The Best of the Joy of Painting with Bob Ross

[Music] Hi, welcome back.

Certainly glad you could join us today.

You ready to do a fantastic little painting?

Tell you what, 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 what I've got done up here.

Today I've taken just a plain old pre-stretched canvas, and a little bit of black gesso on a sponge, and I just tapped the bottom of it here a little bit.

I know I want the bottom of this to be dark, other than that I don't know and I really don't care.

Now, I've covered the rest of the canvas with a very thin coat of liquid clear, very thin coat, and down here I've put just a little bit of Midnight Black.

Just because I want this to be dark, and so I've put a little color on there just in case.

So let's start out today and just have some fun.

Tell you what, let's start with a small amount of the Prussian Blue on the old two-inch brush, just a very, very small amount of paint.

Let's go right, right up here.

Now, I've used the liquid clear up here because I don't want to distort color.

I want the color to stay very pure.

I'm going to put some little spots of color up in the sky, and then we'll come back and we'll put some nice little clouds around them.

Ooh, there's a little black with a touch of the Prussian Blue in it.

Just a little Midnight Black and Prussian Blue, something like so.

However, it doesn't matter, just a few little spots of color.

Something right along in there like that, maybe add a touch of the crimson to it, to give it sort of a, sort of a little lavender flavor.

[chuckles] There you go.

There, that's sort of pretty already, shoot.

But we're not going to stop there.

I think today we'll, we'll put in some great big fluffy old clouds.

They're a lot of fun to do, and this is an easy way to make them work.

Put in a few little dark spots, and we'll just take the corner of the brush and go right into a little bit of the Titanium White.

We can go right into the white because there's such a small amount of color on the brush.

Let's go back up here now.

Now I'm going to take the two-inch brush and very quickly, very gently, just put in the basic little shapes.

We'll come back and add a few details later, right now just looking for a few very, very basic little shapes.

Something about like that, with just the corner of the brush.

Just sort of, just sort of let it dance around in the sky.

Little clouds are free, they just float around a have a good time.

Very free, maybe one of the freest things in nature.

There we go.

Something maybe, maybe about like that.

Whatever, whatever.

And maybe... Yep, we're just going to have some holes in the clouds that we can see little bits of color through.

There.

Mmm, I like that already.

A little bit right in here.

Just using the corner of the brush, though, making tiny little circles, tiny little circles.

There we go.

All right.

And that'll give us just a little base color.

Now we can come back, shoot, I might even use a fan brush for that.

We'll come back and put a few little, a few little nicety things here and there.

Let's take a little white, get a little touch of the Dark Sienna.

Ooh, I like that.

That's pretty.

Maybe a little more, though, shoot.

There, that's good.

Let's go up here.

Now maybe we'll begin just dancing a little color in our clouds.

We don't want color everywhere, but just here and there.

We'll put in a few little basic things, then we'll come back and we'll blend them all out.

I'm going to take a little white, a little touch of the, a little touch of the Alizarin crimson, make a little, a little pinkish color.

A little pinkish color, and we'll go right up in here, and we'll just pop in some, some little, little sparklers.

Want some little things make the sky shiny and pretty.

There.

And this is our world, we can put anything in our world that we want up here.

Mmm, like that.

All right.

Just you... Just do little, tiny circles though, all the time, little circles, so your clouds have form and shape and life and they're interesting, they're not just old dull clouds.

I'm going to add the least little touch of Yellow Ochre to my brush.

Ooh, yeah, that's nice.

That's nice.

There.

Just a little bit though, and be careful that you don't get that Yellow Ochre up against blue, because, you know, you get that Yellow Ochre up against the blue you could end up with a real nice bright green sky and we don't want that in this painting.

I think this is going to be a... Maybe this'll be a little winter scene.

Let's do winter today, what the heck.

There we go, a little bit right in there.

See how you can just...

Sometimes you can just spin the brush, let all these little things just sort of happen.

They make little, just, little lights in the sky.

There.

Even spin a little up in there, just to put a little, little floater.

[chuckles] Nice, clean, dry brush, and I just beat it to make sure it's nice and dry, and I'm just going to begin fluffing, blending, bringing this all together.

See there?

Just bring it together, let them old clouds just float around the sky and just have a good time.

Good time.

There.

All right.

And that easy, we've got a pretty nice little sky.

Do you ever think you can make a sky like that in just a couple of minutes?

[chuckles] You can.

You really can with this.

All right.

Today let's make a big, strong, strong tough old mountain.

I get a lot of requests for big, strong mountains, so let's take...

I'm going to take some Midnight Black and Van Dyke Brown, just mix them together.

Maybe put a little Dark Sienna in there.

But mostly black and, black and Van Dyke.

Pull it out very flat, and cut off our little roll of paint.

See, it lives right on the edge of your knife there.

