The Best of the Joy of Painting with Bob Ross

[Music] Hi, welcome back, glad you could join us today.

I thought today we'd just do a painting that's a lot of fun and very simple, and I think you'll enjoy it.

So let's start out, and have them run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint along with us at home.

And they'll come across, right about there.

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

Today, I've taken contact paper, and I've cut an oval out.

And I've just taken the contact paper, stuck it on a blank canvas.

And then we've taken Black Gesso and I've used a sponge, and I've just tapped a little bit of this Black Gesso all over, so it makes all these little patterns in here.

We've allowed that to dry completely, and then, on top of that, I'm adding a mixture, now, of Alizarin Crimson and Sap Green, we mix those together in about equal parts to make a gorgeous brown color which is very transparent.

And we're going to cover the entire canvas with this mixture of Alizarin Crimson and Sap Green.

Just like so.

Oh, I think I forgot to mention, we did put a little bit of Liquid Clear on the, on the black canvas, just to make it nice and slick.

It sure makes putting the paint on much, much easier.

So we had the Black Gesso, then a little Liquid Clear and then this mixture of crimson and Sap Green.

And all we're looking for is just a nice thin, even coat.

The reason we put the Liquid Clear on here before we, before we put the color on is because it will allow us to put a very thin, almost like a glaze on there, a very thin coat of paint.

I don't want a lot of color on the canvas, just a small amount.

So, that's the only reason.

And that easy, we have it all finished.

Now, then.

Let me wash the old brush.

[chuckles] If you've painted with us before, you know this is the fun part of this whole technique.

And we wash our brushes with odorless paint thinner.

We just shake off the excess.

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

All right, now that we've got a nice clean brush, let's start out today, and I'm going to take a little bit of Titanium White, just a little white, like so.

Put some on the two inch brush.

Be right back, I get a little touch of the, a little touch of the Indian Yellow.

It's a very transparent yellow.

So we have Titanium White and Indian Yellow.

And with that, I'm just going to, quickly, dance in a little background back here.

And we'll just take it and sort of, just begin making little movements with the corner of the brush.

Something about like so.

You have to make a big decision right off in this painting.

This is going to be the lightest area in the painting.

So we start there, and we'll continually blend outward from that point.

That way, automatically, that'll be the brightest area of the painting.

Now the Titanium White is an opaque color, but, even there, you can still see through that and see some of these gorgeous little, these little shapes that you made with the sponge and the Black Gesso.

Now, I normally, I normally use a natural sponge.

It seems to have better shapes.

They're more varied than a man-made sponge.

So, you can pick those up at any art store, or, if you happen to be in Tarpon Springs, you can stop by and pick one up right off the boats there.

But, most of us, [chuckles] we'll get one at the art store.

But a natural sponge, once again, has much, much nicer shapes to it.

There.

Now then, you can do this as many times as you want to achieve a desired lightness in here.

I'm going to wash the brush.

Actually, I just like to wash the brush.

And I'm going to do that again.

I want to make it a little bit brighter than it is.

[chuckles] I just really like to get the cameraman over, he gives me a hard time, sometime.

All right.

Go right back into what you determined was your light area, and start there and work outward.

Always start in that light area and work outward.

There.

Just adding a little more paint to the brush.

And I'm just spinning the brush, using just the corner to make all kinds of little shapes.

There we go.

And they don't mean much at this point, but later on they'll come out to be gorgeous little things that are in the far, distant, back part of your painting.

This is a very simple painting.

This one I would recommend, if it's your first or second painting, this is a good one.

This is a good one when you're first starting.

And this contact paper works very well.

Since we've introduced the use of contact paper, it's almost become a standard now in the art industry.

We see painters all over the country who are using contact paper to make all kind of shapes, to make little cut outs that they put in their paintings.

So, give it a try.

When I first started, I used to use frisket paper, which air brush artists use.

But it was very expensive, and it didn't stick very well.

