The Best of the Joy of Painting with Bob Ross

- (laughing) Hi, welcome back.

I'm certainly glad you could join me today.

And I thought today we'd just do a fantastic little painting, maybe sort of like a little fantasy painting, think you'll enjoy it.

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

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

Today I've taken a little black gesso on my standard ol' 18 by 24 inch pre-stretched, double primed canvas, and I've just sorta painted a little design right here.

It just sorta goes around and right on into nothing there.

Looks like a big eye or something right in the center.

Now then, I've let the black gesso dry completely, and then onto that, I've taken a little bit, a very small amount of the liquid clear and covered the entire canvas.

A very very small amount.

Then we've just made a mixture of alizarin crimson, little phthalo blue to make a lavender.

And we've covered the entire canvas with it.

And that's all we do.

The only reason I put the liquid clear on the top of the black gesso, is to make the application of the firm lavender color much much easier.

You'll see that it really pays you great dividends.

And I thought today, thought today is such a fantastic day, that we just have a good time.

So let's start out today with a little titanium white.

Right on the ol' two inch brush.

Shoot, get right in there with the big one.

And we'll just load a little color onto the bristles.

Just by tapping.

Pull a little color out, we'll just tap it, s'all you have to do.

Okay, let's go right up here.

Now today, I wanna have a nice light shining right out of this area.

So we're gonna start right in here with this very light paint, this pure white, and just begin working this outward.

Just let it work outward.

Just making like little criss-cross strokes right there.

This will be our light area in this painting.

I wanna do a painting...

I think in my mind I see a painting that... well, maybe there's big trees here and there's a stream of light coming through here.

It's just zinging right through there like that.

And we can even take and pull it, and gives that impression already.

But that's gonna be our light source in this painting.

And these paintings can be done in a multitude of colors.

I've just picked lavender today because that's a nice color and it's a nice day so I thought it would work well.

But you can do 'em in phthalo blue, or sap green, or any of the transparent colors.

And if you're in doubt as to whether a color is transparent or not, take a little bit of it on your finger, just rub it on a black canvas.

If the canvas still looks black, then it's transparent enough for what we're doing.

It may only be semi-transparent, but it'll work for what we're doing.

If you put it on here, like white for example, you put it on here and you can see the color, then it's not transparent enough for what we're doing.

Okay, that's an easy way to try it out and see.

Let's wash our brush.

That's the fun part.

Shake it off.

(laughing) And just have a good time with it.

Mm-kay, tell you what let's go right up here.

Let's have a little lavender, little phthalo blue, alizarin crimson, and we'll just sorta mix these on the brush.

I want this one, this lavender color, more to the red side, so we'll add more crimson than normal.

There.

I'm just gonna tap a little color into the bristles, be right back, I'm gonna get a little touch of white.

I wanna lighten that even more.

There, maybe even a little more of the reddish color.

Good, I like that.

Tap a little color, right into the bristles... like so...

Okay, let's go right up here.

Maybe back in here, we can make out the indication of some nice little trees that are hanging over here.

So all we wanna do here is just put the indication of some beautiful little branches right here.

I don't want this to get too dark 'cause it'll ruin that illusion back there.

There.

And all we're looking for is very basic little shapes.

We're not looking for detail at this point.

Just very, very basic little shapes.

Maybe back in here you can see the indication of some very soft little things.

Mm-kay.

Now then, let's take our liner brush.

We'll dip it in a little of the paint thinner... little paint thinner, and we'll go right into that same color.

We want this to be thin, like water though.

Thin as ink.

And turn the bristles when you pull 'em out.

That'll bring it to a very sharp point.

See there?

Okay, let's go up here.

Now then we can go back in here, and begin putting here and there, the indication of a few sticks and little limbs that you can see, little trunks...

There, see?

Just drop those on, wherever you think they should live.

That's exactly where they should live.

There.

Wouldn't this be a perfect place for my little squirrel to live?

I hope you've got to see him during this series.

I've showed a couple of times.

Actually it's a she.

But, beautiful little creature.

There we go.

Okay, maybe right here we can see something that's a little bigger.

Just sorta let your imagination go here.

Now then.

Let's take... wash the ol' brush... Let me find another two inch brush.

We'll take a two inch brush here, and I wanna make a very, very light lavender color.

Very light.

So I'll pick up a little of that lavender that we were using, go into the titanium white... maybe even a little more of the crimson.

Ooh, that's nice.

That's very nice.

Or you could use a little touch of the bright red, let's have a little of that.

That's even better.

Now, tap the bristles, once again.

