[Music] Hi, welcome back.

Certainly glad you could join me today.

You ready to do a fantastic little painting that's quite different?

Good.

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

While they're doing that, let me show you this crazy thing I got going up here today.

Today I've taken some black gesso, just plain old black gesso, and I've sort of drawn out a little design here.

Mm, I'm gonna - as you can see here, I'm gonna have the old oak tree right here or something.

And I've just put a little design here, let the black gesso dry completely.

Totally dry.

Because the gesso's an acrylic base.

After that's totally dry, I've covered the entire canvas with a thin, very thin even coat of liquid clear.

And while that's still wet, I've just taken a little tiny bit of phthalo blue.

I put the clear on there only so that when we put the phthalo blue on there, we can put like a glaze of a very very small amount of color.

If you don't have the clear on there, it's difficult to put a tiny little bit.

Okay, and with that, let's have some fun, what the heck.

What the heck.

Has to be a crazy painting in every series, and maybe in this series, this is it.

I'm gonna start with a little titanium white on our two inch brush, and just load a little color.

Let's go up in here.

Now I wanna have backlighting in this particular painting.

I want light to be shining from behind, and coming through and making some spectacular effects.

Let's start right up in here, and we'll just take this titanium white, and just make little criss cross strokes, and begin blending outward.

See this is the reason here that we only want a small amount of that phthalo blue.

If you have a great deal, when you put this white on there it's just gonna turn brilliant dark blue.

And in this case, all we're looking for is a glow coming through.

But start in the lightest area and work out.

Automatically, it'll pick up this darker color, and it gets darker, darker, darker as it comes out.

Let the canvas and the liquid clear and the paint do the work for you.

Shoot, this is, this is a lazy man's way of painting.

Okay, now, a little more of the white, and I want some more light coming from this side of the tree over here.

So we'll come right up to here, and doesn't matter if you get a little on the tree, because we're gonna paint it anyway.

Still, just plain titanium white though.

But it's mixing with that phthalo blue and liquid clear that's on there.

And you get this beautiful glow.

And it almost happens automatically.

So simple, when you use this black gesso.

That's one of the neatest things we've ever invented.

Shoot, since we introduced this, it's been used all over the country now.

And I'm just amazed that somebody hadn't done it a long time ago, it's almost, it's logical.

You have white gesso, you ought to have black gesso.

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

And you can pull it, and it gives indication sort of like light rays zinging through.

Just by pulling it.

There.

Maybe I'll put a little more on this side too, I want it a little brighter.

Shoot, when you do yours, you decide how bright you want it.

Something like that.

Now then, I'm gonna mix up, gonna mix up and get the knife here.

Take some phthalo blue, and alizarin crimson.

And proportionally much more crimson than blue, because the blue is so strong.

There.

Okay I'm looking for a lavender color but to the blue side, sort of to the blue, that's good right there.

I think that'll do what we want.

Wipe off our knife.

Tell you what, just use our same old brush.

We got it going, and it's working well, no use stopping.

Tap a little color into the bristles.

There we are.

Just a little.

And let's go right up in here and make some big decisions.

Maybe in our world, there live some happy little trees back here.

Just start thinking about some very basic little shapes though.

And I'm using just the corner of the brush, and with that, we'll begin tapping in all the little branches that are hanging way back in there.

I'm gonna leave some little light areas.

Wanna let some of that glow show through my trees.

There, I like these paintings that have the backlighting in it.

My partner Annette, she thinks these are the neatest paintings when they have backlighting.

So, maybe we'll dedicate this one to her.

Annette, this one's for you.

There we go.

Just drop that in.

But, all you're worried about now is just basic form and shape.

We're not concerned with much of anything else at this point.

Later on we'll worry about things.

Right now, we're just having fun.

Just having fun.

There.

Now then.

Let's take, let's take, let's take... let me grab the old liner brush.

Put paint thinner on it, and we want this paint to be thin, like ink or water.

Very thin though.

Turn the bristles when you take it out.

See?

So it brings it to a nice sharp point.

Now then, with that, I wanna put the indication here and there, some little twigs and sticks, and just little things that live inside of these trees that hold them all up and keep them together.

There.

Just a few here and there.

Wherever you think they should live, that's exactly where they should be.

Alright.

Now, just if you have trouble making this paint flow, chances are you need to add a little more thinner.

If you have enough thinner in there it'll flow right over the top of that thick paint.

Okay.

Let's see, I have, I have several old brushes, let me grab another one here.

