no wrong here. There. Just little background things, something like so. And you decide, this is where you have to make all these big decisions. Where does all these little things live in your world? There they go. Wherever you'd like'em. Something about like that. Now, let's get crazy today. In here, tell you what, I'll go into a little bit of the yellow ochre and I'll sort of vary back and forth between the yellow ochre, cad yellow, Indian yellow, and once in a while little touch of the bright red. I wanna warm this up even more. We use the same ol' brush, and you just go right up in here, and just begin tapping on indication of a few little highlights. Don't want too many. Just enough to get'em to come out a little. There. Something about like that but think about form, think about shape, don't just throw'em on at random. I say that in nearly every painting but it is so important. So many little things like this, that's gonna make your paintings very special. You know, I know when nobody's interested in that big ol' happy book but if your ever out selling paintings it's these little details that make your painting special, makes'em stand out from the crowd. There we are. All right, something about like that. Just really puts a lot of detail back in there and you see this some time in winter. I lived in Alaska for about a dozen years and a lot of times, in fact, I've seen it snow when everything was still green. We'd get some unexpected snows and it would be so weird looking because you'd have all the green trees, and the bushes and everything, and snow laying around. A lot of times, you have this brownish stuff with snow on the ground and it's gorgeous, makes a beautiful painting. Titanium white, ol' two inch brush, and you just decide where the snow is laying here and drop it in, that easy. Just pay attention to the lay of the land, the way the snow flows, the direction. I like that. There we go. Got a hair there, we just throw'em right off. Sometimes, these are natural bristle brushes and sometimes the hair sort of sneaks out. It's like mine, a little wild at times. There. If you remember a couple of years ago we had John Pelm on the show. I asked if he'd do a portrait of me and he said "Nah, it's to easy." All he had to do was paint a steel wool ball and put a smile on it so. We didn't invite'em back. Yeah we did. (laughs) All right. Now maybe right down in here we'll just take a little it of black, little bit of prussian bluein it, not much, just a little. Mostly black. I'm gonna pull it straight down. I decided maybe there ought to be a little water in there. Something about like that. You just decide where it's at, pull it down, let it go right across. And that easy. It'll make the indication of some water. Maybe I'll add a little brown to that, it's too blue. Yeah, I like that much better. See how you can change your mind, that easy. In your world you can change it anyway that you wanna and I like that much better. Fits more in the painting now. All right, back to our titanium white, bring that right down, sort of smooth out the edges a little, and we're in business. Okay. Tell you what, I'm just going back and forth between several of the ol' two inch brushes. Let me take a little van dyke brown, a little dark sienna, mix them together. I want this to be pretty dark. Maybe we got some more big bushes that live. We do now, right here, right there. There they are. You decide where they live in your world, just drop'em in, something about like that. There we go. Maybe, shoot, maybe it comes all the way down in here, I don't know. Doesn't much matter. You can put'em anywhere that you want'em. All right. Something about like that. Put a little liquid white on the brush. Does two things, makes the color a little bit lighter in value, and it makes it thinner 'cause a thin paint, as you know, will stick to a thick paint. Thin to thick. Tap a little on there. And let' go in here, and we'll just pick out indication here and there of the little bush that lives in here. Something about like so. There we are. Maybe a little bit of the bright red, Indian yellow. Ooh, that's that nice one but leave some of those dark ones in there. See it creates shadows and depths in you painting. Don't kill'em all. Sometimes it's almost hard to stop. But it should make you happy when you paint, just sing a little song, go along in there. There. Wherever. Back to our little two inch brush that has titanium white on it and your just pulling it right through the white, it' no big deal, just load a little color on it. And we go right up in here. Maybe there's a little peninsula lives right here. Looks like a natural place for one so just pull it out. Intentionally pick up a little of that brown, it ends up being beautiful shadows in your painting. There we go. Shoot, who knows, maybe it just sort of comes around like it. We don't know where it goes, just let it disappear right on out in here. 