The Best of the Joy of Painting with Bob Ross

- Hi, welcome back.

Certainly glad you could join me today.

You ready to do a fantastic little painting?

Super.

Tell you what, let's start out the day and have them run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint along with me.

And as usual they'll come across in the same orders we have them on the pallet, starting with the white and working around.

But when you load your own pallet load it anyway that's convenient to you.

It's just we sort got in the habit of loading it this way.

Up here today, let's see what we have.

Today I have contact paper on my canvas with an oval cut out of the center and this is just normal ol', adhesive back paper that you can buy at the hardware store or the grocery store.

And we cut a little oval out and stick it on there and then I've covered the inside here with a thin even coat of the liquid white.

And so it's wet and ready to go.

So, let's do a little painting.

Thought today we'd just do a very soft little painting that's a lot of fun.

Start out with the least little amount of yellow ochre.

Just wanna put a little happy spot up here in the sky, just a little bit of color but I don't want much.

I think today we'll try to do a painting that's very soft, and subdued, and quiet, and I like those kind of little paintings.

There, very little color.

You can always add more but it's a son of a gun to take it off.

So just, you can take it off but it's easier just to add a little at a time.

Maybe we'll, let's have a little water down here.

We're reflect a little of that right into the water.

But very little color, very little.

Now then, I'm gonna mix up a little lavender color.

I'll use a knife to mix it.

We'll take some alizarin crimson and a little phthalo blue proportionately.

Much, much more of the crimson than the blue.

But yet I want this to be a little bit to the blue side.

When you're making lavender like this you can take it to the reddish side or the blue side.

I want this to be a little to the blueish side.

Put a little white, and then check it.

Ooh, that's nice, good flavor.

It's hard to tell what color this is.

That's why we add a little white out there so we can see it.

Now then, clean off the ol' knife.

And let's go back up here in our sky and we'll take a little touch of that color.

I have not cleaned the brush.

Just a little of that color.

Little of that color.

I want to add a tiny little bit of the blue, ooh, that's better.

I want it a little bit more to the blue side.

There.

Okay, that's much better.

Let's go up in here.

Yes, that's a nice color.

I like that.

And there's not a great deal of paint on the brush.

It's really not a lot of paint.

Because the canvas is wet this paint will go a long way.

Doesn't take a great deal.

There we are.

Something maybe sort of like that.

And it really doesn't matter.

Whatever makes ya happy 'cause painting is very individual.

There's as many different ways to paint as there are painters.

And every person sees nature through different eyes.

So, when you're doing your own paintings paint what makes you happy.

There we are.

Gonna have some water we said.

Let's just go ahead and put in little indications of some water about right there, like so.

All we're doing is adding a little color.

We can come back and change it or move it however we want it later but while we have the brush dirty might as well use it.

There we go.

Now then, let's do the fun part of this.

Let's wash this ol' brush, just give it a good scrubbing here.

There we are.

Shake off the excess.

(laughs) I just beat the devil out of it.

All right, let's go right up in here, and just blend this together.

In one of their earlier series we showed one of camera people, and we showed him in a rain coat, 'cause it gets a little tricky around here with all this paint splashing around the studio.

So, sometimes Richard puts on a little raincoat and he sets behind the camera there.

There we go.

Just wanna blend this till it blends together extremely soft.

You don't wanna see any dark spots or light spots.

We wanna very soft transition from light to dark.

There we are.

Down here just gently go across and we can bring this together till it's very smooth.

But we wanna maintain this little light spot here.

That's important to me right now.

And maybe back in the background here a little of that lavender color still, little bit.

There we go.

This is just phthalo blue and alizarin crimson.

Little bit on the corner of the brush.

Now then, maybe there's some little, little bushes and trees that live back here.

Just using the top corner of the brush and I don't want these to be very distinct.

I want them to be very quiet, gentle, soft, way back in the distance.

There, there.

Just let it blend.

We don't know exactly where they go.

It'd be nice if they would just sort of disappear right up here.

There.

Now I like very soft paintings personally but if you wanna make it a little more distinct that's certainly your right and we encourage it.

If you like it a little brighter, a little more distinct, please, please, do that.

Don't just try to copy.

I'm serious when I say we're really tryin' to teach you a technique, there.

One of the questions I get quite frequently is about these little ovals, is how do you go about cutting these ovals?

If there's a frame shop in your neighborhood and they have an oval cutter, for cutting mats you can take a little adhesive back paper and take it down to'em, cut it in the size that you want it, overall size, and go to a frame shop and they can zip it out for you in just a second.

