The Best of the Joy of Painting with Bob Ross

[Music] Hi, welcome back.

I'm certainly glad you could join us today.

I thought today we'd do a fantastic little painting.

It'll just do good things in here for you.

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

And as usual, they'll come across in the same order as I have them on the palette.

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

I've got my standard old 18 by 24 pre-stretched double-primed canvas up here, and I've put a little piece of contact paper on it so it's gonna have a little oval.

I love these little ovals, they've become so popular and we get so many letters about them.

Thought I'd do another one today.

Let's start out today with a little bit of phthalo blue and a two-inch brush, be right back.

Right back, there we are.

And alizarin crimson.

Phthalo blue and alizarin crimson.

We'll just put a happy little sky.

Maybe, tell you what, let's, maybe we'll do a happy little barn today.

What the heck, let's just drop in a quick little sky here just very, very easy little sky.

Just using little criss-cross strokes start at the top, work all the way across, and then work progressively downward.

That way it'll mix with the liquid white and automatically, your sky will get lighter and lighter toward the horizon.

And that's exactly what we're looking for.

Okay.

Now, we just use long, horizontal strokes, blend that rascal out.

And that easy and that fast, we have a pretty good looking little sky.

Okay.

Now then, let's have a little cloud up there, what the heck.

We'll take some titanium white on the one-inch brush.

You could use a two-inch brush or a fan brush, but I'll just use a one-inch brush since it's handy.

Now then.

Let's do some very simple little clouds.

All I wanna do is just tap in some basic little shapes.

Just tap them.

Get a little more color on my brush.

There we go.

And that's all you're doing, just tap.

Just think how you want your little cloud to look.

Give him a very basic shape.

Very basic shape.

Now, if you have trouble making your paint stick, add the least, least little touch of liquid white.

But a very, very small amount.

Because when you put the liquid white on there, you lose a lot of your ability to blend because the paint's not firm anymore.

Now very lightly, very lightly, just caress the canvas, blend it a little bit.

There we go.

And we have a happy little cloud.

That easy.

Shoot, I just go back to that same old dirty brush that I started with.

I'm going to go right down here and take some of the little lavender color that I had.

Reach over here and get a little white, I want to lighten it up quite a bit.

Maybe a little touch of the dark sienna in it.

There.

Ooh, that's nice.

But just tap the brush.

Maybe far, far away back here there's some little tree indications.

I want them very soft, very muted, far away.

And all we're doing is just tapping with the brush, just tap in some very, very basic shapes.

We're certainly not looking for detail here.

There we go.

There.

Just some little background shapes.

Maybe over in here there's a few little things.

Just barely can see those.

But when you're all done, they'll be quite nice, you'll like them.

There.

Okay.

Now then, now then.

Take a clean brush, this is very dry.

Be sure it's dry.

And just tap the base of those little trees.

That'll create the illusion of mist.

Maybe we'll have, let's have a winter day today.

Maybe we'll have a barn and winter.

That sounds good.

Alright.

Okay.

That quick, that gives us just a nice little background.

So let's begin thinking about our barn.

Let's start out with, we'll just use plain old Van Dyke brown.

Pull the paint out as flat as you can get it.

Take the knife, just cut across, get that small roll of paint right on the edge of the knife.

Now then, we have to start off and make some big decisions here.

Where does our barn live?

Maybe, shoot, just make a decision, maybe right in here.

Maybe there will be like an old silo thing out here.

Right about here.

We'll just make a basic line where we want this to go.

Maybe it's about this wide.

And all we're looking for here is just basic shape.

Just really push in some color.

Add a little dark sienna to that.

Van Dyke brown, dark sienna.

Now then, I want to take the small knife and just begin rubbing this.

Rubbing it, it'll become very soft and very smooth.

Looks almost like it was done with a brush.

There, we wipe off the excess paint.

But rub it.

There we go.

Okay.

Now then, maybe let's put some, maybe there's some snow up on this little thing.

Let's go back up here.

Let's go right up in here.

Maybe let's touch right here, pull down, [Bob makes "soom" sound] just sort of decide where that's going to be and just drop it in.

A little bit right over in here, pull it, tell you what, maybe this one's got a little doer that comes out here.

Wherever you want it.

All kinds of little things.

Go back with our brown, and let's just fill this in.

There we go.

Just straight brown.

And all we're doing right now is just blocking in some basic color.

You could do this with a, shoot, you could do this with a paint roller.

Any old way.

We'll firm up that edge a little.

There we go.

Mm.

