- Hi, welcome back.

Certainly glad you could join me today.

You know, we get hundreds and hundreds of letters here concerning the Joy of Painting.

And one of the things we here over and over again is people feel intimidated, or they're a little nervous about putting the first stroke on canvas.

So, I thought we'd devote this entire show today to teaching you how to just sort of loosen up, and take life easy, and enjoy painting.

We're gonna use a very limited palette, and maybe I'll just use something like a two inch brush and maybe a palette knife.

Very simple, but I wanna show you how to get over this fear of your first painting.

So, let's have them run the colors that I'm gonna use across the screen.

And let's just have some fun today.

Just drag out the old easy chair, and get you a big glass of iced tea, and kick back, and sort of enjoy this.

If you have your paintbrush out, I invite you to paint along with us, and I think you'll enjoy doing something that's a little different.

It's very free, very relaxed, and it gets you over this tightness, or this fear of your first painting.

So, I'm just putting a little Liquid White on the canvas.

And basically here, all we're looking for is just a nice thin even coat, of the liquid medium all the way across the canvas.

This just makes the canvas wet and slick.

It's what allows color to blend on here, and maybe we can really demonstrate today how color blends on this Liquid White.

Now, this is a pre-stretched canvas.

It has give to it.

It's not a canvas board, we don't recommend those.

Because they have cardboard in the center, and what happens, they'll absorb this Liquid White, and very rapidly your surface will become dry.

And it's no fun to paint on it anymore.

Because this is wet you need it to stay that way.

All right, let's take a little Yellow Ochre, and I'm just gonna play today.

Let's just have fun.

A little Yellow Ochre.

Be right back, don't go away.

Little touch of the black into it.

Very little.

And we just make a light little color, like so.

And we still have Liquid White on the brush.

So, we're just letting that blend.

We're gonna make a very soft, maybe a little muted area in the background back here.

And just play with color.

You know, maybe one of the hardest things to do in painting is to is to get over this fear of canvas.

It's natural.

And if it bothers you a little bit to jump up here and start throwing a bunch of color on the canvas, it means you're normal.

You're just like me and everybody else that's every painted.

You go through this until you get over this fear.

So, that's what we wanna we wanna play with.

Then, we'll take a little touch of the Prussian Blue.

So, this begins to get a slight greenish hue to it, but not much, not much.

And let's just begin playing with color.

Just play, maybe we ought to decide what season it's gonna be, at least, before we get too far involved.

And maybe something in the winter colors that's always fun.

A little bit more of the Prussian Blue, and black.

A little touch of Yellow Ochre, but mostly just blue and black.

And just let these colors sort of blend together and play, and have fun.

But really and truly don't worry about it.

The way to learn how to paint is to be relaxed and enjoy, and just let it go.

Things work better for you when you're relaxed, and you're really happy with what you're doing.

So, try to let it happen that way.

Maybe on this side, we'll put a little bit more of that there.

See, we just sort of let these colors come together here, like so.

But very loose.

Very loose.

There.

Okay.

And we let them go wherever.

Doesn't matter.

There we are.

But see, that easy.

You have a very nice little sky.

One of the best ways to do this, nearly every time you do a painting you're gonna have a bunch of color left over.

This is a super, super way of using up that old color, and enjoying the freedom of just painting.

And just letting your imagination run wild with you.

So, try this.

I'm serious, there's nothing that I know of that will teach you looseness more than this.

I want to make this side over here a little bit darker.

See, and as you begin painting, you begin seeing things.

All these little things just sort of happen.

So now automatically we have a light area over in here.

Just because we made these sides a little darker.

I'll make it even a little darker yet, what the heck.

This is our world, so we can do it any way that we want.

We'll just make a little cross criss strokes.

We'll do it backwards today.

There.

And very lightly, I'll just sort of blend that out a little.

And we have all kinds of things happening in this sky.

That simple.

And if you wanna blend it more, just continue to blend.

You can make it as soft as silk or velvet, just by doing that.

And maybe in our world, maybe way back here in the background maybe we can visualize some little distant tree indication.

Just take the brush, lay it like that, give it a little gentle push.

But I want these to be very soft, and very light.

Far away.

See?

Now, the other side.

These are just little indications of things that are far back here in the distance.

Far away.

Don't let them get too distinct.

Or you'll ruin that illusion of distance in your painting.

And we're just gonna play here.

Enjoy this.

Let it go.

Let it happen.

Let it happen.

Maybe there's another one right there.

I don't know.

Wherever you wanna.

But this is mainly a little Midnight Black, a little Prussian Blue, and there's a touch of Yellow Ochre left in it.

You can add maybe the least little touch of Van Dyke Brown, but the color should be very soft and very muted at this point.

Very soft and quiet.

Maybe this one goes way up here.