They'll probably charge you a little bit but not much.

Or the other way when frame shops cut ovals they normally throw the oval part away when they cut it out of cardboard or art-board.

They usually throw the oval away.

A lot of times frame shops will just give you that part and you can take that part and take it and lay it on some contact paper or any kind of adhesive back paper.

And I take an exacto knife, and just run it right around there, the cardboard cutout, and that easy.

You can cut or you can do it with scissors.

I got a little paint thinner here on my liner brush, and a little of the same exact color, and I just want to put the indication here in there of some quiet little branches that live back in here.

Just a few, can't see many.

Just a few here and there but not to distinct.

Once again I really would like for this to be quiet and gentle little painting.

And you can take a little of the titanium white with paint thinner and maybe in our world there's one here that's sort of white.

There's a lot of little white sticks in nature too and little white trunk trees, not only birch tress but all kind of little things that grow that are white or gray.

They're nice, use'em in your paintings.

Let's see here we'll grab a little fan brush.

Sometimes it's fun.

Let's take a little titanium white, reach right down here, and get a little bit of the yellow ochre, and mix it with the titanium white.

Mostly titanium white though, just enough yellow to color it.

There we are, let's go up here.

Maybe there's some little bushes that live right in here, and there's some light zinging through, and just makin'em sparkle.

Take the corner of the brush, and I have the number three fan brush here, and all I'm gonna do is go to push upward, just push it, just sort of scrub it, and push it.

There we are.

See there?

There's all there is to it is very simple but you can make little bushes that are back in the distance.

Very quiet little devils that live back in here.

There.

And sort of vary the colors so there all not just exactly, ooh that's nice.

That one's got a little more ochre in it.

I sort of like it.

Maybe I'll put a little more in here too.

I like it that's good, effective.

Somewhere right in there, we don't know where they go.

Any ol' where that you want'em.

Let's take our knife, a little dark sienna, a little van dyke brown, put a little white in there.

Just mix it with the knife right here on the ol' pallet.

Pull it out as flat as you can get it, go down, cut across, and we get our small roll of paint.

It lives right out on the edge of the knife.

Okay, let's go up here.

Now we need a little land in here and I want this to be very dark so I'm just rubbing it so it picks up the liquid white that's underneath here and all these things just, they just sort of come together.

But I don't want it to be real dark.

Maybe it comes all the way across here, just, whatever.

Now then, our little fan brush that we had the little bush color on, the white and yellow ochre, you can go back and just pop in some little bushy areas that come down on this land.

Just sort of bring it together so you don't see distinct edges.

There.

Now I have several fan brushes going but maybe in our world here, let's do it.

I see something here.

We're gonna a little bit of the liquid white, titanium white, mix them together.

Be right back, don't go away, there.

A little touch of the phthalo blue, little touch.

Can't say that enough 'cause it's very strong.

It'll eat up your whole word in a heartbeat.

'Kay let's go up here.

Maybe in our world there lives just a little happy waterfall that comes along, drops in there, splashes a little bit, play, comes right over that, so now you can see a little dark right through it, like as a little stone or some dirt or something under there, whatever you want.

Maybe, this is pretty rough water.

There it went but think about that.

Think about water just floating along here and having a good time, a real good time, and somebody says "bloop", pulls the bottom out.

And that's the way to make the water look correct.

Just straight and then over.

There we go, little splashes here and there, and there and here.

We can begin working that out, 'kay.

Shoot, we better put something in here before we get to far along.

I'm gonna make that nice brown color.

Tell you what, let me clean off a spot to work here we'll just set that over there in case we need it later.

I wanna take sap green, we'll make a very nice brown, and alizarin crimson.

And about equal parts, roughly equal parts, and you wanna really mix these up good.

Sap green and alizarin crimson, this makes one of the most beautiful browns but you really have to mix it well.

All right, there.

And when you're mixing paint to mix it well lift it completely off the palete, turn it over.

That way both sides get stirred up.

All right, lemme clean off the ol' knife.

Now then, we'll use the two inch brush.

I'm gonna go right in, load a little color onto the bristles, just load a little color, like so.

All right, maybe there's some happy little bushes that live right here.

Using just the corner, just begin tapping in some very basic little shapes wherever you think they should live.

There we are, see.

Maybe in our world they come right out through here, I don't know.

There's a nice little bush.

He lives there.

He lives right there and he's got a friend there, and maybe another one up here, whatever.

Just think about all these little critters that live out here, make friends with'em.

