- Hi, welcome back.

I'm glad you could join me today.

Are you ready to do a fantastic, little painting?

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

While they're doing that, let's look up here.

I have my stantard old pre-traced canvas up here.

This all covered with a nice even coat of liquid white and it's ready to go, so let's go.

I thought today, we'd do the little animated opening.

That's the one you see at the beginning of each show in this series that just sort of pops in with the music.

That's a beautiful little painting.

It only takes a couple of minutes to paint it, but it takes a lot of fantastic people a long time to animate it.

So let's do that one.

I'll start today with a small amount of phthalo-blue on the two inch brush.

Just a little bit of blue, just tap it.

And maybe reach over here and get the least little touch of phthalo-green.

Least little touch, very strong.

And we'll go up here and let's just bounce in some, just some happy little areas up here in the sky.

Phthalo-blue and phthalo-green.

Now this won't be the exact duplicate of what you see at the beginning of each show, but it will give you an idea of how it was painted.

It's almost impossible to paint an exact duplicate.

And we never try to paint exact duplicates.

Okay, maybe over here, we'll put a little bit more.

Wherever you want it.

Just drop in some happy little colors.

Let them bounce around and play.

There.

Now the color's continually mixing with the liquid white and you get all these different values and shades.

Let the liquid white work for you.

This is a lazy man's way of painting.

That's why I like it so much.

I'm basically a very lazy person.

There.

And we have a little water in that painting, so while I have this on the brush, tell you what, we'll just mix a little more color right on the brush and let's go down here and just put in a little water.

Pull from the outside in.

Outside in, like so.

See, by mixing those colors on a brush, you get all kind of different colors that are happening there.

And from the other side, we are still pulling from the outside in and I'm leaving a little area open here.

If everything works out just right, that will look like a little sheen of light coming across the water.

Just barely touching, you can go all the way across and bring everything together.

And that little light area remains there.

And then we can very gently, just blend the corners of this out, the edges out.

There.

Don't want to over-blend this.

I want to leave it sort of rough and ragged right now.

That's what my dog says, roof.

That's what he said when he sat down in the sandpaper, roof!

There.

Okay.

Now then, lets wash your brush and we just wash it, as usual, in odorless thinner.

Shake off the excess and just cover the whole studio.

Let's put some big clouds in there.

We'll just use a two inch brush.

You can do this with a fan brush or a one inch brush.

Just pull it through straight titanium white.

A lot of paint on the bristles.

Okay, let's go up here and put us in a little cloud.

Maybe, there lives a little cloud right there.

And just use tiny little circular strokes and sort of mix it up, wind it up.

There.

Okay and big ol' cloud lives, yeap, there he is.

There he is.

Son of a gun just floats around here and has fun all day.

And try not to stay in one area and just keep working it.

It'll just turn into a great, big cotton ball in the sky.

Keep your brush moving.

Don't try to work on the same area over and over and over.

You'll be much happier with your clouds if they're loose and free.

There.

Okay.

Maybe some right in here, wherever you want them.

Just sort of make a big decision on where clouds live in your world and drop them in.

There we go.

See there, you can make a sky full of clouds in just a few minutes, doesn't take long.

These ol' big brushes will do fantastic things for you.

There.

Maybe there's another one right there.

And the paints quite thick here.

In order to do all this blending without it just mixing together, you need a very firm, dry, thick paint.

I can't say that enough.

I know you hear me say that over and over, show after show, but it's most, most important if you're going to get the best results.

A thick paint is an absolute necessity.

Then we'll wash the brush again.

Okay, now then, nice dry brush.

And I just want to blend this very gently.

Just blend it, just sort of stirring it up.

And I'm not touching the top much at all.

Trying to avoid touching the top of each cloud, mostly the bottom.

And every once in a while, you can just beat the brush a little and that will take off the excess paint without going through the whole cleaning procedure again.

There.

And at this point, don't expect your cloud to look like it's finished.

it should still look a little rough.

We're going to blend it yet.

This just blends the bottoms out.

Gets them ready for the next step.

Knock off the excess.