Okay, let's go up in here.

We've got to make our first major decision: where does our mountain live.

In my world, I think it lives right here.

But when you do your painting, you put this old mountain wherever you want it.

You make it any shape that you want it.

It doesn't matter, because on this piece of canvas you have total and absolute power.

You can do anything.

Anything that you want to do here.

Anything.

Shoot, when I go home I'm in charge of nothing but the garbage, but here I can move mountains.

There.

We can put them wherever we want them, we can move them, we can put rivers or lakes or anything.

Anything.

Unlimited power on this piece of canvas.

It truly is your world.

I don't know where we want this to go, maybe there's a... We'll just make all kinds of little shapes and then we'll work on them, see what comes out of them.

There.

That's a very good way to practice, just, just make a big bunch of shapes up here and then practice turning that into some kind of very beautiful painting.

A lot of times when we're training instructors, we'll take them and have them turn their head away from the canvas and just make a big old line across there or something with paint.

And out of that, then we, we expect them to be able to make a beautiful painting.

Just from that.

I don't know of any better way just to learn, just to learn to, to work with this and to use the instruments and the tools and creativity and all those things and then just, just do it.

Let's take a little Dark Sienna, a little white, mix it together, make a nice pile there.

Take a little more white, take some Van Dyke Brown, put in there.

I want this one to be darker.

Going to make several piles of color here so I can just work back and forth.

White, this one I'm going to add some black and some Van Dyke.

There, that's more into the gray color.

So we have three different piles of color here.

Now then, let's start out with this one, get a little roll of paint, once again, roll lives right out at the edge of the knife, and let's go up in here.

And normally we pull down.

Today, let's take the knife and just sort of touch and go across.

Just touch and go across, that's all there is to it.

This is a nice way, if you're having problem making the mountains the way we normally make them, try this.

Because I think you'll find that this works so good you almost won't believe it.

Take a little of that dark color and put it right in there.

Not much, though.

I want retain some of that darkness in there.

There we go.

Over here we'll make another little... Just let the knife bounce, just let it bounce.

Play, have fun.

There.

Painting should always be fun.

If it's not fun, then you're doing the wrong thing.

There.

I have enough things in my life that are unpleasant, so painting, it's one of those things that I reserve for good times.

There.

A little bit of color right in there.

But isn't that fantastic, that you can create all these illusions?

Just like so.

And you can do this, you can really do it.

There we go.

And when you're at home, you can really play and put all kinds of things here.

I have a mean old director here that yells at me.

She has no sense of humor if I go over 30 minutes, so...

But at home, you can do anything that you want to do.

There we go.

And we just pop that back in, like that.

There.

Just put an indication of a few little shadows.

Once again, I don't want a lot in here, I want just to stay very dark, very dark, so it looks like it's far away.

Far, far away.

There.

All these little things that you can just drop in there and here and wherever you want them.

There.

I love mountains.

I lived in Alaska for nearly a dozen years and you can't live in Alaska and not appreciate mountains.

Now, the mountains in Alaska, they're quite a bit different than this, but you just find an appreciation for mountains in general when you live around them all the time.

There we go.

But even before I had ever seen mountains, because I was born and raised in Florida, I still liked them, I liked to paint them.

And then when I finally got to Alaska, whew, oh, I just went crazy.

Because I believe, I believe God was having a good day when He made Alaska.

You know how some days things just work for you, everything you touch works.

And I think God was having one of those days when he made Alaska because everything seemed to work.

All right.

Let's take a little bit of the... A little touch of Titanium White, and maybe there's just a little bit of snow that lives right in here.

We'll just take that and say [Bob makes "ssst" sound].

Got to make those little noises or it won't work.

See there?

A little glacier, maybe, lives right up in there.

And let some of this just climb up the side of the mountain, wherever you want it.

Wherever you want it.

Add a little touch of the blue in there, just to, just to give it a little cool feeling here and there, and maybe... Yep, you're right.

There it goes, there it goes.

Right on down.

I'm going to have some trees over there, I think, so I'm not worried about over there.

You know me, I always want to have a big tree.

[chuckles] There.

Just white with a least little touch of the Prussian Blue in it.

Least little touch, just enough to chill it a little bit.

But we're just going to let that climb right up in here.

We'll get a little touch more of the blue and maybe it goes out over here, this direction, so it looks like there's a little peak right there.

There.

See?

Just allow those colors to pick up and blend together and all those things just to happen.

All right.

There.

Okay.

Now, sometimes it's fun, in your painting, to begin putting projections that are closer to you.

By that I mean big rocks and stones and stuff that live out here.

Let's take some of that same dark color, and maybe, in our world, there lives, boy, there does now, big old, big old rock lives right out here.

Mmm.

Actually, this is just a little, baby mountain that lives here.