So that's the reason we went to contact paper, it's, it's readily available, you can find it in any grocery store, or hardware store.

[chuckles] And it sticks better.

All right, today, let's have some fun with the old oval brush.

I going to take the old oval brush, put a little white on it, and I'm going to go into this mixture of Alizarin Crimson and Sap Green.

This is the same, identical color that we covered the entire back of the canvas with.

A little white to it, just to make it a little bit lighter.

And load this brush, by just sort of giving it a little push.

This oval brush has oval bristles on the end, sort of like a big filbert brush, only it's, it's one inch across.

All right, let's go up in here.

Now then, let's begin working on some shapes and designs for some little background trees.

This oval brush does just fantastic things for little background trees.

There, and all you got to do is just begin tapping.

See there?

The brush will do most of the work.

That's what's so fantastic about this thing.

That's so fantastic.

Now then, maybe up in here, you have to make big decisions, though.

Where does your little trees live?

There.

If they don't show up, make them just a little bit darker.

But start out as light as you can to get them to show, and then, we'll get darker as we work away from the light source.

There we go, just all kinds of little shapes.

We're just looking for very basic little tree shapes.

Now, some of these little things in the Black Gesso you can see when the camera's up close, will show through.

And when friends and neighbors look at your painting, they'll say, "Good gosh, how in the world did you get all that detail back there in the woods?"

And that's our secret, shhh.

It'll happen automatically.

All right.

Now, as we work back a little further, we can begin getting into darker color.

Save your darkest color for the far edges.

There we go.

See, little things like that, they just begin happening.

There.

Now then, I tell you what, let's take, let me find a little liner brush, a little paint thinner.

Let's put a few little indications of some branches and stems and trunks and limbs and all those things that live in a tree.

Take a little paint thinner, and we'll go into that same color.

Thin this down so it's very thin.

Not quite ink consistency, but pretty close.

Turn the bristles in there, that'll load very deep.

And a liner brush has long bristles on it so it holds a lot of paint.

Okay, let's go up in here.

Now then, we can take that, and let's just put the indication here and there and there and here of all kinds of little limbs and sticks and stuff that live up here.

Just wherever you think they should be.

Now if you have trouble making it flow, then add just a tiny bit more of the paint thinner.

There.

In fact, I think I'll add a little more to my brush.

There, see how much easier it goes now?

But I don't want these to be very dark or very distinct.

I want them to help create that illusion of distance in the painting.

Things that are far away.

They're almost the same color as the background.

Just barely can see them.

There, and you don't have to worry about painting the entire thing, because there's leaves in front, and you're only going to see part of them in places.

So, by not painting them, it helps create that illusion.

And painting is nothing but games of illusion.

There we go.

Now then, we can go back to our little oval brush.

And we'll put a few little things here and there and there and here.

There we go.

All right, now I'm going into almost, almost the pure color.

Time to start getting very dark as we work out here on the edges.

And the dark edges will help force the eye to go to the center of this painting.

When people look at your painting then they'll see this bright area.

So you make very dark edges here.

There, I'm into solid dark color now.

Very dark.

I want this to really get dark in here, because this is going to end up being some deep, dark shadows where all my little, where all my [chuckles] little creatures live.

Little bunny rabbits and squirrels, they all live back in here.

They just have a good time.

So they need a place to hide.

Now then, maybe up in here, yep, I'm going to just drop in a few more.

Wherever you think they should live.

Isn't this oval brush neat?

There.

If you've ever had trouble making tree limbs and branches, and all the gorgeous little hangy down things, this is the brush you've been looking for.

There.

Because it'll do it just about automatically.

There we go, maybe there's a big old limb lives right there.

I don't know, it's your world.

You make these big decisions, wherever you want them.

All kinds of little things live in our world.

I'm going to go back to some that has a little, little white in it so it's a little bit lighter.

Nah, want a little darker than that, see, it didn't show up so.

There, exactly.

See there, you can just put all kinds of things.

