The Best of the Joy of Painting with Bob Ross

- Welcome back.

Certainly glad you could join me today.

It's a fantastic day here, and I hope it is wherever you are.

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 me at home.

While they're doing that, let me tell you what I've already done here.

I have my standard ol' 18 by 24-inch canvas, double primed, pre-stretched canvas, and I've covered it with a thin, even coat of the liquid white, so it's all wet and slick and ready to go so let's go.

I thought today we'd just do a beautiful little painting, maybe we'll do something with fall colors.

It's a good day so let's just, let's start out and do a very simple little sky.

Very simple, nondescript-type little sky.

We'll take a little bit of the yellow ochre on the 2-inch brush, very small amount.

Maybe just go up in here, and let's just begin blending in some nice warm little colors here.

This is just yellow ochre, but it's mixing with the liquid white, and it'll be very pale and very, very soft.

There, maybe a touch more color right about in here, wherever, wherever.

There we go.

Now then, tell you what, tell you what let's take a little touch of the alizarin crimson on the 2-inch brush and some very small amount.

Just pull a little bit out and tap the bristles firmly into the paint.

That assures a nice even distribution of color all the way through the bristles.

Okay, now then, maybe right in here we'll put a nice little warm spot, little pink spot just like that.

And we're using little criss-cross strokes or little X's like that and just blend that color right in.

Once again, this is gonna be a very nondescript little sky very, very soft.

You won't hardly even notice it when the painting's done.

There.

Now we just blend that crimson and ochre together.

Let's have some fun.

Tell you what, I'll take the knife and we'll mix up some lavender or purple color.

We'll take some alizarin crimson, a little bit of phthalo blue.

Now, proportionately much, much more crimson than blue.

The blue is many, many times stronger.

Pick it up and turn it all the way over if you really wanna mix it well.

Now we can take a little bit of white and lay out here and see what color we have.

There, okay?

Sometimes it's very difficult to tell what color that is without putting a little white there because it's gonna look just basically black, so put a little bit of white, and then you can test your color.

We'll put the small amount of that lavendar right here on the 2-inch brush, and maybe there's a little cloud that floats right in here.

There, just tap.

It's all we have to do.

Put in a very basic little idea of a cloud.

Maybe right in here we'll put in a little little color like so, very soft and very gentle.

There.

Now then, with a clean brush we're just gonna brush this, so I have several brushes going so I don't have to wash them between each procedure.

There we go and that easy we have a very nice, very effective, soft, little sky.

Now then, I'm gonna continue to use this 2-inch brush.

I'll go right into that lavender color.

Maybe we'll make some little background trees.

I'm just tapping the corner into the paint.

I don't want a lot of paint on the bristles, just a little.

Okay, let's go right up here.

Now then, begin thinking about some very basic little tree shapes, and we're not looking for a lot of detail here.

This is too far away.

If you put too much detail, you'll lose that illusion of distance, so be very careful, very careful.

It starts working and it feels good and you wanna just, oh you get carried away, there.

But we want this to be very soft and very distant.

There we go.

And think about little individual trees and bushes and all kinds of little shapes here and just sorta let your imagination take you wherever you wanna go.

There, hmm.

That looks soft and far away already, and we haven't hardly done a thing to it.

Now if you wanna create more mist at the base of this, we'll take a clean, dry brush and tap the bottom of these little bushes and trees but just the bottom, just the bottom.

And very lightly, two hairs and some air.

Touch and lift upward.

There we go.

Now then, maybe we want to put several layers in there.

That's pretty easy to do also.

We'll take a little bit more of the color on the 2-inch brush and tap firmly, tap firmly.

There we are.

Now then, we can begin putting in the next layer.

Now this is a little bit darker.

Each layer, as it gets closer to you in a landscape, should get a little darker.

There we go, maybe right here.

Wherever you want, just drop them in.

Okay, it's fantastic already, I like that.

I think it's gonna be a pretty one.

These little distant trees are so easy and so much fun to make.

There.

Now maybe back in here we're beginning to see the first indication of a little bit of color but very small amount so I'm going to do a little touch of the yellow ochre, maybe even pick up a little bit of bright red.

We'll have a fall scene today.

That sounds good.

Okay, now then, let's just begin.

You're still using just the top corner just tapping in the indication of a little bit of color.

Not too much or, once again, you'll lose that illusion of distance and depth.

There, just a few little indications.

Maybe there's one right here or wherever.

And I think today that's about all we need.

Now under here I must have a little grassy area, a little grassy area.

So I'll just take a little bit more of that same lavender color.