Now we're going to fluff these up just very gently, very gently, barely touching the canvas.

Grab these little son of a guns and just lift them up.

That's all there is to it.

Lift them, lift them.

Let them get fluffy.

See what a difference that makes.

Every once in a while, knock off any excess paint.

Continue to fluff.

Work in layers.

There.

Now very lightly, two hairs and some air, all we're going to do is just gently, gently, gently, there's a hair on the canvas.

All you do is take your corner of the brush and lift it off.

There.

Very lightly, just enough to take off the brush marks.

And that easy, you got a fantastic little sky.

Okay, now then, today, we're going to make some little foothills back here.

And so for that, Im going to take some blue and a little bit of white, little touch of midnight black into it.

So we've got some phthalo-blue, midnight black, little touch of white.

Looks like there might be a little touch of phthalo-green in there too.

That was an accident, but it's fine, and we'll put the least little touch of crimson in there.

Okay, it makes a nice color.

Now, let me clean the knife.

Then we'll use an oval brush and it's easy to identify it.

It has a black handle.

The rest of my brushes have white and this one has a black handle.

Okay, now decide where your little foothills are going to live out here.

Just touch with this brush and pull down.

It sort of round on the end, you see, so it makes these nice little round areas we're looking for, very easily.

There we go.

Okay, and maybe this little footy hill just goes right down like that, however you want it.

Just pull it straight down.

Then we take a clean two inch brush and I want to create a misty area here.

So all I do is tap.

All we do is just tap.

And then lift slightly upward.

See how soft the base of that becomes?

Okay, then we'll use the same color, a little blue, a little black.

I want the same color, only darker.

Less white in it this time because this one is going to be closer to us.

Little touch of the crimson, there!

Just load the brush, back and forth.

And maybe there's another little foothill and it came right down like that.

Now you can also turn this brush this way and make more individualistic little things and pull them straight down, very lightly.

See this darker color now separates.

There we go.

Just like so and let this just work it way right on out.

Here and there some more individual things.

So turn the brush vertically.

And we can go back to our big brush and tap the base of it.

Tap it firmly.

You can probably here how hard I am hitting this.

But I'm using only the top corner of the brush and tapping.

Want to create that illusion of mist again.

And sometimes, on foothills, maybe you want to show a little bit of color, little bit of highlight.

So, let's do that today.

Shoot, we've got to get it going here.

I'm going to take that same over brush and go into a little yellow, cad yellow, yellow ochre, and just sort of work it around like that.

That's all we need, okay.

Little bit of color there, and all we have to do is just sort of tap, just tap and give it the least little downward pull.

Just want to put the indication here and there and put a little bit of highlight, not much.

Not much.

There.

And we'll come back and soften that with a big brush too.

But that's the way you make trees that look a little bit closer to you.

Just by putting a little color.

When things are far, far away from you, they look sort of a blueish color.

Then as they get closer, then you're able to make out detail and color and all those wonderful things.

But when they're far away, they should look just blueish like that.

And that help create the illusion of distance in your painting.

Okay, a little yellow ochre and then a touch of indian yellow, just break it up.

There we go.

And back to our big brush and we can just tap the base of this a little, just to soften it and bring it all together.

There.

Okay, then lift upward.

Isn't that little over-brush super?

Makes a fantastic effect.

Let's go on the other side here.

We'll use some more blue and some more black.

I want this to be even darker.

Even darker.

Okay, maybe over here lives another little foothill.

I think in that little opening at the beginning, it had several layer of foothills and this is the way they were made.

See, each layer gets darker.

Now, maybe before we get too far here, let's put some, let's put some reflections back here.

Watch here, grab this and pull it down.

And we'll have a little bit of water here in that background.

Just touch and pull down, straight down.

Then come across.

That'll give the illusion of water.

Then we can take a little touch of white paint and we'll just make the indication here.

And we'll push it upward.

Just some little water lines, just some little things.

See, makes it look like mist there just by grabbing it and pushing upward.

Sneaky, huh?

Lay it on, grab it, just let it go upward.

That's all there is to it.