If you love it and take care of it, feed it well, it'll grow up to be a big old mountain like that one up there, but right now, right now, he's just a little fella.

There.

But he's nice and we like him.

See, you don't have to be crazy to do this, but it sincerely helps.

There we go.

Put a little highlight on him.

Wherever you think light would strike across there.

Just like you did the big one, only he's a little smaller.

A little touch of the shadowy color.

Once again, I want to keep it dark in there, though.

There.

Just to give that illusion that there's something happening there.

All right.

All kinds of little bumps.

Maybe, shoot, maybe there's another little thing right in here.

And this is just that same dark color.

We're just adding all kinds of little doers.

There it comes.

See there?

Little projections that live everywhere.

Then we can bring our little glacier, or whatever it happens to be that's living in here.

A little bit of snow, just pull it right on up the side.

There.

If it picks up a little of that color, don't get upset about it because that will come, come out, when the painting's finished, looking like shadows.

And you need those anyway.

Gives depth and dimension to your paintings.

Don't worry about it.

There, just let that work right on up there.

See, now that thing, that little baby of a mountain there, it looks like it's just sort of sitting out there all by itself, lonely.

But Mama's not far away, just right behind him.

There we go.

Mmm.

But he's cold, I can tell, he's cold out here.

All right.

Take a little more of that color, maybe right behind here, we'll put a little touch of shadow, just so that all comes together.

There we go.

Mmm.

There's a lot happening right there, isn't there?

I like these paintings that's got big old mountains.

As I say, I really like mountains, it's one of my favorite things in the world to paint.

All right.

Let's take, let's take, we'll take some black, a little bit of brown, a little bit of the Prussian Blue, put a little crimson in there, too, what the heck.

I like that.

Just a little crimson.

Maybe a little more of the blue.

Ooh, ooh, that's nice.

Okay, let me get an old fan brush.

Maybe, in our world, there lives some little evergreens that live way back here.

So when they're far away, we don't want a lot of detail.

As they get closer to you, they will need more and more detail.

But right back in here we just want to put the indication of some little things that are working down these mountains.

Just give it a little upward lift.

Maybe there's another row right there.

I want to see some little snowy areas in between there.

So I don't want to kill all that nice, little snowy area.

Little patches of trees that grow way back up here in the mountains somewhere.

There.

Now let's go on the other side.

Maybe over here on this side... Yep, they are little, getting a little bigger.

They're a little closer to you.

They're not really any bigger, they're just closer to you so they look a little bigger.

But in reality they're all the same size.

But this is what will give your painting depth and dimension, perspective.

All those big words.

There.

Easy way to say it is, "In painting, as things get closer to you, they should get bigger."

That's all.

There we go.

Now we'll take a little bit of the, a little bit of the Titanium White, and, once again, we're going to allow that to pick up some of that color.

There we go.

Just allow it to pick up some of that color.

For everybody that skis, boy, this would be a dynamite skiing mountain, wouldn't it?

You could just come right down there.

I hope you ski better than I do, though.

[chuckles] The only, the only thing that I'm good at is falling down.

I'm not a very good skier.

But it certainly is beautiful to watch.

I envy those who can do it.

All right.

Maybe...

I know, I like these trees.

I'll mix up a little more color.

The Prussian Blue, the black, crimson, a little brown.

I just need more color, I ran out.

Wipe off the old knife.

We just wipe the knife on old paper towel.

Now maybe, on this side, getting a little closer.

There's another tree.

Now if you're picking up too much of the white color behind back there, dip your brush into a little tiny bit of paint thinner.

Very little amount of paint thinner.

Because, remember our golden rule.

A thin paint will stick to a thick paint.

So if you thin the paint down just a little bit, it'll stick, "without mooshing together," as Steve says, my son.

Steve makes up words.

But everybody knows what he means when he says, just, "Your paint's mooshing together."

May not be a proper word, but it makes sense when you're, when you're painting, you understand it.

There.

We'll come back and smooth all that out in a minute.

There we go.

Now, you know me.

If you've painted with me before, you know one of my favorite things is big old trees, so I think it's time we put a big old tree or two in here.

A lot of that dark, dark color on the brush, just load the bristles full.

All right, let's go right up in here.

Maybe, in our world, there lives... [Bob makes "ssss" sound] Get brave.

Right across your mountain.

And today, let's just give these trees a little upward push.

Sometimes we push downward, sometimes upward, depending on the effect that we're trying to achieve.

Aww, there goes my little baby mountain, but we know he's back there.

And you learned how to do it, so that's really all that counts.

But he was cute.

There.

We'll come back with a little highlight color, and we'll separate all these.

Right now, all we're looking for is a nice, dark base color.

Okay, maybe, maybe, maybe, yep.

Right here lives another little rascal.

