The Best of the Joy of Painting with Bob Ross

[Music] Hi, I'm certainly glad you could join me today.

Today I thought we'd do just a fantastic little seascape, and just have a super time together.

So I'll tell you what, let's start out and have them run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint this little seascape with me.

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

Standard old 18 by 24 inch double primed pre-stretched canvas.

And I coated the bottom of it here with Black Gesso, and allowed that to dry completely.

Now I just put a little piece of masking tape across here and the masking tape is only to keep the horizon line straight.

Underneath here I've covered this with a mixture of Sap Green and Van Dyke Brown mixed about half way, a little bit of Indian Yellow, and right here in the corner a little Dark Sienna.

Now these colors are all transparent enough, this still looks black.

The top of this, I sort of put in a little basic cloud shape I wanna big cloud here, with Black Gesso, and the we just covered this with a thin even coat of the liquid white.

So it's all wet and ready to go, so let's have some fun.

Let's start out today with a little touch of the Yellow Ochre, very small amount is all we need on the two inch brush.

Just a tiny little bit, maybe we'll add a little of the Cad Yellow to it.

There.

Just mix those two sort of together.

And let's go right up here, and just lay in a little bit of this yellow, right across here.

Just using little crisscross strokes.

There.

Something about like so.

Then we'll go back into a little more of the Yellow Ochre, and lay that right in there.

A little touch more, didn't get quite enough.

There.

Then we'll just let that one blend right on down.

This is just Yellow Ochre, and a little bit of Cad Yellow.

That's all we have here.

Right in the bottom.

Thought we'd just do a beautiful,beautiful sky today.

We'll spend most of our time working on the sky.

And we'll put a little seascape down in here.

Okay, maybe the least little touch, least little touch, of a little bit of the Alizarin Crimson, right along there.

And we're just sort of playing with nice warm colors.

There we go.

Okay, blend that all together.

Let me clean the old brush.

Just wash your brush with odorless thinner.

Shake it off.

[laughs] Then just cover everybody in the studio.

Alright, let's make us a nice lavender color.

For that we'll take some Alizarin Crimson and Phthalo Blue.

Crimson and Blue.

Okay, a little more blue.

I want this sort of to the blueish side today.

And depending on your mood, you may want it to the red side or to the blue side.

Take a little white, check it out and see what we have.

That's not bad, that's a good color.

Okay, let's clean off the old knife.

Today let's use the fan brush.

We'll take a fan brush, and we'll add a little bit of this lavender color onto it we made.

Just like so.

And let's just go up in here, and using little, and I'm gonna exaggerate, little rocking strokes like that.

Let's just begin putting in some very basic little, little cloud formations here.

There we go.

And I use this lavender color, mainly, so in case it touches some of this yellow, it won't turn a bright green on us.

Green skies are alright, I guess, but that's not what we're looking for today.

There we go.

Today we're looking for just a nice beautiful sky, we don't want [laughs] it to be green.

Okay, maybe it just runs right up in here, wherever.

Just be very loose with this, and just throw it in.

I've got the Black Gesso underneath this, only so that dark shows through.

It really helps make this a lot easier.

Maybe this comes right over, maybe a little stringy thing it goes right up through here somewhere.

All we're doing is laying on some base color.

Boy, that's a mean looking sky [laughs] already isn't it.

Now then, while I have that little bit of lavender on here, let's go right in here, and maybe just put the indication of a happy little cloud or two, that's just sort of floating around and having a good time.

Wherever you think they would live.

Just sort of pull them out there.

Maybe I'm gonna add a little more of the crimson to that.

And right on down in here, maybe right at the water line, maybe there's a nice cloud that's living right here.

There.

Just sort of make up little stories, and little, little things like that and let your imagination sort of just take you everywhere.

There it goes.

Maybe it comes all the way over, who cares.

[laughs] Then it turns around and comes back.

See?

But you can do anything in here.

Any old thing that you want to do.

Maybe, maybe right up in here we have a nice bright area.

We can put that in too, take a little white, and just begin working it.

In fact, maybe it's right here.

There, just let that work right on out.

This is just straight Titanium White.

There we go.

You could even go so far as take your finger, with a little white on it, and make the indication of a little sun in there if you wanted to.

You can do that.

There, and very gently just blend over it.

