- Hi, welcome back.

Certainly glad you could join us today.

And today I have one of my little friends with me I thought I'd introduce you to if he's cooperative here.

This is a little baby fox squirrel.

Turn around there and let's see you.

Isn't he the most gorgeous little character?

He's just a little baby.

He's probably, oh maybe, maybe four or five weeks old, just a little fellow.

He was orphaned and one of the rehab ladies here in Muncie was taking care of him, Diana Schaefer, and I thought I'd share him with you, but he's one of the most fantastic little characters.

I just love these little rascals.

They're my friends, right?

How you doing?

How you doing?

You got a fat tummy.

Yes, you do.

Okay, I guess we have to go to work.

You ready to go to work, huh?

Yeah, okay, let me put him down because I would play with animals through the whole show.

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

And while they're doing that, come on up here and let me show you what I've got done already.

Have my regular old pre-stretched double-primed canvas and I'm using an 18 X 24 inch, but you can use whatever size is convenient.

Today, I've cut a oval out of contact paper and just put it over the top.

Then here, we've covered it with Liquid White, that's all.

I thought that may today we'd just do a gorgeous little painting that's a lot of fun, and I hope you'll enjoy it.

Let's start out with a little bit of the cad yellow, very, very small amount.

Don't need much on the old two-inch brush.

And let's go right up in here.

Let's do a painting that has a lot of color.

Let's do a winter scene that has a lot of color.

There we go.

I like to do winter scenes, but sometimes they can be so cold, they're whoo, they're not very much fun to look at.

So, let's warm ours up.

Cadmium yellow, without cleaning the brush, right into a little bit of yellow ochre.

There, something like that.

And we just let them blend together.

There we go.

That's all there is to it.

I like these combinations of colors because it makes a nice glow that comes out.

Maybe, yeah, without even washing the brush again, bright red.

So, we have cadmium yellow, yellow ochre, and now we're into bright red.

There we go.

And using little criss-cross strokes, little X's, see we can just blend that right together.

So, you can't tell where one color stops and the next color starts.

That's exactly what we're looking for.

And, I tell you what, I'm going to get another brush.

I have several brushes so I don't have to spend all my time washing them.

I'll take a little touch of the phthalo blue.

I don't want much, just a little and maybe even add a little black to it, a little midnight black, a little phthalo blue, not a lot of color.

Up in here, we'll just complete this with some blue, but I don't want this to be very dark, just enough to give it a little blue flavor.

And that's really about all I need.

Okay, now we can wash the brush.

We wash our brushes with odorless paint thinner since these are oils.

(beats brush) (chuckles) And just beat the devil out of 'em.

That's really the fun part of all this.

Let's use a little fan brush, a little bit of white.

Load a lot of paint on the bristles and let's go up in here and maybe in our world there lives a happy little cloud right there.

I don't want one that's real distinct, just a little floater that lives right up in there, a little bashful cloud.

There we go.

We can take our little blender brush and very gently just blend this like that.

Just blend it and that easy we have a, we have a fantastic little cloud.

Maybe, find the knife here, I want to take some alizarin crimson and sap green in about equal parts, maybe a little more crimson than the green.

I want this to be sort of towards the reddish side, but it's up to you.

Clean off the knife.

Let's have another fan brush.

I have several of those too.

Load a little color and let's put the indication of some little clouds that live right here where these two areas come together, using a little bit of that brownish color.

Don't need a lot of paint.

Little tiny circles with the corner of the fan brush.

Little tiny circles.

Tiny little circles There you go, see?

Just drop them in.

Maybe over here some more.

We'll just have them go all the way across.

Why not?

Why not?

Something about like that.

Wherever, there.

Something like so.

Okay, and let's take, we'll take the little blender brush and just begin blending it.

I hope you liked seeing that little squirrel.

He's so cute.

I set him in a little box here, but once I've woke him up, he thinks it's dinner time now.

That little rascal wants to be fed, so I'll have to feed him here in a minute.

There we go.

I have such a fascination for these little creatures.

There, I really like them.

If you've painted with me before, you know I'm almost obsessed with them.

I'm going to take a little bright red, a little bit of white.

But I like all of God's little creatures.

I'm going to take the least little touch of liquid white and add to that just to thin it, a very, very small amount, very small amount.

Don't put too much, shh, easy, little bit.

