- Alright, I'm glad you could join me today.

Today I thought we'd do a nice, beautiful little winter scene that's sort of warm and has a beautiful little glow, and I think it'll make you happy.

So, let's have them start off and run all the colors across the screen that you need to do this painting.

And they'll come across in the same order as I have them on my pallet.

Now, I've already cover the canvas with a thin, even coat of the liquid white.

It's wet and slick.

It's all ready to go.

Let's have some fun.

Start today with a little one inch brush.

Go into a little bit of cad yellow, and the tiniest, tiniest little amount of the bright red.

Tiny little amount.

Can't say that enough.

Just work a little bit into the bristles.

Let's go right up here.

Gonna have a sun in this painting.

So, we'll have the sun right about here.

And we start off just making a little circle.

That's all you gotta do.

Like so.

Okay, now I'm gonna wash the brush.

And we wash our brushes in odorless thinner.

(chuckles) And just beat the devil out of it.

Okay, now then.

I'm gonna go into titanium white, and we'll come right down here and get a little touch of alizarin crimson.

Just like so.

Okay, now let's go right up in here and we'll work this in using little, little crisscross strokes, little x's.

Now, if you'll use these little crisscross strokes rather than drawing a big circle, it's much, much easier to blend all these colors together.

I'd really recommend you use these little strokes.

Okay.

Like so.

Maybe I'll add the least little touch of crimson here and make it a little bit brighter so you can see it better on your set.

Sometimes some of these colors are so soft it's hard to see.

And we'll bring it right on out like that.

Normally when we're doing these paintings for television, we paint a little brighter than we would at home.

So, when you're painting at home you paint any way that makes you happy.

Bring it right on down like that.

Okay, I'm gonna go to a two inch brush.

It's a little bit faster now.

Go right into the crimson.

Tiniest little bit.

Tiniest little bit.

And then I'm gonna add just a small amount of the dark sienna to the crimson.

Make a very warm brown.

Okay, let's go back up here.

Now, very lightly, right around here.

Still making the little crisscross strokes.

Very soft, quiet.

Gentle little sky, but very effective.

Very effective.

This is the type of painting that people put in their living rooms to just make it look warm.

They're good sellers if you're interested in selling paintings.

So many people write and tell me that they're selling paintings, and they never even believed they could paint.

Boy, that really makes me happy when people write and tell me that.

And it's not the money.

The money's not important.

It's what it does to your ego, and inside here.

Because if someone's willing to pay you for something you painted with your hand, then it makes you wanna go home and paint ten more paintings.

That's what's important.

It's not the money.

Going right into van dyke brown.

Sometimes I talk too much.

I have to hush.

Get excited.

Van dyke brown, still making the little crisscross.

Now, this is mixing with the liquid white, and all of these beautiful little things just happen.

Okay, little bit more of the brown.

And right there.

Right there.

Look at that.

Well, that looks just like an egg I cooked this morning.

Bad news, I'm not much of a cook.

I'm gonna just lay a little tiny bit of this brownish color down in here.

And, without even cleaning the brush, the least little touch of pthalo blue.

Tiny, tiniest little amount.

Okay, and we'll just lay a little bit of that, just here and there.

Just here and there.

Then you can add a little alizarin crimson.

I'm just putting some colors down here.

Don't worry about blending them together or mixing them at this point.

Alright, let's lay that brush down.

And I have several of these two inch brushes going.

And I'm gonna go right up here and again, blending Still using little crisscross strokes.

And you really want to blend this out.

Just blend it, blend it, blend it.

Working outward.

You don't want to bring the dark color in toward the center.

Blend it outward.

There.

And you want to blend this until you can't tell where one color stops and the next one starts.

Very soft and very gentle.

Then very light, just take out the brush strokes.

And if you happen to get a hair on your canvas like I did there, just take the corner of the brush and pop it off.

That's all there is to it.

Now then, now then let's have some fun.

We'll put a sun up in here.

And for that, I'm gonna use my finger.

Let's go right here.

Take a little white, and I'm just gonna rub it right in.

Just make a little circle.

The sun looks a little better if it's round.

Them square suns sorta bother you.

There you go.

See, you just push that right in there.

Make a little circle.

Now, if you tried blending that, it would smear.

So, take your knife, come right up here and watch.

Take your knife and just go whoop!

Take it right off.

The value, or the color, remains in the canvas.

Now you can come along here, and see?

You can blend that.

And that easy, that easy you have a happy little sun.

Alright, and that completes our sky.

Now we can have some fun and begin painting.

Now, you have to make a decision here.

