The Best of the Joy of Painting with Bob Ross

[Music] Hi, glad to see you again today.

You ready to do a fantastic seascape?

I thought that's what we'd do today.

So, let's start out and have them run all the colors across the screen that you need to do this seascape with me, and let's go on up here and let me talk just a little bit while they're doing that.

I started with a good old standard 18 by 24 inch canvas, but I've done something a little bit different today.

The top part of the canvas is totally covered with a thin, even coat of liquid white all the way up here.

Down, you can see this little line here.

Now from here down is covered with liquid clear.

Now this is just like liquid white, only it's clear, that's all.

So let's go and do a fantastic little seascape.

I'm going to start out with a two-inch brush and a small, small amount of the Cad Yellow.

Very small amount.

Just beat it into the bristles a little bit.

Okay, let's go up here.

Now then, maybe we'll have a beautiful, bright little sky today.

So I'm just going to start with a little yellow.

Do something like so.

Just let that mix with the liquid white.

There.

Now, without cleaning the brush, go right into, a touch of Yellow Ochre.

Load the brush the same way.

Go back up here and right around the edges of that.

See there?

Still using little criss-cross strokes.

We'll just bring that right around sort of like so.

There we go.

And if a little happens to get down here in your painting, don't worry about it, don't worry about it.

It's no problem at all.

Okay, still, without cleaning the brush, we'll go right into Bright Red.

A little bit, it's very strong.

Okay, now then, right around those edges, we'll take a little bit of this beautiful red color.

Just like so.

Isn't that pretty?

Already we have a, we have a [chuckles] painting for the Museum of Modern Art here.

You can just stop right there.

Now then, I want to put a little bit of red over here and just let it work right along.

Right in here's going to be the horizon.

There we go.

And we'll just very lightly blend all this together.

Okay, now then, I have several brushes going so I don't have to spend all my time washing.

I'm going to take straight Titanium White, just straight white, and go right up in this area.

And I want this to be very bright, so I'm going to take white and put it right there.

Straight Titanium White.

Now it won't show up much, because light against light is nothing, but you just wait.

Now I'm going to grab it and pull it.

Just pull.

Lookie there.

Grab it and pull.

And we don't care what happens in here.

We're going to cover all that up anyway.

Now then, let me wash the brush.

And we just wash our brushes with odorless paint thinner.

Shake them off [chuckles] and beat the devil out of them.

Okay.

Now, we can just use this same old brush.

I'm going to go into a small amount of Phthalo Blue and reach up here and grab a little touch of Alizarin Crimson.

So, we have Phthalo Blue and Alizarin Crimson.

Proportionately, much more crimson than blue.

I want this to be a little bit to the reddish side.

Okay.

There's very little paint on the brush.

Let's go back up here.

Now then, let's take and use just the corner of the brush, using little circular, little circular strokes, and let's just begin laying in some happy little clouds.

Maybe there's one that lives... oh lookie there, lookie there, lookie there.

There he is.

See?

He comes right out there.

Look at that.

See how easy it is to make all kinds of beautiful little cloud shapes?

All you need is just the corner of the brush.

There we go.

Okay, and now then, over here, we'll put another little cloud that lives right there.

There we go.

And in your world, you decide where the clouds live.

And you put as many or as few as you want.

It's your decision.

There we go.

Just wherever.

Maybe there's one right there.

Still using those tiny little strokes, little circular strokes, just with the corner of the brush.

Okay, as I say, I have, I have several brushes going here.

Now with a clean brush, I'm just going to very gently blend this a little.

Don't have to over blend it.

Just enough to sort of mix it up.

Like so.

There we go.

Still using little round strokes, little circular strokes.

Now you can blend this until it absolutely goes away.

All we want to do is blend it just enough to soften the edges so it come all together.

And watch here, then we'll take this and we'll very gently, three hairs and some air, very gently, just bring it all together.

You don't want to lose your shapes.

You just want to soften all the edges.

And then you can, [Bob makes "tchoom" sound] do like that.

See how it just brings it right over?

Makes it look like little light streaks coming through there.

Now then, to really add a little more contrast, I'm going to mix a little more color, the same color, crimson and Phthalo Blue, Alizarin Crimson, Phthalo Blue, but a little darker, a little more on the brush.