Let's go up in here.

Now, I want to come back and highlight these clouds with that nice pinkish color we made, nice pinkish color.

There, you want just enough of the Liquid White in there so that the color comes off your brush without mixing all together up here.

There we are.

Then you just sort of figure out where you think light's hitting all these little things and drop them in, just drop them in wherever, wherever.

Something like that.

There.

I'm going back over here, maybe put a little bit right in here, just a few indications.

Back to my little blender.

This little blender brush is very soft, very, very soft.

As my daddy used to say, "It's tender as a mother's love."

There, and in my case that was very tender, very tender.

You can just wipe the brush off if you collect a little paint on it.

Just wipe it on a paper towel or something and very gently just go across.

That's basically all there is to it and you can make a dynamite little sky that easy.

If you want to put little stringy clouds, you can just touch it with white here and there, wherever.

And just paint over them and it will make like stringy clouds that weave back in the background somewhere.

All right, take a little bit of that titanium white.

I'm going to mix it with some of that brown that we made and the crimson and the sap green.

Get a little more white.

I want it to be light.

And maybe in our world, yep, maybe back here it lives a little soft hill, way back in the distance.

All we're going to do is just tap in some color like that and then very gently lift upward.

I want this one to be very soft, very soft far far away, far away.

Very far.

Back to our little blender brush.

Tap, I want to blend that base out 'til it just looks like it's just hanging in the mist up there.

Come back to the same color, only less white in it, but still that brown that we made from the crimson and the sap green, the crimson and the sap green.

Let's go back up in here.

And maybe, maybe you're right.

There you go.

Maybe there's another happy little foothill lives right there.

You decide.

Don't just try to copy.

That's what's so fantastic about this technique.

All we want to do is teach you how to make effects and turn you loose on the world because each and every one of us will see nature through different eyes and that's what you should paint.

What you see is what you should capture on canvas.

Come on, lift up.

Once again, I want to make this look like little trees live far away.

But do this in layers.

Paint in layers.

Do the thing, that in your mind, is the farthest away first.

Do it first and then come back.

That way your painting will have distance and depth in it.

And that's what makes your painting special.

Shoot, let's get crazy.

(chuckles) Yeah, why not?

Just look at your painting and begin to see things in it.

Notice this one's a little darker than the previous one.

Each one as it gets closer to you, each one of these little hills should get a little bit darker in value.

Colors should be a little darker.

Look at that.

Just use the corner of the brush, tap these in, then lift upward.

(clicks tongue) That's all there is to it.

Got to make those little noises or it doesn't work.

There, see there?

And already, it gives the indication of thousands and thousands of little trees that live far back in the distance somewhere.

W don't even know how far they are.

We said we was going to have winter so I'm going to take a little bit of the titanium white.

Just load some on the fan brush.

Shoot, it's easy.

And let's sneak a little snow back up through here.

I should have done this, see, before I put this one on here, but I keep changing my mind what I'm going to paint here,so that's okay.

Anything we disturb, we just go back and put it in.

No big deal 'cause as you know if you've painted with us before, we don't make mistakes here.

We just have happy accidents.

And by that, all we mean is that anything that happens here, we can work with.

We don't worry about it, absolutely don't worry about it.

See, just put that right back.

Lift it up because this is our world.

We control it.

When I go home, the only power I have is over the garbage.

It sits there and waits for me to come home and take it out, but here I can literally move mountains.

I want to get the least little touch of the bright red here and there, just to warm it.

If all this color is in the sky, in my mind, there'd be some of that color way down here too.

Something like that.

I don't even know where we're going with this.

It doesn't matter, doesn't matter.

Anything we don't like, we'll change it.

There, all right.

(brush strokes canvas) That's all there is to it.

Now, let's have some fun.

We'll save that brown.

We might need some of that later.

I'm going to take Prussian blue, midnight black, and how about some alizarin crimson too, Prussian blue, midnight black, alizarin crimson.

Wipe off the old knife.

Let's see here.

I 'bout used up all my fan brushes.

Let me wash one real quick.

(washes brush) There not as much fun to wash. You don't get to beat and bang with them.

It's a lot more fun when you can beat that brush and scare everybody around you.

(laughs) Load the bristles full of paint.

We have a good time here.

Full of paint.

Maybe in our world, here's your bravery test.

choo choo choo, right there lives a big evergreen tree.