But already, this should begin having a lot of depth in it.

Just because of the difference in value, or tone of the color.

See, it's very light back here, gets darker, darker, darker.

There.

Then we go back to our little liner brush.

And we'll take some more of that color, a little bit of paint thinner.

And let's just go right up in here and let's put in another little tree trunk or two.

You sort of look at your shapes now, and you decide where there's a tree living.

And in our world, yep, you're right, there lives one right there.

Right there.

I like to paint trees, they're a lot of fun.

A lot of fun.

You know, I have a natural inkling, as they say, to sort of paint trees and bushes because that's where, that's where I really find peace and tranquility, is out in the woods with all the little animals and stuff.

I hunt with a camera.

I go out and take pictures, not only of the animals, but I take pictures of individual trees.

And, and then you take all these different pictures, and you put them together and make your own composition.

You can take a tree out of one photo, you can take a cloud out of another, a barn that you took here, they could be in totally different states, it doesn't matter.

And you put them together and you make your own composition.

And it's new, and it's original, and it's wonderful.

I just want to show you how to make these things.

What you make is totally up to you.

Totally and completely.

There we are.

Just all kinds of little rascals that live in there.

There.

Okay.

And let's go over on the other side and put a few over there, we don't want him left out.

A little more of the paint thinner.

And maybe, ooh, maybe there's a big old tree trunk that lives right there.

There, put some arms on him.

And these arms just stretch right out here to get the light all they can.

They want to come out and play in the sunshine.

There, see there?

But as I've mentioned before, when you're painting, just sort of make up little stories in your mind.

It really helps, it sort of helps put you in the mood and it gives you ideas.

And new ideas are really one of the hardest things there are in painting.

I get a lot of ideas from, from photographs and sketches that people send me.

Especially my young friends.

I have a lot of young friends across the country.

And they send hundreds of letters with, with ideas and suggestions, and that's where a lot of these paintings stem from.

So, if you have an idea, drop me a line.

Let me know what you'd like to see.

And a lot of times, if, if it's something that I can't paint, we'll go out and find somebody else who can.

All right, let's have a, I think, maybe in my world, there's going to be a, maybe we'll do a little bush that lives right there.

Just sort of seems like a good place for a little bush.

Then we'll go back to our little liner brush with some paint thinner, a little bit of brown on it, and under here, then, we'll put him, we'll put him some little legs so he can stand up.

There.

Now he's ready.

He's ready.

But you see how easy that is to make a fantastic background that's very effective.

And when you show this to friends and relatives, they'll say, "You didn't paint that."

And I've had people write and say they actually had their friends look real close at their painting and see if they could see the numbers hid under there like it was a paint-by-number.

There.

Now, then.

I'm going to put a little bush that lives right there.

Just put in some nice, dark, dark, dark color.

This is that pure Alizarin Crimson and Sap Green.

It's not diluted with white or anything else.

This is pure color.

Doesn't that make a gorgeous brown, though?

Mmm.

I know, I know.

Sometimes you see things here.

I'm going to dip the brush into a little bit of the Liquid Clear, go into a little Titanium White, and it looks like there's a little Indian Yellow in it, too, that's good.

We'll just use what's there.

Put a little bit of the Liquid Clear in there only to make it a little bit thinner so it'll flow better.

But, see there, both sides of the brush loaded with color.

Just really get in there and load it full.

Let's go up in here.

Now maybe in our world, let's see.

There lives, yep, [Bob makes "ppshoot" sound] a little waterfall.

He lives right there.

Put a little touch more of the clear on my brush so it'll be a little smoother.

[Bob makes "soom" sound] I know, I know.

[chuckles] When you begin, you get to where you see things as you paint.

In our waterfall, there lives a rock.

A big old stone, he lives right out there.

Take a little white and a little brown, mix it together, make a little highlight color.

We'll use the little small edge of the knife, put a little touch of highlight on that stone.

Go back and find our brush that's got the white with the Liquid Clear on it.