Decide basically where your little grassy area is gonna live, and let's come right up in here, and all you have to do is just tap it in.

And this is just the dark so our light color will show.

It's all we're putting in right now.

Doesn't matter how you put this in.

You could put this in with a paint roller, doesn't matter.

Any ol' way you wanna do it.

There.

Tell you what, maybe down in here there's a little bit of water.

You know me, I love water.

And it's so much fun to paint with this particular technique.

We'll take a little bit of the phthalo blue.

I'm still using the same ol' dirty brush.

There we go.

And let's just come right across here.

I don't want much water in this.

Maybe just a happy little pond way back in the distance somewhere.

So I'll just take a little of the phthalo blue and come right across here like so.

Okay, now we wanna reflect a little bit of that in there, so I'll take a little bit of the lavender color, same color, touch and just pull it down.

Same lavender color, not a great deal.

Just enough to indicate a little reflection.

Straight down, though.

It's most important that these lines come straight down.

If they go at an angle, it's gonna bother the eye.

It'll drive you crazy and maybe you won't even know why.

There.

Now then, same ol' brush.

Still haven't washed this ol' brush.

We'll take a little yellow ochre, a little Indian yellow, cad yellow.

Just mix them together.

This is gonna be a fall picture.

We want a lot of the nice pretty colors.

Maybe even a little touch of the bright red here and there.

But mix these colors on your brush, and that way you get a multitude of things happening on your brush rather than one ol' dead color.

Okay, let's try that.

See what we have here.

Let's go right up here slightly above the dark area, and think about the lay of the land here, the way the land flows, and we'll just begin dropping in some happy little things.

There, all kinds of little happenings here.

And this is far away, so we're still not looking for a lot of detail.

All we're looking for is basic shape and color.

Alright, maybe there's a little land back here.

Let's take a little bit of the Van Dyke brown, a little dark sienna mixed together with a knife.

Pull it out as flat as we can get it.

Just really pull it out flat then cut across and get our little roll of paint.

There, you can see it right on the edge of the knife.

Now then, up in here, up in here let's just scrub in a little bit of land area.

Don't want a lot.

Don't want a lot, just enough to give the indication of a little bank there or something.

There.

Now then, go into a little touch of the liquid white.

Maybe add the least little touch of phthalo blue to it just to cool it down a little bit.

There.

Pull it out like that then cut across.

That's all there is to it.

Now we go up here and act like you're trying to cut a hole right through the canvas.

And we'll just cut in a little water line.

There, it's just a light area between these darks, and it sort of separates and makes things, just makes things look better.

There.

There might even be a little ripple or two out here.

We don't know.

In your world, you make these decisions.

You decide where all these things are.

Okay, now it's time to really get crazy.

Let's take the ol' big brush.

We'll go right into that lavender color we made, and I'll add some Van Dyke brown to it.

Shoot, maybe even some black.

Make a good, strong, dark color.

A lot of paint in the bristles.

Now then, let's start deciding how our land is gonna flow here.

Maybe it's gonna come right about here.

And all we're doing here is just tapping in some color.

Maybe there's some bushes that live right there.

Just push upward with the brush, and it makes all those little bushy effects.

Let the brush work for you, shoot.

Maybe the land comes, maybe it comes right on up here.

I don't know.

Just make a decision in your world, and put it wherever you want it.

There, maybe that's the way our land will be today.

Now we can just really just paint this in just like we're painting a barn, shoot.

Just wanna cover this with nice dark color.

There.

Okay.

When you're using a big ol' 2-inch brush, it doesn't take too long to do all this.

You can just sorta throw it in.

Okay.

And maybe we want some trees in our world.

Maybe we'll have, maybe we'll have a lot of trees.

But it's up to you.

When you're doing your painting, you sorta look around and decide what you want.

'Cause you can create any kind of world that you want.

We'll just take the same ol' brush, same ol' brush.

We'll go through those same colors.

Get some crimson.

Maybe we'll add some sap green, too.

That's a beautiful color.

There, just pull it through in one direction.

One direction.

Now see that creates a curve on that brush.

See that round curve on the top?

We wanna keep that curve on the top.

Let's go up to the canvas.

Now, maybe we can bring the camera in here real close, and when we touch, we wanna give it a little push.

Give it a push.

See that happening?

See?

Push.

And you can create, looky there.

There it is.

You can really see it now.

But see that push?

That's what creates all those beautiful little leafy effects.

Maybe there's a bush that lives right here.

Got a friend there.

Wherever, wherever.

Don't be afraid to experiment, though, when you're painting.

