The Best of the Joy of Painting with Bob Ross

- Hi, I'm certainly glad that you could join us today.

I thought maybe today we'd do the little painting that you see in the opening, the little swamp scene.

It's very, very simple, and I think you'll enjoy it.

So, I tell you what, let's start out and have 'em run all the colors across the screen.

They'll come across right there.

That you need to paint along with us.

And come on up here and let me show you what I've got.

Today, I've taken my standard ol' canvas.

I'm using 18 by 24-inch, but you use whatever size is convenient.

And I've taken a little gray gesso, and I've just taken an old liner brush, and an old fan brush and I've just very quickly painted in some little indications, like little palm trees back in here.

I live in Florida.

We see a lot of swamp scenes like this.

In the foreground here, I took a natural sponge and used black gesso and just daubed in some basic shape and form.

I've allowed that to dry completely, and after that dried, then I've covered the entire canvas with a very, very thin coat of Liquid Clear.

And if there's any doubt.

That if you're not sure if you have enough or too little, put on the smallest amount that you possibly can of the Liquid Clear and take a paper towel or something and wipe it off.

'Cause it's transparent, you have a tendency to put too much on.

There's very, very little on here.

Now, I thought today we'd just have some fun.

This is a beautiful little painting and it works very easy.

Let's start today with a very small amount of Yellow Ochre.

Just a little bit of Yellow Ochre.

Let's go right up in here.

Now, I'm gonna take the Yellow Ochre, and I'm just gonna begin making little crisscross strokes, and we'll just start painting this in like so.

In that little animated opening, cute.

I like that very much with the little painter guy in his painter suit.

We have a lot of fun making it.

That's the brainchild of a very good friend of mine who's one of the engineers here, Jerry Morton.

He comes up with these crazy ideas, and between the two of us, we sort of put 'em together and then it takes a lot of people to make 'em happen.

So, thanks Jerry.

That was a nice one.

There we go.

Just Yellow Ochre, and we're just sort of filling it in like that.

There.

OK, this is the hardest part of the painting.

Surely if you can put this in, the rest of it's simple.

The rest of it's simple.

The clear is on there just to make the canvas slick.

It allows the color to move freely.

If this was a dry canvas, you'd be in agony city trying to do this, and it wouldn't move very well.

The Liquid Clear just makes it work so nice, so easy.

There we are.

Now, I'm intentionally allowing this Yellow Ochre to go right over some of this severe black color that we have here.

Very strong color.

Just let it go right over the top over it, it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter.

There we are.

Something about that.

And you make it as dark as you want it, or as light as you want it.

It's up to you.

It's up to you.

There.

OK, now then, I'm gonna add a little more right in here.

There we go.

Let's take, let's take and mix up a little bit of brown.

And I'm gonna make some brown today.

For that, I'm gonna use Alizarin Crimson and Sap Green in about equal proportions.

Just about equal.

Maybe today we'll make it a little bit to the reddish side.

And you can make it either direction you want toward the green side, or toward the reddish side.

And I think today we'll go a little bit toward the reddish side.

A little bit, OK?

Wipe off the old knife.

Now, let's have some fun.

We'll just use that same old brush.

I'm gonna add a little of that to the two-inch brush.

This is just a very, very warm brown color.

Let's go up in here.

Now, with it, we're gonna start on the bottom and work upward.

Just start on the bottom and work up, up, up.

You're gonna allow it to come up till it blends right into the Yellow Ochre that we have on the canvas already.

This is a beautiful, beautiful color.

I think you'll like it.

And as I say, you can take it either to the reddish side, like we did here, or to the green side, depends.

Depends on your mood, what you're trying to achieve.

It's up to you.

Up to you.

There we are.

But, see where that blends to?

Look at that gorgeous color.

Mmm, it's nice already.

I like these scenes that use the gray and the black gesso like this because it takes paintings that could be very complicated and turns 'em into very, very simple little paintings that you can do.

And you can do it with a minimal of time and practice and effort.

And to me, I like that very much.

It opens the world of art to any person, any person who has ever wanted to put a dream on canvas, you can do it.

You don't have to do to school half your life.

You don't have to know Leonardo DaVinci as a personal friend.

You can paint this.

There.

And the other that's so great about making paintings where anybody can do it, it has allowed millions of people to try an art form.

