I once suggested to my 13-year-old son let's play no blocked shots.

He was tall-- he never lets me forget it.

[piano plays in bright rhythm & tone] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Let's look at the pochade, the model that we're going from.

You can see it over on the easel.

It's got a lot of energy in it, and then you see what we completed last week in oils is the middle stage.

So now we're going to put oils on top of that.

I want to tell you one little basketball story before I start.

What number do you see there?

31?

Great.

That's right.

I was coaching once, and it was a small kind of league where volunteers, and I asked one of my players who was kind of a substitute, I said, "Would you go around and put all the numbers of our players on our team and then hand the book to the other team to do that?"

So he did.

In the middle of the game, a very pressure point time, I put this player in, and all of the sudden there's a whistle that blows.

"Technical!"

And they call it from up in the score bench.

"Technical on number 31!"

And what's the deal?

He wrote down number 13!

You don't have a 13 on your team!

He looked down on himself!

He saw the 31 as 13!

Don't any of you ever dare look down on yourself in my presence!

So anyway, let's go ahead with this.

I'm going to take a sweep with the big bunny brush, and I have some Walnut Oil on.

This, I don't need much, because we'll put Walnut Oil in as we use the individual paints.

Spread that around a little bit, and that looks just like we should have it look.

I'm going to start on the players, and when I look at it, I'm looking at just a little bit of light here and there, and boy, it's a surprising mixture of looks.

You can see there's some greenish tone there and some orangey tone.

I'm going to go a little bit with the green first, and this is just like the background color.

So let's put this right in here.

A little bit on this side.

It gives just a little variety to the flesh color, but when you're doing the pochade, you want to have a lot of kid of mystery and accidental effects.

A little bit down here.

Does he have any?

Yes, he has a little bit there.

What about your neighbor?

Well, his is a little more towards blue.

So I reached down, and I picked up some Blue and White, and a little bit on the forehead and this other arm, maybe a little bit in there.

I'll wipe slightly by using a paper towel, and when I say that, I'm looking at both arms.

His looks pretty good; this got just a little generous.

Okay now, let's go with some of the lighter color, and I have this is Orange and a little bit of the umberish red color.

I like that.

I think that will be fine.

This one's pretty bright, but I'll start out with this, and on the wrist, and on the forearm, and down along the bicep.

The tricep, the bicep!

Oh, does the other guy have any?

Yes, he has a little bit right in there.

And on the arm a little bit, and on the front of the chest, just a little bit there.

I'll take a paper towel and wipe just a little bit of that.

I love the variety of colors, and you can see some of the colors that are on the, you're basketball, basketball players.

You see some of the oranges, and you see some of the blues.

It's just a harmonious thing throughout.

So let's put a little bit of light on the orange.

So we'll go lighter, and what I'm going to do with that is take, let's see, you're yellow and you're orange.

Mix those two together and see what we get.

I want to hold this up to the original.

Gee, that looks nice.

Okay, so that's Orange and Yellow, and we'll put this on just with a little bit of a knife.

This would be one reason, when I put on that Walnut Oil that I don't have it on very thick, because with the knife it's a little bit more control.

And a little bit just where the waistline is.

See the vitality in that right now?

Okay on the other, the opponent, we'll use a knife as well.

We'll use some Phthalo Blue and White.

And you notice as I mix this, I'm not mixing it all real smooth.

It's kind of what you call mottled, so that when it comes off, it has a little bit of variety in the colors too.

So see how the white shows a little bit there... and then on his back.

Okay, on the inside there, I'll come with just a little more White.

Vitality, and a little lighter right there.

It's always exciting when you play on a sports teams when they bring out the uniforms, especially if they're new uniforms.

I was playing on a baseball team, Fargo-Moorhead Twins, and we had the uniforms of the Phillies!

Philadelphia Phillies.

I don't know how that happened, but they were really nice.

So all of the sudden you say Oh gee, I'm... who were some of their players?

Robin Roberts?

Ted Kazanski?

I don't know.

But it was fun.

It was fun at the time.