That loads that little, little edge of paint right out on the tips of the bristle there.

Just give it a tap, a little push.

You can see that... see that little ridge of paint comes up right there?

There's also a corresponding one on the bristles, and that's what we actually paint with.

Now then, we can go up here, and the light's zinging through here, so we gonna have some very bright areas.

There we go.

Just tap 'em in.

Mm, that's beautiful.

And it works so easy.

All we're using, is just the corner of the brush.

Just the corner of the brush.

See?

And just begin thinking about all the little various little shapes here.

There.

All kinds of nice things just sorta hanging around there.

There we go.

And you have to make a decision where they live, and how many there are, where they hang out at.

There.

Maybe a little more right there.

Now that gives us a nice light area in this painting, right back in here.

Very lightly, one hair and some air.

(blowing) Just barely touch it.

You can pull over that to help create that illusion of light rays coming through there.

But just barely, barely touch so you don't distort any of this that you've painted up here.

Now then, let's go back into our lavender color, and we'll begin working forward with this.

Just begin working forward.

Take a little of the lavender on the two inch brush, load it the same way, and maybe, we begin to see... some little tree shapes that are closer to us.

All we're doing right now is putting on some dark so our light'll show when we put it in there.

There.

This is the way we begin creating distance and depth in this painting.

And we're not concerned with this side over here.

All we're looking for is this nice edge right here.

At this point.

Later on we'll be concerned with everything.

But right now, that's all we're interested in.

Now then, let's take a little more of that light color, and as you notice, we're working in layers.

Tap a little bit more of that light color onto the brush.

Just tap it on there, maybe even pick up a little... there, little bit more of the phthalo blue.

As it gets farther away from the light source, it's gonna get a little darker, little more blue into it.

There.

Okay, let's go up here and try this.

Now then, we can begin coming in here... Ooh, that's nice.

There.

Isn't that fantastic though that you can a brush this big, and make something that looks that delicate.

And you can, you really can.

There we go.

These are beautiful paintings to give to, if you have a young friend, this is a super painting for a young friend.

Because this looks like something right out of a fairy tale if you do it right.

And you could go back and add in any kind of little characters that you wanted to, whatever.

Maybe, maybe there's gonna be a path down here.

So we'll begin hanging some nice grassy things that hang right over the edge of this path, just like so.

And we'll come back and work on those a little in a minute.

Right now all we're doing is putting in some... basic ideas.

There.

Mm-kay.

Let's go to the other side.

Phthalo blue, alizarin crimson, and you can just mix these on the brush as you go, or you can mix up a pile when you first start.

Either way, whichever is easiest.

Mm-kay, now, over here on the other side, let's come right up in here.

Maybe there's some big trees here that are hanging over like this.

Now these are much darker, 'cause the light is coming from the other direction.

These are very dark.

And this darkness here, will make that light look even brighter.

The fact that this is so dark, see how that contrast just shows up?

You can make some unbelievable effects like this playing light against dark, dark against light.

This black gesso, it's got to be one of the most fantastic things that I've ever came up with.

There we go.

It is unreal.

Now then, on this side, I want these trees, as I say, be much much darker.

So let's take, let's take We'll use the same ol' brush that we've been using for highlights, but we're gonna add a lot more of the blue, and the lavender, so it's quite a bit darker.

Quite a bit darker.

And once again, load the brush by giving a little push that creates that little ridge of paint.

You can just see it pushing right up there.

If it's not pushing up on your palette like this, chances are it's also not on your bristles.

So that's a good way to sorta test it.

I get a lot of letters asking about this, and this is the best way to test it, push.

Give it little push, okay?

Now then, with that little ridge of paint that we've built up there, now we can come up here and just begin putting in all kinds of little things.

We'll let 'em get darker and darker up in here.

There they come.

Wherever you think they should be.

There.

Here comes a nice one.

There it is, it hangs right out over here.

Like so.

Okay, maybe, and think about form and shape here.

Don't just throw these in at random.

Think about 'em...

Think about 'em.

Maybe here comes another one that comes up, goes over.

See, all these little things.

There.

Okay, maybe right there, wherever you want 'em.

This really is an individual thing.

Look at your painting, because every single painting is gonna be different.

Every one's gonna be different.

One thing that we try to teach you is not to copy, we only wanna teach you how to do a method of painting, a style of painting, and then turn you loose on the world.

Because once you know how to do it, then what you do becomes the joy of painting.

'Cause you can paint anything that makes you happy.

That brings joy to you, and to those that you care about, or those that are around you.

There we go.