Okay, I'm gonna use a round brush, go into van dyke brown, a little dark sienna, and I'm just gonna mix them on the brush.

Just tap it.

See, just tap.

There we go, let's go right up here.

Maybe there's a happy little tree that lives right here, and I'm gonna start at the base of this tree and work upward.

So automatically, automatically it's gonna mix with the liquid white, and it's gonna be darker at the bottom than it is on the top.

And you have your shadows without even trying.

Darker, darker, darker down toward the bottom.

There we go.

Maybe there's a happy little tree or bush that lives there.

Begin thinking about the lay of the land, or the way the ground flows.

I'm gonna have a little hill here, so that's what I'm gonna begin working on.

We're not worried a great deal about detail at this point, but all we're interested in is the general lay of the land.

Oh, there's another one.

See, just let these little things just sort of fall out of your brush.

They live in there.

Sometimes you have to tap them out a little bit.

But they live in there.

There we go.

Now I'm gonna pull a little bit of that color down.

Just the bottom, 'cause that'll end up being our shadows in the snow.

So, use all these things.

While you got this old dark color on the brush, you can use it.

Now then, I'm gonna take... put a little bit of the liquid black out here on my pallet.

Take my liner brush, add a little paint thinner, and then work that brush in there and turn it.

Turn it, bring it to a super sharp point.

Look at that, very sharp.

Alright, now then.

In here, in here put just the indication of a few little trunks, little stems, whatever you want to call them.

Limbs, arms, whatever.

Okay, now one of the questions I get asked a great deal is, "Do you pull it down, or you go up?"

It doesn't matter.

Try it both ways, and most people will find it works better one way than it does the other.

Now, normally I pull down because it's easier for you to see it that way.

When I'm painting at home, a lot of times I'll pull up.

I don't think there's any rule.

You just practice and find which way works for you.

There, we try to show you as many ways as possible and turn you loose on the world.

Okay, now then I'm gonna take the old round brush and dip it right into a little touch of the liquid white.

Just a little touch.

I'm gonna add the least, least little touch of the bright red here.

The tiniest little bit.

Tap that brush.

Tap it, tap it, tap it.

Okay, let's go up here.

Now then, let's put some beautiful little highlights up here on these trees.

Just use just the top corner of the brush and begin tapping.

See there?

But think about shapes in here.

Don't just throw this on at random.

Leave some of those nice, dark areas in here.

See the patterns?

That's what gives your tree shape and form.

Now, if you have trouble making it stick, add a little bit more of the liquid white to it.

I'm gonna put a little more red in there.

I want it to stand out a little.

Oh, there we go!

There we go, beautiful!

You can see that much better, I think.

Okay, and just go right along here.

And make some decisions.

How many trees, how many bushes?

Oops, there's one right there.

See, layer them.

That creates depth.

This is where the little bunny rabbit hides, is behind that bush.

And then up here, all winter long, the little tree urchin stays.

And I bet you wonder what a tree urchin is.

That's what I call a little squirrel.

I have a big walnut tree in my yard, and the little squirrels come and they eat the walnuts.

And we have little power struggles over who's gonna get the walnuts, me or the squirrel.

Guess who wins?

The squirrel's got a nest full of nuts, and I have none.

Just going up here.

There.

Got one of them little rascals that decided he liked my garage better than he did out there in the cold.

He moved into my garage.

Can't get the little devil out.

So I put some moth balls in his nest.

Whew, that stinks.

There, now once again, while I have this on my brush, I'm gonna begin pulling in some basic shapes, and I'm not worried at this point about much of anything except the lay of the land.

Just pull it in.

There we go, just like so.

Alright, now then.

We can take the old fan brush, the old fan brush with a little white on it, and we can begin working on some nice shapes and stuff here.

This is where... begin laying in the snow.

And you can go into a tiny little bit of the pthalo blue and add shadows.

And it doesn't matter.

In fact, it's desirable if you pick up a little bit of this brown and begin working it in here.

There we go.

Always, always paying attention to the lay of the land.

And think where the light would hit.

Snow is rarely really smooth.

It has little bumps 'cause there's rocks and stones and all kinds of little happy things that are underneath the snow.

You may not see them, but they cause bumps in the snow.

Okay, maybe, tell you what.

Let's go right here and push in.

There, there's a happy little grassy area that just runs right down the hill.

See there?

And just make all kinds of little things happen here.

Alright.

I like to do these little winter scenes.

They're a lot of fun.

A lot of fun.

And they're easy.

They make you happy.

Okay, tell you what.

I tell you what, maybe years ago an old trapper, maybe he built him a little house right there.