Now then, we had all that, there'd be some reflections in the water so we'll just take a little of that color, pull straight down, like so.

Now, if you wanted to paint this picture without the oval you certainly can do that, just leave it off.

Can do easy, no big deal.

Maybe on the other side over here, I'm gonna use that same color but I wanna add a little white to it.

I want it to be a little lighter.

Same color loaded the same way, just by pushing.

Let's go up in here.

Maybe in this side, let's do this.

Maybe we have some bigger trees that live over here.

And in my mind these are farther away then these so I want them to be a little lighter.

And we just sort of let them, maybe they go all the way to the top, what the heck, let's go all the way up here.

Sort of big ol' tree that hangs over here and watches the little water fall back in the background.

Just watches that little water fall, has a good time out here, enjoys life.

There.

And some darker color and maybe it comes right out here to the ground area.

All right, see you begin seeing things here.

After you've painted a little while and you get over the initial fear of touching brush to canvas then it becomes so much fun because you not worried about making mistakes.

Because anything that happens on this canvas you can work with it or you can fix it.

There.

When our instructors like, well like Dana that you met in the last series or my son Steve, when these instructors are teaching people one of the first things they tell'em is don't worry about making mistakes because there's nothing on the canvas that they can't fix.

Now I'm gonna add a little touch of lavender, that same lavender color, right here.

I wanna pull a little of that dark down, I wanna little dark in here.

This is just that same lavender, alizarin crimson, phthalo blue, I wanna add it right in there.

There, Iike it.

Maybe a little on this side too, just to darken it up a little and put a little of the same background color into our reflections but not a great deal.

There we go, very nice.

And add a little more to that tree.

I'm gonna put another tree in front of him I think so not to worried about that.

Probably just use the same brush, it doesn't matter.

Go right into a little yellow ochre, little touch of cad yellow, Indian yelliow, maybe even a little of the bright red there.

Ooh, I like a little more of that bright red.

I like that.

Push though, you want that little ridge of paint, see it comin' up there, push.

Let's go right up here.

You know what I wanna do?

I think I'l just go in there and put a little branch or two, what the heck?

I think we have time to do that.

Maybe we can see just a few little sticks and twigs that are living in here and coming through.

See?

There.

Just sort of makes it a little more interesting when you see some of these little things that live deep in your trees and just brings it together 'cause there always there.

There's something that's holding all these leaves up, there we go.

Now we can use that nice color we made.

Corner the brush, think about shape, and form, and how these little rascals would live in there, and jut begin working with them.

Now if you had trouble making the stick add the least little touch of paint thinner or liquid white.

Now the liquid white will slightly change your color, of course, it'll make it a little lighter.

So it just depends on what it is that you want, there.

Think about shape and form.

I know you get tired of hearing me say that but it is so important.

It will make you happy when you get done.

It'll be worth the effort.

There.

Now then, over here on this other side, let's put a little something over there.

I'm gonna reach up and grab a little of the titanium white and add to that same color.

Now, over here I added the white because in my mind the light zinging through there and it's gonna be a little bit brighter.

See, gonna have those little spots on there that shine.

There we go.

Did you ever think you can do such delicate little things with a great big ol' two inch brush?

You can, you really can, in fact you can do anything that you believe you can do, anything and I know you can.

There.

Now then, tell you what let's do.

I'm going back to my old brush here, let me find a brush, it's got nothing but brown on it.

This is the brown that we made from the sap green and the alizarin crimson.

I'm gonna load some color in it, let's go up here, in my mind I wanna very dark tree right here, right there.

There he is.

There, watch how this dark contrasting color push that first color back and it'll stand out.

It'll really stand out.

There we go.

Nice big ol' happy tree lives right there.

Maybe there's a big ol' limb that hangs out here.

There we go.

This contrast is very pleasing.

In fact, we may not do much more to that.

I like that dark so well I may not even highlight it because in my mind this is gonna be way back in the shadows anyway.

There's not gonna be a great deal of light coming through there and it's a good way for me to keep the dark back there that I want.

If you want to highlight it you certainly could.

I'm gonna take a little paint thinner with the same color and here and there just like we did before, add the indication that there's some limbs, and sticks, and stuff going on in here too.

We don't want this on left out but not a great deal.

Shoot, maybe right in here is one that's a little lighter.

As we mentioned earlier you have a lot of those in the woods.

There sort of pretty, they standout.

Now then, back to our brush with a dark brown and we can come in here, and just begin tapping in some, maybe there's a little land area under here.

Grab that, pull it down too.

