The Best of the Joy of Painting with Bob Ross

- Hi, welcome back.

Certainly glad you could join us today.

I thought today we'd just do a fantastic little painting that I think you'll enjoy.

So let's start out and have 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 done up here already.

We have our standard old pre-stretched canvas up here.

And as you can plainly see I've covered the bottom of it with a little bit of black gesso.

A little bit, about so-high.

Not quite half.

You don't want to divide it totally.

The black gesso, then I put a little bit of liquid clear on it.

Then on top of that I've just put a mixture of midnight black and a little sap green in it, just sort of a real gray color with a little green in it.

And the top is just covered with liquid white like normal, and it's all wet.

Don't let it dry before you start.

Now the black gesso had dried before we put the transparent paint on, but everything's wet now.

So let's just keep playin' with those same colors.

We'll use black, and a little bit of sap green.

Be right back, have to sneak up here and get the green.

And just load a little color right into the bristles.

Now there, today let's just do a fun, little painting, and just enjoy.

I'm just going to take the brush and just make a little circles.

Little, circular patterns all over.

Let it go.

Just wherever you want it.

This is really a nice way of just taking out your frustrations.

If you're having a bad day, this is a nice painting to do, 'cause it'll make you feel good.

You can just work out all your hostilities.

There.

A little more color.

It's just black, sap green once again.

Not a great deal of green, though.

Mostly black.

Want it to be just sort of a greenish-gray color when it mixes with the liquid white that's on the canvas.

There.

Just every kind of little pattern.

Just try to mix it up and make it look different all over.

Like that.

Here and there.

And you begin seeing things in there, just by doing this.

I think I'll make a scene that has a lot of trees far away, like you're looking deep into the woods.

And so we just need some background cover there.

I'm going to add a little van dyke brown, a little dark sienna to the brush.

And here and there.

Not everywhere, but just here and there.

And add a little bit of that.

Maybe even a touch of, little bit of alizarin crimson here and there.

Not much, though, just a little.

Just to change the flavor so it's not all exactly the same.

There.

A little more of the black, maybe a little more dark sienna mixed with it.

Come right in here and drop in some little, just a little circular patterns.

Alright, I bet your sayin, "Well, I've really done it this time.

That's a total mess you've got started already."

You may be right.

Hope not.

There.

But notice how everything is going on.

There's light spots up in here, and there's spots right beside it that are very dark.

And that way you have a variety of patterns going.

So when we begin putting all of our little trees and stuff in the foreground it will give the feeling of being deep, deep back in the woods.

Now, pick our liner brush.

We'll go right into some of that.

I'm just goin' to use that black and sap green.

That's fine.

Doesn't matter.

Get the paint very thin with paint thinner.

And let's go up in here.

And maybe in these light spots.

here and there, we'll begin putting the indication of all kinds of little tree limbs and branches and twigs.

And it doesn't matter if you can't see all of them.

You can't see where it starts or where it stops.

'Cause they're goin' be looking between a lot of foliage.

And most of these will probably end up being covered up.

But some of them will show through.

And people will think you've literally worked for days putting all these little things in here.

Shhh!

We don't tell them any different.

There we are.

Just a few.

Just a few.

You don't have to get too carried away with 'em.

There we go.

That's enough to get us started.

We can add some more later if we want to.

We'll just use that same ol' dirty brush.

What the heck.

It's workin' pretty good.

No use messin' with it if it's workin'.

I'm going to go right into the yellow.

Be right back here.

Grab a little bit of sap green.

So we have yellow and sap green.

A little yellow ochre.

Indian yellow.

Once in awhile a little touch of the bright red.

And the bright red is really in there to dull the green.

Alright, now then.

Let's begin picking out little things.

Now if you sort of look at your painting, and each one will be different, you can begin picking out little shapes and forms, and things happening.

Use just the corner of the brush.

And just start picking out individuals.

Just begin picking out individuals.

Wherever you think they should be.

There we go.

Ok, change the flavor a little.

Add a little more of the yellow ochre maybe to this one.

So it looks like there's a different bush right there.

But see, it covers up the base of that one.

Now we don't want to kill all this background because all those little patterns that you put in there by themselves nearly look like all kinds of little things.

Add a little more of the greens and the yellows, and all the colors here.

And just sort of let these things happen.

But once again, everybody's painting will be totally different.

Totally unique.

So don't just try to copy.

When you're doing yours, look at what happens.

Take advantage of what happens.

And did you know, if you've painted with us before, we do not make mistakes.

We have a happy accident every once in awhile.

But we don't make mistakes.

Because we learn to work with anything that happens on this piece of canvas.

You're truly the master of your world here.

There we go.

But is that beginning to give you the feeling of being deep in the woods?

I hope so.

