- Hello, I'm Bob Ross, and I'd like to welcome you to the 15th Joy of Painting Series.

First of all, I'd like to thank you for inviting me back for another series of painting shows, and if this is your first time with us, let me extend a personal invitation for you to get out your brushes and paint along or I tell you what, just drag up the old easy chair and spend a relaxing half hour enjoying some of nature's masterpieces.

We're painting with about a dozen oil colors, a few unorthodox brushes, and in each program, I'll try to show you how easy it is to paint and how much fun you can have doing it.

So, I tell you what, let's start out today and run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint this little picture with me, and while they're doing that, let me tell you what I've already gotten done up here.

I've gotten my standard old 18 by 24 prestretched canvas and onto that, I've put a thin, even coat of the liquid white.

So, it's all wet and slick and ready to go.

So, let's do a fantastic little painting together.

I'm gonna start out today with the old 1-inch brush here and go into the smallest little amount of the cad yellow.

Thought I'd do a little winter, little winter scene today.

Reach right over here and get a touch of the red, little bit of bright red, and cad yellow on the 1-inch brush.

Just mix them on the brush.

What the heck?

Let's go right up here.

Maybe we'll have a little sun up here in the sky.

So, decide basically where your sun's gonna live, maybe right about in there, right along in there.

We'll just drop that in, and we're just looking for sort of a circular shape, and I wash the brush, and if you've painted with us before, you know we always, we always wash our brushes with odorless thinner.

Be sure it's odorless or it'll run everybody in the neighborhood away.

Now then, let's have some fun.

Take titanium white, be right back.

Reach up here, get a little touch of the alizarin crimson, little bit more maybe.

There we go.

Little alizarin crimson, happy little color.

Now then, right around this first little circle, I'm gonna use little criss-cross strokes and just throw in a little bit of color like so, just like so.

Little bit over in here.

There we go.

See, but use these little criss-cross strokes.

We're gonna blend all this together, and if you just draw big circle around here, it's a son of a gun to try to blend it together, and the little criss-cross strokes, they blend pretty easy.

Alright, now then.

That's pretty already.

It's just some nice, warm color.

Sometimes winter scenes can be so cold that they're not fun to look at.

So, I like to put a little touch of warmth into my little winter scene.

I'm gonna add the least little amount, have not washed the brush, a little amount of thalo blue right into that crimson and white, so it makes sort of a lavender color.

Let's go back up here.

Now then, right around here, we'll just add a little bit of that, just like so.

Still using little criss-cross strokes.

There, little more of the blue and a little more of the crimson and practice just mixing your colors on the pallet using a brush.

That way, you don't end up with one old dead color.

There's excitement happening in your brush.

There, okay.

See, now we're just sort of blending all those together.

I tell you what, I'm gonna reach right up in here and get a little touch of the midnight black, little touch of black.

There, okay.

Let's just put a little bit of that right in the corner here, and that'll darken these edges, bring it all together.

Little bit for the other side, like so.

Now then, now then.

We'll take a 2-inch brush and be sure it's good and dry, be sure it's dry, cause you don't want your color to run.

We use a very firm, dry, thick oil paint here, and we want it to stay as dry as possible so we can blend color while it's still wet.

There, now just using still the criss-cross strokes, I want to blend this to where you can't tell where one color stops and the next color starts.

It makes a very soft, beautiful sky.

It has some nice colors in it.

There we go.

See there, a little bit over here, but you always blend from the light area out, from the light out.

There, we got a little hair right there.

We just popped him right off.

If you get hair on your canvas, just take the corner of the brush and pop him off.

Okay, now then.

Let me grab a fan brush.

Let's get crazy today.

I'm going right back into that black, just put some color right into the fan brush, just black.

You can reach up here and get a little of the van dyke brown if you want to, mainly black.

Okay, maybe in our world, maybe there's a happy little cloud that lives, ew, this is gonna be a big cloud, comes right around, there it is, like so, maybe right on down here.

Tell you what let's do, let's put a sun in there.

For that, I'll just use my finger and a little bit of titanium white and that yellow color that we put in first, the reddish and the yellow, that becomes the aura around the sun.

Now then, turn right back up here.

Imma take my knife, and just zip it off.

The value still remains in the canvas or the light spot.

There, okay, and maybe there's another little cloud, and I'm just using little rocking strokes here.