And right in here, I want to show a cloud that's a little closer.

So for that, we'll just use a little darker color, and it'll give the impression that this cloud is closer to us.

See how easy that is?

And you can create all kinds of beautiful little things happening in here.

Alright, then we'll go back to our clean brush.

Stir this up a little bit.

Just mix it.

Don't overdo, don't overdo.

It's easy to get carried away.

And then very lightly.

Two hairs and some air this time.

See, it gives the impression now that that cloud is in front a little bit.

So it helps create the illusion of depth and distance in your sky.

And you can put a couple here and there, wherever.

And that easy, you can make a fantastic, fantastic sky.

Looks like a nice sunset already.

And if you, if you want to, you can go in here with a, the fan brush, and you can add some little streakers.

Little streaky clouds.

That easy.

And you can put as many of these in as you want.

Just want to show you how.

Clean dry brush and then blend them right into the painting.

There we go.

Isn't that a beautiful sky?

And you can do it.

There, wash that fan brush.

I have some paper towels over here, I just dry the fan brush on.

[chuckles] That's the fun part of this whole technique.

Alrighty, now then, we have to make a big decision here.

Let's take, let's take, let's take, let's take our Phthalo Blue, Alizarin Crimson, and I'm going to make a dark, dark lavender color.

On the palette, it should look black.

Alright, we got her mixed here.

Now then, probably, let me show you one other thing first.

One of the easiest ways to help you with a seascape, because they're sort of hard at first, until you practice a little.

I'm going to take the little filbert brush here, and to that I've added a bunch of paint thinner, so this is thin as water nearly.

Sort of, sort of come in here and sketch out where you want the major wave to be.

And let's just say it's going to live, boom, right there.

And this is not a commitment at this time.

You can still change it.

Zoom, comes up like that, maybe it comes over, maybe the foam's going to crash up in here somewhere like that.

Now, our shoreline, maybe it'll come, oh, like that, something like that.

That just helps give you a little bit of, sort of a layout, and it'll really save you a lot of trouble.

Okay.

After you've practiced a while, maybe you don't need to do this, but at first, I really recommend you do it, that way, it'll help you lay it out.

Here I'm using that dark color we made.

It's a very dark lavender color.

Now see, if we, if we had used liquid white here, when we put this on, it would pick up the white and you would lose this beautiful, beautiful dark color.

There.

Liquid clear allows us to mix on the canvas without changing the value of the color.

Look at that.

And we'll just come right on down in here.

In here we're going to have the transparency, or the, or the bright spot of the wave.

That's the part of the wave, [chuckles] if you're into selling paintings, that's the part of the wave that sells.

That's what everybody wants to see, is that big, big crasher.

We'll come right in here and just sort of follow this guide.

All we're doing here is putting in some dark color so our light will show later on.

Let me add a little more color.

A little more color.

Just Alizarin Crimson, Phthalo Blue.

Now when you're doing these at home, you can add all kinds of colors.

A lot of times Phthalo Green is very pretty in seascapes.

Oh, it is a dynamite color.

Beautiful color.

But it's very strong, be careful with it.

Okay, see already, we have all of our dark areas blocked in.

When you're using a big old, two inch brush, it doesn't take but a second.

Okay.

Isn't that a beautiful, rich color?

Alright.

Now, we can really start playing.

Let me grab my fan brush.

I'm going to take the same old colors, Alizarin Crimson and Phthalo Blue, and let's, let's put some on the fan brush here.

Just load it back and forth like that.

Not a great deal of paint on the brush, okay?

Let's go up here.

Maybe there's a little footland back here.

That's a fancy name for a rock, sticks out in the water.

[chuckles] A little peninsula way back in the distance.

And this is too far away to show detail, so don't worry about it.

All we're looking for here is just a basic shape.

Okay.

I'll tell you what.

Shoot, that was so much fun, let's do another one.

Maybe there's another bigger stone in front of it here.

Bigger footland.

This will help create the illusion of distance in your painting.

And you can put all kind of things back here.

You can put little trees on these footlands, and just whatever.

But it really helps.

See it shows different planes in your painting.