And out of that group, hundreds of thousands of people have went forward to pursue an education in higher art.

They've ended up in colleges and universities all over the country because they've had some measure of success with this.

And even if you never do anything with this, it can bring you tremendous self-fulfillment and enjoyment.

There we go.

I'll get off my soapbox and just paint now.

All right, but isn't that gorgeous already?

There we are.

I just love these little scenes.

And I'm just blending this in very, very smoothly.

And I think we're ready.

Now, the most fun part of this whole technique is washing the brush.

Mmm, let's do that.

This is where I get even with everybody who hassles me in here.

We wash our brush, as you know, with odorless paint thinner.

Shake off the excess (laughs) and just beat the devil out of it.

And I suggest if you're gonna do this in your living room, you get a little brush beater rack or something 'cause you can change the decor of a whole room in one heartbeat.

Be very careful.

Now, let's come in here, and begin putting in some foliage.

I'm gonna take a little Sap Green.

Use the same old brush, it doesn't matter.

Sap Green, get a little more there.

And some Cad Yellow, Yellow Ochre, a little Indian Yellow.

Just mix 'em together on the brush.

I tell you what I'm wanna do.

Reach up here and get a little bit of the Midnight Black.

I wanna, oh yeah, there we go.

I want a darker green.

There, and black and yellow, as you know, makes a gorgeous green color.

And then, I'm gonna tap it, just like so to load the brush.

See there?

Good shot there.

Now, let's go up in here.

Let's start this this whole big tree.

Usually, I save the big tree till last.

Today, let's do it first.

This ol' big tree, we're just gonna use the corner of the brush here.

We're just gonna begin putting in some leaves here.

Maybe this is a big ol' cypress tree that lives here.

As I mentioned earlier, I live in Florida, and I grew up there.

And my brother Jim and I, when we were little, we used to play in all these kind of places.

That's the reason I like all the little creatures.

When I was a small boy, they were my playmates.

They were my friends.

I didn't know till I was about half grown that everybody didn't play with an alligator, or have a little squirrel for a friend 'cause that's all there was where we lived.

There.

All right.

But, just using the corner of the brush you can make a great big ol' tree that lives out here.

Now, as you work down the tree, you want to get darker and darker, so you can add a little more black to your color.

Just a little more black.

So, down in here, it gets darker.

These are deep shadow areas here.

There we go.

That's where some of them big ol' creatures live.

Maybe a big ol' snake lives down here.

Who knows?

But, when we were growin' up, shoot, I even played with snakes and stuff.

Once again, that's what was around, so that's what you play with.

There, I'm gonna add a little more of that same color, maybe a little more Yellow Ochre.

There, OK and let's go back up here.

Now we begin picking out little individual bushes and shrubs and all these things that live out here in the water.

There we go.

But, when you're doing this work on one little bush at a time, just one little bush.

There.

Maybe here's another one, you decide.

Use just the corner of the brush and think about form and shape.

Don't just throw these in at random.

There, maybe, maybe, maybe, yep.

Now, this will not be an exact duplicate of the one you see at the opening.

We never can do an exact one again, but it'll show you how it was made.

It'll give you an idea.

And when you do your little swamp scene, you change it anyway that you want.

I'm gonna add at least a little touch of the Bright Red to it to it just to change the flavor.

Ooh, I like that.

I like that one.

All right.

There we go, maybe another little happy brush right here.

Wherever.

Wherever.

There.

OK, here we go.

Add a little touch of paint thinner.

If you have trouble making the paint stick as I was there, add a little bit of the paint thinner 'cause a thin paint will stick to a thick paint.

See there?

That just drops right off there so easy.

There we go.

Just understand your paint and how it works.

And that comes with just a little bit of practice.

It is most important, most, most important that you use a very dry, firm oil paint.

Traditional oil paints are about the consistency of face cream.

They're very soft and like warm butter.

They will not, absolutely will not work for this.

Too soft.

You need a firm paint.

Over here, here's another little, yep right there.

He just lives right there, see him?

Pick out little individual bushes and trees in your world, and that easy, you can drop 'em in.

There, and then you might think about the little creatures that might live in here.

There, maybe Peapod, the little pocket squirrel.

Maybe he lives right out here.

Who knows?

I know, he's livin' in my backyard, but it sounds good.

Certainly, one of his relatives is here.