So I'll take some of the van dyke brown, cut across, and get a little roll of paint on my knife.

There, you can see right out on the edge.

It's most important it's right out on the edge of the knife.

Let's go out here.

Okay, maybe the little house lives, it does now, right there.

There it is, see?

Paint that little back eve first.

I tell you what, shoom!

We'll put a front on him.

Little bit of a front, a front on the other side.

So you just sort of in your mind think, think what a house looks like.

And he needs a little side over here, too.

Alright, now then.

Take a little white and a little brown.

Pull it out very flat, get us a roll of paint, and let's put the least little touch of highlight on there.

Barely touching.

Barely touching.

Just caress the canvas.

Okay now, see we can see that the light's coming from here, so this sides gonna be brighter.

This one over here, this one's gonna be almost dark.

Almost pure brown.

Don't worry about too much color over on that side.

Boy, that guy that lives in there is freezing, because there's no roof on his house.

Let's give him a roof.

Let's give him a roof.

There we go.

Just that easy.

Now he's got a half a roof.

Let's feel sorry for him and give him the other half.

Don't want him to freeze.

Okay, little snow on the other side, just sort of bring all that together.

And that easy, we got a little cabin.

Need a door, don't want him to get locked in there and can't get out all winter.

There, he got a little door.

Take a little white, go around the edges.

There, make that little rascal stand out.

I'm gonna take the small knife now.

I'm gonna put a little window right there.

Just a little blue and white.

Just to give the indication of a happy little window.

Like that.

Okay, we want a chimney.

We use the small edge of the small knife again.

Put a little chimney.

Take a tiniest little touch of the bright red, excuse my arm, there.

Maybe he don't have his fireplace lit.

Put a little snow laying up here on his chimney.

There we go, that easy.

I tell you what, take a little bit of the liquid black.

Maybe there's what remains of an old fence, and it went right on off.

Here, this is just straight liquid black.

There it goes.

There.

And, there's a few old rails left on it.

Right on off into the distance.

Isn't that neat?

Shoop, doo-doop-doop.

There it went.

Now, wash the brush.

Now, take a little bit of the liquid white.

Oh, look there.

A little snow laying up there on his fence.

And, a little up here on top.

There.

See, and you can just make all kinds of little things.

Alright, now we can take the fan brush and grab just a touch of that and blend it in.

Alright, now we can fix up the foot of this cabin.

Take and work on your perspective.

Look there, you can just cut it right off wherever you want it.

Wherever you want it.

Take a little white, a little touch of blue into it.

Let me come right along here and there's a big old bunch of snow laying right along in there.

Maybe even create the illusion that he's been walking right here.

I'm just using a little tiny, tiny bit of pthalo blue and white.

And we go back to our pinker colors, it's got a little pink in there, and begin building all this in.

See, still paying very close attention to the lay of the land.

It's most important that you always keep in mind the way you want this land to flow.

If you don't, it'll get away from you.

(laughs) Run right out of your painting.

Pretty soon you'll have land going in every which direction.

So pay attention to that.

That's important.

It's the little details that make your, painting better, make you happier.

And when you get done with your painting, it's nice to step back and look at it and feel good about it.

You wanna feel good about it.

There, just put that right back in.

See, gotta get a little larger down here, 'cause perspective-wise, it's getting closer to you.

Alright.

Alright, we about got one side done here.

Isn't that fun?

There.

Okay, let's get serious.

Let's get serious.

Find my round brush here.

Let's put something over here on the other side and have some fun.

Back into my dark sienna, van dyke brown, tap that old brush in there.

See, you really beat that son of a gun.

This is where you take out all your frustrations.

This is better than kicking your dog.

Though of course, if he's like mine if you kick him, he'll take your leg off.

There we go.

Right on up there.

Work it up.

See, once again we're starting from the bottom and working upward.

So it's darker at the bottom than it is on top.

Maybe that comes right up into there.

I like these very soft earth tones.

These browns and stuff.

They're so striking, so effective.

There we go.

Maybe to about right there.

Right there.

Tell you what let's do.

We got this old brush going to so much fun, let's go right over on this side, and maybe right here I'm just gonna push upward.

See, just push.

Look at all the thousands of little, little leaves and stuff it makes there.

Isn't that easy?

So, it looks like old, dead bush.

There's one right there, too.

We'll have a couple of these old rascals.

Just drop them in wherever you want them.

Then you can take the old fan brush and go right back in here and begin working some of these out.

Create all kinds of pretty things.

See, you can make the lay of the land go anywhere you want it to go.

Just wherever.