And the indication will still be there, and that white that you put on then becomes the bright area around it.

There.

Now we can just blend these little clouds, and we can blend those right into the sky.

That easy.

In fact, tell you what, let's have a little cloud, comes right around like this, maybe he just floats around in the sky, maybe he comes right on down here.

We don't know where he goes.

Wherever you want him, that's where he should be.

There.

Then take our big brush, and just blend.

Alright.

I have several old fan brushes going so I don't have to spend all my time washing brushes.

I'm gonna take a little white on the fan brush here.

Okay, let's go back up here.

Maybe there's a little highlight that lives right here on this cloud.

Don't want a great deal, just enough to make it stand out a little.

There, a little right here.

See, there's your light source, so wherever you think light would hit it, just make that decision and drop it in.

Just drop it in.

Maybe there's a little up here on top of this.

Wherever.

Wherever.

There.

Now when you're doing this at home you can put a lot more detail into it, you have unlimited amounts of time.

Here if I go over 30 minutes, this mean old director gets all over me.

But at home you can do it any way that you want to do it.

Now we can fluff that up, blend it a little.

And it makes quite a nice sky down there.

Now then, let's go back into our fan brush.

And lets go up in here, and let's just begin picking out some little shapes and things that are happening.

All we're gonna do is just bounce a little highlight here and there.

Just bounce it in.

Then we'll come back and blend it a little bit.

There.

We're really working that paint right into the fabric.

Okay.

See there?

Maybe a little right over in here.

Let me add a little crimson into my white, a little Alizarin Crimson to brighten it up just a tiny bit.

There.

See we can put all kinds of little things for the light zinging through there.

There we go.

In between some of these maybe there's even a little bit of Phthalo Blue.

There.

Now then.

Then we can take a clean dry two inch brush.

And this is where we can blend all of this together.

Just using the corner of the brush.

And lift it, blend it, and very lightly, very lightly just work it all together.

There.

But work with each individual cloud, make friends with it.

Begin to see things happening in it.

And you can create some of the most beautiful illusions imaginable.

There we go.

Some little highlights up in here zinging around.

There, some little things in here, just drop them in, just drop them in, then blend them, bring them together.

There we are.

Clean dry two inch brush, and just very gently bring all this together.

See there?

Fluff it, blend it.

There we go.

You can make some unbelievable skies, very simply, all you have to do is just practice a little bit.

And you wouldn't believe what you could make.

Would not believe.

Alright, maybe somewhere up in here even, there we go.

Just put all these things in, I see another one right here.

Wherever you want them.

Just sort of look around it and make big decisions where you think they should live.

There we are, that one runs right along.

Right along the top up there.

We don't even know where it goes, we don't care where it goes.

It's up here somewhere though.

Way up here in the sky.

There's something over in here, Wherever you think they should live.

Okay, back to our clean dry two inch brush.

And very gently just blend.

There we go.

There.

Yeah I talk about this mean old director all the time, we want to put a picture of her in the newsletter so you can see what she looks like.

There.

Okay.

Alright.

Now you can continue to work with this, and just create all kinds of beautiful things.

Just work with it.

Keep building, but kill all your dark areas, it's very easy to get carried away, kill all the dark areas.

Those dark areas are what give it depth and strength.

Make it look big, and powerful.

There we go.

Okay, we don't want to spend the whole show working on the sky so I'll, move on down here a little bit.

Because I love to play with skies and I could spend the rest of the day here.

Not just the show, but the rest of the whole day here.

Because I think this is really a great deal of fun.

Alright.

Now, as I mentioned when we started, I have a piece of masking tape right here.

The masking tape is only to keep the horizon straight.

So we'll take that off.

But now underneath that tape of course, There's none of the color that we put up there.

Because the tape wouldn't stick to that.

So we'll take a little Van Dyke Brown, a little Sap Green.

And I'll just run right in here.

And we'll just lay on a little bit of color.

Right up to the horizon line.

There we are.

Okay.

We're in business.

Now then, what I would recommend when you're doing a seascape, first of all, we'll just take the old filbert brush.

Let's lay out our major wave here, that'll make everything much easier if you have that laid out.

And so, let's say it's gonna come up here.

Maybe it's gonna crash over and go [Bob makes "pshew" sound] right in here somewhere, and it'll come out like this.

