The Best of the Joy of Painting with Bob Ross

[Music] Hi, welcome back.

This is the last show of the 27th series, and I'm glad you're with us today.

I thought today we'd just have a crazy day and just do a little painting.

We'll just sort of see what happens okay?

Let's start out and have them run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint along with us.

While they're doing that, let me show you this crazy thing I've got going up here today.

I took a standard old 18 by 24 inch canvas, and the first thing I did was take white gesso and an old paint roller, one of these old, disposable paint rollers, about three inches across, And I rolled a lot of gesso on it.

And I used a paint roller so it makes all these little designs in it.

I don't know if you can see them yet or not, but you will before the painting's over.

I allowed that to dry completely.

Then I took acrylic paint, I used some alizarin crimson, and some sienna and a little bit of umber, and just took a foam brush, and here and there just smeared a little acrylic paint.

Allowed all that to dry, and then we covered the entire canvas with a very, very thin coat of liquid clear so the canvas is wet.

The clear only makes it wet, that's the only reason we put it on there, is to make it wet.

So with that, let's just have some fun and see what happens.

Let's start today with a little bit of Indian yellow.

I like the Indian yellow because it's very transparent.

Okay, let's go up in here.

And we'll just start right here.

And we'll begin applying this color.

Oh, shoot, let's just put it over the entire canvas.

What the heck.

Anything we don't like, we'll just change it.

But that easy, we can just begin this painting.

I like doing paintings like this because they're very different, and they're unique, and, and they excite people.

And it gives you a new challenge in your life.

If you haven't tried one of these, you ought to try it.

And all the different colors of gesso and acrylic paint that you can put together you can make fantastic backgrounds.

And they save you a lot of agony in your painting world.

They make painting easy for you.

And I have got several letters since I've been doing this about the fact in the art world they say that you shouldn't, maybe this is not permanent.

It might only last 100 years.

Acrylic under oil, there is some controversy.

I realize that.

But for what we're doing here today, we'll use that.

There we are.

All I'm doing is just covering the entire canvas with just a little bit of this yellow.

Just Indian yellow.

As I say, it's a transparent yellow.

Our other yellows are not transparent.

There.

Just cover the entire canvas.

All right, yeah, that doesn't look bad already.

Shoot.

Now then.

Just doing this to assure that it's covered evenly.

There we are.

Now then.

Now let's begin playing.

That's very transparent, as we've said several times.

Now I'm going to begin taking opaque color.

And for that, I'm going to start with a little bit of titanium white, and a very, very small amount.

Very small amount.

See, you can see there, it doesn't matter how you load it, but just a small amount.

And let's just begin picking out some little areas and begin putting this opaque color on here, very thin.

Very thin, I can't say that enough.

Just enough to sort of make it look misty in there, that's all I'm looking for, is just a little misty appearance.

I don't want to lose that nice yellow that we have back there.

Just want to create some little effects like this.

There we are.

See, just let them go.

Let them go.

Wherever.

Doesn't matter.

This is, even though this is an opaque color, it's still transparent enough that you can see the little designs that we have right through there.

Maybe up in here.

I'm just going to sort of bounce around on the canvas and put these in.

Here and there, and there and here.

Makes no difference.

You just sort of look at yours, and, and you decide.

See?

Like right here.

Good place for one.

And every single canvas, especially with these backgrounds like this, every single one will be different and unique.

And that's what makes it so gorgeous, that they are different.

We want them to be different.

We don't want to teach you just how to copy a painting.

Shoot, we want to teach you how to make your own masterpiece.

That's where the fun comes in.

Very lightly.

There.

Now then, we can, we can begin playing with some other colors in here.

Maybe a little more white right in there.

Let's take, I'm going to go into a little touch of alizarin crimson.

Very small amount.

And we'll just begin with it.

Just to make little areas in here that have little splotches of color.

It's gorgeous.

I like to do these type of paintings.

They're very, once again, they're very unique.

And it'll drive people crazy trying to figure out how you made these effects happen.

Shh, don't tell them.

Don't tell them.

Use a little bright red once in a while, too.

There we go.

Reach up here, get a little white to make that stand out.

Lookie there, color just jumps out at you.

But most of that is still showing through.

Something about like that.

As I mentioned, this is the last show of the 27th Joy of Painting series.

That's hard to believe that, my gosh, there's over 350 half hour shows now.