These little evergreens usually grow in clumps.

There.

So we'll make us a little, a little forest right here.

But because we have the black gesso in there, all that dark is already in there nearly.

Shoot, let's get brave.

This one, this one got a lot of sunlight and a lot of water, and he's reaching way up here in the sky.

He wants to look down at the top of the mountain.

There.

What a view.

This would be the place to live, wouldn't it?

Look out across there and see all those gorgeous mountains.

Mmm.

Makes me want to go back to Alaska.

There.

All right.

Let's put a tree or two on the other side, too.

I like... We need one over there, what the heck.

Let's have a big one.

Once again, just touch with a corner of the brush and push upward.

As you work down the tree, add more pressure and automatically use more and more of the brush.

There.

See there how easy that is?

Okay.

Once we get into the black gesso, we're not much worried about it, we can just... You can literally hit it anywhere you want, it doesn't matter.

Once again, we're going to separate this with highlights when we put a little highlight on there.

All right, a little more color.

Here comes one.

And in your painting, you decide how many little trees live in here.

Maybe you only want a few, maybe you want a great big forest.

Another thing, if you happen to ha...

I know you want, but if you happen to have a little spot in your painting that, that you're not real pleased with, you know, trees cover a multitude of sins.

And no, you can't cover up your whole canvas, I know your painting is better than that.

There we go.

Another little tree lives right there.

But sometimes they will cover up problem areas in your painting.

There.

Okay.

Now see... Let's take a little of that brown and white we had, and let's put a little tree trunk here and there in a couple of these.

[Bob makes "blup, blup, blup" sounds] You're not going to see it all, you're just going to see a little of the trunk here and there.

Maybe in this old big tree can see a little more.

Just a few little things here and there, I don't want too much.

Just a few.

There.

All right.

Same old dirty brush that we painted the tree with, I'll go into Cad Yellow, a little Yellow Ochre, and instantly, because there's blue in that color, we have a nice, gorgeous green.

Okay.

Now, then, let's go up here with that green, and let's put a few little indications of some, some nice highlights on some of these.

I don't want it to get too bright, though.

I want to keep this quite dark.

This old tree needs a few, though.

Can't leave him out.

There we go.

There.

Darker, darker, darker as it gets down toward the base.

There.

And this little tree right here, we want him to show up, stand out.

Got to stand tall out here in the sunshine.

Say hello to the mountain and all the little creatures.

[chuckles] Let's go on the other side.

We'll put a few little highlights here and there on it.

There.

All right.

Okay.

A few on this tree.

Now, some of these trees I'm going to leave naked.

I'm not going to put any, any highlight on, because I want them to look like they're farther away, back in behind and very dark.

Secret little things are happening in there.

Now then, we'll take a little bit of the Titanium White, allow it to pick up some of that tree color, and begin putting in some nice snowy areas.

You want it to pick up that tree color because, automatically, that'll make the indication of some little shadows.

See, that looks darker than it does up there.

Just because it's picked up the tree color.

So allow the paint and the canvas and everything to work for you, don't fight it.

As I've said before in some of the shows, I'm a lazy painter.

I look for easy ways to do things.

Things that work very easy, very nice, and that's what makes it fun.

Let's take a old two-inch brush, a little bit of Titanium White, very little, and we put a little black and blue under here, or blue and black, mostly black.

Might have been a little blue in it, but I think it was mostly black on the wet canvas, and we'll just pull that down, and lookie there, lookie there.

We have instant, instant little pond right here below the mountain.

Just a happy little pond that lives right there.

And we'll take a little of that dark color, and I'll just touch, just put a little, just a little water line under there, only dark.

Just a little like that.

Shoot, you take you're old fan brush... Tell you what, maybe you want to put a... Maybe there's a little projection that comes right out here.

And this is your world here, you can do anything that you want.

That worked so well, let's put one on the other side, too.

Shoot.

Over here, maybe this one here is on a... on top of old stones and stuff that are laying in the water.

We don't know.

We don't know, don't know that we even care.

Take a little of that dark color, and just put a little... a little bit of dirt right down here that's still showing.

Just a little.

Take a little touch of liquid white, and go back in here, just cut in a indication of a, of a little, little water line that's floating around here and there.

Something like so.

Don't want too many.

Don't want too many, just a few.

And maybe, [chuckles] maybe out here in the water, maybe there's a little stone that's covered with snow.

Something like so.

And you can pull down just a little touch to create the illusion of a reflection.

Put a little dark under it, like so.

A little touch of water line, just to bring it all together.

[chuckles] Shoot, I think we've about got it here.

With your fan brush you could lift upward to bring the edges together, and you'd have a finished painting.

Hope you've enjoyed this one, because it'll give you quite little challenge.

And from all of us here, I'd like to wish you happy painting, and God bless, my friend.