Painting with Wilson Bickford

As you recall in part one of Snow Glow, we dropped in the background, sky and trees. Now we're gonna move forward and develop this old barn. Join me next on Painting with Wilson Bickford. (upbeat music) -

Narrator

Support for Painting with Wilson Bickford, is provided by, the J.M. McDonald Foundation, continuing the example modeled by J.M. McDonald by contributing to, education, health, humanities, and human services, sharing since 1952. Online at jmmcdonaldfoundation.org. (bright music) The View Center for Arts and Culture is an Adirondack exhibition and performance space featuring in person and online classes for creatives of all ages and abilities. Open calls, events, and class schedules online at viewarts.org. Hi, welcome back to part two of Snow Glow. This is Painting with Wilson Bickford. As you recall, last week we started this project of the red barn, now it's time to finish this up and bring it to a completion. As you recall, when we left off, I was just putting in the cast shadow with my number 10 flat brush. Cast shadow on the snow from the moonlight, with the barn. Now I'm taking a clean dry fan brush and I'm softening the edges of that shadow just a little bit so it looks a little more shadowy, not so harsh. Just soften it against the white snow that's beside it, it'll blend in really easy. I got a little chunk of something there, I'll get that outta there, brush bristle I think. Just soften that so it looks a little more shadowy. And you'll notice I've got a few little shadow pockets in there, here and there. Now that's up to you, you could have a nice smooth blanket of snow. Maybe it snowed six inches last night, and there's not much difference in the lay of the land here, but you can take a little bit of this same colors we've been using and just scuff in. They're gonna look really harsh here at first, but I'll soften them. Just no rhyme or reason to 'em just scuffing some little shadow pockets. If I wipe the brush off, I'll come back and blend them with the lay of the land, go horizontally the way they lie. And just soften them in. It gives your land a little more interest. It looks like you got little undulating hills and gulleys in there. Undulating, that's a fun word, isn't it? Okay, now it's time to work on that barn. So I'm gonna take a painting knife. Now this isn't on your supply list, I just happened to have one here. You can use your sharp utility knife that you trimmed your tape with. Just be careful with whatever tool you use. And I'm gonna remove all this tape and my barn should be under there, right where I left it. There it is, who knew? Okay, now this is an old red barn that I'm going to do. And I found some stuff online, I always wondered myself and I've had people ask me, I wonder why they paint all the old barns red. I found some information here online. It says rust was plentiful on farms and because it killed fungi and mosses that might grow on barns, it was very effective as a sealant. It turned to mixture red in color. When paint became more available, many people will chose red paint for their barns in honor of that tradition. So that's how that came about. That's why a lot of these old barns are red. I always wondered why, now I know. I'm gonna take the number six small flat brush, and some of this clear glazing medium that I've had sitting here, this is the purpose for this. I'm not purposely trying to put it on the white areas where the snowy roof and the foundation are, but if I get it on there, it won't hurt anything. I'm just, so I'm not being careful, I'm just gonna put it on the black areas. That's what I'm targeting, if I accidentally get it on the white areas it won't hurt anything. So I'm not going to agonize over that. I gonna just get right to the edges. This is gonna lubricate this area of the canvas, 'cause right now it's dry. And then when I put all my barn boards on there, it kind of greases things up so it slides on a lot easier. I hope you give this a try. This is a really fun painting to do, and I know you can do it. I'm showing you all the ins and outs and everything you need to know to do it. So you have no excuse, give it a shot and send me a sample of it, I'd love to see it. Okay, from there I'm gonna take my number two detail script liner. I'm gonna use red, and just a little bit of white. If I put too much white, it's gonna turn pink. And I certainly don't want a pink barn. So I'm literally talking 98% red and maybe 2% white just to lighten it up. The red by itself is gonna look really dark against that black, and not really show up much. I'm gonna chisel the brush up. Notice how I load it on two sides and I flatten it out like a little razor thin flat brush almost. Notice there's a seam across here. I'm just gonna lightly, lightly indicate where that is. I don't want that to show in the end. That looks almost a little too pink for me. So I'm gonna put a little more red back into that. So consider it 99% red and only 1% white. If I want to put just enough white to get it to show up. And again, I'm flattening this brush out and I'm gonna start stroking in barn boards. Notice how I do this, I'm not fighting with it, I'm just going, boom, boom, boom, boom, down to that line. I wanna leave that black seam there. If I don't close that up, it's already there. I've already got a shadow