Take a little bit of that lavender color, same lavender color, and go into the titanium white, and I wanna load some color into the bristles.

Push the brush, push it.

See that little ridge of paint right there?

There's a ridge just like that on the end of the bristles, and that's what we're looking for, give it a little shove, a little push.

Okay let's go up here.

Now then I'll put some highlights, think of that light zinging through there.

See there?

Just the corner of the brush.

Just the corner.

And begin shaping all your little things in there.

Look at that.

Look at that, it's that easy though.

Think about individual limbs, and all kinds of little things.

There.

See?

There's one, wherever you want.

Wherever you want them.

Mm.

Those sparkle, because the light's just zinging through them.

Okay now as I go back, I want them to get a little darker.

So I'm gonna take that same color, and add the least little amount of the phthalo blue, same color, white with a little phthalo blue in it.

Push once again get that little ridge of paint there.

Just give it a little push.

Now then, we'll start the next layer of trees here.

But because this has the blue in it, it's a little touch darker.

And it'll give the impression that not as much light's hitting it.

There.

Mm.

There we go.

Once again, work on little individual shapes and forms.

See there?

How you can make all those little doers in there?

This is one of the easiest ways I've ever found of making a lot of little trees real easy.

Let's go back to the brush that has the dark color on it, we're working in layers here, and I want the next layer to be a little darker.

We'll even put a little of them up there.

Right through that tree.

Right there, right through the branch, we can see some of those.

Now then, let's just create the next tree right in there.

Wherever.

And every painting is gonna be different, so look at your painting, don't just try to copy this one.

Look at your painting and decide what makes it look the best.

A little more of that same basic color, make it a little touch darker.

A little more of the phthalo blue in it.

Go back up here, oh that's nice.

That's nice.

There we go.

And just work these back and forth.

Create the illusion of all kinds of things in here.

There's one, comes out from behind the tree.

Once again, don't worry if you get a little paint on the trunk, because we're gonna come back in there and paint all of that.

Maybe there's some big old hangy-down things right there.

Some big old bushes that just have limbs that hang over.

There.

All those little individual things though.

That's what makes your painting beautiful.

Now I'm going back to my liner brush, a little bit of that lavender color.

Let me get a little more paint thinner.

You want this thin, once again, almost like ink.

Very thin though.

See it's almost running on the palette here.

Turn that brush.

Now we can go back in here and begin picking out a few little individual things.

Better make it a little darker, it doesn't show up well enough.

There.

Oh now that's better.

Had to change the flavor a little.

Had to change the flavor.

And this is your world, so you can do it any way you want.

Maybe there's a large tree, [Bob makes "shooom, mm" sound] gotta make those little noises or it won't work.

There.

Okay, a little more color, let's put a few little arms on this tree.

Push it way back in there.

There, maybe this one comes right over in front.

Don't just have arms coming out the side, let's have them go across the front of the tree, behind the tree.

Otherwise it looks like somebody took a big razorblade and just [Bob makes "ssst" sound] cut your tree in two, and all you see is half of it.

Few little knocked off branches here and there.

Shoot, that's coming out pretty good.

Okay let's go to that other side here and I'm going to do basically the same thing over here on the other side.

We'll start with some of the lighter lavender color.

And begin thinking about little individual shapes and forms.

There.

Tell you what, while we're doing this, because it's going to be just like we did on the other side, let me share a couple more of my little creatures with you.

I mentioned earlier in one of the shows that I met a fantastic lady in Florida by the name of Carmen Shaw, and she's allowed me to come out and film some of her animals, and she has some of the most beautiful little Florida deer here.

Aren't those beautiful little characters?

I don't know how anybody can shoot Bambi.

[chuckles] I like these little characters, I wanna take them all home with me, I'd almost move them in the house with me.

But these are the most gentle little creatures.

And both of these have been injured to the point that they'll never be able to be released again.

There.

Okay.

I'm just putting in these same old trees while you're watching the deer there.

It's interesting, these deer, for some reason took a liking to my hair and pulled it off nearly.

This is a little bitty raccoon, just a tiny little baby one that she just got in.

He was a mess.

But he's a cute little devil.

By the time you see this, he'll probably be grown up, and going off and have his own family.

There.

Okay.

Ain't he cute though?

I like these little creatures, I really hope you enjoy seeing them too.

I'm gonna take a little of the paint thinner, and a little bit of color, and just over here I'm doing exactly the same thing I did on the other side, just putting in a few indications of some tree trunks, limbs, branches, sticks, twigs.

[chuckles] Whatever you wanna call them.