Use the corner of the brush.

As you work down the tree, use more and more of the brush and push harder and harder.

You want to force the bristles to bend downward for this particular kind of tree.

Sometimes we make the bristles bend upward, but today let's bring it on down about there.

How's that?

Today we're making them bend downward.

Maybe there's a big tree that lives right there.

And yes, I realize I'm on the contact paper, but that way it will look like the tree just continues right down there.

While we pull the contact paper off, see, we're not worried about this side 'cause we're going to pull the contact paper off, throw it away.

There, okay.

Looks like a mama and a papa tree.

We need a little tree too.

What the heck?

He lives in our world right there.

So, we have three little trees.

That makes a happy little family out here.

There, about like that.

Okay, back to our fan brush that has the white.

We can grab a little of that color and pull it.

Just pull it.

it automatically will create the illusion of a shadow right under our tree.

just let that blend back and right on around.

Got a little hair right there.

Just lift him off.

There.

Since these are natural bristle brushes, sometimes a little hair just falls out.

Just like my hair, it's sort of wild and unruly.

(laughs) There, all right.

Now, let's take, find another fan brush that's not so dirty, a little white, a little bit of the phthalo blue.

Phthalo blue's such a nice warm blue.

I'll be right back.

I'm going to get a little touch of the Liquid White.

Remember our golden rule, a thin paint will stick to a thick paint.

So, I have titanium white, Liquid White, a little touch of phthalo blue and with that we can come back in here and we can just put the indication of some real nice little highlights that live right out in here.

There.

In my mind, I think a light is coming from the right, so I'll emphasize the right side of the tree.

But maybe you want your light coming from another direction, up to you.

Darker, darker, darker down here toward the base, darker, darker, darker.

And this one up here that goes right off the contact paper.

There he is, darker, darker, darker.

Shoot, you know me.

If you had a lovely place like this, you'd have to live here so if you're going to live here, you need a little house.

Let's build us a little cabin.

He lives right there.

Just scrape out a basic shape.

I really find it easier.

If you use a knife and scrape out a basic shape, it does two things.

It allows you to lay out your shape of your cabin without being committed, but more importantly, you can hear I'm getting quite firm, more importantly, it removes the excess paint and so it's easier for the next layer to go on.

Our brown was made from sap green, alizarin crimson.

We'll just continue to use that brown.

That's a wonderful brown, very very nice chocolate brown.

I like that color.

Cut off our little roll of paint.

And let's go up in here.

We'll put a little back eve.

The part, once again, that's farthest away from you.

Swooooo.

And don't worry much about the bottom.

We'll cut it off.

Right now we're just putting in some dark brown paint so our little cabin will have some fronts and some backs on him.

We'll take a little brown and a little white, mix it together here.

That same brown color we we were using and a little white.

Once again, our little roll of paint.

This is your delicacy test right here.

Barely touch, swooooo.

You might want to use the small knife with this.

Sometimes it's a little easier to get in there.

But look how it looks like old wood.

And over on this side darker.

Chooo, just a hint.

Just a hint over here.

Let me wipe off the old knife.

Take a little bit of the dark paint and we can just come along and touch and it will make it look like old boards that live in there.

tu, tu, tu, tu, tu.

Sneaky.

Now, we can do a cabinectomy on the base and just take out whatever we don't want.

Clean it all up.

Get our perspective right.

We need to fix the roof.

This fella didn't have a roof on his cabin.

I'll just use titanium white.

See, a little roll of paint and let's go right up in here.

Just sort of outline the edges that you want to be nice and straight.

That's cheating but it works well.

And then pull it, zoooo.

Works well and I'm lazy.

I look for things that work easy.

Now, we need a little snow over here on the other side of the roof.

Don't want him left out.

There, something like so.

Now, I've taken a little bit of blue and white, the same blue I used on the tree, and I just want to put a little on the edge.

It makes the snow look deeper on your little cabin like it's been here for a long time.

All right, I'm going to grab the small knife.

Now, we need a door.

Got to have a way to get in and out.

So, we just take a little dark, put us in a little door, little highlight around the edge of the door, and that's all there is to making a little cabin.

And that's just a very simple little cabin.

You could go into much more detail and you could turn it into a chalet here or a hotel or whatever you want in your world.

There.

