The Best of the Joy of Painting with Bob Ross

[Music] Hello, I'm certainly glad you could join us today because I thought today we'd just have a fantastic time.

So I'll tell you what, let's start out today and have them run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint along with us.

While they're doing that let me show you what I've got going up here.

I have my standard old 18 by 24 inch canvas but you use any size that you want.

And I've just taken black gesso and I've just sort of painted a little design.

I thought today I would do a scene where maybe you're deep in the woods and, and walking through a little path.

So I've just painted that basic design, that idea, on here with black gesso and then we've allowed the gesso to dry totally.

On top of that then I've added a little bit of liquid clear.

It's a very, very small amount of liquid clear and then we've taken a little transparent color and I just made that from sap green, phthalo blue and a little Van Dyke brown and covered the entire canvas.

So we have sap green, phthalo blue and Van Dyke brown and then a very thin coat.

We put the liquid clear on there so that you just have to put a very small amount of paint.

If you don't have the clear it takes a lot of color to cover the entire canvas.

But use it sparingly, one can will probably last you the rest of your life.

[chuckles] It takes very little.

So, let's have some fun today.

Shoot, we'll take the old two inch brush and let's start out with some titanium white.

I'm just going to pull a little color into the bristles.

Be right back, be right back I'll grab the least little touch of cad yellow.

Maybe a little bit more.

There we go.

See?

But very little color.

Let's go right up here now.

I want to have a light source coming out from here.

So we'll start with this white with a little yellow in it and just begin making little criss-cross strokes.

Just like so.

I love these little scenes where the light's coming from behind or its coming from behind a tree or something and just projecting through.

To me, those are so beautiful and it's unbelievable what you can do with them.

Now then, just blend it outward, outward, outward.

But you want it to get darker and darker as it moves away from that light source.

There.

About to there, somewhere.

Now you can make this as bright as you want it.

So you could go back and pick up a little more of that same color and come right back in here and do it again.

You can make it as bright as you want.

Do it several times.

There.

And already it looks like there's a glow happening back here and that's what we're looking for.

Okay and very lightly we'll just brush it a little to take out the brush strokes.

Sometimes when you're doing these it's interesting if you want to put the indication of light rays you can just pull, I don't know if you can see that or not, but it'll make the indications of little rays of light zinging through the woods or wherever it happens to be.

This an excellent way to make those type of scenes, just like so.

See?

It looks just like there's a glow back here, big lantern.

Let's wash the old brush.

[chuckles] That's the fun part of all this.

Shake it off.

[chuckles] And just beat the devil out of it.

Now then, let's go into that same color, I'm going to take a little, a little white and add to that same color that we covered the canvas with.

Now this is just a mixture of sap green, phthalo blue and Van Dyke brown.

The brown is in there only to dull the color down otherwise it'd be very bright.

Just going to tap a little of that into the bristles.

See, just give it a little tap, a little push.

Now then, let's begin thinking about little shapes back in here.

So, we'll just take this brush, use the corner of it.

See, you just tap.

But begin thinking about how maybe tree branches and stuff would be hanging over here.

Just let it go like that.

There we are.

Think about shape, though.

How do you want your tree to look?

And all we're interested is just the very basic shape.

We're going to come back and put a few little highlights on that.

So we're just looking for some little basic shapes.

That easy.

There we go.

Alright.

A little more color.

Maybe a few more little things.

And already it begins to give the impression that it's layered.

And that's what we're looking for.

Want to make it look like there's just layer after layer after layer of beautiful trees hanging over.

As I say, maybe we'll have a little path in this.

Or maybe when you do yours, maybe you want to turn that path into maybe a happy little stream or a little pond or any of those things, you could do that very, very easily.

There.

Okay.

Now, let me grab my old liner brush.

We'll take a little paint thinner, go right into that same color, the same identical color, and I'm going to thin that until it's almost like ink or water.

Turn the bristles.

Nice sharp point.

Now then, let's go up in here and we'll put the indication here and there of a few little sticks and twigs that live out here.

There.

Don't want these to be very dark, they're way out here in this light so they also would be very subdued and quiet.

Don't, don't get too strong with them yet.

We'll make some on the other part back here that's a little farther away and they'll be a little stronger.

But initially we want these to be very subdued.

You almost can't see them.

There.

But we know they're there.

We know they're there.

If you have trouble making it flow add a little more of the paint thinner because a thin paint will slide right over to the top of a thick paint.

Alright.

Now, just wash it off with a little thinner.

We'll just use that same old brush.

What the heck.

I'm going to just tap this right into some white.