There we go.

Okay, few little things here and there.

Alright.

Let's take, I'll go back to this brush that has mostly white on it.

A little bit of the titanium white, and just like we did on the other side, let's put a few little highlights in here.

Just to make them little rascals just sparkle in the sun.

There.

Okay.

And, once again, pay attention to shape and form and all those little things when you're doing your own paintings.

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

There, because I want you to be happy with this.

And if it works well for you, then you will.

I'm going back to my brush that has the dark color on it, and put in another layer here.

Each layer's getting a little darker.

Once it comes out of this bright intense light, maybe we'll begin seeing a little color in some of these.

There we go.

Okay, just think about the shape that you want this tree to be, and the limbs that are hanging over.

Mm.

As I say, I really like these black canvas - This black gesso is one of the neatest things that I've ever seen.

It's one thing about the television show here, it's allowed me to introduce a lot of ideas into the art world that I've had for a long time.

And this way, I get to show them to people myself.

There we go.

And some of them are pretty good ideas, there's a lot of companies now that are making different color gessos and et cetera.

So, enjoy it.

Let's take a little bit of that phthalo blue, and come right along in here.

And just put a few little things in there.

I will start getting into some color very quickly.

So I just want a few little tips sticking out.

There, that's really about all I want.

Maybe, tell you what, let's make some individual little bushes right here.

See?

There's one.

And we'll give him a little friend that lives right about there.

But you can create it just layer, after layer, after layer.

Try to do one bush at a time.

I know sometimes it looks like because we're in a hurry looks like we just jump in and just knock in about 50 of them at once, but normally, normally we only do one little bush at a time.

And each one is an individual.

I'm gonna go right into the least little touch, of the cad yellow.

Now we had blue on the brush, so that's gonna make a nice light yellow-green color.

And that's how we'll begin getting into color up here.

Oooh.

Look at that.

Look at that.

Mm.

Now we've got some color in our leaves.

Just a little.

Maybe I'll add at least a little touch of sap green to that and dull it down a little bit more.

Oh yeah, I like that better.

There we are.

Okay, a little black, black will dull it down and make a very dark deep green.

And we'll use that a little further on back in here.

Just midnight black, hit the yellow.

There we go.

Okay, maybe it comes right down in there, something like that.

Tell you what, let's take the liner brush, put us in a few little trunks and sticks, and twigs, paint thinner.

There, see just let some of these show through.

There, look at all that, and that sort of gives it a much nicer little feel to it.

Because you always have all these little sticks that are showing out.

Look at all of them.

Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe over in here you can make out, yep, there's one right there.

You knew it was there, didn't you?

Give him an arm too, we don't want him left out.

Something there, and by putting these in the foreground, it helps push everything else back.

Okay, let me wipe off the old brush.

Let's go into some of our midnight black, a little yellow, and make a darker green now.

Loading the brush the same way, pushing, just pushing like that.

Now maybe in our world, right here, lives a little tree.

There.

Just like that.

There he is.

There he is.

Okay, good.

Darker, darker, darker down here.

I want it to fade right into nothing.

Then I'll go back to my liner brush.

Pick up a little bit of that dark paint, and we'll put the indication down here, of some little sticks, and twigs, trunks, limbs, [chuckles] whatever, once again, that you can see here and there.

Okay.

Sometimes it's nice to take a little of the light color, maybe like a little of that titanium white and have some back in here that are much lighter.

Much lighter.

There.

Gonna dull that down a little bit, with a little phthalo blue.

It's too bright.

Okay, I have a few of those, wherever you want them.

Where ever you want them, maybe a few back in here in this little rascal.

And just sort of play back and forth with color, and get it the way you want it.

Put all those little rascals in.

I think it's time we came down to the bottom of that, and begin putting in, putting in.

We make a little darker green here, I'm gonna add some yellow ochre to that, maybe even a little Indian yellow.

Quite darker now.

Getting into some deeper shadows down in here.

There.

Nice bush.

A little bush lives in there, and he's got a friend named Harry that lives right there.

There we are.

And, one in there, just where ever you want them.

Them little rascals just live in your brush, you just sort of have to shake them out sometime.

Now let's start working on this old big tree, that's the fun part of this.

Let's use a fan brush.

Go right into Van Dyke brown dark sienna, just mix them on the brush, here.

Just mix them on the brush, load both sides full of color.

Whatever.

Let's go up here.

Now then, all I'm gonna do first of all, is just go right over the gesso.

Just right like that.

And because the gesso's there, and it's already dark, you don't have to worry if you miss a little area or something.