Then all your waves back here will, they will spread out like a fan.

Just like a fan, okay?

Now then, clean off the old brush here.

Wipe it down, this filbert brush we just, clean with paint thinner and then wipe it off.

Grab my fan brush, we'll take a little bit of the Titanium White, let's go right back here and decide where our waves behind the major waves are gonna live.

Maybe they're right here.

That's all you have to do is sort of block it in.

Just about like so.

Maybe put the indication back here of, another one.

Okay, then we'll wipe all the excess paint off our brush.

And then very gently grab that, and begin working it back, back, back.

See?

And that light becomes the trough, or the area in between the waves.

Then we'll just sort of let these blend back.

A little more white and we can go back here to the horizon.

Begin adding in all kinds of little distant things.

We just want indications way back here.

It'll pick up that Sap Green that's underneath and automatically that'll jump right out at you.

Maybe this wave's gonna come right down through here, and then, let me wipe off that excess, then we'll blend that back.

Very lightly, very very lightly.

Don't wanna lose that dark area right there, that little dark area right there is very important to us.

That's our friend and we want to take care of it.

Okay.

Now the fun part of any [laughs] wave is this eye right here, or the transparency.

So let's take a little bit of the Titanium White, least, least little touch of the Cad Yellow in it, and we'll use the old filbert brush.

Load the color into it and let's go up here.

Decide where this transparency is gonna live.

Or the eye of the wave.

And just really scrub this color in.

Just scrub it right in.

Now you can do this as many times as you want to achieve the desired lightness.

There we go.

Okay now we'll take a clean, dry two inch brush and just use the top corner, and very gently, just sort of wind it up.

The brush is hardly moving.

It just sort of stays in one place and goes around and around and that'll blend all that together.

And it'll get just as smooth as silk.

Just as smooth as it can be.

We just let that run right on out until it disappears.

Now we can begin thinking about the shape, and blend.

See?

There we go.

And already we begin having the general outline of our wave there.

Okay, I'm gonna clean up some brushes here.

Wash this old filbert brush off.

Be sure it's dry.

Okay, now then, I have several fan brushes going.

So, let's take a little of the Titanium White, on the fan brush and let's make this wave curve over.

Maybe it comes right here goes [Bob makes "pshew" sound] gotta make those little noises.

And have it just curve right over.

Maybe it curves to right there, we don't know where it goes.

Don't know that we really care.

Just bring it right over.

There we go.

Now, back to our filbert.

We'll use a little of this, oh we can use a little lavender color, it doesn't matter, what the heck.

And let's go in here, and just put in some shadow indications for foam.

This is just basically the lavender color.

And maybe it comes right on up, there it is.

Just like so.

There.

And right on around.

And there is a nice splash, churn, [Bob makes "tchoo" sound] wherever you want it.

Wherever you want it.

There we go.

Okay, wash off the old brush.

Dry it off, and we'll go right into a little bit of that Titanium White.

We could even put the least little bit of that purple into it, just to give it a little lavender hue, but not much.

Okay, maybe let's go right in here.

Now let's put a little highlight on this foam.

Push very hard, make it just jump right off there.

There.

A little more color.

See and over here, we're gonna have all these nice splashes and crashes.

And when your color gets contaminated, just wipe your brush off real good, and go back into it.

There.

We'll have a nice crashing up in here.

Wherever you think it should be.

Just sort of look at it and figure out where it should go.

There.

Comes right on down in there.

Now then, back to our large brush.

But be sure it's dry, if it's not dry, you're gonna mix this all up into mud and you're gonna be very upset with me.

Just using the top bristles, and I find the two inch brush works better than the one inch, but you might wanna try the one inch.

A lot of people seem to like it better, I just prefer the two inch, there's more hair that's actually touching the canvas than with the one inch.

There we go.

But see there?

That easy.

Keep your brush clean, and dry.

Alright.

Now then we can take our liner brush, liner brush, liner brush.

We'll take some of the white, this is just Titanium White with paint thinner.

And we can go right along here and we can begin highlighting some of these little things right in here.

[Bob makes "tchoo" sound] See now.

There we go.

And here's our light source, so that's where we want this to be the lightest.

And we can come right back in here, just begin dropping in some little highlights and stuff.