Sometimes you learn more from making mistakes than you learn from really trying to paint a beautiful masterpiece.

Your mistakes can also, let's go up here, right up here.

Let's make one way up in the sky.

There.

Maybe there's a big tree that lives right up here.

He looks around, and he watches the little pond here and all the little creatures that live around the pond.

'Cause you know there'd be all kinds of little things around the watering hole there.

You'd have ducks and squirrels.

Hope you got to see my little squirrel I showed in one of the earlier shows of this series.

He's a character.

Actually, it's a she.

Something else, though.

Maybe I'll, maybe I'll bring the squirrel back in one of the later shows and let you see her.

There we go.

And I have raised her since she was just a tiny little critter.

Didn't even have her eyes opened.

There.

See, and we have a great big tree now, that easy.

Big ol' tree.

I'm getting carried away, now let's have some, let's really have some fun.

I'll go back into all these dark colors, just pull them out here.

Maybe there's a whole clump of trees lives right here.

I don't know, wherever.

But push that brush, bend it.

Don't let it slide.

Look here, if it slides.

See, that's what you're gonna get, and we don't want that.

Look at the difference.

See that nice open, leafy effect?

That's what we're looking for.

That's what'll make your painting special.

The only time we use a sliding effect that I can think of right now is when we're making like saw grass that lives in the water.

There.

Sometimes we're painting scenes from Florida, Louisiana, et cetera, you have that beautiful grass that grows in the water.

And that's the way you make it.

There.

You see, that easy you can block in a whole forest basically.

And you begin seeing things, things.

This is almost a natural place right here for a little path to live.

We'll think about that.

We may put a path in there.

What the heck, what the heck.

You know, in this style of painting, you really don't have to make big decisions, and you look at your work, and you decide what do you see in there.

And then you take that and work with it.

And that's where you really have your fun.

That's where you really become creative.

Let's take a fan brush here.

I'm gonna take both sides through some brown and then take one side through titanium white.

There we are.

So we have white on one side and brown on the other.

See there?

Okay?

Now then, we have to make a decision right now.

Where's our light coming from?

If you're right handed, you'll probably find that it's easier to have the light coming from the right.

So put the light side on the right side.

Hard to say in one mouthful.

And just pull down.

And we can put a whole tree trunk in there in one stroke.

Both sides, the highlight and the shadow, in one stroke.

See there?

Sneaky, huh?

Maybe over here, maybe there's several trees over here.

So you decide how many trees live in your clump or group.

You decide.

And maybe you can't see the entire trunk of all of them.

Maybe you can only see that much of that one 'cause maybe there's a big bush here, I don't know.

Just use your imagination.

But you don't want every one of them to be exactly the same.

You don't want each one of them to be perfectly straight.

It becomes very boring very quickly.

Maybe, maybe there's a limb here on this one.

See?

Just whatever you want, though.

Maybe over here you can see a little teeny one.

Gotta have small trees or you'll never have any big ones.

Okay.

Now then, today let's use a, let's use a 1-inch brush, and I'm gonna dip it into a little bit a little bit of the liquid white and then we'll go through color.

We'll start with yellow.

I'll reach up here and get a little bit of black.

Tell ya what, a little red.

We just, this is gonna be a fall scene.

We need a lot of beautiful colors.

There's some yellow ochre, shew.

Put your sunglasses on, this one's gonna be a bright one.

But pull this brush in one direction like that.

And once again, see the rounded corner?

That's what we're looking for.

Put that rounded corner to the top.

Let's go right here.

Go slightly above the dark, and very gently, very gently, begin laying in your shape of your tree.

Now remember this tree is not flat.

It has roundness this way as well as this way.

So think about shape and form when you're building your tree.

Don't just throw a bunch of color on it 'cause the ol' tree will come out looking flat as a board.

Give him some character.

Let each tree be an individual, there.

They're like people.

They wanna be, they wanna be individuals.

Now sometimes when you have fall scenes, maybe Jack Frost doesn't get all of it and there's still a little green here and there.

Some plants never turn colors.

So let's have one of those right here.

Just a nice one that has a little green in it.

And maybe he's got a little friend that lives here behind this bush.

We don't know.

But once again, and I know you get tired of hearing it all the time, do one bush at a time.

Don't be in too big a hurry.

I'm gonna leave some of these dark things sticking up back here.

They'll be, they'll be nice.

And I'll go into my yellow ochre, a little bit of cad yellow.

Let's go up here to this tree.

And maybe up here in this tree maybe, maybe, yep.

There's some beautiful colors up in in here, too.

But once again, think about shape in this tree.