This is a big tree here, big old oak tree.

Or what ever kind of tree you want, maybe where you live this would be a sycamore or whatever.

Big maple or...

I think that's what one of the engineers here in the studio called this when he saw it.

Now then, just gonna take a little, a little touch of light color, a little white, a little dark sienna.

But a little bit lighter.

And with that, this is where it pays to have a nervous hand.

Let it just wiggle and jiggle, and carry on and tap, all these little things, it'll make, maybe hard to see on here, but you get all kinds of little actions going on.

All kinds of them.

I hope you can see how that's beginning to show up.

But we want this to stay very dark, because the light's behind the tree.

This is, as I say this painting is, the light is from behind, it's backlit.

There we go.

That's really about all you need.

It makes painting a big tree trunk so easy.

So very easy.

And as you know [chuckles] this is the lazy man's way of painting.

Take some sap green here, a little sap green, a little bit of the cad yellow, yellow ochre, here and there, the tiniest little amount of the bright red.

You put red in there because it's the opposite of green, and it'll, it dulls, the red acts as a duller.

I know it doesn't make sense sometimes, but it dulls.

Now then, let's go up here.

Maybe in our world, there's a little bit of, yep you're right.

Let's just tap in, just a happy little grassy area right there.

Let it come right up.

Maybe like that.

See there?

Darker, darker, darker.

Now the more you tap this, the darker it's gonna become, because it's gonna pick up the color that's underneath.

So it's gonna get darker and darker.

There it goes, follow the old tree roots.

Like so, wherever.

Okay, and you can change the lay of the land, just by, let me get a little more of that black on here.

Watch here, watch here, maybe right in here, we want a little hill that comes down.

You can change it that easy.

There we go.

Darker, darker, darker, darker, darker.

Now when you do yours, you make it as dark or as light as you want it.

Okay, this is the brush that has the lavender on it, I'm gonna put the indication right here of some little bushes that live back here in the background.

And all you have to do is just tap on some little colors, like that.

That's all it amounts to.

I sorta destroyed my edge, I'm gonna sharpen that back up.

You can do that, that easy.

And maybe, over here, I'll have this come this way.

A little bit this way.

Like so.

But angles are most, most important, and this needs to stay very dark to make that light in the background really really stand out.

It's that contrast that makes it such an interesting painting.

I'll take a fan brush that has the browns on it.

This looks like a natural place to me.

[chuckles] Yeah, you're right, I'm gonna have a happy little path.

You'd have you come down here and see this beautiful tree.

So you need a little path to get back in the woods.

Okay, a little white, not much though, I don't want this to get too bright.

A little white with a touch of the phthalo blue into it.

So it's a cool color in here.

Nice cool color.

A few little touch ups here and there, Over in there, wherever you want it.

Now then, let's go back to our old liner brush.

I'm gonna go right into, well I tell you what, let's use black.

Paint thinner, black, maybe in our world there lives a big old tree, [Bob makes "schwoo"sound] whoops, ran out of paint, put more on there.

Right about there.

Right about there.

Give him some nice arms, maybe, there's another one there, wherever, wherever.

Maybe this old tree's dead.

There's a lot of dead trees in nature, so, put them in your paintings sometime, it makes it look more natural and real.

Don't be afraid to put a dead painting in your painting.

Or dead tree in your painting, boy I messed that up.

Sometimes your tongue gets over your eye teeth and you can't see what you're saying.

There.

Like so.

And you can take your time, put a lot of little tiny limbs in there.

Really make it look nice.

Tell you what, let's do, we need some, we need some leaves on that big tree, but I want them very dark, very subdued.

Dark green, very dark green.

Let's come in here, and just begin picking out some little individual limbs, and shapes, and forms, but you need to keep this very dark or it's going to lose it's effect.

Very dark.

Very dark, look at that.

Look at all those big limbs hanging off there.

Hope you try this painting, it is one of the neatest little paintings, and it's very simple.

Very, very simple, even if you've never painted before.

This one, you should have pretty good success with.

There.

Okay, a little bit over on this side, don't want him left out.

But, once again, think about shape and form, don't just throw these in at random, because you won't be happy if you do.

Try this black gesso.

I think you'll find it one of the neatest things that you've ever used.

Does wonderful, wonderful little things.

See there?

Now we have that big old tree, it's full of leaves and it's hiding back there, that's my little squirrel's gonna live when I let him go and he grows up.

Shoot I think we're about to have a finished painting here.

We're gonna call that one done.

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

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