Just pull it down, straighten it out a little.

I'm gonna take a one-inch brush and very lightly, just pull right over the top of this, where we've taken the knife and rubbed it.

So make it very smooth and very interesting.

Now then.

Let's take and give the indication here and there of a few old boards back there.

All we're doing is taking a small roll of the Van Dyke brown just barely touching.

Barely touching.

Now lightly, lightly.

One hair and some air.

There we go.

Now.

Let's decide where the rest of our old barn's going to live.

Maybe, [Bob makes "tchoom" sound] let's go right up in here.

Maybe it comes down right here and then turns, right over all of our work.

Just wherever you want it.

On the other side over here, maybe this one comes down like so.

Right down to about there.

Okay, let's put a little, maybe there's a little doer right out here, we'll just sketch that in with a knife.

Now, we want to block all this in with color.

And I'm just using just basically Van Dyke brown, a little dark sienna here and there in it.

And all we're doing is just blocking in color.

Blocking in color.

Okay.

Tell you what, maybe here and there, add a little touch of phthalo blue right there.

That's pretty.

Doesn't look so hot right now, but when go back and begin blending all this together, you'll be surprised.

Those little things will make it look like shadows in there and stuff.

Experiment with different colors.

Maybe over here we'll have something come out like that, we'll have a roof.

See there?

Just sort of lay it out.

Block in the color.

Boy, I know at home you're saying, "Bob, you've really made a mess this time."

You may be right as rain, too.

There we go.

Okay.

Now once you get this basic color blocked in here, now what I'm gonna do is take the small knife, and just like we did before, begin rubbing it.

Continually wiping the knife on paper towel.

Okay, pick up some colors like yellow ochre, put a little yellow ochre in here.

Rub very firmly.

Wipe the knife.

Continually wiping the knife.

Removing that excess paint.

There we go.

And at home, you have all kind of time.

You could make this look so unreal.

It's beautiful what you can do, just taking this knife and rubbing it, making tiny little circles.

People will think you've worked for long periods of time with a very delicate little brush.

There.

And the more you rub it, the smoother it becomes.

Just makes some beautiful effects.

Beautiful effects.

There.

You know what, one of the questions I'm asked repeatedly is where do I get all the ideas for these paintings that we do.

People send me ideas from all over the country.

This one came from an idea that a lady sent me.

And if there's things that you want to see painted, that we're not painting here, drop me a line, let me know what it is.

I'd love to hear from you, and that's where we get most of these ideas, as I said before.

It's from people writing in and telling us what they want to see.

There we are.

Now then.

Just removing excess paint.

But at the same time, we're pushing that color right into the fabric.

There.

Okay.

A little bit over here.

And play with colors, like we can take a little dark sienna and add here and there.

A little alizarin crimson.

Shoot, just put some of these nice colors, where ever you think they should be.

Just break it up a little.

It makes it so much more interesting.

Continually wiping the knife.

There.

But already we have a pretty good basic shape of a barn there.

If you want a light spot here and there, take a little bit of the titanium white, and it'll lighten up an area.

Just rub it in.

And the small knife seems to work much better than the big knife for this rubbing.

It does just beautiful things.

And I'm pushing hard enough that I'm actually bending the blade a little bit.

But it's very flat.

Okay.

Now then.

Let's take, let me find a two-inch brush here, we'll just use it.

Now very lightly, just grab this and just pull it, gently, gently.

Smooths it right out.

Makes a beautiful effect.

Isn't that neat?

And you can use this to do all kinds of buildings and wooden structures.

Anything that you want to do with it.

Now then.

Tell you what, let's put, let's put pull that Van Dyke brown out as flat as we can get it, and cut off the tiniest little roll of paint.

Just right out on the end of the blade.

Now then, begin thinking, begin thinking about all the boards that's in this barn.

And just sort of let the knife touch and bounce, just let it play on there.

Very, very little paint's coming off the knife.

We just want the indication of a lot of little boards.

There we are.

Okay, and just wherever you want them, wherever you want them.

I like to do paintings like this.

We travel all over the country and do shows for PBS stations and etcetera all over, help them with their fundraising activities.

But we do a lot of paintings like this, and they're very, very popular.

And when we travel and do these shows, we meet some of the most fantastic people in the country.

So if we get to your area, come out and see us, I'd love to spend some time with you and talk to you, see some photographs of what you're painting.

It's a good time for us to get together and just, just chew the fat for a while.

There.

And I tell you what.

If you want to know when we're gonna be in the area, drop me a line and just give me a name and address, and we have a little mailing list that we maintain.