We don't know.

Just push harder if you want it to look like it's a bigger tree.

But this background idea is a way to make very soft scenes that you wanna show a lot of distance in.

And it's a very, very simple and effective Okay, a little more of the color on the brush.

Tell you what, maybe there's a tree that lives right here.

Maybe this one, maybe this one is sort of crooked.

And it goes all the way off the canvas.

Who cares?

In your world, you can make it any way that you want it.

These are just, once again, distant indications of things that are happening.

Very soft and muted, quiet peaceful little places.

This is where all the little creatures live and have fun.

There.

Some of them you can hardly see in there.

They're so far away.

There, maybe.

There we are.

Let's see, we said this was going to be winter.

So, we need to keep that in mind.

I'll mess around here, and forget what season I said it was gonna be.

There we go.

Now then, down here at the base we're still using the same colors.

The same ol' colors.

We can tap in a few little happy bushes that live right down in here.

This is just a tiny bit darker.

So, it indicates that it's a little closer.

Now, if this is our light source here less pressure on the brush.

Let it get lighter, and lighter.

Very gentle.

Just sort of fade right into that.

Where you want it to be darker, just get a little tougher.

Push, and let it go right off there somewhere.

There we go.

Maybe over in here Tell you what, maybe maybe there's a few little trees that, yep you're right, live right here.

Just little indications of little things.

See, and you can just turn the brush in different directions to create all types of effects.

There.

And just sort of look at it once again.

This is such a fantastic way of painting because you have no you don't trace a painting up here, and you don't have any guidelines.

The only thing that restricts you here is your imagination.

Just your imagination, nothing else.

And imagination is like anything else, it's like a muscle in your body, if you practice with it, you exercise your imagination it gets stronger.

Very soon, you're able to visualize more and more things in your mind.

So, use it.

God gave you this gift.

Take advantage of it.

We may be the only creature on Earth that has a vivid imagination.

There.

Then again, we may not.

I don't know.

Don't know that it matters.

There.

And we'll start adding Mmm, we'll take a little more of the black, and the blue, Van Dyke Brown, maybe a little tough of the Dark Sienna here and there.

But as we work forward, I want this color to begin getting a little darker.

And see, I'm just loading the brush by just going back and forth.

Doesn't matter how you load it.

Doesn't matter.

There, a little blue, and black, a little Van Dyke Brown.

All those beautiful, beautiful colors.

Now, then maybe watch here.

See, all you gotta do is take this brush and push upward, like that to make.

Look at that.

See, that easy you can make the illusion of little grassy areas back in here.

Just like so.

Shoot, maybe we'll have some over here.

And we're gonna sort of change the lay of the land here a little.

So, it has some interesting things happening in here, it's not just all the same.

Let these little things just happen.

There.

All kinds of little doers.

Maybe over in here again.

See, you begin seeing these little doers.

But just pushing upward, bend the brush very hard.

You're not gonna hurt the brush.

But it makes all these little grassy looking effects.

They're very simple, and you can do them.

I know you can do them.

'Cause you can do anything that you wanna do.

As long as you can believe you can do it.

Anything that you believe you can do, you really can do.

Let's take a two inch brush.

And I have several two inch brushes, so I don't have to spend all of my time here just washing brushes.

Just gonna pull through a little bit of that Titanium White.

This is gonna be winter, maybe.

Maybe in our world there's a little snow laying back here.

But I want the snow to reflect some shadows from whatever it is we have in here.

So, go up into the color a little, and grab it, and begin pulling.

Now, watch here, let's just mess something up.

If you mess up the top of this one, don't worry about it.

You can either completely wipe it out, or you can go back and very simply drop it in.

'Cause you know, if you've painted with me before, we don't make mistakes, we have happy accidents.

Because there's nothing that you can do on this canvas that with a little practice you can't fix.

Think about the lay of the land now.

Watch here.

Let me grab this other old brush.

You can go right back in here.

See here?

And pop that right back in.

And that's nice because now it looks like there's snow behind it.

See?

These little things work for you.

See you could put one over here like that.

See, and it looks like there's snow back in there.

There, and you can make this just as smooth and peaceful.

Maybe, we'll grab that.

See, we got quite of bit of color there.

That's nice, that'll make a very nice shadow area.

There, and just sort of bring it together.

This old two inch brush will just do wonderful things for you.

Just fantastic things.

Now, already though look at the depth in here.

And you've really done nothing.

You've really done nothing except just take a two inch brush and play a little.

Let's take that same color we're using, take a little paint thinner on the liner brush.

Maybe we'll have a few little sticks and twigs in there.

Maybe a few.

Just pull this out.

Turn it, so it brings it to a very sharp point, okay.

Now, we want these to be very subdued and quiet.

We don't want these to be too bright.

Too strong.