It still has the other color on it so it's going to make it a sort of a light, greenish color here, greenish blue.

But push, that creates that little ridge right on the edge of the, on the edge of the bristles.

Now we can come back in here and create the indication that sunlight's just zinging right through here and sparkling these.

There.

There we go, but think about shape and form once again.

Most important.

Most, most important.

There we go.

Little individual things.

I like these little paintings.

Hope you do too.

They're so interesting and they're very easy to do even for people who have never painted before.

These little paintings are so nice.

They're great.

There.

Now then maybe.

Once again, don't just hit at random.

Think about form and shape that's going on up here.

Okay, there's one maybe right there.

Darker, darker, darker back on this side.

Okay and you can just create layer after layer after layer.

There.

Mm.

Sometimes you get excited when you do this and just want to cover everything up because it works so well and it's so beautiful.

Maybe you want to add the least little touch of yellow to that.

There.

Just begin changing the flavor a tiny bit.

Tiny bit.

There, maybe even a little of that yellowish color here and there.

Okay.

Because that's going to begin turning green now as it touches all the blue that's underneath that yellow color is going to begin having a green cast to it and we want these, we want these little trees to be nice and green and full of life.

Beautiful.

There we go.

But look how deep that looks already and it's, we've done basically nothing.

Alright.

Tell you what, let's start on the other side over here.

I have several brushes going, I'm just going to right back into that dark color with the two inch brush and get a little color on it.

Now then, let's go up here.

I want to make this a big tree that's hanging over this side.

That'll push that light area way back so we'll just take the basic shape that's on there with the, with the black gesso and we'll just improve it a little bit.

See, so it looks like there's nice limbs hanging out over it.

And that dark, dark color against that light, oh boy, does it show up.

That is spectacular.

That's what makes your painting special.

See?

And you could put a bush here and there that hangs out over.

Mm.

It's easy to get carried away with this though.

Alright, now back to our brush that has the lighter colors on it and it's time we started getting into some nice green so we'll take some midnight black, go right into some yellow, grab a little sap green too, what the heck, that makes a beautiful green color when you mix them up, that way you have a variety of things happening in there, not just one dead old color.

Once again, push that brush so you can see that little ridge of paint.

Super good close up shot right there.

Good.

Let's go up here.

Now right in here we can begin just dropping in the indication of all kinds of little leaves and stuff that are happening.

Once again though, think about form and shape and all those things make your tree so interesting.

Add a little yellow ochre and Indian yellow here and there.

Once in a while I'll let a little of the bright red sneak in.

Believe it or not, red dulls your color because red and green, as you know, makes brown.

So red is a duller in this particular instance.

Now maybe, maybe this is a different little, little doer here so we'll, we'll change the color just enough to make him stand out as an individual.

There we go.

A little more of the black, darken it down.

And over in here maybe there's a nice shadow area.

So this color's quite a bit darker.

Want to push him back into the shadows.

But look right here, see these dark areas?

They're very important.

Don't kill all of them.

If you kill all those dark areas your painting's going to look very flat.

You don't want that.

Now then.

There's a nice little bush that lives there.

He looks out over the edge.

He's got the best view in the forest.

There we go.

A little more of that green color.

And maybe there's just a happy little bush that lives, yep, right there.

Just layer after layer after layer.

Do one bush at a time.

Don't get greedy.

Sometimes we get in a hurry and we try to do too many at once.

Just do one at a time.

Think about each one as an individual.

Shoot, if it helps, give them names.

There's, there's Charlotte and there's Joe.

You know, give them names.

Just make them up.

Alright.

Time to start having some fun back in here now.

Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe.

Let's come right down in here.

Maybe we're beginning to get into some nice things that are hanging right over the edge here.

There.

Just let that hang right over.

We said we was going to have a path here, we don't want to cover that totally up.

So let's begin having a little path.

For that, for that we'll take some Van Dyke brown, a little dark sienna, we'll just mix them together.

Cut off a little roll of paint that lives right on the edge of the knife and let's go back here and just very gently just begin laying in the basic shape.

There.

And we'll just bring it right on out.

You have to make some big decisions now.

Where does, where does your little path live?

He lives right along in there and just has a good time.

Take some dark sienna and white, mix it together but don't over mix it.

Leave it marbled like that, then cut off a little bit of paint right on the edge.

Now we can go up here and this is delicate touch, barely touching, just let it graze, let it barely graze so it picks up on those high spots.

Let it graze.

I want this brighter back here because that's where our light is and as we move away from that we're going to let it get darker and darker.

There we go.

Just barely let it graze though.