All you need is a little imagination, practice a little bit, and allow this to take you anywhere that you want to be.

Anywhere.

You can do this.

Everyday I receive letters from fantastic people all over the world who tell me their fouth-grade art teacher told them they had no talent, and they never painted, but they always wanted to.

And then some crazy, fuzzy-haired guy came on TV and said, "You can do it," and they tried it and guess what?

Guess what?

They can do it.

And if you can do this, you can do anything in your life that you believe you can do and you're willing to practice and work at, anything, anything.

I believe that with all my heart.

My son, Steve, I'm always telling him he can have anything that he wants if he's willing to pay the price.

Okay, let me find, let's use a one-inch brush.

Let's have some fun.

Let's go into brown.

This is that brown we made from the sap and the alizarin.

Pull it in one direction.

Turn it over like that.

We want that rounded corner toward the top.

Let's go up in here.

And let's put in some little bushes and stuff that live in our world.

Just touch and give the brush a little bend.

Push it upwards, see?

That's all you want to do.

Maybe right here.

You decide, you decide.

I want this to come right over.

This guy is like me.

He don't maintain his yard very well.

There we go, all right.

I leave my yard natural so the animals will live there.

At least that's what I tell my neighbors when they yell at me.

(chuckles) Let's take and dip a one inch-brush into a little bit of the Liquid White.

I'm going to go into yellow ochre.

It's a nice gold color.

Yellow ochre, maybe even a touch of the bright red, not much, mostly just yellow ochre.

Once again, pull it one direction, turn it.

That's beautiful close-ups that Cathy's doing here aren't they?

Gorgeous.

Let's go up in here.

I've got some fantastic camera people here.

They've worked with me, some of them for over ten years.

They know how to paint these paintings better than I do, I think.

There, put a little highlight here and there, just wherever we want them on these things.

There we go.

Maybe over here.

Now, this will really, really shine against this color, really shine.

A little bit more paint.

Don't be afraid to reload your brush.

If you have enough paint that's thin enough, remember it needs to be thinner that what's up here, all you have to do is just touch the canvas, and the canvas will pull the paint off the brush in the proper amount.

Takes a little practice to get the consistency right, but very quickly you can do it without any problem at all.

Just practice a little, little bit.

Okay, let's have our liner brush.

I think we need a tree.

No, not a big tree, not a big tree, just a small tree today.

Take our liner brush, get the paint very thin with paint thinner, twist the bristles, turn it.

It brings it to a very nice, sharp point.

There you can see it.

Let's go up in here.

Maybe in our world, there lives, zooo, just a small tree.

I get letters, sometimes people say, "Why did you put that big tree in right at the end?"

You don't have to put the big tree in your painting.

I just sort of like to do that.

I like big trees in my world.

But everybody's different.

Everybody's different.

There we go, a few little arms.

Maybe he's got a little friend here, just a little guy.

We don't know.

Sticks and twigs always growing out of there.

Shoot, maybe there's even a little eh, eh, eh, eh right in there.

It doesn't make any difference.

Something like so maybe over in here.

We don't want this side left out.

Just a few little things.

Clean off our little brush.

This one's almost white.

And we can sneak back in here and just begin, eh, guess we've got to wash that.

No, here's another one, here's one that's white.

That one had too much color on it.

There, see?

Just back in here, pull a little bit of that bush color down so it makes shadows in your snow.

There, something like that.

And that's fantastic.

Snow is so easy to paint, so very easy to paint.

You can do it with a two-inch brush.

There, a few little things back in here.

Clean the bottoms up, shoot.

Let's find our knife.

We can go back and here and there just scratch in an indication of some sticks and twigs.

I think we're about to the point we can pull the contact paper off and see what we have.

So, here we go.

(paper tears) Let's just take that off and isn't that fantastic?

I love these ovals.

Now then, let's go back to our brush that has the dark color on it, and let's take this tree and let's project him right out of the painting.

I like to do those something about like that.

See?

And back to our brush that has the phthalo blue on it.

And we can put some highlights on this tree that easy.

There, shoot I think we've about got it.

Take our liner, a little bit of red paint and let's sign this one right here.

Hope you've enjoyed this painting.

It's very easy and you'll really be surprised with the results.

So, from all of us here, I'd like to wish you happy painting and God Bless, my friend.

(upbeat music)