And we'll come right along here and put water [Bob makes "pshoo" sound] on that side of the stone.

[chuckles] Isn't that neat?

I like to do watery falls.

Now, with a clean, two inch brush, I'm going to lift this upward.

Lift it upward, like so, just sort of to bring it together.

Like that.

And a neat way, a very neat way of making it look like there's little bubbles and foam happening down here, you can take just a clean, clean, dry fan brush, and I'm going to dip it in paint thinner and then shake off all the excess.

Just give it a good, hard shake, and then you flick that paint thinner right up here on the bottom of the waterfall.

Paint thinner and Liquid Clear have a violent reaction.

And it'll cause it to, it looks like little bubbles in there.

And it's neat.

And when you first start doing this, use very little of the paint thinner, you can always add more, but it's hard to go back and take it off.

And it'll look like, look like little bubbles that are happening all down through there.

[chuckles] Let's take a little bit more of that brown and maybe, in our world, we need to come right along in here and we have to put something up here to contain this old waterfall.

See, there.

Oh, we have a big stone, lives right there.

Big stone.

This, this painting, somebody here in the studio said, "My gosh, you're going to paint a sepia tone painting."

It looks almost like the old sepia tone photographs.

Years ago, I used to teach photography, and we used to do the old photographs that were all done in brown tones, and this sorta looks like that.

It uses a very limited palette.

Very few colors and it's very simple to do.

Here I'm just adding a little bit of that brown color.

Now then, we'll take a little bit of that same brown, mix a little white with it.

And we'll come back in here, and we'll just put a little highlight up here.

Something about like so.

Now, with almost no color, almost no color I want to grab that and give it a downward pull.

Just barely caressing the canvas.

Barely, barely touching.

If you've painted mountains with me before, this is about the same idea, that much pressure.

Just barely touching the canvas.

Maybe we'll brighten that a little bit.

Put a little more white in it so it stands out and you can see it a little bit better.

Ooh, that's nice.

That's nice.

But this makes it look flat on top by doing this.

There.

Now, back to our little oval brush.

And we'll bring these little bushes here right down onto it.

Tell you what, I got to mix up some more color, I ran out of color.

Once again, Alizarin Crimson and Sap Green, in about equal parts.

This is a nice color because you can take it to the green side or to the red side, just depends on your mood that particular day.

Today I have it sort of neutral, it's sort of about half and half.

Sometimes I'll mix it to the reddish side, and other times to the green, depending on the mood that I want or the effect that we're looking for.

Experiment a little bit, you'll find wonderful things you can do with this.

Okay, back to my little oval brush, just tap a little color into it.

And let's go on up here and just put some little, some little things that live right here on this little rock that's right by the waterfall.

And maybe down here at the bottom, there's some more big bushes and things that live all down through here.

These won't show up much until we put a little touch of highlight on, and then you'll see them.

All right, let's go on the other side.

Maybe this bush, yep, he comes right out over the waterfall.

Now, by having it in front of the waterfall, it has a tendency to push the waterfall back into the painting.

It helps a great deal with that illusion of depth and distance in your painting.

All right.

Let's have some fun.

Clean, dry two inch brush.

The least little touch of Titanium White on it.

Least little touch, right on the corner, and I'm going to just tap and let it blend.

Make it look like there's a little bit of mist way back there in the distance where that water's hitting.

Just let it tap, softly, very softly.

And you blend it to however you want it.

Now then, while we have that color going on this brush, I'll put a little more Titanium White, maybe there's a little river that comes in this waterfall.

So, just touch and pull straight down.

Because that gorgeous brown color is already on the canvas, it'll mix with your white and, automatically, that will happen, automatically.

You don't have to work at it or anything.

And I'm lazy, I look for easy ways to do things.

Okay, now we can just tap that together a little bit, right in there.

Something about like so, so we can't tell where the mist stops and the reflections start.

There, sometimes little misty things will float all up in here.

Just use your imagination.