Now then, I want to add a little touch more, maybe we'll add a little more crimson to that, just to change the taste a little bit.

Still loading the brush, the same exact way though.

Push.

There we go.

See that's a beautiful closeup there.

You can see that right up tight, exactly how it's loaded.

Little push, okay?

Now then, right in here... we have some things that are hanging out.

And I made these a little lighter because in my mind I think a little more light would strike right there.

There we go.

Little bit hanging right down there.

Just all kinds of things.

Maybe, up in here, I don't know.

Wherever you think there might be some big bushes and trees and things growing, just sorta lay them in.

You'd think maybe there's little elves or leprechauns playing in here.

There, add a little touch of the bright red to that.

Just, once again, once again.

Just to change the flavor a little.

But these dark ridges, that were in here from the paintbrush, and I use a foam applicator brush just to put this black gesso on, these dark ridges here actually can become the walls if there's a little path here.

Maybe there's, this is a recessed area.

But you use these things that happen, dont' fight 'em.

All kinds of magic happens here.

Alright.

Now... maybe on the other side here, look at where you think the light would zing through, and you can add a little bit of titanium white right there.

Right out on the end of the bristles.

See and it'll give the impression that light's just zinging right through there, hitting a few little things.

Don't overdo though, or it'll lose its effectiveness.

We want to create that illusion of light coming through.

Maybe a little touch right out here.

There we go.

And that's about all we need there.

Now then, let's go back to our liner brush.

(splashing) We'll take the liner brush, little dark sienna.

And once again, this paint is very thin.

It's ink consistency.

Okay let's go up in here.

Maybe, in our world right here... there lives a nice tree trunk that we can see.

Now if you have trouble making the paint flow, all you have to do is add more of the paint thinner.

If it's not flowing, it's only because it's too thick.

Add a little paint thinner.

Little more of the thinner.

Alright.

There.

Few little branches and twigs, and all kinds of things happening.

Shoot, maybe there's a... maybe there's a little stick that lives right there.

I don't know.

Wherever you want 'em.

See 'em here?

Just drop 'em in.

Drop 'em in.

Okay.

Now we can take just a little bit of light paint, I'm just using a little bit of titanium white, once again, think about where the light would zing through there, and we can add... just the indication of a little highlight here and there where you think it would hit on this little trunk.

And really pop it out, just make it stand right out.

Maybe the light's gonna hit right here.

I don't know, sorta just look at your light source and make a determination where you think it would hit.

There.

Okay, this gives us (splashing) all kinds of little things happening in there.

Now then, maybe, in our world... maybe we're beginning to see a little bit of green.

So we'll take a little yellow, I'm using the same ol' dirty brush, little yellow, be right back, right back.

I'm gonna add a little black to it.

Black and yellow.

Make a beautiful green.

Tap us a little color in there.

Now maybe, maybe we'll add a little Van Dyke brown just to dull it, there.

Now maybe right in here, we have... look at that.

There, see?

All these things are just sorta hanging over here.

And just by changing the angle of the stroke here, you can create the illusion that things, that maybe this is the nice mossy things that're hanging over the edge of a bank.

I'm gonna tap the brush to the least little touch of red, bright red, and Indian yellow to make a nice orange.

Maybe there's some nice little flowers on this bush.

We don't know.

So see how easy you can put all kind of little things in there?

Once again, it just sorta changes the flavor, and makes those nice things happen.

Now then, time to get serious here.

Maybe up in here, let's go way up here.

Maybe there's some big, overhanging tree limbs.

Now then, we can just begin taking the brush, using just the corner, and begin shaping all of these beautiful limbs that hang over here.

But really devote a little time to looking at the shape and the form that you put in here.

Don't want to just throw 'em on at random.

Don't just throw 'em up.

Think about 'em.

Think about the fact that there's limbs inside of this tree, maybe there's a big trunk over here that we can't see.

And there's limbs in here.

And each one of these limbs... has a personality all of its own.

Each one of 'em.

There we go.

But see how you can create that illusion, it looks like just huge, huge branches hanging over.

Now, if you've never painted before, this would be an ideal painting for your first attempt, because it's probably one of the simplest paintings of this series, and it works.

It works so well.

Very, very nice little painting to learn.

Maybe here comes one all the way over... and right across like that.

There, see?

But just play with these little things and bring 'em together, work with 'em.

Be careful that you don't lose all your dark areas, 'cause if you lose all that dark, then you're gonna lose the illusion of this very subdued place, the very quiet place that's deep in the woods.

There.

Tell you what, maybe right here, see?