It's unreal, we've been, we've been on television for 10 years.

I've been producing these shows for ten years.

And in that time period, the Joy of Painting has become the most successful art show in the history of television.

And it's your fault.

And I'd like to thank you very, very much for your support and for coming out and seeing us when we come to your town.

That's fantastic.

You've made an old man's dream come true.

Every artist wants to share his painting with the world, and you've allowed me the opportunity to do this through the miracle of television.

So thank you very much.

And if you haven't got a chance to see all the shows, call your local station.

They can get them.

There we go.

Once in a while, the least little touch of phthalo blue.

The least little touch, I don't want much blue.

It's too, too strong.

Just a little here and there.

A little touch of the white, right in there with it.

But isn't that a gorgeous background?

And it's so, so very easy to do.

So easy to do.

There we go.

Now sometimes it's fun just to take and play a little bit, and that's what we'll do.

I'll tell you what, in down here, let's take, this is alizarin crimson and sap green mixed together to make a nice brown color.

And I want to come in here and just do this.

Just take it and pull it straight down.

Maybe we'll have a little water in here, and this'll end up being our water.

Alizarin crimson and sap green, mixed together to make a brown color.

And you could take it to the reddish side, or the green side, depending on your mood, or what flavor you want in your painting.

Normally I go a little bit to the red side, but that's just my preference.

Everybody's different.

There we are.

And we'll come back and play with that a little later on.

Now then I'm going to take make a, a lavender color.

For that I'm going to use a little black, and alizarin crimson, a little bit of phthalo blue in it.

Need more crimson, there we go.

I'm going mix up a little pile here, because we're going to use it throughout.

going to have some of it that's to the red side, some to the blue.

See, over here's to the red, over here's to the blue.

So I have both in the same pile, basically, so I can just sort of go back and forth or mix them together.

Okay.

Now.

As you know, if you've painted with me before, paint thinner and liquid clear have a very unique reaction.

A very unique reaction, so we're going to use that to our advantage.

Let me get a little paint thinner up here so I can thin this.

Let's just play with some thin paints today.

Tell you what, that paint is very thin, it's almost like ink.

Turn the bristles in the paint and then pull them out so it brings it to a very sharp edge.

There, you can see it.

Let's go right up in here.

Got to make some big decisions.

[Bob makes "ssssoo" sound] Maybe in our world, there lives a tree right here.

We'll put a little stalk in, or a little trunk, whatever you want to call it.

And let us make several.

Just by pulling that.

[Bob makes "ssssoo" sound] It goes right through there.

[Bob makes "ssssoomp" sound] There's another one.

You have to make some decisions.

How many trees live in your world?

It's totally and completely up to you.

And you can put the indication here and there of a few little branches that come off.

They just sort of hang around and have a good time.

Here.

It don't matter if they're not perfect.

Don't worry about it.

Don't worry about it, because we don't make any mistakes here.

We only have some happy accidents.

There.

Okay.

There.

I've got quite a few letters asking if there's any place people can go and see some of the paintings that we've done on TV.

I really don't, I don't have a place that I display the paintings, I'm sorry.

We just don't have that.

About as close, well, our partner Annette Kowalski has recently opened a little activity center in New Smyrna Beach, where the public is invited to come and see some of them.

If, if you happen to be in that area, stop by and say hello to her and there's a lot of my paintings there, and some of hers, and some of our instructors and... You know, it's a good place just to go and look at paintings.

Okay, look here.

Take just the little liner with a little paint on it and get nervous.

Just get nervous.

See there?

Just let that sort of flow.

Just make it very loose.

We're doing a very loose little painting today.

There.

You don't, you don't have to really worry about this.

Just play, have fun.

Have fun.

I mentioned earlier in one of the shows that I got a letter from somebody one time that said they had a little shake in their hand, and because of that they couldn't paint.

Well this is your painting, right here.

This is it.

If you've ever had any problem at all because of a little shake in your hand, this one is designed just for you.

Something about like that.

Just a few little bushes and things that live down here at his foots.

And I'm just using the script liner brush sidewards.

There.

Paint's very thin, so it just slides right over that clear.

Just slides right over it.

If it doesn't slide, add more paint thinner.

Just keep adding paint thinner.

And by changing the angle, you can create all types of effects.

There we go.