There.

We just layer after layer after layer.

There we go.

And these layers, work on one layer at a time, and keep coming forward.

That's what'll create the illusion of distance in your painting.

I know I say that so much, but to me, it is very, very important in a painting to have depth and distance in it.

There.

Now then, maybe we'll go back up here.

We need some little things over here on the other side, too.

We don't it totally left out.

There.

Just sort of let 'em overlap.

Maybe they just come together right there.

We don't know.

All kinds of things happen in the woods.

It used to be a fantastic place for my little squirrel to live.

I gotta show you another picture of that little rascal.

If you've been with us during this series, I've showed you two or three times our little squirrel that we call Peapod, the pocket squirrel.

And he's one of the most precious, little creatures.

And while I'm doing this, we'll just put him up here.

Now after he eats, hi little rascal, he'll sleep anywhere.

He is the laziest little devil.

Watch him go.

He just climbs up sometimes, I have an old towel here, and he just climbed up in it, and sort of made himself at home, and kicked back.

Oh, tummy's full and it's a nice, warm day, and off to sleep we'll go.

But isn't he cute?

And after he goes to sleep, you can literally just pick him up.

Look at that!

Looks like he's at the beach, doesn't he?

Kicked back there and gettin' a few rays.

But that's how lazy that little rascal is after he gets his tummy filled.

I think he's just one of the most precious, little creatures I've ever had.

Did I say his name was Peapod?

And he wants to live in your pocket.

(laughs) He's probably, oh he's probably five weeks old now maybe.

It'll be another couple of months before we can turn him loose and then, off he'll go and he'll have his own family.

There.

And hopefully he'll stay around my backyard when I turn him loose and still visit with me.

But if he doesn't, I know he's happy, and he's doing what squirrels should do.

There.

Okay, maybe right in here.

While you were watching the squirrel, all we've done is just continue to add some little bushes and tree things here and there.

There we go.

But isn't that a neat way of doing a background that looks like there's just layer after layer of woods and forest, and all kinds of things?

Years ago when I was a traditional painter, I might've worked for two or three weeks to produce an effect like this.

And chances are, I would've worked it to death and it would've been very muddy.

And by muddy, I mean you just work your color so much they just sort of all turn gray and brown.

Get dirty lookin'.

I had a lot of problems with that when I was a traditional painter.

But this is so fast and so fresh, that you don't have time for it to get muddy.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, we can take our black with a little green in it, and go back here and there.

And we can add in a couple more little sticks and twigs.

And you can sort of look at little patterns that happened here.

And where you think there should be some little things to hold all these up.

There.

Just wherever you want 'em.

We don't want too many.

Don't want too many.

Maybe even right in here.

Once again, every painting is gonna be different, and that's what makes it great.

But look at yours and see where you think a little stick should live.

A little twig or whatever you need to hold up all your branches on your trees.

I think today, it's such a good day.

Let's get crazy.

Let's get crazy.

Maybe (laughs) here we go.

Maybe there's a big cliff here.

A big drop-off.

A big gulley.

So I'm gonna put a little, I know you can't see this, but it's just straight van dyke brown.

And I'm putting that there 'cause I want to have a nice embankment right there.

Nice cliff or drop-off or gorge.

Whatever you want to call it.

I know it's going to be there.

And to that, let's say I'm havin' one of those days when you're just feeling sort of flaky and you just do nice things and have fun with painting.

A little dark sienna, a little van dyke brown, a little white.

Don't over mix it.

It's most important for it to stay marbled like that.

And you cut off that little roll of paint.

All those different mixtures are right there in that roll.

You can even see 'em in there.

See, there's white on the bottom, right there.

And then down here, there's a nice brown color.

So it gives you all those little things happening.

Now I want to show, this is why I put the brown there.

Barely touch.

Just graze it.

This is just like you were laying snow on the mountain.

There we go.

Just putting a few little things.

Something like that.

Probably makes no sense at all yet, but I have something in mind, I think.

Alright, let's go back, we'll go back to the old brush here that had the greens and stuff on it.

Greens, yellow, yellow ochre, Indian yellow.

A touch of bright red once in awhile.

But see how we're loading that brush.

It's actually being pushed.

Do it real slow so you can see.

It's being pushed.

And right there on the tip you can see that little ridge of paint.

Okay, let's go up here.

Now with that little ridge of paint, I want to make some little grassy areas back here.

But that's actually all you're painting with.

See it?

And now we'll have some little grassy areas, and they come right up here.

And this is a very sharp drop-off in my mind.

So maybe there's some nice things that just literally hang over the edges.

And that easy.

That easy you can make these.

I like doing banks like this where you have all these little grassy things that hang over the edge.

There.

Those are fun to me.