There we go.

See, it makes all kinds of little snow drifts up there.

There we are.

Sometimes it's just so pretty it hurts.

Okay.

And, let's change the flow of the land here, the lay of that.

Watch right here.

See, take it this way, and bring it up in here.

And automatically, grab some of that brown.

Pull it down in there.

Automatically, you can change the lay of the land.

So now it... you can see there's a separate entity here .

It goes back father, pushes everything back.

There we go.

Okay, okay.

Now then, let's take...

I'll use the old knife here.

Let's just put the quick little indication here of a little tree trunk in them.

Doop-doop-doop.

Just like that, a few little limbs here and there.

Little brown and white.

Little highlight, just a tiny touch of highlight.

And we take just the point of the knife.

Look there, scrape through and make all kinds of little doers in there.

Little limbs and stems and twigs.

It's that easy.

Okay.

Now then let's find, let's find, There it is.

With the round brush, let's have some fun.

Let's get crazy here.

I'm gonna take a little of the bright red, a little yellow ochre, a little indian yellow, but very small amount.

Don't get too wild on us.

Very small amount.

Okay, let's go right up here.

Maybe this tree here has got a little bit of color on it still, from fall.

Just drop in some happy little things.

Once again, worry about patterns, shapes.

Think about limbs in there.

And I'm just using the very top corner of the brush.

Just the very, very top corner.

Look at that, though.

See all them little things?

And this creates a little warmth in the painting.

Sometimes I paint winter scenes that are so cold, ooh, gosh you almost have to put on a coat to look at them.

These are very warm and very soft, and they go well in people's homes.

People like these kinda paintings.

These are the type of paintings I do for special friends and as gifts for Christmas and birthdays and weddings.

All kinds of things like that.

And that brings up another thing.

A lot of people ask us what we do with all these paintings that we do on TV.

Most of them are used to go into the books that we do.

But all the rest of them we donate.

We donate them to PBS stations all around the country and to charity organizations for them to make a happy buck with.

So, if you would like to have one, one of the easiest way to get it is to call your local PBS station and say, "Hey."

You know, "Get you one of Bob's paintings "for your next auction."

And we'll be glad to donate one to them.

And it helps everybody out.

You get better programming that way, and the PBS station, he puts a happy buck in his pocket.

And you get a painting.

So, keep that in mind if you want one.

Just let your station know.

Just drop in a few little blue and white grassy areas here.

All kinds of little things going on in here.

All kinds of little things.

Now then, I tell you what.

Let's use a knife.

Maybe this what remains, there is an old fence right here.

There's a post.

Put one there.

Tell you what, three.

Three looks better.

Little bit of brown and white for some highlight.

Doop-doop, there we go.

Maybe there's still one old post that's hanging across there.

Just like that.

That easy.

Okay, let's have some fun.

Let me get an old fan brush here.

Go right into the van dyke brown, a little dark sienna.

I think, yep.

Look there.

Shoooh, big old tree.

Big old tree.

I put a big tree in a painting one time and a lady screamed at me.

Absolutely screamed at me.

So if you don't want a big tree in your painting, don't put one in there and then scream at me.

This is your world, so you do whatever you want in your painting.

Okay, now then.

I'll take the liner brush, a little bit of liquid black, and we'll just put the indication of a few old limbs here and there.

Now, sometimes I add a little paint thinner to the liquid black to make it really flow easy.

Just let it go.

Just let it really work right off your brush.

Come right on around there.

Look there, see?

And have some of these limbs that go up and across the tree.

Don't have them all just going out the side.

See, and you can put all kinds of little tiny things in there, just by stroking the canvas.

Can you see that?

Just get sort of crazy and let them go.

There, now then.

I'm going to take the knife, and a little bit of white, a little brown.

And let's put a little touch of highlight on this tree.

There, just barely touch.

Give it a little pull.

Just let the paint grab.

This is a thick, thick paint, so it'll grab and hang on.

There, maybe this one comes right down in front.

Like that.

See there?

And just make all the trees you want in your world.

Okay.

Now then, take the old fan brush and put a little snow down here on his foots.

Gotta take care of his old foots.

Big foots.

Take the liner brush, put a little liquid white, and just lay on a little highlight here and there.

Create the illusion of a little snow.

And I think with that, we about have a finished painting.

So let's take a little bit of the bright red, liner brush, and we'll sign this one.

The old clock on the wall tells me I got to leave you for today.

But I'll be back next time.

Hope you have your easel set up, glass of tea, and you're all ready.

Until then, happy painting, God bless.

("Interlude" by Larry Owens)