Okay, now then, we'll bring this foothill right on down here in front of it.

Maybe it comes right on out here.

And then we see there's a little recessed area.

That's a place the big trout can go back here and hide.

There.

And maybe on that, indications here and there, a little bit of highlight on it.

It's also quite close, so if you can see highlight over here, chances are you can see highlighthere, too.

Just a little.

See luckily in this painting, I know pretty much just what's going to happen since we animated it.

So I know what areas are going to be covered up.

I don't have to worry about putting a whole bunch of stuff here.

Most the time, we're just about half way making these things up as we go.

Have a general idea, but that's about all.

Decide where your reflection is going to be and you pull that down.

Tap it, lift it upward.

Bring it all together.

Little more reflection.

There, and very lightly across.

And we can do that same thing again with a little touch of white paint.

This is not liquid white.

Usually, on the water lines I use the liquid white.

This is just plain white and I'm lifting it upward.

There.

Okay, I'm going to grab an old fan brush here.

There we go.

Over here on this side, let's have some fun.

Le's have some fun and take yellow ochre, little bit of dark cyan in it, on the fan brush, be right back, there I am.

There we go, yellow ochre and dark cyan mixed together.

Now, up in here, we have a little tree or two, that was mostly just yellow ochre, with a little cyan in it.

And i want these trees today to be little swamp trees, ones that the limbs hang down.

They're tired.

Well they've had a rough life out there in the swamp.

Let's see, maybe there was another one and he lived, yeap, right there.

But sort of push those limbs down, let them hang.

These old trees, they have a lot of hangy-downs on them.

And you could just take the brush and just wiggle it upward.

Create the illusion of some little bushes and stuff that live back in here.

Alright.

Now on top of that, or in front of that, we'll begin putting some other things.

I'm going to clean my brush.

Come back in here and let's see here.

We'll take some prussian blue, midnight black.

We might as well mix up a pretty good pallet.

We're going to use some vandyke brown, crimson, shoot, we'll throw some sap green in there too.

Whatever you got, mainly dark.

You're looking for a nice, dark color.

Let me wipe off the knife.

And we can just wipe off the knife on old paper towel.

Now then, we'll load the fan brush full of color, both sides, a lot of color and let's decide here, where some trees live.

Maybe there's one right here.

And once again, were looking for these old hangy-down limbs.

Just let them hang down like that.

Turn the brush.

These are old, tired limbs.

There, give him a friend, like that.

There.

Now maybe, in your painting you want trees, maybe you're a little better off than mine.

You can do that, I just want to show you how to make these little, I call them swamp pines, but usually in places that are very wet, you have evergreen trees that, where I come from in Alaska, you have evergreen trees with the limbs hang wee-down.

And the farther south you go in Alaska, the more of these limbs that hang.

They're beautiful, but usually it's where it's very damp.

But if you want nice straight ones in yours please do that.

There we go.

See, and that quick we've got some happy little trees.

I'll just take the big brush out.

The little one's too slow.

And let's put some land in here.

See here, all we''re doing is just tapping.

And we don't care if some of these little hangy-downs off the brush get down here.

Because we'll just turn those into reflections.

We'll use them rascals.

There we go.

And that's our land area.

And while we have that brush going, just grab and pull down.

Pull straight down then come across.

See there, instant reflection.

Now then, back to our same old fan brush.

Then we can just go right into a little touch of the cad yellow and it's immediately going to turn green because of the blue.

I just want to put the indication there of a highlight or two, I don't want too much over here.

Not too much.

Alright, okay now then, we can take a one inch brush, put a touch of the liquid white with it, just to thin the paint a little.

Thin paint, we'll stick to a thick paint.

And we'll go right into some yellow and some yellow ochre.

Ochre, yellow ochre.

Little touch of the bright red and let's go up here and begin putting in all kinds of little grassy things and just using the corner of the brush and just tap it, just tapping.

What's most important, the angles that you follow here.

We want to create the lay of the land.

We want the land to sort of move over this way.

There we go, see there?

Okay, maybe there's a little bump right here, wherever you want it.