All kinds of little things that just live back here in the background.

Let your imagination take you wherever you want to go.

because you really don't have to do a lot of painting... The undercoating, under-color that was under here takes care of most of that.

[Bob makes "ssssoo" sound] I want another tree there.

[Bob makes "ssssoo" sound] Maybe there's some little arms hanging off him.

There.

And then down in here, maybe there's a limb or two.

Who knows?

A little, little branch or something that's got a few leaves left on it down here.

That's a scraggly old tree.

I like old trees that have character.

Shoot.

There.

Something like that.

All right.

Wherever.

Wherever.

Just, just bounce these in.

You could use a fan brush and do this.

I just want to sort of show you how much you could do with a little liner brush.

Just a plain, ordinary little liner brush.

It's a lot of fun.

A great deal of fun.

Maybe there's a few little things that grow out here.

But be loose, this is a very loose painting.

Very loose.

Maybe even a few old things out here with some limbs on them like this.

Just make indications.

And... Now it's almost, the brush is almost empty.

I just want to rub it so it picks up on the high points of that gesso that's underneath.

Just picking up on the high points.

Very little paint on the brush.

Very little.

You'd be shocked at what a small amount of paint it takes to do this.

There.

And just creep all kinds of illusions.

And painting is nothing but games of illusion.

That's all it is.

See there?

Fan brush would be a little bit faster but I like using this today.

There we are.

Begin thinking maybe the lay of, if this is going to be water, we want this to sort of tilt down, because water normally always lays in a little recessed area.

It won't climb up on a rock and look pretty for you just to make you happy.

Water is lazy, it's like me.

It always looks for the easiest place to go, which is normally the bottom of the hill.

So we need to paint in a little hill so it can run down.

There.

Something like so.

I'm going in to a little bit of that brown that I made from sap green and alizarin crimson.

And we'll drop in a few little things in here with that, too.

Very loose.

Very loose.

I like these, because there's no mistakes here.

Absolutely no mistakes.

Just fun painting.

All right.

But just let it barely graze the canvas.

And those, That's the reason I went to all the trouble to put the gesso on, is so it has all those high points on there.

All right, maybe on this side over here... [Bob makes "ssssoo" sound] There you go.

Just make a little noise, drop in a little tree.

Something like that, give him a friend.

And here we are.

Just another little limb.

Stick, twig, whatever you want to call it.

There.

Just like that.

All right.

See?

There they are.

Wherever you want them.

Just drop them in.

There.

Maybe this comes right on down.

I don't know, right on down through here somewhere.

Same basic idea.

Put all of those little things in.

Take a little more of the color.

[Bob makes "ssssoo, rrr, rrr" sounds] Got to make those noises.

This is an old tree, he's had a rough life.

Man has he had a rough life.

Look at that.

These are all gorgeous colors.

They're transparent, and they work wonderfully.

Watch here.

I keep talking about using the fan brush, let me show you how to do it.

Thin color, the color that was very thin.

And I want to put a limb or two on there, just so, in case some of them show through.

There.

Now we know there's a limb on there.

Take the fan brush and just, just do like that.

See?

While you're doing it, just, just let it, just go back and forth, and then touch the canvas with it like you're really nervous.

Really nervous.

And all, all these little effects will just, they'll happen for you.

They'll happen, believe me.

Try it.

Try it.

Yeah, there.

Just wherever you want them to be.

Down in here you can do the same thing.

As I say, you could use a fan brush, I just wanted to show you how you could use a liner brush, any old thing that turns you on.

There we go.

And that easy, you can create the illusion of a beautiful little place.

A little more color here.

There.

That looks like a little place, maybe, where the water runs.

Good idea.

Sometimes these little things just happen.

There we go.

And those are called happy accidents.

We look for those.

We save them, cherish them.

They're our good friends.

I'm going to add a little bright red, here and there.

Here and there.

I'm going to pick up a little yellow ochre.

Cad yellow.

Just some of the yellows here and there.

Just begin popping in a few little, a few little highlights, same way, though.

And the paint is quite thin, I have a lot of paint thinner on the brush.

I want it to work with that liquid clear that's under there.

Something like that.

See, all those little effects happen.

There's a lot of depth in there, you haven't done hardly anything except just bounce the brush around.

That's all.

Now then we take some of that same color.

Let's begin to play here.

Let's decide, maybe this is water.