It's just like, if you've painted mountains with me, this is just like putting snow on the mountains.

Shoot, I'll tell you what.

Let me show you.

Let me show you.

Sometimes it's fun, maybe there's a little puddle here.

Maybe it rained last night.

Let's take a little touch of white, a little touch of white.

There.

Let's pull it straight down.

I'll show you.

See, when you do these things you starting seeing all kinds of little things happening.

And when you see them, use them.

Pull it straight down, now very gently go across.

Very gently go across.

We're going to make us some water back here.

Make us some water.

And you can do that.

You have unlimited power.

Now, decide how your little puddle's going to be and just put dirt around it.

See there?

There.

There he is.

It rained last night and there's puddles here.

Now all the little birds and everything can come here and have a drink.

Look at that.

But that's all there is to it if you want to create that illusion.

There.

Just let these colors work back and forth, the browns and the highlights.

There we go.

Mm.

And that path just begins coming right out of there.

Now then, if you want to push that path back a little further, we can take a little bit of our color that we used to make all these little leaves and let some of it just come right over the top here.

That'll push that path right back into the painting.

There we go.

Maybe over on this side just let that little bush hang right over the path.

Now then, it's time to get into some nice big trees over on here.

We'll go back to our brush that has the dark color in it and begin thinking about some basic shapes here.

Just let them come right out over.

That'll help push all that light area back in there.

But you can do this over and over and over and just create tremendous amounts of depth in your painting.

That's what makes it so interesting.

There.

There was a time when doing paintings like this were very, very difficult for me.

But this, this makes it so anybody can do it.

Anybody can do it.

Go back to our brush with some green on it.

Back into our yellows, yellow ochre, cad yellow, all those nice colors, a little, a little bit of the Indian yellow.

Okay, let's go back up here.

Now then, here it comes.

Begin putting on some nice little highlights on these leaves.

Little squirrel's gotta have a place to live.

There we are.

Just layer after layer.

There.

But think about little clumps, don't just, don't just hit at random.

I know I keep saying that but it's so important.

Think about the shape and form in there.

There he comes.

Big old nice limb there.

It's unbelievable what you can do with a big old two inch brush if you'll just devote a little bit of time to practice.

And it doesn't take a great deal.

We get letters from people every day that have never painted who are doing some of the most beautiful things.

And they send me photographs of what they're doing.

In fact, while I'm doing this, this is just sort of repetitious, maybe I can get the director to put a few of them up on the screen.

We've, we've put a few on the board here.

But look at some of these things that people are doing.

And these come from all over the country.

They're doing just marvelous things, things that I've never dreamed of doing and they're beautiful and I'm so proud of the people who are doing this.

Maybe you'll see your painting there.

If you've sent me a photograph maybe yours will be there.

If not, send me a photograph maybe next time because we've put these together and put them on the screen every once in a while.

I like for people all over the country to see what everybody's doing because that's, that's super.

It's what makes all this worthwhile.

The fact that people are doing this and enjoying a tremendous amount of success.

That really, really is the joy of painting.

We have, we have people here to go from age 4 to 94.

Look at that.

Isn't that super?

And once again, some of these individuals had never painted before.

And a lot of them have never had a lesson, they've only watched the television shows and from the television shows they've learned to create their own masterpieces.

And once again, we get so many letters from people all over the country that this is working for.

And a lot of the people that start this way and enjoy some success then they go on to colleges and universities all over the country or take classes from super hard instructors and just, this is just their way of getting started.

And anything that gets people interested in art is fantastic because it's one of the nicest ways of expressing yourself that there ever was.

And I think all of us have a creative need inside of us.

There, see how we're just letting all those bushes hang over?

I'll tell you what, if there's going to puddles, [chuckles] maybe we'll have a few more.

Take a little more of the titanium white, now there's color on the canvas so when you pull this white down automatically you're going to get a beautiful color change.

See there?

It's almost, it's almost like magic.

If you do this in front of friends and relatives and they don't know you've put any color on the canvas they'll just be amazed when you start pulling a little white paint down it.

All these beautiful colors just appear.

They think you're a magician.

[chuckles] Don't tell them any different.

That's our secret.

Now then, you can come right back in here and just put, put in a little dirt wherever you want it.

Wherever you want it.

There we go, maybe it comes [Bob makes "shoom" sound] right around like that.

And with the old knife, it doesn't take but just a second to drop in a lot of color.

There we go.

See, maybe that comes right along in there.

Now, don't try to just copy exactly what we're doing here because your puddles won't look like these puddles, they'll look better.

Just everybody's painting is going to be unique and different and individual.

