(light music) - Hi, welcome back.

Certainly glad you could join us today.

I thought today, we'd do a different little painting using some of the liquid black and liquid white.

So let's start out and have 'em run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint along with us.

While they'e doing that, let me show you what I got.

Got my standard old, pre-stretched, double prime canvas.

Today, I've taken liquid black, and put on the bottom.

And liquid white put on the top, it just blended in together.

So, the entire canvas is wet.

But it's dark on the bottom.

That's the only difference.

Liquid black is just like liquid white, only it has a black pigment in it.

And I use that a lot of times when I know there's gonna be areas that there's a lot of dark in.

The liquid black will make it a lot easier for you.

Let's start today with a little bit of Alizarin crimson.

Just a small amount on a little two-inch brush.

Just a little.

Let's go up in here.

I want to put a little pink in the sky.

But I don't want much.

I just want enough to warm it up some.

I don't want to set it on fire.

It's very easy to set it on fire.

Just want to warm it up.

Now, the crimson is mixing with the liquid white.

It is a little liquid black there.

And automatically, it will get lighter and lighter in value.

That easy.

Okay.

That's about all I want of the crimson.

There.

Now, without cleaning the brush, I'll go right into some phthalo blue.

I like phthalo blue.

It's a beautiful, beautiful blue.

Okay, let's go up in here.

Now, we start right at the top, using our Xs, little cris-cross strokes, go all the way across the top.

All the way across.

And then begin blending downward.

And be careful.

This blue is so much stronger than the crimson.

It will eat up all the crimson very quickly.

Very quickly.

So let's just have it about like that, and then clean your brush.

And we'll take the clean brush, and blend them both together.

Just shake it off.

Beat the devil out of it.

That really is the fun part of this whole technique.

I have more pleasure just beating the brush than anybody in the country.

I have people now that write me letters and say they have no desire to paint.

They just bought a brush so they can beat it and take out their frustrations.

That's okay.

That's okay.

Alright.

Let's do... Let's put some mountains in there today, shoot.

Let's take some Prussian blue, some black, Alizarin crimson, Van Dyke brown.

Just mix 'em together.

Mix 'em together.

Make a nice dark, dark color.

Put a little more crimson in it.

There.

Okay.

Now, the first thing we have to do is decide where our mountain lives.

We'll cut off a little roll of paint.

There, you can see it.

Let's go.

Maybe there's a mountain, lives right here.

Now, the only thing we're concerned about, is the nice, outside edge.

We could care less what's going on anywhere except the top.

Right in there.

So, don't worry about it.

Don't let a mountain scare you.

They're really one of the neatest things to paint in this technique.

And still probably the most popular thing we paint.

Alright, I'm gonna take two-inch brush, grab it, and pull.

Because there's liquid white and liquid black underneath, the color will move.

It'll allow you to blend the color right on the canvas.

And it also removes excess paint.

So, the next layer will be much easier to apply.

And we'll just let it fade right into that, like that.

See there?

That's all there is to it.

Let's take white, white.

Grab some midnight black a little bit and put in there.

I want to grey this a little bit.

So, we put a little bit of, maybe even a touch of bright red.

It's our world, we can do anything that we want here.

Pull the paint out as flat as you can get it.

Once again, our little roll of paint.

Let's go up here.

Now then, just decide where the light's coming from.

And if you're right-handed, you'll find it's usually easier to have it coming from the right side.

Left-handed, try both ways.

Left-handed people, have been forced to do right-handed things their entire life.

So some left-handed people will find it easier to highlight on the right, some on the left.

It's a very individual thing.

There we are.

Little dooders in there.

Now, I'm just gonna, pull a little bit of that color down to make the shadows.

I don't want distinct shadows in here.

Just gonna pull a little bit of it down.

Maybe, right over in here, there's a little bump right there.

See there?

You decide.

You decide where all these little things live.

There.

And you can just place some darks and lights back and forth, to create all kinds of illusions.

There you go.

Okay.

Now, as I say, it's your world.

You decide where you want all these little rascals to live.

Okay, we'll take a clean, be sure its good and dry.

Clean, dry two-inch brush.

If it's not dry, it will dilute the paint, and make it too soft.

So, be sure it's dry.

Follow the basic angles in these mountains, and tap.