I hope you can see that.

Okay.

Now, if it, if it doesn't show up quite well enough, you can take and add a little, little highlight to it.

Just to get it to stand out a little more.

Maybe, maybe that'll help.

You can see that a little better now.

There we go.

Good.

Okay.

And that quick, we've got a happy little footland back there.

Alright, now we can begin putting in some of the good stuff.

I'll just start with just plain old Titanium White.

And we'll go right up here and just begin putting in some happy little highlights way back here in the distance.

Barely, barely touching.

Barely touching.

And sort of like that, make all these little things happen.

Bring it right around the base of this little, little footland back here.

Now then, let's have some fun.

Let's go like right in here.

Watch here, grab it, and just come right up like that.

Uh oh, what have we done now.

And maybe there's another one right here in back.

And let's go right along here like that, and then right along there.

See how easy that is?

Clean off the old brush here.

Okay.

Now then, I'm going to take another fan brush that's clean and very gently, very gently, I'm just going to begin doing like so.

See?

Just work that back.

Pay very, very close attention to angles.

All you want to leave in here is the dark area.

This is the time when the dark areas are much more important than the light areas.

Now right in here, same thing.

Same thing.

See, just blend that up like that.

Mm, that's beginning to look pretty already.

Okay.

Now then, we can go right into a little bit of white.

See, and begin making all these little things that are far, far away.

Little swells that are far in the distance.

Don't want too much detail back there.

There's our little footland.

Okay, good.

This, this painting, [chuckles] it'll teach you to be an expert brush washer.

Let's go back into our blue and crimson, blue and crimson, just mix it right on the palette.

Alright, now this area here, we have to put dark in before we can put our light in.

So, let's just add a little bit of dark color right here.

See how easy that is?

Follow that basic angle.

Look at that.

Lookie there.

All we're doing is just applying dark.

We'll come back later and put all the highlights on, the good parts.

Everybody wants to jump on these good parts, but you have to do the, you have to do the framework first.

Okay, now that we got some dark on there, let's take some white, I'm just using Titanium White.

A lot of paint on the brush now, a lot of paint.

Okay, now then, grab this and pull it.

Pull it.

The strokes are very important.

You might need to wash or wipe your brush.

Sometimes you can just wipe it in between each stroke, because you're going to pick up some of this under color.

See?

Grab it and pull it.

There, like that.

Okay.

Now then, let's, let's get our little Filbert brush here.

I'm going to go into white and the least, least little touch of Cadmium Yellow.

White and yellow, white and yellow.

Okay, let's go up here.

Now then, let's go right in here.

This, this is the part that makes the painting so pretty.

This is it.

All we're doing here is scrubbing in some color.

And the light would come right along the top of this wave because the water's thinner here.

Look at that.

Just like so.

Maybe there's a touch even right over in here, just a little bit right in there.

Alright, now then.

With a clean, dry, be sure it's dry, it's most important, clean, dry, two-inch brush, come right in here very, very gently.

Just begin blending this.

Now then, we're going to begin picking up some of this nice, rich, lavender color we have down here, and blending it right up into it.

Lookie there.

This is where we begin forming the basic angle of the wave.

Now, I beat the brush just to remove excess paint.

See, it doesn't matter if a little of that color goes up in there, that light, the light area will remain.

Just grab it and pull.

Okay.

Let me find my little Filbert brush here.

We'll use some of the lavender color that we have.

Same old lavender color with a touch of white in it.

There we go.

Now let's begin putting some foam in.

First, we'll put the shadows in.

Then you take this brush, and just lay it over and just really scrub it in.

Get tough with it.

Get mean with it.

Think about water churning, bubbling, and maybe it comes way up here and crashes and splashes and ah, all kinds of fantastic little things are happening.

And this is only the shadow, only the shadow.

We'll come back and put the highlights on in a second.

Okay.

Now then, we'll fill this in.

This needs to be good and dark also.

Like that.

And with our clean brush, we want to continue this angle.

Just grab it and bring it through.

Lookie there.

Okay.

Now, be sure the filbert brush is good and clean and dry.

Now comes the fun part.

This is what we wait on.

Take white, Cad Yellow.

Load a lot of paint into the bristles.