So, so important.

There.

Think about form.

There, right across the trunk.

'Cause you don't see the entire trunk in a tree normally.

In nature, there's just about exceptions to every rule, but normally you won't see the entire trunk.

There we go.

Maybe back here there's even a little, we don't know.

Let's have some, let's have a firecracker there.

Shoot, let me go into a little bit of alizarin crimson and then the yellow.

Alizarin crimson and then some cad yellow.

We gonna make a, we gonna make a firecracker right there.

That'll be pretty.

There, pull the brush in that one direction, though.

Now then, maybe right in here lives, ooh that's nice.

That is nice.

There, there he is.

He just hangs out here around the pond.

There.

Maybe even a little bright red down here.

Mmm, beautiful little bush.

Okay, there's a little bit over in here.

There he is.

Practice some with this brush, though.

You'll be surprised, probably be amazed at what you can do with a brush like this.

I'm gonna go into a little more of the liquid white.

If you have trouble making your colors stick, add a little bit liquid white or a little bit of paint thinner but a very small amount of paint thinner.

The liquid white now will change your color a little bit.

Make it brighter.

Okay?

See?

Just have a little bit of green there and we'll go right here.

Maybe there's a happy little bush that lives right there.

Vary these colors, though.

In the fall you have every color that you can imagine.

There.

Shoot, while we have that green, maybe over here there's a nice little bush that lives right there.

There we go.

But you can begin creating all kinds of effects.

Tell you what, tell you what, let's go back into our yellow ochre, maybe I'll grab some bright red.

Whoo, that's a pretty one.

That's a pretty one.

Alright.

Let's go right up in here.

Now sometimes these big trees have a tendency to scare you.

But just remember that large trees are nothing more than clumps of bushes put together.

It's just a whole group of little small bushes that got together and made a big tree.

And work on individual shapes inside of this tree.

Think of each limb, for example, is just a bush.

Just a little bush that's sticking out there.

And don't be afraid to reload the brush often.

Probably the biggest mistake made is not thinning the paint enough and not putting enough paint on the bristles.

There we go.

And if you don't have enough paint, then you have to hit very hard, and it'll, it'll just sorta moosh together.

There we go.

See how you can create all those different effects just using an ol' 1-inch brush?

There.

And leave some areas open so you have some of these dark things showing through.

Let a little trunk show through here and there.

All these things are, they're what make your painting interesting.

Make it stand out.

There, another little bush down here.

Another thing that would help your painting be special, any time you have a large clump of trees like this, this area right in here, you need a dark shadow area, very dark shadow area.

Tell ya what, let's go in here.

Let's go in here.

Take that ol' 2-inch brush, tap in a little color, and let's just begin laying in the lay of the land here.

Little grassy areas, soft little areas like that.

Very soft.

Bring this all together.

There.

We said we might have a little path in here.

I think that's an excellent idea.

We'll put in a little bit of these grassy areas.

I'm just gonna drop in a little path.

Now see by changing the angle here, changing the angle we can create different plains.

There we go.

Just like so.

See?

But just by tapping you can create all of these little illusions of all these things that are happening, and by changing the color a little bit, changing the intensity or the brightness of the color, you can create different plains in your painting.

Let's take a fan brush.

We'll put a little bit of little bit of brown on it, little Van Dyke, little dark sienna, and let's just begin creating the illusion of a little path.

Look at that, there it comes.

There it comes.

And that way you clean up the bottom of all these little things, make them any way you want them.

Add a little white to the brush.

Then you can come back in here.

There.

I like to do this with sort of a rocking motion 'cause it makes it look like the path is sort of worn there in the center.

There we go.

Alright.

Now then we can come back, add a few little finishing touches wherever we want them.

Maybe right in here there's another little bush.

And you can take this brush sideways, push upward and it'll create all kinds of little grassy-looking things, little bushes that live right in here.

We'll have them work right down the side like so.

And bring all this together.

Alright, hmm.

Now then, with just a clean knife, all I'm gonna do is just go in here and scrape in the indication of a few little sticks and twigs and all these little happy things.

But these also help create that illusion of depth and distance in your painting.

There.

Okay, now we can take our liner brush and go into a little bit of the brown, but we want this paint to be thin like ink.

And let's go up here.

Maybe there lives some little sticks and twigs and just little extra things all over here like that.

Okay, tell ya what.

Think this one's about finished.

Let's take a little of the red.

Let's come right in here, and we'll sign this one.

Certainly hope you've enjoyed it.

It's a very nice little painting, and I think you'll enjoy doing this one.

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

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