We'll send you a card when we're gonna be in your area.

You can come out and see us.

And you can just drop it care of the address at the end of the station, they'll send it to me.

Okay.

Now then, very lightly, touch and pull down.

I just want to sort of bring that together.

Just barely, barely touching it.

Shoot, that looks like my house, about to fall down.

Okay, now, same little line of paint, come around up in here.

Maybe right in here, there's just a little doer, a little board right across there, see?

Just sort of break it up.

Now while we're up there, take the knife, and we'll put a little window up there, a little something up there.

Maybe down here, let's come right down in here and maybe there's a big door down here.

[Bob makes "zoom" sound] Just like so.

Just straight Van Dyke brown.

Now this needs to be a big old door so they can get the cow in and out.

Big cow lives here.

Maybe over in here, this little window.

See?

Just straight brown.

Maybe there's a smaller one right here.

Just sorta make up little, little ideas in your mind.

Drop them on.

Here's another door.

Old barns, they have a lot of doors and windows on them.

So just put them in wherever you want them.

Shoot, maybe over here there's one.

There he is.

That easy.

Okay, maybe a window here.

[Bob makes "soom" sound] We have a whole line of openings now in this thing.

We can take just a little bit of the titanium white, and just sorta highlight that, just highlight it.

So they stand out.

Just cut across a little white with your knife.

Just run right over there.

Just makes them little rascals jump out at you.

There.

Okay, tell you what.

You know if you were walking in and out of here and taking the cow in and out and it was raining, you'd probably get wet.

So let's put a, maybe there was a porch over this old barn, or some type of roof up here to keep the rain off.

So we'll just put that on right like that.

Just straight Van Dyke brown.

Okay.

Now maybe we need an old rail to hold it up here, an old post.

Well that one's sorta crooked.

Maybe that old barn's about to fall over.

We'll give him another one right there, wherever you want him.

Take a little touch of white, give him a little highlight, so he stands out.

Maybe there's some snow up here.

Just some titanium white on the knife.

This is going to be a winter scene, maybe Jack Frost has dropped a lot of snow up here.

Just like so.

Okay.

I'm going to straighten that up a little bit.

It don't look too straight.

I'm not happy with it.

There we go.

That's better.

Now, I tell you what.

Maybe in the background back here, maybe there was a tree or two.

Shoot, let's put a tree.

We'll sneak right in there, before we put the snow on the roof, use a little black, a little crimson.

Let's go right up in here.

Maybe, there we are.

Let's have a little evergreen that lives back here behind this barn.

There.

He comes right down to the roof.

We'll give him a little friend.

Shoot, right there.

There we are.

Now then.

We'll take another fan brush and we'll dip into a little bit of liquid white.

Liquid white's only to thin the titanium white.

Then I'll go up here and get a little bit of the phthalo blue.

Phthalo blue, liquid white, titanium white.

Let's put some highlights on these.

So pretty.

Phthalo blue and white will just make those little rascals just really stand out.

Beautiful little tree up there.

There we go.

Now.

We can come back now and let's put some snow up here on the roof.

Shoot.

A little titanium white, just that little roll of paint.

And let's just bring it right down.

Just follow the roof line.

There it comes.

Just touch it.

By loading that little roll of paint on your knife, it'll come right off there.

Just like so.

Maybe over here.

[Bob makes "bloop" sound] There we go, right down this side.

And over here.

Tell you what let's do here.

Let's just make this all covered with snow.

This is another part of the roof over here.

Maybe it comes out, down.

There.

Now then.

Let's take, I have a little tiny bit of that phthalo blue and white left here.

I'm going to take a least little roll of that on the knife, tiny little bit.

And right along the edges here, we're just going to put a little bit of that blue and white.

Just to make it look like the snow's thick.

A little under here.

Just a little shadow under here.

Makes him sparkle.

There we go.

Okay.

We can even add a little of that blue and white, right under there.

Wherever you want it.

Just think about where there'd be some little shadows and some little things happening in there, and that's where you put it.

Okay.

Now, let's have some snow in the background.

Right on the ground.

But isn't that a super nice easy little way to make a fantastic barn?

Shoot, it works too.

Just take a little of the white on the fan brush.

Let's go back here and decide where our snow's going to be.

Maybe it lives right there.

Just paint that in.

There we go.

Tell you, maybe there's a, let's come right in here, maybe, got a big old mound of snow there, a snow drift that's blowed up.

There we go.

It's been a cold winter around this old barn.