Just drop him in, back in here.

But leave some of those little darkish areas in between.

That's what gives depth and distance.

Okay, take a little touch of the vandyke brown and let's just put a little dirt under here.

And just rubbing that.

Just rubbing a little of that brown right in there.

Like so, there we are.

Back to our titanium white.

Got that little roll of paint on it and I, just try to lay a little bit of white right underneath there for a little water line.

Now all I'm doing is touching here, allowing the canvas to pull what it wants.

Give you back what's left.

There.

And, we can take the knife, scratch in a few sticks and twigs, where ever you want them.

Where ever you want them.

And i think we better get that side finished.

Lets go to the other side.

I have several oval brushes going here.

We just grab it.

I like these oval brushes, they're fun.

Okay, let's come right up in here.

Load the brush full of paint and there was an evergreen tree who lived, he lived, he did live, right there.

Just start out by making, sort of a center line.

Then you take this brush and just sort of work it, back and forth.

We want these old limbs just to hang on this tree and this oval brush does that very nicely.

Want ol' hangy-down limbs.

There we go.

Nice, old tree.

Okay, and he's got a friend, who lives right next door.

Friend lives right there.

Same thing.

There.

These two are good buddies.

They live next door to each other.

And maybe here and there, there's a happy little bush or so that grows right down by its foots.

Let's sort of make up little ideas and do them.

And we had one big, monster tree.

Big guy.

He lives right there.

That's a big son of a gun right there.

And, we're going to come right along in here, right over all that sky.

Load the brush frequently as required.

Whenever you start running out of paint, just load it back up.

See, that oval brush makes all those little doers happen there.

I don't know what kind of name you'd put on those.

Doers, that sounds good.

There we go.

But that easy, you can make a fantastic tree, just let him grow right out the brush.

There we go.

Okay, going back to my big brush here.

Let's just fill all this in.

We can come right down here and just begin putting in all kinds of, this is just dark colors so our lights will show.

Want our lights to show.

And you can really put all this on with a paint roller.

Doesn't matter.

We had a little path there, so we can sort of leave that open.

Okay, then we go back to our oval brush, that has the light green on it, put some color on it, and let's come back up in here.

Just indicate a few little highlights on these evergreen trees.

Just a few here and there.

There, don't cover up all your nice darks.

Boy, this does look like an old swampy area.

Okay, go back to my one inch brush.

Let's put some highlights on the little individual bushes.

Just sort of drop those in, wherever you think they should be.

Maybe, let's go right over here and work from the one that's the farthest away, forward, always coming forward.

Forward, forward, forward.

Before we get too far along there, we need to stop and put in our little path so we can have some of the bushes and stuff, that hang over the path.

So we'll take the knife, titanium white, just pull it out very flat.

Okay, just go right up here.

This is just white.

I like this bright in here, really makes everything shine.

Stands out.

There.

And to that I'm going to add the least, least little touch of dark cyana.

There, just the least little touch, just enough to color it a little.

Okay, now then, we can go back to our one inch brush and to that, we can begin completing the rest of these little bushes.

And let some of these bushes hang over the path.

That pushes the path down into the painting so it fits.

Don't want it to look like its floating around and just having a good time.

Push that rascal down in there.

There's another one, see, and that pushes that path right on back.

Now we don't know where it goes and we don't care.

It goes back there to a happy place, wherever that is.

And then, individual bushes.

It's most important, when you're up in the foreground like this, to do one bush at a time, so that each one's an individual, has its own personality.

If you'd give them names, people'll think you're crazy, but that's alright.

That's alright, as long as you're happy, doesn't matter.

There's one that's got little red flowers out on the end of it, one of them happy accidents.

There, just like so.

Okay, now we can take our little script-liner brush, thinner on it, go right into the vandyke brown.

And maybe, tell you what, maybe there's a little stick that lives right there.

Something like so, see there?

And add a few little details in yours.

And yours should also be finished.

And I think with that, we'll call this painting complete.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing how the animated opening was made.

Until next time, from all of us here, happy painting and god bless.

(soft music)