Just really fill the son of a gun up.

Okay, now then.

Sort of hold the brush here and give it a little upward push.

And it's that upward push, that's where the splash happens.

And when you begin running out of paint, turn it over and use the other side of the brush.

And usually, you can just wipe off the excess.

You don't have to go through the whole cleaning procedure.

You want to keep this color as pure as you can, because it's going to mix with what's on there.

Okay, plenty of paint on the brush.

Plenty of paint.

Splashing way up here.

All kinds of beautiful little things are happening.

Continually wipe that brush.

Keep it good and clean.

And we'll have a little bit.

[Bob makes "boom" sound] Boy, you get carried away with these.

You can really get carried away and have a super time.

Seascapes are fun.

There.

Okay.

Clean off the brush.

Okay, now, with a good, clean, dry brush, you just want to sort of mix this together.

That'll make a, sort of make a different value, a medium value here, because it'll mix with the dark and the light.

Brings it all together.

Just stir it up a little bit.

Okay.

Now then.

Good, clean, dry, two-inch brush, just the corner, and just mix this up.

All you have to do is just very gently bring all this together, very gently.

This is two hairs and some air.

Barely, barely touching.

And that easy, we have it.

Now then.

I'm going to take a paint thinner, yellow, and white, and be sure your paint is as thin as ink, so very thin, water consistency.

Let's go right up here, this nice, bright area here.

There's going to be all kinds of light shining through.

Just put all these happy little things.

And at home, when you have unlimited time, you can just really go in here and put all kinds of beautiful, beautiful little things.

There.

Okay.

Come right along here and just sparkle that like so.

Alright.

Now, let's take some white with a little touch of the Phthalo Blue.

Very little blue.

Just white and blue.

And let's begin working on some happy little things that are just floating right on down through here.

All kinds of little, this is where you begin forming the wave.

This gives it shape, it gives it character.

Look at that.

And back in here.

Just bring it right on back.

Let's have some fun.

Right under that light area, I'm going to go right into some Cad Yellow.

We just throw that right on there.

Right into the Yellow Ochre, just like we did the sky.

Just drop it in.

Right into some Bright Red.

Whew.

We got us a fireball going here.

Then I'm going to reach into Dark Sienna.

A little bit more Dark Sienna here.

Then right into Van Dyke Brown.

Over here, I want to get quite dark so it makes that light really stand out.

Okay, now then.

Little touch of white right there.

And then, with a clean brush, all you have to do is blend all this together.

Just blend it together.

Let the colors sort of mix.

And then lightly, lightly, lightly, go across.

Lightly go across.

Then we'll take a fan brush.

I'm going to put Titanium White with the least, least little touch of Phthalo Blue on it.

And then let's come right in here and begin making all kinds of happy little foam things.

Just laying out here, having a good time.

Leave some of these dark areas.

Leave some dark areas.

Don't kill them all.

See?

Begin paying attention to the shape of the wave.

It's very important.

Very important.

Over here, I have some coming up like that.

Now, while I got the old brush going, I'll just take it right into some brown and let's have, maybe there's some sand right here.

Comes right, there it is.

Lookie there.

And just put... This is just brown with a little touch of white that was left on it.

Right down like that.

A little bit of sand on the beach.

Van Dyke Brown, Dark Sienna, a little touch of white.

Little seagulls, they gotta have a place to run.

Okay, now.

Take a little paint thinner with some dark paint, and we'll just run a little line right under here, like so.

Paint thinner with some of the light blue.

And we can just put the indication of a little, a little bit of water playing all down there on the beach.

Put all kinds of little lines and stuff here and there.

See how easy that is?

And it really makes some nice, nice effects.

And let's have a happy little stone that lives right there.

This is just Van Dyke Brown.

Shoot, I'll tell you what.

We'll have another little stone right there.

Gonna pull a little bit down.

Grab it.

Makes a reflection.

Take the little knife.

And we'll put the least little touch of some highlights on here, like so.

The old clock on the wall's telling me we got to stop for today.

So with that, I think we'll call this painting finished.

I sincerely hope you've enjoyed it.

That'll give you a good idea of how to do a fantastic seascape.

Happy painting.

God bless.