Really, he just lives right there, like so, and in your painting, you decide where all these things live cause this is your world right here and you can do anything that your heart desires here.

Maybe that one comes right across, anything that you wanna do here.

Let's add some more dark up in here, and we're gonna come back with a large brush and blend all these out.

All we're doing now is just applying a little bit of color.

Maybe there's some little stringy, streaky clouds that live in here, like so.

See them, okay, there they are.

Just a few here and there.

Now then, once again, be sure your brush is good and dry and let's come right up in here and just begin blending these.

Now, you can blend them to any degree of softness that you want.

You can blend them till they absolutely become part of the sky, but that's really not what we're looking for here.

We want these to stand out a little bit.

There we go.

Now, as your brush picks up paint, you can just (laughs) give it a good wrap like that, and that'll remove that excess paint without going through the whole entire cleaning procedure again.

There we go, maybe over here.

Looky there.

Knock off that excess paint.

Very lightly right here, just barely, barely grazing the canvas or you could make a wild sky here in just a minute, See, but the more you blend it, the more it all comes together.

There we go.

If any area's too dark or too light, change it.

You can do anything here, absolutely anything.

Alright, I think we've got a pretty nice little sky there for just a little quickie.

So, let's have some more fun.

Tell you what, let's build a little mountain back there.

For that, I'm gone take some black, some black, a little touch of depression blue, some brown, and alizarin crimson.

So we have black, blue, crimson, little bit of brown.

Pull it out as flat as you can get it.

Go straight down, cut across, get our little roll of paint.

Now then, you have to make a major decision.

Where does your mountain live in your world?

Right there, right there it lives.

Now, I want these mountains to be far away.

So, I don't want them to get too big in proportion to the painting here, about like so.

There, now we take a large brush and because this is wet, we can literally move color on here.

So, we can grab this and pull it, just pull it and it'll mix with the liquid white and automatically, automatically, your mountain will get lighter in value toward the base, and that's what we're looking for.

Looky there.

That son of a gun just sort of floating around, having a good time already, that easy.

There we go.

Now we can take, let's take a little bit of titanium white, pull it out flat.

Imma put the least little touch of the bright red into it, least little touch.

I don't wanna set these on fire.

Just wanna give it a little pinkish hue.

Pull it out flat, and once again our little roll of paint.

Now then.

Barely touch the canvas, barely touch.

See there, and you have to make some big decisions here.

Where's light gonna strike your mountain?

Maybe, yeah, right there, wherever you want it, that's where it ought to be, and you want to paint to break, and by break, I mean have all these little holes in it, and that's done by a very, very delicate little touch.

Ah, you just barely grazing the canvas.

When I was teaching my son Steve to paint, I used to tell him just pretend he was a whisperer and he floated right across the mountain.

That easy, gentle, make love to it, caress it.

There you go.

See, you can do anything here, and the secret to doing anything is believing that you can do it.

Anything that you believe you can do strong enough, you can do, anything, as long as you believe.

Take a little thalo blue and white here.

Just mix it together and once again, flat, our little tiny roll of paint.

Now, then, let's put a little shadow here and there.

Still that delicate little touch, delicate touch.

Little bit right in there, like so and that easy.

You can make those little mountains just pop right out, and you can go back and add little bumps and peaks and whatever you want in there.

There we are, see.

Okay, now, clean, dry 2-inch brush.

I wanna tap the base of that.

There we go.

Just tap it like so, and then very gently, very gently lift upward, there.

There we are.

Okay, let me tell you what I've got now.

Here's a dirty brush.

We'll just use it.

Imma go back into that same color I used to make the mountain, same old color, and take the old 2-inch brush, add a little white to it and just load a little color right onto the 2-inch brush.

There, just tap it firmly.

Shoot, okay, now then.

Maybe there's a little back in here.

Yep, you're right.

There lives a little foothill right here.

I'm just using the corner of the brush and tapping gently downward, like so, see?

That's all there is to it.

Maybe it goes, we don't know where it goes over here.

What the heck?

What the heck?

Now we can take a 1-inch brush and lift upward here and there.

Just short, tiny little strokes, tiniest of strokes.

Okay now, if you want to create the illusion of mist under there, take the 2-inch brush, take the top corner of it and just tap it firmly right on the bottom.

There you go.

Just tap it, then lift gently upward.

Okay, maybe, maybe in our world, tell you what, maybe there's another row of foothills there.