for that seam, so that's my intention. And if I lose it, I can put some dark back in there. And notice I'm not quite going right to the edge of the roof, I'm leaving a little bit of a shadow underneath the eave up there, very simple, very effective. Don't make it any more complicated than it needs to be. It doesn't need to be complicated. Notice how quickly I did that, a lot of people come in, they'll put a line and line and line, it looks like jail bars, everything's too rigid, too stiff, too symmetrical. Notice that some of the black even shows through. And I'm trying to leave a little bit of black in between some of the board so it looks like you got a gap between there. The boards have shrunk and warped and twisted. The less perfect you make it, the more you're gonna like it. You want it to look kinda rough, not like something they built or painted yesterday. Notice how I'm steadying myself here just to steady my arm a little bit so I can be a little more precise with it. I'm trying to stay off the foundation as much as I can, but get close to it. Notice that this section of the barn comes forward and the little shed here sets back farther. So I want some differentiation there. How I accomplish that is I start on this side and work my way across. By the time I get over to here, I'm running outta paint on the brush and it automatically stays a little darker, which brings this edge forward. If it doesn't happen that way, I can always change the colors and lighten up that corner. But I'll show you. See I'm just gonna go across, I'm not gonna reload, I'm actually using a lighter touch as I get there, and see it's just getting darker and darker, falling into shadow a little more and it brings this edge forward. Now, if it doesn't quite do it enough, that's working, but if it doesn't quite do it enough, you can go back and add just a touch of white. I'm talking a smidgen, which is more, a smidgen, an iota, or a tad? Food for thought. I really don't know, just use a little bit, how's that? Just use a little bit. See I go a little later on that corner that separates those two on different planes of depth, which is what we want. Okay, that was pretty easy, right? Yes, you can handle that, I know you can. Now I'm gonna wash that brush out and I'm going to take the number six small flat. This is the one I used the clear glazing medium with, and it still has a little touch of that on there. It won't hurt a thing. I'm gonna take a little more of that actually. And just a little spec of that Van Dyke brown. This is going to be the mortar in between the rocks on this foundation. I don't want it pure white obviously. Any red that I got in there, I'm just gonna brush it outta there and get it outta the way. See gone, nothing to it. So I'm gonna paint the mortar between the stones before I actually put the stones on. And then I'm gonna use the number two detail script liner to paint rocks in there. This is just an old stone foundation, it's not bricks so don't get too methodical with it. I'm gonna start out with some of the Van Dyke brown, a little bit of white, flatten the brush out a little bit and just randomly put some darker spots in here. Vary the sizes, the distances apart from each other. This is not the only color I'm gonna use. I'm gonna come and use some more color. We've all seen these old stone foundations before. So we know kind of what they look like. I'll put some in like that, I'm gonna add a little more Van Dyke brown and darken it down a little bit more. We don't want 'em all the same color or the same value. So I'll put some darker ones in once in a while. Be careful about how much gap, how much cement you leave between them. You wanna make it look full enough, but there should be gap between them where the cement fills in the gaps, where they stack 'em up. It doesn't take much to get the feeling. Notice this one's got a little bit of a blue gray in it, in the foundation. I could actually take a little bit of blue into some of that and you'll need a little bit of white, 'cause it's gonna make it too dark, but you can alter the flavor a little bit and I can put some of these blue gray ones in. Stones are all different kinds of colors, so it's nice to have some variety in it. Okay, I think that did it. Now see, I'm hurrying here a little more, these are a little more precise, I took my time, squared 'em off, rounded 'em off here and there. But you'll have time to do that at home. That'll give you the idea, it's just that simple. I'm gonna switch that brush out, and I'm gonna go back to the number six flat brush. Now I'll have to rinse this out 'cause I got a little bit of that brownish color from the glaze of the cement and mortar on there. Rinse that out, I'm gonna put white and I'm using the white base coat because it's already thin. I'm gonna take some of this white base coat and I'm gonna paint this roof in. It's a nice thin coat, now it's facing away from the moonlight, which is our light source, so it's gonna be in shadow. So I'm certainly not going to leave it white, into that I will take a little bit of blue. This is just the ultramarine blue, maybe a little bit of this purplely gray that I had for my sky. Just anything looks shadowy for snow. And I'm just gonna randomly scuff in a few little spots here and there, it's gonna look really rough till I blend it. Blending