Let all these things just work out.

Now, little brighter yellow right here, because in my mind, there's gonna be a little more light right here, than there is back over here.

When you're back over here, we use a much darker, more subdued color.

There.

Okay, now then, let's come back out here, and let's use a color that has a little more of the bright in it.

Just let it work right over like that.

There we go, sparkle it.

And when we get back in these more recessed areas, a darker green.

Mm.

Does this make you wanna get your paintbrush out yet?

This one you'll like.

As I say, even if you've never painted, this is a beautiful little painting to do.

We travel all over the country and teach classes and do demonstrations, and this is one that... that students love so well.

There.

But see what's happening down here?

Already you begin to make out the illusion of a little path down here.

We haven't even painted anything here yet.

We will.

But at this point, all we're doing, is just creating that illusion with big trees hanging over.

Tell you what let's do.

Shoot, this looks good.

Take a little more of the midnight black.

Let's get some sap green in there too.

Ooh, that's nice.

Little bit of brown, be right back, there.

I added some Van Dyke brown in there, only to dull it.

Dulls the green down.

Now then, push that brush.

There's that little ridge of paint we talk about.

There, just give it a little push.

See, it works very well.

Let's go back up here.

Now then maybe on this side there's some big trees too.

Who knows.

So, make a decision here.

Drop 'em in.

Here they come.

See there?

Just bring 'em, maybe they come right across over here.

And if you wanna make 'em stand out a little, add a little more of the bright color, and then they'll come right out, and they'll stand in front.

Like so.

See how that pushes that other layer of trees back?

This is an excellent painting though to give you a lot of practice making all these beautiful things.

But form and shape, I can't say that enough, are most, most important when doing this.

Most important.

And as I mentioned earlier, try not to kill all the dark area in here.

If you kill all this dark area, then you're gonna lose that distance.

There.

Hm.

Isn't that fantastic.

You know I think I mentioned, earlier in the series, with the completion of this series there'll be well over 230 shows.

Son of a gun, can't believe... and I sincerely appreciate the fact that you keep allowing me to come back into your home and bring you new shows, and new ideas.

And it's very special to all of us here.

And I'd like to thank you for that opportunity.

And if you'd like to keep seeing the shows, or you'd like to see some of the ones that you've missed, give your station a call, let 'em know that you'd like to see 'em.

That's the only way they have of knowing that you're enjoying 'em.

There.

Maybe... right on down, wherever.

Just sort of make a decision and drop 'em in here... where you think they should be.

I tell you what, let's have some fun.

Maybe, maybe right in here.

Maybe right in here.

Let's take some, we'll take some Van Dyke brown.

We'll just pull it out, very flat, cut us off a little roll of paint, pull it out as flat as you can get it, go straight down with the knife, zoop!

And there's our little roll of paint.

Maybe there's a huge tree, huge tree, lives right here.

(faint whistling) We'll just put in some brown, straight Van Dyke brown.

Maybe it goes right on up here.

Maybe you can even see a little up here.

Wherever you think it should be.

It's just straight ol' Van Dyke brown.

Now, we'll take some white, little Van Dyke, little dark sienna... mix 'em together... but I want 'em marbled, I want the color to be very varied here.

So, you don't end up with one color.

See all the different color combinations?

Now when you cut off your little roll of paint, those variations will be right in there too.

And let's go up in here, and just touch... and barely graze the canvas.

There comes that big tree.

There he comes.

He's got a huge foot on him.

And he needs that to hold him up, a tree this big.

And this is just like laying snow on a mountain here.

Just barely grazing the canvas.

Barely grazing it.

Up here, maybe a little light's shining through.

There.

See how that, just by doing that though it gives the impression of bark... ol' rough bark up here.

And, little bit of brown so we can dull it over here, we don't want this side to be as bright as that.

So I just take a little brown, dull it down a little bit.

There we go.

Okay, let's take a fan brush with the least little of that brown and white on it, and let's go back in here.

Just here and there.

Put the indication maybe of a little path.

We don't want a lot of detail, too dark in here.

And you bring that right on out.

Create a beautiful little path.

Back to our brush that has the green on it.

Hm, (laughing) and let's come down here and put a little bit of green, little grassy areas right along the foot of this big ol' tree.

Like so.

Isn't this a fantastic little painting?

Once again, this is an excellent painting though, even if you've never painted before, you can make this one work, without any problem.

And with that, I think we're gonna call this one finished.

I hope you've enjoyed it, and I hope you try it.

From all of us here, happy painting, and God bless, my friend.

(relaxing guitar music)