Very subdued.

There, a few little things that live back in here.

Ooo, that's what I'm looking for.

You almost can't see them, but they're there.

They're there, you'll see them.

There.

See?

And just pick out where you think a little twig would live, and drop it in, drop it in.

So, now I mentioned we get a lot of letters from people who are a little nervous about trying their first painting.

We also get a lot of letters from people who are painting, and they're doing some of the most fantastic things imaginable.

Maybe in this series we'll show you some.

But people who have never painted, just from watching the show have picked up a brush and they're doing marvelous things.

And maybe more important than the painting, is the fact that they can do it.

Is the fact that you can achieve a creative process like this.

And it's a nice way of oh, I think everybody has sort of an urge to be creative, and it's a nice way of letting that urge come out and it's so enjoyable.

That's one of the reasons we like to show you.

Shoot, let's get crazy I talk too much sometime.

Let's go back into some of our blue, and black, get a little brown, be right back here.

Well, see I'm gonna have a little more brown, a little Dark Sienna.

I may even reach over here and get the least little touch of Alizarin Crimson.

Oh nice, nice.

Now, if your color gets too dark on you, or you think it's too dark, you can reach right over pick up a little white, and lighten it up.

Because you can do anything.

Let's load the brush up.

Tell you what, let's load it to a chisel edge.

Let's really have some fun.

Chisel edge, turn it around here so you can see how sharp that is.

See, it comes to a beautiful sharp chisel edge.

There we go.

But you must put enough paint into the bristles to stick the bristles together to make the chisel edge.

Let's go back up here.

Maybe in our world there lives a little tree, or a big tree.

Maybe this is a big tree.

And we can, if it helps, you can put in a little center line like that.

Get a little more color here.

Now then, think about where you would have nice branches living here.

Just take the corner of the brush, and just put out a branch here and there.

Just let them go.

Just let them go.

And maybe they aren't all just even.

Maybe these aren't all potential Christmas trees.

They're just trees that grew any way that they wanted to grow.

All evergreen trees are not gonna be Christmas tress, some of them's gonna be crooked, some of them's gonna be sort of, they gonna be sort of poor.

There.

A little more paint.

Now, just to have a general idea of where we're going, and let's just take the corner of the brush, once again.

There.

Just tap in some very basic little shapes.

There we go.

Maybe even we can see a little touch of the trunk here.

Who cares?

This is your world, you do it any way that you wanna do it.

So, maybe this tree had a bad year right in here.

It didn't grow too hot.

Maybe when he was little maybe some hungry creature decided to chew on him a little bit.

We don't know.

Don't know that we even care.

Okay, now as the trees come closer, they should get a little darker.

So, I'm gonna add a little bit more of that Prussian Blue, and a little Van Dyke Brown, Dark Sienna.

But they begin taking on a darker tone.

Black, blue, brown.

There we are.

Sounds like my body condition when I stay out too late.

Black, blue, and brown, that's what I get when I get home.

There we go.

Maybe in our world there lives another little tree, right there.

Okay.

We'll just let these little trees just fall right off the brush.

Wherever, wherever.

Doesn't matter.

Black, blue, and brown.

This one goes all the way off the canvas.

What the heck.

He's a strong tall tree.

But if you practice this painting very loose.

You will not believe, number one, what you can do.

Secondly, it'll create a looseness, and a freedom in your painting that you've never experienced before.

And I think you will find that's very refreshing.

Very, very, refreshing in your painting.

I have a lot of people who have painted for many years that take classes with me, and my son Steve, and the other teachers that we have, and they take classes in this technique mainly to learn to be loose with their painting.

Because it's very easy to get tight, and stiff, and used to staying in the lines, and just drawing little pictures, and following those.

This will give you freedom.

Absolute freedom.

There, let's go to the other side here.

Little blue, black, back to our brown, Dark Sienna, just mix them together.

There, wiggle that brush though that brings the paint right up to the end.

We need to make it sharp.

All right.

Maybe look at what a sharp line that is now.

See how sharp you can make that line?

Now then, just the corner of the brush.

Let's put in some little things here and there.

See that?

You can do this.

You really can do this.

There.

Let's give him a friend.

You know me.

I think everything, and everybody should have a friend.

Friends may be the most valuable commodities that we have.

Treasure them, take care of them, treat them good.

There we are.

Now maybe, look just push upward.

See?

Maybe there's a whole 'nother thing that comes right out like that.

Just by pushing up with the brush, you can create that illusion.

Just by giving a little upward push.

Let's go back to the brush that has some white on it.

And with that, let's come back in here, and we lay in a little snow.

Once again, pick up some of this color though, and drag it out there.

Get tough with it.

Because the canvas is wet, you can move this color.

If this was a dry canvas, you might be able to move it, but it would be very difficult and you'd work yourself half to death trying to do it.