cures everything, but you have to get it on here first before you can blend it. So I'm gonna go a little darker as well, I'll take a little blue, maybe a slight little spec of brown just to gray it down. Hey that rhymed, take brown and gray it down, I should write a song. I'm gonna go a little darker here and there, a few little patches. I want it to look kinda uneven. And then I'll wipe the brush off, and using the back side of the brush just carefully smudge it all together. Now with the detail script liner again, I washed this out. I'm gonna have to add just a touch of thinner with this, to get it to flow. I'll take some of that same color and right here on the bottom, I can kind of scallop this a little bit like the snow's hanging over rather than just have a boring, straight edge there. Give it some character. I'll take some of that same color, I've gotta mix up a little more actually, I'm just about out, white base coat I should say. Just 'cause it's thinner, I don't have to thin down the thick stuff if I use the white base coat. I'll take a little bit of white, some blue spec of brown, to just to mimic these same colors. Notice on this side, this side is away from the light so I can go and shadow. This side I'm gonna illuminate with white 'cause it's facing the moonlight. So I'm gonna put this on, I gotta go just a little bit lighter than that, so it shows up against my sky. Third time's the charm, let's try this one, here we go. There we go, you see I want that more of a shadow tone, it's facing away from the light, so it wouldn't make sense to put it too bright. And then I'm gonna switch that out, and I'll take, this is just a pure white base coat now. And on this side, since it is facing the moonlight, this is gonna be brighter. See how that makes sense. And like before I'm gonna scallop the edge a little bit, now be careful you don't pick up your red, or you're gonna have pink snow up there on your roof. All right, that's looking pretty good. I'm gonna lighten this one side, that shadowed side still just a little too dark for my taste. It's blending into my sky too much, so I'm gonna put a little more light in there, just enough to break the edge. That's one of those adjustments you always have to make as an artist, you're always adjusting one color against another one, value against another, hard and soft edges, it's a juggling act. So you just look for 'em and adjust them as you go. There we go, that's looking pretty good. I'm gonna throw a couple of windows in here, I want 'em to look like they're glassed in so I'm gonna use more of a bluish color, blue, blue, gray. I'm just coloring right from the same stuff that I've already got here. Some blue and white, a little bit of that gray that I had mixed in, flatten the brush out. And you can put as many windows in here as you choose. I'll stick with the game plan. Now you're gonna pick up some of this red, there's no doubt about it. That red is really strong. You see, it's turning slightly kind of purplish, but it's not so bad that I can't live with it. And I'll square that up in just a moment. I'm just gonna get it on here first. And they're two different areas of the building, they don't necessarily have to be the same size, use your own judgment. And through the center, I'm gonna take some red and brown and nice dark value, and I'm gonna put a cross piece in the middle, one vertically, one horizontally. So it looks like you have four panes. But take your time with the windows, keep 'em nice and square. I've switched the brush out, I'll take red and a little bit of the brown, to make it nice, dark, dark red, so it shows up. It'll match the painted portion of the barn. I'm gonna have to thin this down, so I'm gonna dip into the odourless mineral spirits here. And again, I'm steadying my arm, I'm gonna put a nice cross piece through there. One through here, load up again and do one horizontally through the middle. Easy as pie, which is 3.14 if I remember right. That kind of pie, wasn't easy for me. I hated math in school. Two plus two always made five and as far as I know it still does, doesn't it? Yeah, I think so. That's why I paint, that's why I'm not a math teacher. Okay, I'm gonna square those off a little more. Notice I've got a little bit of snow on the top of the foundation where the lip sticks out, a little bit on the window sills even. White base coat, a little spec of blue, again, it's facing away from the light, so I want it in shadow. I'm very carefully gonna lay on a little indication of some snow piled up here. Make it a little wiggly and jiggly. A little bit laying on the window sills. All right, that's looking pretty good. Okay, I'm pretty much done with the barn. Like I said, you'll have to tweak it and then take your time with it, get it the way you want it. (bright music) If wanna add a spark of life in your barn and make it look like somebody's in there doing some chores, you can use some cadmium yellow pale. Now this isn't on your supply list, but if you took some cadmium yellow pale with a little bit of white base coat, and put a little bit of light in the window, I wouldn't do every window. It makes it look like somebody is inside doing some chores. I'm gonna switch over to the fan brush. Now this one's still dirty, I had some of my blue gray on it, it's fine. I'm just gonna take a little bit