All right.

I like him.

Now then, and that easy we can basically put in some happy little things.

All right, you ready for your bravery test already?

Tell you what, let's do it.

I'm gonna use a little flibert brush.

Go right into, I'm gonna use Van Dyke Brown and Dark Sienna.

I'm just gonna mix 'em on the brush here.

Just mix 'em together.

Put a lot of paint.

A lot of paint.

Now, we had a big cypress tree in our world, and he lives, ooh right through my little palm tree.

There he comes.

(swoosh) Now, I want this paint to be very thick on the canvas, so when we highlight this, the highlights will be picked up by the heavy thick areas.

There we go.

There they come.

Big ol' cypress tree.

In Florida where I live, if you see cypress trees, chances are, (laughs) that's a very, very wet property, at least part of the year.

That's the kind they make jokes about sellin' you some land in Florida because in the rainy season, you might not be able to get to it.

There.

My best friend, when I was growin' up, bought some of that property, and we all laughed at him.

And a few days later, a bunch of developers came in, turned it into some great big subdivision, and he made a lot of money.

And he laughed at us.

There, I'm gonna give another tree right here.

There we are.

See there?

But just really, really add some paint in here.

Don't be afraid to put some paint on the canvas.

That thickness is what will make it gorgeous when it's done.

All right, cypress trees are normally, they're quite large at the bottom.

Big strong foots on 'em.

Mmm, and ya always have little ones that are coming up like so.

There, see 'em?

Once again, do not be afraid to put some paint on the brush and on the canvas.

There is another one there.

Just some little small baby ones that are comin' up.

There, they come up from the roots and they just keep spreading.

You start with one and they just spread.

Pretty soon, they take over the whole swamp.

But, it's a wonderful place for the birds, and they build nests, and there are egrets and all the fantastic birds that live there.

There, see there?

You just decide where they are.

Wherever.

Something about that.

It gives us some basic shapes.

Let's take another two-inch brush and we'll put the small, small amount of Titanium White.

And let's begin deciding here where the water is.

A little bit of water around here.

Very small amount of Titanium White.

Don't want much 'cause it's opaque and I don't wanna lose this transparency.

Just pull down gently.

Straight down, straight down.

See there?

There, see it?

Just enough to give it a little watery appearance.

And once again, very, very little of the Titanium White.

Just enough and then go across like that.

Now then, going back to my filbert, back to my browns.

And maybe over here, maybe this old cypress tree, maybe he's put out some roots, and there's another one coming here.

Now, these are called cypress knees, just like the knee on your leg.

And that's what they're called.

When I was a young boy, we used to go out in the swamps and collect these, and lamps were made out of 'em to sell to tourists when they came to Florida.

They may still be doing that, I don't know.

Now, gonna take some brown, little bit of Titanium White, and we'll just mix 'em on the brush.

It doesn't matter.

OK, let's go right up in here.

Now, we can begin adding highlights on this tree.

Now, a lot of paint on the brush and just barely touch and let it just pull off what it wants on those high spots that you've made.

Just let it pull off some of it.

A little more of the color on there.

There we go.

No pressure, absolutely no pressure.

It's just literally bouncing right along there.

It's all there is to it.

There.

OK, and this one over here, he needs some too, like that.

A little bit on there.

Another ol' big tree, (swoosh).

Isn't that something?

There, there's some fantastic, gorgeous, beautiful swamps in Louisiana and Georgia also.

If you've ever been there, the Okefenokee Swamp, oh, beautiful places.

Beautiful places, and it's where the whole ecosystem starts is in these swamps.

There, gotta take care of these rascals.

There.

And this one over here.

Don't wanna have him left out.

Something about like him.

And if you wanna make an indication of one in front, all ya gotta do is just sort of highlight him a little bit.

Then you come down a little bit lower.

Shoot, that easy, we're in business.

Something about like that.

Let's take our script liner brush, paint thinner, a little bit of the Van Dyke Brown.

And I wanna thin this paint till it's almost the consistency of ink.

Turn the bristles.

A liner brush has very long bristles so you can load a lot of paint on it.

There, you can see it.

All right, let's go up here.

Now, maybe our whole cypress tree, maybe it's got an old limb, ar, ar, ar that hangs out there.

Ya gotta make noises like that.

We don't know where old limbs live on this tree.