Pull it down.

This paint is still thin.

I've thinned it with a little bit of paint thinner.

Just pull it straight down like that.

[Bob makes "ssoop, tchoop, tchoop" sounds] All the way across.

And with a clean, dry brush, very gently go across.

Just like we're making reflections normally.

That's all.

Now if you want to have some fun, let me dip that brush into a little thinner and shake most of it out.

I've left a tiny little bit in it.

Tiny little bit.

And you just go across there.

And if there's just enough in there, it'll make little openings come in the clear.

Might not be able to see them yet, and it takes a little while for them to work, but they'll come in there.

They're not showing up very well on the... Let's use the liner brush, see them?

It reacts with the... It reacts with the liquid clear there.

And these little things just sort of happen.

It's a nice way of making what looks like little shine across the water.

And it's done by removing paint.

There we go.

Okay.

I'm going to take, I'm going to take some... I'll use some black, and some of that brown we made, from the sap green, alizarin crimson mix it together.

Okay, then we'll go over here and get paint thinner.

I want to thin that down.

Very thin.

Get some paint thinner, thin it down.

We want it quite thin.

Wipe off the knife.

Then I'll take some titanium white, and just some black.

I'm going to mix it together to make a grey color.

Like so.

Thin it down.

Thin it down.

Just adding paint thinner and mixing it up.

That's really all it amounts to.

All right.

So we have a much thinner paint.

Take our little filbert brush and we'll take it through the dark.

And if you've painted with me for a while, you know what we're going to do.

We're going to make some little rocks.

Stay right there, and I'll come to you.

Now see, take the other side, so we have light on one side, dark on the other.

And let's go up in here.

And then we can begin figuring out where all these little rocks and stones live.

Maybe there's a lot of them in our world.

There they come.

See?

Just drop them in.

Very, very simple way of making these, and it's very effective.

There.

Maybe some live right out here on the water, I don't know.

There's a big one.

[Bob makes "rr" sound] I saw him, right there.

Right there, big old rascal.

And here's some that maybe go right off the canvas.

They don't stop just because the canvas did.

And we have a lot of time, you can pull down a little reflection under each one.

And that's really what you want to do.

Just each one, pull down a little reflection.

Grab it with a big brush, or any brush, and then go gently across and make it look like, make it look like there's a little reflection in the water.

Take our liner brush.

I'm going to use just a light color.

A little bit lighter than what's there.

Just go in and, I know you can't hardly see that, I don't want it very bright.

Just here and there, put in a few little water lines.

But this is a very neat little painting.

It's sort of different than anything we've done.

But I hope you've enjoyed doing little paintings like this.

I try to show you as many things as I possibly can, as many different ideas as possible.

You pick out the ones you want, and you like, and you use them.

And do gorgeous paintings from it.

And really, if you have time, send me a photograph of what you're doing.

It's so fantastic to show on the air here once in a while, paintings that people all over the country are doing.

Beautiful paintings.

Paintings that people never believed were possible.

And if they can do them, you can do them.

We have young people in their 90s that are doing their first painting.

And it's, it's working, and it makes them happy.

And if painting does anything for you, it should make you feel good in your heart.

I tell you what, I think that one's about ready for an old signature.

Take a little red and we'll just put in a quick little signature right here over our rock.

And I really hope you've enjoyed this one.

If you'll try it, you'll find that it's one of the most fantastic ways of painting that you've ever seen.

Take your time and play with these.

You know, here we've done most of this painting using nothing but a liner brush, fan brush, and a filbert brush.

Well, I did use a two inch brush just to put the background in, but you could do it with anything.

And this little painting, when you show it to friends and neighbors, they're not going to believe that you done it.

Over and over again I get letters from people and they say, "My friends took, "and they looked here, and they tried to find the numbers "that were behind the painting."

Enjoy painting.

It does wonderful things for you.

It makes beautiful gifts for everybody that you love and who loves you.

And you know I would like to take just a second and thank you.

In the last series I happened to mention that I had lost my wife.

I have received hundreds and hundreds of cards from people all over the country expressing their sympathy and support.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for sharing in my grief, and for making my wife a very special person in your life, too.

On behalf of Walt and Annette Kowalski, everybody here at the station, I'd like to wish each and every one of you happy painting, God bless, and I'll see you next series.

Until then, take care of yourself.