of this Van Dyke brown, not much paint on the brush. If you want a nice big thick blanket of snow, you don't have to put any grass at all. If you want grass, I just lightly pull up like this, I touch in, pull up and I turn the brush to and fro. You're gonna have to determine how much grass you want. If any, I would say the farther back you go, it's gonna look smaller and shorter, even though it may be sticking out of the ground the same height, but because of linear perspective it looks shorter. I would use less paint and just touch very lightly, and see it's just a slight stubble. If you put some through that cast shadow, it really helps anchor the shadow down. and here in the foreground, you can afford to go a little taller, a little bigger with it. That's gonna look bigger because it's closer to us. See it doesn't take much to get the effect. Okay I was hoping to get this to this point and still have some time left and I did. And I'm just gonna ad lib now. You could leave this painting like that, it's fine, there's nothing wrong with it. I'm gonna take the detail script liner, this is the long script liner, excuse me, I'm gonna take the number two long script liner, and I'm gonna thin down some of this Van Dyke brown quite thin. The key to using this brush is to get the paint really thin like milk. It's gotta be quite thin and you want the brush loaded right from the tip to the metal feral, so the whole bristle is full. Everything is full, right from top to bottom. I'm going to embellish right here in some of these clumps. I'm gonna take a little bit of the excess paint out of the brush, there we go. Just blot it on a towel. I'm gonna embellish this a little bit and pull up a few little taller reeds and weeds. Now this is optional, you don't have to do it. To me it just brings another level of closeness that looks bigger and closer. So it pushes the barn and everything else back a little further, which is the whole point. We're trying to show depth on a flat surface where we have no depth. I'm gonna come in with a, now I'm really going for it here, I'm gonna come in a branch hanging in here. Again, it's optional. Dipping into my thinner again, that feels a little sticky to me. I'm gonna try to use my stick here to steady my hand and not get my hand in the way so you can't see what I'm doing. I'm thinking there's a tree standing over here somewhere out of the picture plane, but you're seeing some of the limbs in the branches hanging in. When I'm holding my breath I'm not talking, so when you hear me shut up, that just means I'm holding my breath to steady my hand. And again, that's optional depending on whether you wanna do it or not. Try not to let 'em all stop at the same level. I'm gonna bring one in a little further. I can clean this up a little bit once the cameras stop rolling, but I wanna show you how I did it. Something like that, you could even lay snow on those if you wanted to. Speaking of snow, let's do this, I'm gonna switch out this liner brush. Again, this is an option, you don't have to do it. Switch that out, I'm gonna take some of the white base coat and just a couple drops of thinner I'm gonna want with that. I'm going to spatter, I know some of you remember this from seeing me do it before. I'm gonna say there's a little light snowfall coming down. And I'm gonna put in some falling snow. And again, it's an option if you don't want it to snow in yours, don't do it. I think that's the perfect touch. You know, I have a friend who used to have a barn that he kept his chickens in, and he thought the barn was haunted. So he consulted an exorcist, turns out it just ended up being a Poultrygeist. True story guys, true story, I wouldn't make something like that up. So we're gonna let it snow a little bit. One final thing, I think I got just enough time. I'm going to take some of this thin brown and a little bit of blue, which will give me virtually a black, and on one of these limbs, I'm gonna put a little owl. Just draw a basic thumb shape, put a little short tail, hanging down below, a couple of ears on the top, like a Horned owl. They got the little ears that stick up. And he's just sitting, surveying everything that's going on. All right, that brings us to a wrap. I hope you enjoyed this. I'd love to see your version of it. Until next time, stay creative and keep painting. (bright music) -

Narrator

Support for painting with Wilson Bickford, is provided by, the J.M. McDonald Foundation. Continuing the example modeled by J.M. McDonald by contributing to, education, health, humanities, and human services. Sharing since 1952. Online at jmmcdonaldfoundation.org. (bright music) The View Center for Arts and Culture is an Adirondack exhibition and performance space featuring in person and online classes for creatives of all ages and abilities. Open calls, events, and class schedules online at newarts.org. -

Instructor

All 13 episodes of Painting with Wilson Bickford season eight are now available on DVD or Blu-ray in one box set for $35 plus 4.95 shipping and handling. Or learn the techniques used to paint sundown beacon with the in-depth Paint Smart, Not Hard series of Wilson Bickford instructional DVDs. Additional titles available. Order online or watch or download directly to your computer or mobile device. More information at wpbstv.org/painting. (upbeat music)