There.

Then we'll start adding a little lavender here and there as I work away from that light area, so it won't be quite as bright.

I wanna retain that brightness.

Then we can begin just putting in all kinds of little things.

There, see.

And the more of these little details that you put in, the better your particular painting will look.

And that'll make you happy, when they look good like that.

There we go.

See?

And maybe back in here, let some of these go back.

There.

And these little lines create shape and form.

And back in here there's a few.

This gives your wave roundness and shows foam patterns and stuff that are working all up in here and playing.

This is where it all comes together.

All these little things, little happy things here.

Then you can take a little of the darker color, and come right around here, put a little line under there.

And that'll act as your separator.

See, bring it right in there.

Just like so.

Now maybe, let's have a little shimmer on the water, shoot, let's have some fun.

Take a little Titanium White, There's our light source.

Let's just pull this right down.

Straight down, right there.

All we're using is a little Titanium White, but all those beautiful colors are underneath here.

This is the Indian Yellow and the Dark Sienna, and it's all coming alive now.

You don't hardly even know it's there until you start putting a little white on there.

And then, kaboom, jumps right out at you.

There we go.

Wherever you want them.

Sort of look at where your light source is, now, very lightly, we go across.

And that'll give the indication, of very wet areas.

Sort of blend it together.

There we go.

See how that just comes right together?

Sneaky.

Now let's take the small knife, I like a little knife for this, and we'll take a little bit of the white, Titanium White.

Now, come right down in here, so we can watch right in here.

See where this is gonna come?

Push very firmly, very firmly.

Re-load the knife.

Just that little roll of paint causes that though.

See there?

There we go.

This little knife really works better for this than the big knife, really works better.

Put a few little things in here.

See how you can make all those little ripples and stuff?

There we go.

Wherever you think they should be.

Then we can take a fan brush, and very lightly grab that and blend it back.

See, and leave some of those shiny things showing through, it looks like wet areas there.

Beautiful, very pretty.

We get all of our foam that's traveling up the wave.

There we go.

Okay.

Now then, back to our little liner brush.

And maybe here there's some, [laughs] there you go, that's the last little watery area, goes right there.

Like so.

Okay.

There it is.

There.

Okay, in here, just all kinds of little things.

Did I say, at home you have time to do this in a lot of detail, and you'll be amazed at what an effective way this is to do some very beautiful seascapes, just spectacular at times.

There we are.

And anybody can do them.

And I do these kind rather than just the little, little ones that look like that.

Because they're a little more interesting.

There.

It's easy to make those just look like one little wave that sort of fell over.

I like to make something that's got a nice wave going in them and some action, and, shoot, maybe we'll even put a rock or two in here, what the heck.

I like to put rocks in there, gives a wave something to splash against, and fun with.

Now we got that old brush wet, I'll take a little bit of the brown, maybe up here, there.

Maybe there, we'll put some little seagulls or M birds, as they're called.

There we go.

See, there's some happy little birds floating around up in there.

[Laughs] Tell you what, let's have some fun.

Let's take, let's take that old filbert brush, we'll put some Van Dyke in it.

Let me reach over here and get a little a little bit of the liquid white.

I'm going to put some Dark Sienna, a little Yellow Ochre in it.

Pile it up.

Now then, I'm gonna put Van Dyke Brown on both sides of the filbert, and then pull one side, just one side, right through this light color.

Now then, maybe there's some stones live right out in here in the water.

This is the easiest way I've ever seen, of making some very effective little stones.

And maybe he's got a little friend lives there.

You know, however many you want, maybe we'll have three.

See, and just let that highlight come right off there.

Take our liner brush, a little bit of thin white paint on it, put a little bottom around these stones.

Shoot, we're about to have a finished painting.

But give this one a try, and if you have time, drop me a line, let me see what kind of result you're having because that makes it all worthwhile if it's working for you, and I'd love to hear from you.

I think we'll call this one finished.

So, give this one a try as I say, and drop me a line.

We take all the pictures sometime, put them together and we like to show them on TV, so maybe you'll see yours here.

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

[announcer] To order a 256 page book of 60 Joy of Painting projects or Bob's detailed 3 hour workshop DVD Call 1-800-Bob-Ross or visit BobRoss.com [Music] [Music]