And people love these kind of little paintings.

It's just like gesso, to me, is one of the neatest things that has ever been invented.

I don't know why somebody didn't do before I did.

Now everybody's doing it.

There.

But isn't that neat?

Maybe back here we'll have that one hang over, too.

I just like seeing them weeds hanging over that.

Look what a beautiful effect it creates right in there.

My gosh, you could slip off from there and be there forever and ever.

Nobody'd ever find you down in that big thing.

There we go.

Tell you what.

If I'm gonna fall off in there, I want to land on something soft.

I'll find a fan brush, dip it in liquid white.

Into the titanium white.

Gonna give a touch, be right back with phthalo blue right in there.

So we have liquid white to thin the paint, titanium white and a little touch of phthalo blue.

And maybe, here we go.

Right here.

I see it.

There's a little waterfall.

Lives right in there.

That easy.

And you can do that basically, go over and down, over and down.

It's most important you have a flat edge up here.

I'll do it again.

I don't want him that big, so I'll just cut him off later.

But that's how it's done.

And our waterfall, maybe it comes down here and hits a rock and does this.

We'll put another rock in front here in a minute and it'll all make sense.

There.

Now I'm gonna put some splashes.

Waterfalling that far, there'd be some nice splashes goin' on down here.

There we go.

Now, let me grab a two-inch brush, put a little touch of titanium white on it, and pull straight down.

Just straight down.

Something like that.

And go across.

See there?

And instantly, we have water.

That's one of the neatest, nicest things about this whole technique is water.

Now then, we can just take the fan brush and come back in here.

And clean up the edges, put some little ripples across the water where it's flowing out here.

And whatever.

It's all we need.

Now, back to our old knife.

Take some van dyke brown, and in my mind there's gonna be, maybe there's a projection comes out here.

And you make any kind of little projection you want.

Maybe there's a bump there, comes right down.

See, put that there, and put a little highlight on it, and all of a sudden it will push that waterfall way back here.

Watch what it does here.

Least little touch of color, and just pull down.

Barely touching the canvas.

But it'll have a tendency to push all that back.

And we can bring this one right out in front of it.

There.

Now, back to our ol' brush that has the yellows and the greens on it.

We can come right back in here.

Let me get a little more color.

Come right back in here, and just let those things flow right over.

Now, if you have trouble making the colors stick, add the least little touch of paint thinner to your brush.

But the least, least little bit.

And it'll thin the paint, and it'll flow right over the top of this thicker paint.

Now then, over here on the other side, we have to have something to hold the other side in or it will get away.

Maybe right about here.

Let's have a nice projection comes out.

Tell you what, this comes right down, and all that's weed back.

See how we can change your mind, just put things in there?

And in your world you can do this.

Anything that you can imagine, you can have.

At least on this piece of canvas.

But at least on this piece of canvas, you can.

I like that.

That pushes all it back.

Put a little water splash around his foots.

Right down here.

Now here's a little trick.

If you want to show water dripping down, lift it up.

Now it looks like the water, see?

Is dripping down.

Touch up, and the water comes down.

I know that sounds crazy, but it works.

Trust me.

Betcha heard that the last time you went to buy a used car, didn't ya?

(laughs) There we are.

Now take a little black, a little blue, little alizarin crimson.

Just make a dark color on the ol' two-inch brush.

I wanna have a nice bush sitting out here on this, so I need some dark in here, just so when I put some light on it, it'll show.

I wanna make that waterfall a little smaller, so all I do is just cut him down.

See?

You can cut the waterfall down to any size that you want him.

Any size that you want him.

Alright, now then, let's put, ahh, let's make it a little brighter.

Oh, that's better.

See I just added a bit more of a cad yellow to it so it would stand out against the background.

Now, there's a lot of moisture if there's a waterfall here.

And usually, where there's a lot of moisture, the plants seem to hang more.

They just get lazy because they don't have to work for water, I guess.

Now, tell you what, maybe there's another big rock right here.

Let's do this, maybe we'll just pull it right on out here.

This is just van dyke brown, little touch of dark sienna into it.

Somethin' like that, now.

Back to our highlight cutter, brown and white.

We'll just come right in here with the indication of a few, little highlights.

Don't want to much or it will distract.

And then right over this edge, I'm gonna take this small knife, so that's very dark.

So it looks like there's a little overhang there.

I hope you can see that.

That's sort of a sneaky little way of making like an overhang where you can stand and watch this beautiful, little waterfall.

And we'll have maybe just a little bush lives there.

Little bushes live everywhere in our world.

Little things, just growin' all out here.

But when you're painting, make up little stories.

Imagine that this place is real, at least in your mind.

And mentally, if you can see it, you can paint it.

And people ask, 'cause we have almost 300 half hour shows on.