All we're doing is trying to take out the little tap marks and blend everything together.

And then, lift upward.

See?

Smooths it right out.

And it creates that illusion of mist, right down at the base.

Sometimes, it's a little too straight for me.

I'm gonna, put a little dooder right there.

See?

It's all you gotta a do.

You can change your mind.

And it just makes it a little more interesting.

Ready to get brave?

Let's do it.

That little mountain went so well.

(laughs) This really is your bravery test.

Let's have a big mountain, that lives right up here.

Right up here.

Maybe there's a little bump right there.

Don't be afraid of these mountains, shoot.

Once you make friends with this knife, they're one of the neatest things you can make.

And you do need to make friends with the knife.

It takes a little time.

Takes a little time.

It's like anything else when you do it at first.

It's a little foreign to you.

It takes a little while to make friends with it.

Alright.

Very quickly, with a little practice, you'll be doing things with a knife, you just can't believe.

Okay.

There.

Here in the studio, we just had a couple of my young friends come in.

And, they were only about, one was six and one was younger than that.

And they brought me some paintings that they're doing.

It's unreal, what young people can do with this too.

They were fantastic.

Okay, now.

We're just gonna blend that, just let it go right and all, whew.

We said we was gonna make a big mountain, we weren't kidding.

Once again, our little roll of paint.

Touch, no pressure.

Absolutely no pressure.

Just let the paint glide right along on there.

Let it glide.

You want it to break.

In other words, have all these holes in it.

That's what makes it look interesting.

There maybe is a little light zinging right on there.

Wherever, it's up to you.

Painting gives you freedom.

Gives you creative freedom.

let's take some Prussian blue and some white, a little black in it, just to dull it down some.

There.

We'll make us a little shadow color.

Small roll of paint.

And once again, just let it just glide right along there, like that.

Maybe out here, just a little highlight right in there.

We just sort of let them come together.

Just let your imagination take you to any place that you want to go.

Look up there.

See there?

Just let it go.

Just let it slide right down though there.

No pressure.

I know you get tired of hearing that, but it's so important, and it's probably the single biggest mistake that people make, is apply too much pressure.

No pressure.

I'm gonna put some little bumps and stuff in here.

And we can do that.

Put them anywhere that we want 'em.

There.

Just a little.

Maybe there's a little dooder that lives over here.

Mountains grow every which way.

Just let 'em grow.

Let 'em go, wherever they want to be.

There.

Just, a few little things down in here.

Take a little more of our shadow color.

There.

But that creates the illusion of all kinds of little dooders.

And when you're at home and have unlimited time, shoot, you can do much better than this.

Much, much better, I know you can.

There we are.

Wherever.

Wherever.

Okay.

Something about like him.

Now, let's get our brushes.

Nice and dry.

And let's just blend this, very gently.

Just blend it.

We're tapping, following those angles.

Notice the angles are coming down, like that, and we follow those angles.

We follow, okay?

Little bit of shadows, right here behind this little rascal.

Don't want him left out.

Then we can bring all of that together.

Lift upward.

Takes out the tap marks, brings everything together, like that.

I'll tell you, the best mountain painter in this technique, is probably my son, Steve.

That rascal, whew.

He can paint some mountains.

Maybe we'll get him on here before the series is over.

He travels and teaches all over the country.

But, if we can get that little rascal in here, we'll have him come to the show.

Maybe I'll get him to paint you a mountain, because he can paint mountains.

Course, I sound like a proud Daddy just keep yaking 'bout him.

And there's some truth to that.

There is some truth.

Okay.

That'll give us a pretty good, little mountain.

I'm gonna have time to do some other things than this.

Let's take Prussian blue, phthalo green, black, brown.

Oh, willing, throw about any old dark color in there.

I like to throw a little of that phthalo green into it.

I'll make some evergreens.

It just gives them a nice, nice color.

Alright.

Today, to make some evergreens.

Let's grab us a... We'll use a fan brush.

We'll use the old fan brush.

You could use a one-inch brush, whatever, it doesn't matter.

Anything that works.

Load both sides with a lot of paint.

Let's go up in here.

And, let's just tap in, the basic indication of some little evergreens, that live far away back here.

They're far away.

They live right under the bottom of this mountain.

It's one of the easiest ways I've ever seen, to create the illusion of a lot of little trees, very simply.