We'll go back and do the same color, only add more of the dark.

I want this to be a little bit darker.

As things get closer to you in a landscape, they should get a little darker.

There, see, and that easy.

You can drop in another row, and each time you put in a little row of foothills like this, it creates another plain in your painting, and it helps create that illusion of distance, and tap right here on the base, and that'll give us our misty effect.

Lift upward.

Shoot, that easy.

(mumbles) Now then, maybe, let's put some snow in there.

We'll go right in, I'm just using the same old 2-inch brush.

We'll go right into some titanium white, get the least little touch, be right back here, the least little touch of the thalo blue.

Just enough to give the white a little coolness.

Okay.

Now maybe we said this was gone be winter, so come right up here and watch.

You have to decide where your snow's gonna live.

See there.

Least little touch of the blue in there.

That just gives it a feeling of a little coldness.

Don't want it to get too warm.

Snow would all melt and run off on your floor and make a big puddle.

There we go.

I see something back here.

When you're painting with this method, you'll learn very quickly that you see things happening and you get all excited, you can change your mind right in midstream.

I see a place for a nice tree.

So I'm gonna take some black, depression blue, and van dyke brown.

Blue, black, and brown, mix it up.

Let me clean my knife off here, and tell you what, we'll just use the small fan brush.

This a #3 fan brush, loaded full of color, both sides, lot of paint.

Okay, let's go up here.

Maybe there lives in our world, and he lives, right there.

Just a happy little evergreen.

Now, give it a little upward push.

See there.

Just push upward.

I want these limbs to go there.

See that?

Isn't that fantastic, you can build a tree that easy?

You can.

Let's give him a friend.

I don't want this little tree to be lonely.

You know me.

I think everybody deserves a friend.

Friends are maybe the most precious commodity we have.

There we go.

Now then.

To blend this right into the snow, Imma take some white and grab it, grab the bottom of it with the brush, and allow some of that color.

Looky there.

See, now we can set him right up on a little hill.

There we go.

See, remember, old song says, on a hill far away.

There it is.

That's the hill far away.

Now, once in a while, I'm gonna add the least little touch of alizarin crimson to my color, and that'll warm it.

We have cold colors, the blue and white.

Now Imma put a little bit of the crimson and warm it here and there, like this little sunlight just zinging right across there.

Just warm it.

Okay, let me find that little brush again.

Shoot, that was so much fun, let's make a bigger tree.

Still using the #3 fan brush, but you could use #6, #3, whatever, doesn't make any difference, long as it works for you.

Maybe in our world, there lives right up here by the sun, while he's up here checking out the sun right there, another tree.

This one's gonna be closer to us.

So proportionately, it'll be bigger.

It'll be bigger.

Now he can look like he's closer.

There... Be careful that you don't cover up the sun.

Shoot, you worked so hard to put it in there.

Look at that.

That old tree lives right in your brush.

All you gotta do is just push him out, and we'll decide maybe he lives right down to there, and let's give him a friend too.

He's sort of crooked.

There, that's a crooked tree.

We'll send him to Washington.

There we go.

We'll push up another little friend.

That easy.

Okay.

Now then.

Let's put a tree trunk here.

Now for that, take a little white, little dark sienna mix them together, pull them out very flat, cut across, and once again, our little roll of paint.

There we are and just touch here and there.

Just like the indication of a little tree trunk, a little bit back in here.

These are far away, so you're not gonna see as much detail.

You take the point of the knife and just cut through here and there.

Put in the indication of a little stick, twig, whatever you want.

That easy.

There, Imma wash my little brush here, and for the little brush, I don't beat it.

I just wipe it on a paper towel.

There, it's not as much fun to beat and bang on it.

It's too small.

Okay, I'll take some, Imma use some white and thalo blue.

Just mix them with the brush.

Shoot, no big deal.

White and thalo blue.

Okay, let's go back up there.

Maybe on these little trees we'll just put the indication of some highlights for this, just to make them really stand out.

Don't kill all your dark.

Don't kill all your dark.

That contrast is so pretty, a dark color against all these nice bright colors.

Okay, maybe a little touch back in here.

I don't want a whole bunch back here.

I wanna keep detail away from these cause I want them to have that illusion of distance.

There, maybe a little more right in there, wherever you want to.

Now then, find my brush.

Come out up under the bottom of that tree there.

Let's have some fun.