Shoot, there.

Big ol' bird's gotta have a place to sit up here so we can look down to see the little minnow runnin' around.

There we are.

You know, if you get to Florida and you have a chance to see the Everglades, down in southern Florida, they're one of the most beautiful places that you've ever seen, and there's so much wildlife there.

It's about the only place left where there is any.

But, it is gorgeous.

There.

And we have to take care of it.

It is such a fragile system, so fragile.

There we go.

Maybe when I have that ol' brush goin', here and there and there and here, we can put the indication of an old stick and a twig.

You decide where they live.

There we are.

All right, and maybe over in here, there's some.

They live everywhere.

You just put 'em wherever you think they should be.

All right.

I just realized I didn't put any highlights on these little cypress knees over here, and they need some too.

If our light's comin' from up here, we'll just maybe highlight 'em on this side.

Something like so.

There we are.

And just put in indication of a few little rascals.

There, now we'll just use this brush.

I'm gonna take some black.

We'll use black and go right back and get some Sap Green.

There, we just mix 'em on the brush.

Just black and Sap Green.

Give it a push.

Let's go up in here and let's have some nice green areas on these old cypress trees.

Got his arm hangin' out here, like that.

There we are.

Oh, covered up all my tree branches.

That's OK though.

We know they're under there, and they're needed to hold all this up.

So, they're there when we know they're there.

Maybe right in here lives a big ol' place like that.

There we are.

Who knows?

Who knows?

It's our world so we can do anything here that we wanna do.

All right, let's use that same brush and go into a little bit of the yellows and put Cad Yellow, Yellow Ochre, Indian Yellow.

Get a little roll of paint right out of there on the end of that brush.

And let's go back up into here.

Let's check that out.

And we'll put a few leaves up here on this big ol' rascal.

Just using the corner of the brush, just the corner.

Something about like that.

There, don't cover up all of your dark.

Leave 'em dark in places so there's shadows.

Swamps have a lot of very dark areas.

Ooh, big ol' owls live up in the trees.

Open one eye and look at ya in the daytime.

There, my brother and I used to go out and we would look for owls in the tree.

There.

And they're there.

They're there, they live way up in these trees and that's where they sleep in the daytime.

All right.

Tell you what, let's have some fun.

I'm gonna grab a little, maybe we'll use number three fan brush.

I'm gonna take some paint thinner and some white, and I'll reach over here and grab some Midnight Black and just mix 'em together.

Something like that.

Just basically gray we're making.

And let's go up in here and here and there.

We'll have some ol' Spanish moss that hangs off there.

There, little more color.

And just think, in your world, where it would hang.

It's that easy.

But, a thin paint will just slide right over it.

Maybe let's go up in here.

There's always moss hanging out of these ol' cypress trees like that.

When we were kids, we used to collect this moss and they used to use it for stuffing in upholstery.

They would boil it, and it has a little black center.

It looks like wire, and if you find old, old furniture that has that in it, chances are it's Spanish moss.

But, that's how we made extra money when we were young is we would collect this and sell it.

Got about a nickel a truckload too.

Let's go over in this big tree.

There, we need some over in here and there.

Just at random here and there.

Wherever.

Wheverer, even down in here.

Some of these little low trees, the moss falls out and it hangs on everything.

It's a parasite.

This old Spanish moss is just a parasite.

OK, take a little bit of green, Sap Green and yellow, and I'm just gonna touch in.

Make it look like little grassy things that are growin' in the water down through here.

Little things like that.

There.

Just at the foot of these little cypress knees.

Grab another fan brush.

We'll put some black and some Sap Green on it, and let's just quickly pop in, choo, choo, choo.

some little things around the base of this big ol' tree, group of trees.

Shoot, maybe there's one right here too.

And let's have one right here.

Just wherever.

In fact, our fan brush, it has the grass color on it and we'll put in a few little grassy areas.

Something like that.

There.

Take a little bit of the Dark Sienna and the white mixed together.

We'll put the indication of just a little soil right around the base of it.

Just a little.

This is some of that soil that you don't wanna really step on.

You'd probably sink right through it.

Just here and there.

There.

And shoot, I think for that.

We got a pretty mean lookin' little swamp scene.

Now, that's basically the way we made the little scene that you see in the beginning of this show.

How you enjoyed it.

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

(flowing instrumental music)