People say, "Where do you come up with all these ideas?"

Well, a lot of them come from people sending photographs of things they'd like to see painted.

We get hundreds of photographs, and I paint a lot of pictures from those photographs.

But a lot of them come from right here.

I just sort of sit down and make up little stories.

And it helps to be a little crazy, so that gives me sort of an advantage.

(laughs) But, in your world, just think about things, and mentally if you can see 'em, you can do 'em.

So just a little practice.

Ok, we said we was gonna get crazy.

Shoot, I'd like to live right here, so I'm gonna put me a house.

I'm gonna put me a house that lives right here.

Maybe an ol' rundown house out here.

I want a big house today.

I draw little cabins all the time.

Today, I want a big house.

Since this is our world, we can do that.

We can do that.

Didn't you like that little squirrel?

Wasn't he the wildest thing?

I like it when he just sort of lays around like that.

I just think it's so cute.

There.

Well, this is goin' to be a big house.

Great big house.

And all we're doing here is just basically blocking it in.

All we wanna do is just come up with the basic shape for this ol' house.

There.

Just van dyke brown, a little dark sienna here and there, but mostly van dyke brown.

I have had a little sienna.

There.

Well, now we gotta make some big decisions here.

Tell you what.

Let's do.

I have the same highlight color I was usin' down here, it's just brown and white.

Maybe we'll just put some the indication here of some old boards going this way.

We usually make 'em going the other way.

But just touching and working your way across here.

Give a little, tiny little pull-down.

There.

Just keep it goin', back and forth.

There.

And vary the colors a little 'cause boards some of them are lighter in color than others, and some are darker, and some weather better.

Now then, we take a clean, dry brush.

One here, and some air, and just gently, gently go across that.

It makes a very nice old wood effect.

That easy.

Now, maybe this carpenter, maybe he had a toddy or two on the job.

You know?

That happens sometimes.

Boy, does it happen sometime.

Let's take dark sienna, van dyke brown, and just a little white.

See?

There's the old color we were using.

Now here's the new color.

See how much darker it is?

This is gonna be on the shadow side.

So we'll come right over here.

Maybe these boards on this side of the building go this way.

Who knows?

This is our building.

We can make any way we want it.

Any way that we want it.

And today, I think they outta go that way.

What the heck.

Back to our brushes.

Dry.

Touch that.

Give it a little pull.

Now, tell you what.

Let's really get crazy.

Take some white and some black, mix it together, make a gray.

Nice gray color.

And use a little edge of the knife.

Start right here at the roof, and just begin pulling down and working the layers here.

I want to create the illusion of some nice, little shingles.

Just sort of gray shingles on this.

But that's gonna mix with that brown that's already on the canvas, and give you all kinds of little variations, which are very nice.

Very nice.

There.

See?

There they come.

Just shingle after shingle.

Years ago I was a carpenter and I'll tell you this, it's not that easy to put shingles on a roof.

And if you've ever watched Dana Jester, one of our teachers that's on the show frequently, he's one of our national staff of teachers.

He's a fantastic painter.

But if you ever watch him, for many years he, too, was a carpenter.

So he can tell ya, it was not that easy to do.

Take a little light color.

This can be just light gray.

And we'll just sort of highlight these edges so they stand out a little.

Now maybe, let me grab a small knife here.

Maybe this is a two-story house.

Let's get crazy.

Put a window there.

A window there.

A window there.

I told you I was gonna have a big house this time.

Just scrape it out.

Just use some black.

Nobody's home today.

You can put light in the window if you wanted to.

A little light color.

Just sort of outline these a little.

Like that.

Wherever you want.

But, now we notice some windows.

Maybe up here there's a little something for the attic.

That's probably where I'd have to live.

Now that we've got that black on there.

Let's put the door over here.

You put your door wherever you want it.

But I thought today we'd put it over here.

Shoot.

Tell you what.

Let's put, I got a minute remaining here so, let's have a little shed, or I mean, not a shed.

A little roof, a little porch.

Stands right out here.

I said shed.

You can make a shed the same way, but today we're just gonna have a little porch to hold up everything and keep the rain off the guy that lives in here.

I guess we need a little post to hold the porch up or it'll fall.

There.

Now then, we can take, we can take, put in a little grass right in here.

Shoot, we about have a finished painting.

Isn't that a super little thing?

Try this one.

I believe you'll like it.

And if you have time, send us a photo of what you're doing.

Every once in awhile we put 'em together and show 'em on TV.

Until then, happy painting.

God bless, my friend.

(light lounge music) - [Voiceover] This program is brought to you by North Light Books, publisher of over 200 how-to books and videos for fine artists and graphic designers.

And by Langnickel, manufacturers of selected artist brushes.