'Bout like that. And you can push upward, make it look like little bushies or lift upward, either way, it works both ways. Smooth it out. All right. We can take a knife, just a clean knife, and go back in here and scrape through and let the canvas show through. It makes it look like little sticks, and twigs, and just all kinds of little duders that live in there. And it also helps create that illusion of depth and distance in your painting. There, there's one back here too. Okay, ready to get crazy? (laughs) You know me, I like big trees. I'm gonna go right in to some black, midnight black and van dyke brown. Just mix them together on the brush, it doesn't matter. I want some big trees in our world. Okay, this is your bravery test, lot of paint. Right there. Big ol' tree lives there. Maybe, I'll tell you what, let's have a whole family of trees there. Mama, papa, maybe a couple of little kids that are 'bout grown. There, something about like so. Maybe, tell you what, I'm gon' put one over here too. Smaller one, it's farther away so he'll like smaller. Maybe these are birch trees, I just made a decision. Take some titanium white, pull it out very flat, then cut across, and get a little roll of paint. I don't know if you can see that. Let me do it again. Pull that flat, cut across. See the little roll of paint. It's exactly what we need. Now we can go up in here, touch the canvas, and give it sort of a little round pull. By that I mean I'm exaggerating, go around like that. Something about like that. Just touch, give it a little pull. There, but no pressure, absolutely. It's like your putting snow on the mountain. If you've painted with me before and did mountains just like your putting snow on the mountains. There, we'll work down on this one. It doesn't matter, you can work up, work down, whichever way. There we are. Little on this one, don't want'em left out. 'Bout like that. Now we'll come 'round, put a little bit on the other side. Chicka, chicka, chicka, chicka. Them little noises really do help. Really do help. I got a letter from a psychiatrist one time, said he didn't know about me but he said he enjoyed the show anyway. There. (laughs) So, I guess everybody's happy. Just a few little doers. Then we can go back to our dark color that was a little bit of black, van dyke brown, and I like to have birch trees that really when they're dry you can touch it and feels like birch bark. So I really add a lot and make it thick but that's up to you. You can make'em very thin or you can make'em thick. That's one of the things that I like so much about oil paint, is that you can build it up very thick. Can make some gorgeous effects with it. There. See? Look at that. Isn't that a super way of making some gorgeous little birch trees? And they're easy. Don't want to forget him. Start with a little bit of the white. Something about like so. Little touch. And we'll even put a little dark in that one, we don't want it left out but this one's gonna be farther away so you won't see quite as much detail, you don't have to worry about it. Now then get a little paint thinner up here and we'll take a script liner brush. Ol' number two script liner brush. I'm gonna use that same color black, van dyke brown, thin paint. Let's go up in here and let's put some arms on our trees. Here they come. Just as many or as few as you want. Just drop'em in. And arms on a tree they just sort of grow wherever they feel like. There. And you can put all kinds of little doers. It's winter time and the leaves have fell off these birch trees. They're resting but, come spring time, they'll be back. They're just taking life easy for a few days. On vacation, went to Florida. There. Yeah. Little more of the paint thinner and, once again, you put as many as you want in your world, and wherever you want'em to live, cause that's exactly where they should be. Each and every one of us will see nature through different eyes, and you should paint what you see, and what you feel. That's what makes painting so special, it's as unique as the people who do it. There we are. And anybody can paint, there's no big secret to it. You do not have to know Michelangelo on a first name basis, you can paint. You really can. All right. Let's have some fun. I think in our world, we got a minute or so left here, so we'll play a little bit. I need a dark color. Good dark color. Prussian blue, van dyke brown, black, and crimson. Mix'em together. I think in our world today, let's have one little evergreen tree. (laughs) Just to break it up. One little happy evergreen tree. Lot of color on the fan brush. Where does he live? Yep, gotta do it, right there, just drop him in. Then we'll take the ol' fan brush. There he is, see? We just drop him in. Like that. Gotta make a decision on how tall is he. Where is his little bottom gonna be? Maybe there, looks like a good place. Good place, right there. Brush has got titanium white, and I wanna grab the bottom here, and pull it. Allow a little of that color to be picked up. Something about like so. There. Let that disappear right on out there somewhere, we don't know where it goes. Don't know that we even care. Put the indication of a little trunk in there. Grab another fan brush, put a little liquid white on it, little titanium white, use phthalo blue today. Let's put some highlights on that little evergreen. We'll make him stand out in this painting. Isn't that gorgeous? What a scene to live in. What a place. Few little doers that live in here, just little sticks, and twigs, and things that grow along there. Back to our brush with the white on it and off we go. Now let's take a little bit more of the brown. This is just van dyke brown, and let's go right along in here, and we'll just tap in a few little gooders that live in there. Back into our liquid white. Little bit of the yellows, and the ochres, and whatever. Put a few little highlights on some of these. There. Little more of the Indian yellow. 'Bout like that. Then we can take a little white, decide where you want it to end, and just sort of clean it up. That's really all there is to it but isn't that a fun little painting? It's one that you can do basically with no problem and I think you'll enjoy it. And as I mentioned on some of the other shows if you do some of these little paintings and you have time, take a picture, and send us, we'd love to see'em. Take a little red and we'll sign this little rascal. Call it done. Really hope you've enjoyed it. There. And with that, from all of us here, we'd like to wish you happy painting and God bless my friend. (upbeat music)