And don't fight that.

Don't, don't just try to copy what somebody else does.

I'm not trying to teach you to copy.

There.

I just want to teach you a technique and turn you loose on the world.

because you have, you have unlimited power.

Everybody does and you can do anything.

All you need is just a little inspiration and a little knowledge, a little practice.

Shoot, take over the world if you want to.

I don't think any of us want to, but should you.

There.

Alright.

To me, the, the first step of accomplishing anything is to believe that you can do it and I know you can do it.

So you certainly know you can.

Let's have another puddle over here.

I like these puddles.

Come right in here.

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

See?

And you just, once again, just pull it straight down.

If it picks up a little of that brown?

Wonderful.

Wonderful.

Use it.

There.

You can always add a little blue if it gets too bright, take a little of the phthalo blue and add it in there and dull it right down.

because you know, if you've painted with us before, we don't make mistakes.

[chuckles] We have happy accidents.

Because very soon you learn to work with anything that happens here.

And when you get over that fear of making a mistake then it becomes fun.

Then it really becomes fun.

That's when you, that's when you experience the joy.

Okay.

And in your world you just put as many or as few puddles as you want.

Maybe you don't want any puddles.

Maybe the sun shines all the time where you're at and you don't have any little rain puddles.

It's up to you.

If you do want to, now you know how.

Look at that though.

And off we go.

Okay.

Maybe, maybe in our world, maybe we can see the indication here and there, take a little brown and white on the fan brush, maybe back in here you can make out the indication of a little tree trunk that lives back in here.

Just a little.

There.

Just, just a little indication then we're going to cover it up.

We'll take a little of that black, sap green, cad yellow, yellow ochre, just mix them on the brush and we'll come right in here and let's just begin putting in all kinds of leaves and things like that.

Wherever we think they should live.

Put layer after layer.

Let a little bit of that trunk show through, don't want a whole bunch.

There.

Mm.

See, these are super little paintings if you've never painted before because they'll work for you.

There.

When Annette and I used to teach all over the country a lot of the times people would want to paint something that was too difficult for their first painting so look for a painting that works pretty good the first time so you'll have some success.

I want you to have success on your first couple of paintings and that way, that way you'll know that you can do it and you'll do a million paintings.

Or at least a hundred.

[chuckles] There we are.

Now then, maybe in our world, let's get crazy, we've got a minute or so left here.

Maybe in our world there lives [Bob makes "psssoooo" sound] a big tree.

You know me and my big trees.

We can see just the edge of him there, maybe there's a big old root that comes out [Bob makes "tchoo" sound] like that.

There it is.

Big old root that just hangs around down here.

Take a little bit of our brown, white and dark sienna, touch it.

[Bob makes "tchoo" sound] This is just going to be the edge of the tree.

There we are.

Let it get darker and darker as it works back in there.

Okay.

Maybe, if I can find my brush, there it is, old brush with the greens on it.

Now we can come right back in here and begin putting all kinds of little leaves and highlights on there, a little paint thinner I'm going to add to my brush just to thin the paint so it'll stick right over this other color.

There.

See, just begin dropping all these little rascals in there.

Alright.

Here comes one.

We don't know where they go.

Don't know that we're even worried about it at this point.

Just a lot of beautiful leaves hanging around on the edge of this tree.

It's a nice way to do the redwoods from California if you want to.

I'm making this one a little brighter because it's bigger.

I think it's projecting out and maybe that light coming through is hitting it.

When you're painting just make up little things in your mind like that and it helps figure out where your light's going to hit and where it's not going to hit.

Now then, add a little more black, I want it to get a little darker.

Maybe back over in here behind that tree that's projected there's all kind of little things going on in here.

There they come.

Just like so.

There.

As many or as few as you want.

But isn't that a super way to make a tremendous amount of trees and bushes very easily, very quickly?

You can do it.

You really can do it.

A little touch of the yellow ochre in there just to sparkle this one that stands right out here in front of the tree.

There.

A few little things there like that.

Just have them hanging all over.

Tell you what, the old clock on the wall says it's about time to go for the day.

As we finish up here I'm going to take maybe there's a little, little limb that hangs out here like that, we'll put us a little limb, a little paint thinner, brown, and we can put as many or as few as you want or your tree, just a few here showing, just to show the old tree has an arm.

I think with that we'll call this painting finished and from all of us here I'd like to wish you happy painting and God bless, my friend.

[announcer] To order a 256 page book of 60 Joy of Painting projects or Bob's detailed 3 hour workshop DVD Call 1-800-Bob-Ross or visit BobRoss.com [music] [music]