Let me get a little sap green, and a little cad yellow, and make it very dark.

Maybe even a little black in it, dull it down.

Now there's brown on the brush and that's really gonna dull it also.

All these colors are gonna dull it and in our world, maybe there's a little green grass that lives back here under this tree, just a little.

There, nice place to sit.

Try to catch that big ol' trout that lives out there, swims around all day.

I like to fish, I'm a pretty good ol' fisherman.

But I'm one these people that puts a bandaid on'em, gives'em a little CPR, pets him on the too-too, puts'em back in the water.

Come back the next day and catch him again, 'cause the fun is in the catching of them.

Little more of the brown.

Maybe there's a little ledge right there, we don't know.

Something like so.

Little brown and white, and we can put a little highlight on that, just a touch.

We could use a fan brush with a little of that same green color.

Just pop in some little areas so they come right down and bring that all together.

There we go.

Thought maybe today we'd have some fun and we'd make some rocks.

So I want to take quite a bit of liquid white to put out here, just put it out here.

I'm gonna take then some dark sienna and mix it in there.

I want a very thin paint.

This is dark sienna, liquid white, with the least little touch of yellow ochre.

May even put a little van dyke brown in there, really dull it down, there.

See there?

Now, wrap off the knife, and I choose, today we'll use a filbert.

I wanna go right through the browns, both browns, van dyke and dark sienna, and I'll reach over here, both sides are covered, and I'm gonna pull at one side through that thin paint so we have light color on one side, dark on the other.

And in my world I see all kinds of happy little stones that live here.

Maybe there's just a whole group of little stones that live all down in here, wherever you want'em.

Just sort of decide where they at and put'em in.

The other side over here I wanna have some, something like that.

There we go.

And we don't know, shoot out in the water here there may be several more.

Ran out of dark.

Just little things that live out here in the water.

There.

Now then, we can come right back.

I want to have a little bit of land projecting right out through here, same ol' dark color.

Little bit of reflection under it, little bit of the same color, and in yellow, cad yellow, little bit.

And here there may be the least little touch of the bright red mixed in with it, just like so.

Now then, and I think there might be a few little stones down here too, maybe this one lives out here, just wherever you want'em, like so.

And shoot, let's go up here.

Maybe there's some little stones that live in here and you put a many or few stones in your world as you want.

Little liquid white with a little of the blue in it and we'll come right in here.

Let this water just play right along through here.

That sort of cleans up all these edges and brings it all together.

And place some water all around these little stones that you laid in here.

There, see?

See, it just brings it all together.

There.

All right, now.

Shoot, that's fantastic.

Tell you what let's do.

I'm gonna take the contact paper off and let's see what we have.

Just grab it, pull it, and off we go.

Isn't that a nice little painting?

Now, you know me.

I always like to put a big tree or two.

So I'm gonna go right into that brown color that I made, use a fan brush, single brown color.

And in my world, I think, all right there's your bravery test.

There live a tree right there.

And he's got a friend.

Don't make'em just straight, give'em some character.

Let'em move around and play in there.

Our liner brush, paint thinner, and we'll put an arm or two on this tree.

There, if your paint doesn't flow it only means that you need more paint thinner.

There we go.

Maybe that limb's a little fatter.

There.

See?

And just put in all kinds of little limbs and doers and there we are.

And this is up to you once again, you decide how many limbs are on your tree.

Shoot, you might wanna put some leaves or something on there, I don't know.

Once again each person will see nature different.

Each painting should be different and that's what makes it so much fun.

There we go.

You just put in limb, after limb, after limb, many as you want or as few as you want.

Maybe, I'll tell you what, look here, here's one that's, (groans) you have to make your little noises see.

It just sorta hangs off there like the wilderbrush, shoot.

Now we can take the knife, and you can take a little touch of brown and white, and here's our light source, and we can come in here, and just by touching, we can begin adding the illusion of bark.

That's what my puppy does barks bark.

Thousand comedians that are working and me tryin' to be one here.

Okay.

Something like so.

And we'll come back with our brushes, cut a little of the yellow on it, put a little something something for around these trees foots to hold him in.

And I tell you what I'm gonna take a little touch of the bright red, think we'll sign this one.

We'll sign him right out here on the rock.

We'll call it finished.

Hope you've enjoyed this one.

These little ovals are fantastic.

Since we introduced them in several series back they've become one of the most popular things we ever done.

Artists all over the country are using this idea.

So, try it, I think you'll like it and from all of us here happy painting and God bless, my friend.

(lighthearted music)