Better get your coat out, it's colder in the studio here already even.

Right along here.

Put a little bit of snow right back here so it looks like it's behind the barn.

Take a little of the blue and white, I want to create the illusion of a little shadow behind here.

A little bump there.

Okay.

Now sometimes, sometimes it's fun just have a little old tree here and there.

So I'll take the liner brush, a little paint thinner, Van Dyke brown, thin the paint down til it's almost like ink.

Maybe there lives, right behind the thing here, maybe there's an old tree.

We'll have him coming right from behind there.

There he is.

Put him a limb, an arm here and there.

There we go.

Now if you have trouble making your paint flow, add a little more of the paint thinner.

Chances are the paint's just not thin enough.

And it helps if you got a little nervous twitch.

Because you can make all kinds of beautiful little limbs.

There.

Now that little tree lives right back there behind the barn.

And maybe back in here, you can make out the indication of just a few little tree trunks and some things that are way back in the distance here.

There we are.

Even on this, maybe there's a little something that you can see right in there.

Okay.

I'm going to add just a tiny bit of highlight right around this opening up here.

This is where he puts the hay up here.

Right in there.

Make it stand out, maybe there's even a little bit of snow hanging on the side there.

You can take the liner brush and just really make some of the stuff so nice.

Just take your time and add details.

As I've mentioned before, if I go 30 minutes here, they get a little upset with me.

There.

Okay.

Boy, we've got a nice looking little barn going here.

Maybe, let's have some fun.

Shoot, we're doing good.

Let's have some fun.

We'll take just plain titanium white on the fan brush.

And maybe in here, maybe there's a little hill.

[Bob makes "sshoom" sound] Just plain white.

So there's a little variation in color.

There.

Because that color right behind there had a little bit of blue in it.

So this will stand out.

But just plain titanium white.

Tell you what, I know.

I know, maybe there's an old fence here.

Let's take plain Van Dyke brown, cut us off a little roll of paint.

And our fence is gonna live in our world right there.

Maybe there's another little [Bob makes "doop" sound] there.

See?

Just drop them in.

Maybe, there's one.

This little old fence right out here in front of the barn.

There's another one.

Right there is a good place for one.

Now then.

Take a little bit of white, a little bit of dark sienna, mix it together, but leave it marble like that, don't over-mix.

Then we'll go up here.

Touch.

Put the indication here and there of a little bit of highlight on that.

Just like so.

Just touch it, give it a little pull.

Maybe on the top up here, there's a little snow.

[Bob makes "soop, soop, soo" sounds] There we are.

Now maybe there's some wire still left on there.

We'll just go right through the Van Dyke brown with a knife, and let's just decide where our wire lives.

There we go, that easy.

Just use the heel of the knife, or the back point of the knife.

Press very firm.

And just literally put your wire wherever you want it.

Just cut it in there.

Isn't that fantastic?

We'll have three strands.

Got to keep the, maybe there's a little sheep that lives in there.

We got to keep him in there.

Little rascal will get away on you.

I'm gonna take a little dark sienna on the fan brush.

Let's have some fun here.

A little dark sienna.

Okay, maybe there's some little grassy things that grow out here.

Just take the brush, push, make it bend upward.

Just push it firmly.

Maybe there's all kinds of little grassy things.

This guy didn't cut his yard, he's like me.

I'm the world's worst yard keeper.

A little bit over here too.

There.

Maybe there's a little bump, there.

Wherever you want them.

Just sort of make a big decision, drop them in.

Off you go, have some fun.

Take the fan brush.

Allow it to pick up a tiny bit of that color and pull it out.

That way it looks like shadows coming down.

Just automatically.

There.

Okay.

Now our liner brush, a little paint thinner, and go right back into that dark sienna.

And let's just pop up a few little old sticks and twigs and all those things, wherever you want them.

I think we're about ready.

Okay, why don't we bring the camera right up here.

I'm gonna take the contact paper off and let you see this.

Now, what I didn't tell you is before I started this, I put a design on the canvas.

So when we take the contact paper off, now we have a beautiful pattern.

And the way I made this was I just took a piece of metal I found at a building supply store, it had all these little things cut out.

Laid it on the canvas, and took a can of spray paint, and just sprayed it.

And it makes a very very nice effect, and you can do it with any color or anything that you want.

Let's take a little red, sign this one, and we'll call it finished.

Hope you've enjoyed this.

It's a little different.

Give you a whole different thing you can do with your little ovals and contact paper.

It's a lot of fun.

Tell you what, from all of us here, happy painting and God bless.