Take a little bit of our titanium white.

I wanna grab that and pull.

Allow it to pick up a little bit of that color.

See there, and once again, it's unreal how by just grabbing a little touch of that color you can make all kinds of beautiful effects in the snow.

Now, one thing you might have noticed that when I'm doing winter trees, it's very rare that I ever put any green into cause if green gets into your snow, it just doesn't look right.

The only, the only thing worse than yellow snow is green snow.

So, it's very rare I ever use green in these trees.

Alright, little more white.

See that little bit of color helped separate all that.

There we are.

Okay, let's get crazy today.

Shoot.

Tell you what, I'm gone grab big old round brush and maybe there's some big trees that live here.

Imma take a little bit of van dyke brown, some dark sienna, and I'm just gonna tap the round brush into it.

Just tap it.

Just tap it.

Let's go right in here.

Imma start at the base of these trees and work upward.

That way, the darkest area will be down here, and it'll give the indication of the shadows, nice shadows happening, and you have to make a big decision here.

Where does your tree live?

How tall is it?

Is it healthy, is it not?

Is it dead, alive?

You have to make all these big decisions.

There we go.

Maybe comes right on down, wherever, doesn't matter.

You just put it where you want it.

There, let's go on the other side and have a happy little tree over there too.

Maybe, right here.

See there, but you can put trees wherever you want them in your world.

Maybe this comes right up here.

There, now then.

Imma take my script liner brush, put some paint thinner on it, go right into the brown.

I want this to be as thin as ink, lot of paint thinner.

Okay, now then.

Here and there, let's just put the indication of a little tree trunk.

Let's go on the big tree on the other side here.

It needs some too.

See there.

Just a happy little tree trunk here and there.

There... maybe here and there you can see the indication of just little things and some of them are coming clean up over.

It adds interest and detail to your painting.

Go back into my yellows here.

I'm gonna take a least little touch of yellow ochre, and I'm just gonna tap that right into the bristles.

Little bit of a bright red, but very little of the red.

Okay, now then.

Little yellow ochre and I'm just gone put the indication of a little highlight, just right up here on the tree and think about form and shape and his limbs in there that create all kinds of beautiful little things to happen.

Looky there.

This round brush will do fantastic things for you.

Super for making trees and bushes.

There.

Okay, there we are.

Maybe a little touch right out there, wherever, wherever.

I don't want much.

I don't want this to get too bright, just an indication.

A little bit over in here too, but once again, pay attention to your form and shape.

That'll really make your tree special.

That's what makes you happy is when that son of a gun works, and you can see all those little bushes and stuff in there.

There we go.

Now, back to my big brush, and I'm gonna grab this and just like with the evergreens, Imma pull a little touch of that color right out into my painting.

So, it'll look like shadows under there.

See there?

Little bit right there.

If you painted with me before, you know (laughs) we don't make mistakes.

We have happy accidents.

Shh.

That's our secret.

Don't tell anybody.

I'm going back to my liner brush.

Go back right into that good old van dyke brown, get it very thin, very thin.

Just see a good place right here.

Shoot, maybe the old farmer that used to farm out here, maybe he had a fence, like so.

Just take the liner brush.

Maybe that fence goes over the hill.

Looky there.

Now we put some rails on it.

Toop ta doop ta doop.

Don't make those little noises, it don't work.

Look at that.

See, maybe a little shadow.

Just touch it, give it a little pull.

(laughs) Isn't that sneaky?

And you can really get carried away.

You can take a touch of the liquid white and put the indication up on top here there's little snow laying up there, whatever.

Okay, back into my brown.

I'm just gone put indication here and there of just a little stick and a twig.

See that's a nice way to sort of clean the edges up and add a little interest.

Little paint thinner.

I'll go right into some bright red.

I think we'll sign this one.

We'll sign him right here.

Now, when you sign your painting cause I get letters all the time that say I don't want to sign my painting in red.

That's fantastic.

Sign it in any color that you want.

There's as many different ways to sign your painting as there are artists.

Now I think I can put this in one of my books.

One of the most memorable signatures I ever seen was a fantastic lady, and she used to sign her painting "grandpa's wife" and it was different and everybody remembered it.

So, come up with your own signature, whether it be a name, an initial, a symbol, whatever you want and that is special to you, and until next time, I'd like to wish you happy painting, God bless, and I'll see you again.

(soft jazz)