Very, very simply.

But now, one of the things that happens a lot, sometimes there's too much distance between 'em, and they begin looking like fence posts.

If that should happen, all you need to do is put a few more in there.

Just fill up the area.

There.

Because they're too far away, you're not gonna see a lot of detail.

Things that are far away, you see only basic shape, form, and basic color.

That's really about all.

Maybe we'll have 'em coming over here too.

And to create that illusion of distance in your painting, avoid having too much detail, when things are supposed to be far, far away.

Yeah.

I know that sounds crazy, don't put too much detail.

Sometimes we can absolutely put too much.

Okay, here we are.

And we just sort of smash 'em down, with the old fanbrush.

These fan brushes are marvelous.

They'll do wonderful, wonderful things, where you paint an entire painting, using nothing but the fan brush.

maybe we'll do that in one of the shows sometime.

Just to show you we can.

The big thing is time.

I'm gonna tap the base of that.

Like so, there we are.

Now, we're gonna lift up.

It just smooths everything out.

Blends it right into the painting.

There we are.

Now we have a whole ridge of just little trees that live there.

Okay, we'll just use that same old brush.

It's got, put some sap green in it.

And it has a little bit of that pine tree color.

So when we touch yellow, we're gonna get beautiful, beautiful greens, that'll end in yellow.

And then I'll touch a little of the bright red.

Bright red actually dulls the color.

I know it sounds crazy, but red and green make brown.

So, when you put 'em together, it dulls the color.

Now then, yeah.

And notice I didn't have to put any dark color in there, because we used the liquid black.

That's what it's great for.

I knew there was gonna be a lot of dark in there.

Didn't know exactly where, but it doesn't much matter.

But I knew there was gonna be a lot in there.

So, Let's just take, and begin tapping in the indication of all kinds of little things that are happening back here.

Wherever.

There they are.

Just little happy dooders.

I make up words.

I'm very bad about that.

I often wondered, we have the shows playing in numerous foreign countries now, I often wonder how they translate, "Dooders."

There we are.

Alright.

I like to go to Mexico.

The show's been playing in Mexico for several years, Mexico City especially.

And, it's unbelievable, some of the paintings that our Mexican instructors are coming up with.

Unbelievable.

Because, they've adapted this to, the scenery that they see in Mexico.

And now, we have a lot of instructors in Japan, and they're doing exactly the same thing.

So, they're teaching me now.

That's nice, when you can have and get so lazy and let somebody else do it, and let them teach you.

Here we are See how that land flows downward?

I want it to look like a little meadow back here, where the land just flows, just flows right down, very soft.

There we are.

You make the decision how far down it goes.

I tell you what, I tell you what.

I'm sorry, I get crazy.

(laughs) When you paint like this for any length of time, you begin seeing things in your painting.

When you see these things, take advantage of 'em.

Take advantage of 'em.

Use 'em.

They're like gifts, use 'em.

I want to, yeah.

I'll just do it.

I just wanna put, maybe do some more evergreens here.

Yeah, I'll put a whole line here.

There.

I need all these trees, cuz my little squirrel needs a place to hide.

Tell you what, I got another little piece of film here I want to show you about my little squirrel, Peapod.

He is just the cutest little devil you've ever seen.

Now, how could you not fall in love with someone like him?

Isn't he precious?

Thus is my little squirrel, Peapod.

He lives with me.

Well, actually he lives outside, and he just, cuz I've turned him loose quite a while back.

He's full grown now.

He was just sort of a baby there.

But her still comes back, everyday, everyday.

And I feed him, I'm soft-touched.

But, ain't he something?

I always have a lot of scratches on my hands and stuff and playing with him, because they have very sharp claws.

The one thing I like to say over and over, we do not ever keep, making these wild creatures pets.

I only raise 'em and I turn 'em loose.

Because wild creatures, that's where they belong.

They should be wild.

If you want to keep a creature, get a domestic animal.

Doggy or a cat.

They're a lot of fun.

They're a lot of company.

But, wild creatures are to be wild.

That's the way God intended it to be.

There we are.

But sometimes they need a little help.

And if they do, I jump right in there.

I like to play with them.

Like to watch them grow.

But these little squirrels, when I get 'em, a lot of times they're so small, that their eyes aren't even open.