Okay, now let's put a little work on the basketball, and I have just a little bit, this is Orange and a touch of Alizarin.

Oh, I like that.

It's a little bit brighter than the pochade, and that's fine.

That's one of the things to remember.

When you're doing from a pochade, then you can take a little liberty and change.

The pochade is a sample, a guide, but you're not a labor to it; you're not a slave to it.

Okay, I'll take and just soften down just with the finger.

Just blending that down a little bit, like that.

I think that'll go okay.

Let's go a little bit to-- oh, I see on his head he has just a little bit of kind of reddish right in here.

Not much, and the other guy, we had put some blue on, but I put just a little bit more on there.

See, there wasn't much work to do on them.

If anything, I could have just a little of the Blue and White, just slightly a little bit of a halo there.

Okay now, let's go to the background, and I think what I'll do is take a big brush first, and we'll put some paint on, and then we'll work into it with a knife.

So we have, you're Van Dyke Brown, and you are Viridian Green, I think.

Oh, gee.

Maybe you're-- are you the other Green?

Are you the other Green?

Yeah, you're Permanent Green Light!

That's all right.

That's what we'll use.

There must have been a reason for that.

Now I'm going to put this on with oil so that I can really push it into thinness.

See how with the oil, see how thin that is already?

Goes along very well with the mottled color.

A little bit seeing through, seeing through, and I'll take a paper towel soon and kind of blend with that.

Here's Burnt Umber and some of the Green in that.

So we'll push this down in here.

You almost get the feeling that you're seeing either other players or spectators at the game.

So that's one reason you can have a variety of colors as you do this.

[soft scraping] Okay, I'll take and push that around a little bit.

Let's take this brush, we'll continue with this, and then the paper towel slightly.

My intention is to get some variety in it at this stage in the painting and then to come back with a little extra knife in each area.

I think that's going to work all right.

It's so neat when you do it like that, and see, you're not touching against him, just accidental qualities, and you're planning on that all the way through.

Now we'll start adding some palette knife work and the first place that I want to do this, let's see if I want to use the knife.

Yes, a little bit.

Let's go with up, we'll start sort of at the top and work down.

So this is up at the basket, backboard, basket.

Yellow Ochre and White, very light.

And this is a strong light right there.

Isn't that good?

Isn't that good?

You need to say something, because otherwise I'll think maybe it wasn't good.

I see that it's good.

Coming down on this side a little bit.

Not quite as much, but a little bit, and then we'll just hit that corner of the backboard, right in here.

And the little square, it must have a name, but all the baskets have it.

You kind of aim for that if you're going to do what they call a lay-up, you bank it in.

And this one.

This one over on the left side is a little strong.

I'll have just a little Umber just to push in him slightly.

Buck, what are you doing?

I don't know, but I'm enjoying it!

Was it better before I did that?

So just a little light on this side, not the whole thing.

Kind of there, and then down at the edge, so you get that strength.

That shows.

Okay now let's keep coming down.

Let's come over on the right side and we'll put some character in there.

And what I want to use is something we already have here, the Red and Umber, but I add a little White to it.

And I'm looking right in here.

And as I suggested earlier, when I do this, I put a little bit of paint on with a medium today, and last week we had work there too, but this will blend in a little bit of that.

You achieve some textures, and they can represent whatever you want.

In this case, I would think it represents some of the fans back there, the energetic fans.

So let's go lighter down near the chest here.

Chest from the other side.

What do you call it when it's the chest is on the other side?

You call it back.

Oh, okay.

It's nice to have a prompter who helps you with these things.

Doesn't that look neat?

And it really gives an explosive quality to this guy going up and making the basket.

Now, there's a little light, and I'll point out on the pochade, right in there.

So right in here.

Not very large, and doesn't necessarily have to touch anything.

And I see some more of that right here.

[soft scraping] And a bit further down... and then right at the bend of the elbow, the inside bend.

I kind of feel that I'm a little generous right in here, so I have a little dark on the brush just from the background, some of this background color, and I'm just touching it to soften it slightly.