Little sparkler right there, just to make it sparkle.

Now then.

All right.

I love these kind of little paintings.

And, as I say, even if you've never painted before, these little rascals, you can do.

These you can do, very simple.

And they're very effective.

All right, now then.

Same old dirty brush, I'm going to take a little touch of Yellow Ochre on it.

Now this painting I want to keep very dark, and very much into the brown tones, so just a little touch of Yellow Ochre mixed right on that dirty brush.

Very little.

Okay, let's go back up here.

Now, some of these darker ones, I'm going to put the least little touch of highlight, once again, once again, I'm not looking for very much.

Very, very small amount.

Just enough to separate some of these little bushes.

There.

See them?

This little bit of highlight will just bring them apart.

But think about individual bushes, just don't throw this in at random and, and hope for the best.

Think about little individuals here.

There we go.

There they are.

Mmm, these are a lot of fun to do.

And they make fantastic gifts.

Because, you know, people had much rather have something that you've visualized in your mind and you've made with your own hand than something you just went out and purchased.

I have paintings that people gave me many, many years ago.

And if they had just went out and bought some old thing and give it to me, I would have probably have discarded it by now, but the paintings are very special.

And I'll probably have them as long as I live.

There we go.

There.

And maybe up here in this big tree, very little, though, I don't want to, I don't want to lose this darkness.

To me, this darkness is what makes this painting very nice.

But when you do yours, if you want it a little brighter, please, please, feel free to make it any way that makes you happy.

Because that's what painting is all about.

It should make you feel good about yourself and about the world.

Make you appreciate all of God's wonderful creations.

But just enjoy it.

There.

Let's take a little bit of this brown, and let's come in here, and let's make a little land area, just something for all this to sit on.

Maybe something about like that.

A little bit over here on the other side, too.

So it look like there's maybe just a little river here that, we don't know where it goes.

Don't know that we really care.

It goes off into another painting, and we'll do it on another show.

There we are.

Just a little touch of highlight, once again, keep it quite dark.

Quite dark.

Now then, take a liner brush, and here and there, and there and here, we'll take just a little bit of this lighter brown color and put the indication of some little twigs and sticks in here.

Where it's very dark, you may have to use a lighter color so it stands out.

Okay, let's go over here on the other side and we need a couple over here.

Don't have to have too many, just a few.

Oh, there's one, there's one.

You just sort of see them.

Look at your painting, because every painting will be different.

Each one will be a total individual.

Now then, we can take a little bit of Liquid White, put it right on that liner brush, and we can just put the indication here and there of some little water lines that live out in here.

Just little things like so.

Don't want too much.

Just a few little nice things.

There.

Shoot.

That worked out pretty nice, I tell you what.

Let's pull the old contact paper off here and see what we have, because that's, that's the moment of truth and that's, that's the fun.

So we'll just pull it off.

[chuckles] And look at that.

Isn't that a gorgeous little painting?

And you can, then you can just take, and you can look around and see if there's any area that you need to add a few little things.

I think there ought to be a couple little sticks and twigs right in here.

Because in the woods you always have all these little critters that live in there.

And it creates that illusion of depth in your painting, and people will think you've worked for many hours putting all this detail in.

Shh, that's our secret.

[chuckles] That's our secret.

All right.

Let's see, here.

Sometimes, sometimes I like to grab a little of this and pull it over so it looks like, looks like old roots and stuff that are just sort of hanging over the bank.

Take a little of that, because they're always there.

Just let them hang down, just a few.

Here and there.

I tell you what, I think we have a finished painting here.

I'm going to take a little bit of the, since I don't have Bright Red, I'll use a little crimson today.

Thin the paint down like ink.

I think we're ready to sign this one.

Let's come right up in here.

Hope you can see that, it's very dark.

And we'll just put a little signature on there.

There, I have a very short name, so it only takes a second.

I hope you've enjoyed this one.

It's a fantastic little painting that you can do.

And until next time, 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]