And then you have to get up at night, just like, well, like I did with Steve when he was a tiny, little baby.

And you have to feed him two or three times every night.

Of course, Steve's not so tiny anymore.

He's over 6''5, almost 6''6.

Must have fed him good.

Yeah.

That rascal, certainly grew.

He out grew me.

We'll take a little bit of white.

I wanna create the illusion of a little mist down here at the base of these.

I'll show you why, just to set it.

And I'll put some that's more distinct, in this little misty area here, this little misty area, will turn out to be your best friend, because this will be your separator.

And you could just bang it in any old way, and then we'll just tap it till it blends together.

Makes the base of the trees look very soft and gentle.

There.

And most of this will disappear.

But here and there and there and here, we want to put a more distinct tree, a bigger tree.

We'll put a little more paint on here.

Get all that phthalo green there.

Oh, I like it.

Brown and crimson.

I'll put some sap in there too, I didn't have much phthalo.

And I want to have a green tint to it.

Okay.

let's see what we got here.

Maybe, you know, Bobby.

Gotta have a big tree in here somewhere.

Gotta have a big old tree.

Here it comes.

There we are.

We'll put some highlights on there and separate it.

That'll separate it right apart.

Let's give him a friend.

There we go.

Right there.

I know it's hard to see right now, but, we'll separate it.

We'll separate it.

Maybe here and there we can put the indication of a few more, a little closer to us, a little bigger, a little more detail.

And then that little misty area will separate 'em.

We'll just put a few in here.

You decide in your world how many there are.

There we go.

Something like that.

I need one down here.

Just right there.

Okay.

Now, without doing anything to that brush except going through yellow, because it has blue and black in it, you'll make a beautiful green color.

That'll give us the highlight.

Okay?

Let's go back up here.

Same old brush.

There we are.

Now, we can put in a few little highlights.

Don't kill all your dark color.

I know it's tempting.

A little yellow ochre, Indian yellow just mixed in there, change of flavor.

But don't kill all the dark.

Evergreens are normally pretty dark trees.

Leave 'em that way.

There.

A little over in here.

I'm just bopping around here trying to get these put in as quick as I can.

I'll put a few more little things in this painting, it's a lot of fun.

This liquid black, try it.

Try it.

I think you'll find it does wonderful things.

Now then, maybe, yeah, why not?

Let's start.

We'll put in some little grassy areas and there.

Little yellow.

I'm gonna dip the brush into at least a little touch of paint thinner.

Just enough to thin the paint a tiny bit.

We're getting quite a buildup of paint on here.

So we need to paint this a little thinner.

See it there?

Look at all the layers in this painting.

I mean, it just goes on and on and on.

And you can do it so simple.

There we are.

Okay, and maybe a little touch of the bright red here and there.

I like it.

I like it with red in there, it does nice things.

Okay.

We need a little path in there.

Let me take a little Dark Sienna, Van Dyke brown.

Gotta have a way to get in there.

We'll just put us a little path right in there.

Mostly Dark Sienna.

Put a little of the Van Dyke, and we'll let it wander right on out through there.

Little brown, little white.

Just enough to put the indication of a little highlight on there.

There, see?

It's that easy.

Just like you're putting snow on the mountain.

Maybe, I know.

(laughs) Let's take a little black.

Maybe come right up in here.

Maybe there's just a little stone that is right there.

Happy little stone.

We put in dark first.

And we come back with some brown, white, a little black in it.

And let's put a little highlight on that, just enough to make it interesting.

Just enough, see?

Pull a little but of it down, not much, not much.

Alright.

Then, some little grassy areas right around his foot.

Bring the path all into the painting.

There.

Alright.

Got just a minute left here.

Tell you what, I'll need a tree in here.

I need a little tree.

My producer right now is gonna kill me for doing this.

Right there is a little tree.

And we'll take, a little light color, just tap the side here Give it some highlight.

Grab a liner brush, put a couple little tree branches on it.

This old tree is dead.

This old tree had a bad day.

Old evergreen tree, you just need some little limbs hanging out through there.

Wherever.

Not many left, just a few.

See?

But that's really all there is to it.

Hope you've enjoyed this little painting.

It's something different.

Shows you how to use the liquid black, and I believe it'll bring you fantastic results.

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

(light music)