Okay now, let's go over to the section between the two players, and that's a great place to have some vitality, because the relationship between these two, you see the energy between them.

You may win this time, but you go down the other end when his team has the ball and see what happens.

I'm going to put a touch of green in there just to break in there a little bit.

And this is what's kind of neat when you have, use a palette knife, and then see?

I can bring some of this back in just to soften what's there.

So there's no limiting rules on this.

Okay, now I have light against his head, which I really like.

We'll extend it up a little bit, and I have Orange and White to do this.

Orange and White with a little Ochre.

It's gotta have more; it has to have a little Umber.

There, that will work.

This poor guy, I think we've mentioned it before.

He's kind of being polarized with that slam dunk stuff.

This will be a picture that they will all see, [soft scraping] And just a little variety in there.

The darkness is not wrong, but let's break it up a little bit-- Umber and Red.

And there's kind of a harmony when you have these colors, which are also on the basketball player.

Now, when I look at the pochade, what I'm seeing which I think is very helpful, a little bit of the orange and a little bit of red.

So you're sort of showing some of the team colors off in the distance.

Here's a little bit of that, a little bit over here.

A little more red, so I'll use a little Red Light with the orangey tone.

[soft scraping] Now, what do we do?

Let's put a little bit of palette knife work in here and there.

So in the backboard itself, I don't necessarily want to change it much, but I do want that kind of broken quality.

So I'm taking this, it has just a little Green in it, White and Permanent Green Light, maybe a touch of orange.

Oh, we need to put some light in the middle of the backboard!

I was sleepin'!

Yellow Ochre and White, touch of Umber.

It's always nice when people wave to you during the show.

Now, over to the left, we go out into the background slightly.

We have a little Green.

What are you?

Permanent Green Light, a little Umber and White.

Let's get some more White.

I don't want to be too light, but just a little bit in here.

[soft scraping] And you say, well, I don't see it over there.

I don't either, but I sure like it.

Here's just a little Umber on that just to soften it in slightly.

Okay, we better go down to the referee or we're going to be in trouble.

On the way, I want to go just a little lighter so this has just a little White in it.

You kind of feel his energy, and at the same time a little bit of chagrin because this guy's going up and scoring.

Whether I see it or not, I think it would help when I look at this and what that does around there, I need to have some strength over here, so like I say, whether I see it or not, I'm going to go lighter there.

So when you do the pochades, you're not always doing something that doesn't need to be adjusted, but I like to do the adjusting later on the painting you do from it, because there's so much energy in that pochade, you don't want to lose that.

Let's go just a little darker, this is the Umber and Green with a little White, down in the lower part of the canvas.

There is some pink showing through, but on the original, the original being the pochade, you don't see as much.

Okay, now let's see what we do on that little fellow.

It looks like we have Phthalo Blue and White.

So he definitely is a referee.

Oh, you say well, he's got the same colors as the blue player!

Is he a hometown umpire?

Not necessarily so.

Let's put just a little light on his shoulder with White.

That's a little bit better.

What about on his face?

Maybe a small amount of flesh color, a little orangish.

Oh my goodness.

That's catastrophe!

I need a little Umber just to push this over.

More Umber.

Yeah, that works.

It worked again!

I guess what would be very authentic, we don't have time to do it, but if we put just a little whistle in his mouth, then you'd know for sure he was the referee.

I have just a small amount of light just on his hair there.

Okay, so I kind of like just a little more of the orangish-yellow just a little bit stronger there.

That's a powerful back!

We'll add a little yellow to make sure that we have a powerful back.

It's just about the end of the game.

He's coming down for the final shot.

Oh, have you ever been in that position?

Needing a final shot to go, [loudly] "He scores!"

Anyway, I sure hope that you enjoyed it and that you'll do one, and I would love to see it.

I'm going to put just a little light on that edge of the basket there and there, and then a touch of Red just on the rim.

It needed that.

So there.

I can stop him!

There's your basketball player.

Good luck to you in doing your team!

See you next time.

Bye-bye!

[piano plays in bright rhythm & tone] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (woman) Funding for "Painting With Paulson" is made possible by...