There we go.

Maybe on this side, once again though, figure out how the lay of the land is here.

How the how it flows.

And it's sort of nice to have a little recessed area right in here.

It just gives you a nice place for the animals to walk, and just good things to happen.

But any of these little bushes and stuff here that you don't like, you just lay snow over them.

Just like nature does.

So there.

Look at that.

Now then, we can take some of that same color on our knife and here and there, if you wanted to, you could add the indication of a little stronger trunk.

Depends on what you're looking for.

Once again, very loose, very relaxed.

Just let it go.

This is fun painting.

There.

You know, this would be a super place to have a little cabin.

Let's do that.

I think we have enough time.

And a lot of people have problems with a cabin, so let me show you.

Let's go right up in here.

Decide where your cabin lives, and let's just scrape out a very basic little shape.

Maybe we'll have a big cabin in here, it shows up better.

See, just take the knife and scrape out your basic shape.

Now, right there's where there is where the stretcher bar is don't worry about that, we'll cover that up.

Now, one of the things that you're looking for when you're doing a cabin is your perspective.

If you're gonna have a cabin, like so, one of the most important things you can do is have this part of the roof a little bit higher than the back.

Otherwise, it won't look right.

Try to keep that a little bit higher.

If you put that a little lower, which is almost a natural tendency, it'll look like your cabin is sort of well maybe the front of it fell down into a hole.

I live in Florida, and sometimes there's, we have sinkholes there.

And it almost looks like your cabin fell into a sinkhole.

See there, all right.

Let's just put a little We'll just Dark Sienna, and Van Dyke Brown, mostly Van Dyke Brown.

And let's just lay in.

All I'm doing is laying in some color now.

Just laying in some color.

There.

You could do this with a cement trowel, it doesn't matter.

A little something like that.

See, and the bottom at this point don't be concerned with.

Because you can come along here with your knife, and do a cabin-ectomy, and decide exactly where everything should live.

That easy.

And maybe, we said this was gonna be a log cabin, or something that gives you the impression of a log cabin.

So, we'll take a little brown, and white, and let's just come along in here.

And think about this angle right here.

And let's just tap in some little indications here and there.

See there.

All right.

Okay, just drop it in.

There.

We can take that dark color that we picked up earlier, and go back, and help create that illusion.

There.

Over in here, this is gonna be very dark on this side.

We don't want much color over here.

Think I'll put a tree there, what the heck.

Put the indication of the end of the logs.

Just using the point of the knife.

That easy.

Maybe we got a door in here, let's put a little door.

We gotta have a way to get in and out.

That's all there is to it.

Put in a little door.

A little light around the door.

Now, we need a little Let's put a little snow up here on the roof.

See there.

But just pull it down.

Just pull down.

We said we'd have a tree in front of it, so we don't have to worry much about the back of it at this point.

We do need a little bit of snow over on this side.

Just so there's snow on both sides.

Now then, let me go back to my brush here.

Let's take, watch how you can move the trees, let's take some of our brown, and black, and blue, a little Dark Sienna.

Okay, and let's go back up here.

Now maybe, let's take this tree right here, right here, and let's make a big decision.

This tree lives on this side of the cabin.

See, how you can change your mind?

You can pull this tree right over here in front.

That easy.

That easy.

On this canvas, you have unlimited power.

Now then, maybe See there a little grass growing over here.

Maybe a little right in here.

Whatever.

Let's take our brush with the white on it, come right up to the bottom of the cabin.

There we go.

Put a little snow right in there.

Watch here, watch here, watch here, touch, push.

Bend, bend the bristles.

Just do this in layers.

Continually in layers though.

Grab the bottom, give it a little pull.

Like that.

See how that just all comes together?

Shoot, tell you what maybe, maybe there's a little sprig right here.

And that way it looks like there's stuff behind it.

There.

Shoot, I'll tell you what, let's go on the other side over here.

Maybe over here, in our world there lives, well there does now, maybe there's a little doer that lives right out here.

Now then, once again, take a little Titanium White, grab that, and just let it flow.

See there?

That easy.

Maybe... See, how you can break that up, and it creates the illusion of depth in there.

Shoot, we messed around here, and about have a painting that's not half bad.

And I was just going to show you how to relax, and enjoy this.

But I really hope you try something like this, because it's a great deal of fun.

It teaches you how to use the equipment, it gives you confidence with equipment.

And once you have the confidence, then you can do anything.

You can do anything.

We'll put a few little sticks, here and there.

There's one.

And you can just go around it, here and there, and tap in a few, like that.

That's really all there is to it.

Wherever you think they should be.

And I think we'll call this finished.

I really hope you've enjoyed this experiment, and I hope you try it.

Let me hear from you.

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

(mellow guitar music)