Do you know how to begin painting a masterpiece?

The answer is in the question-- begin.

[piano plays in bright rhythm & tone] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ What a pleasure it is to paint for you!

And somebody that I love, my great granddaughter, El, and you will love her too.

You'll love her even more when you see the vitality that goes into her life.

She's a singer and a dancer.

So we're going to start with the Walnut Oil.

And I want to say something.

I'm using a large fan brush.

I have a great line of Alexander brushes which really respond.

I love their fan brushes.

I love their bunny brush, the mop brush, each brush, so we'll use them, and please, please, follow along.

I'm wiping, which removes a little bit of the oil, but it also makes it an even coverage.

You can do that before you start putting the paint on, you can do it later, which we'll do next week when we are going to take her to the next step.

In other words, let me tell you this.

This is our project today, and this is the final.

It will take us 3 weeks to do it, and we want to do it real well.

I'm going to leave that there, because we probably will have time to put in a little bit of the background early, and I would like to show that to you.

Now the paint; let me just say something about the paint.

They're absolutely tops.

Nontoxic, made by M. Graham.

Oh, I love that they give me the paint, and they've got some special names on them.

Let's go ahead now, and I think what would help, I'm going to probably put in just a little background so that I have something to relate the color of the flesh to.

I'm mixing these in front of you.

We'll tell you what the colors are.

Let's take some Permanent Green Light... and what if we take a little-- are you Umber?

Yes.

What are you?

Van Dyke Brown.

Okay, let's take some Van Dyke Brown and a little White.

So it looks like I made a little mistake.

Let's take a little more of the Payne's Gray.

Let's take more of the Payne's Gray.

So that ends up being 4 Payne's Gray, 1 Permanent Green Light, and 1 White.

I'll hold this up.

That's good, just exactly what I want.

But you'll find when we go to the finished one how we add some extra little colors in there, which is nice.

This becomes just a foil against the flesh, so I can judge the flesh.

If I were at home, I would turn this upside-down being right-handed so I can come against the line.

Or I can be left-handed and come against it.

That's great Buck!

Don't show off-- you may regret it.

Huh, kid.

Okay, so I have that on.

I don't have to go very far out, because it's merely to be a foil against the flesh color that I'll put on there.

I'll come down the arm a little bit too, the outside of the arm because we want to have the flesh come down there as well.

It's so great being with you, it's great doing these shows.

Prairie Public is the best!

Ah!

Great staff, great people.

All right now, it looks like on the background, when I say the background, I'm talking about behind her, although this isn't the color I just used, I'm going to use it.

And the reason is, I want when I put the hair on, it doesn't look like that's continuation of hair.

So we'll put this on for now, and I think that'll be a good decision.

It's so neat when I do these shows, and you discover things that work even better.

They send me the unedited shows, then I look at them, and I'll put the color notes down on them.

But oh, it's so much fun to see it.

It's always a case of, gee, oh I kinda wish I would've done that.

Not really, I think they've got such a great staff here that it all comes out pretty close to what we need.

I should say it comes out exactly to what we need.

Forget the closeness.

All right.

Now let's go down, let's put some flesh color on.

I'm going to take-- what are you?

I need some more Burnt Umber.

We'll put some Burnt Umber out there.

And I'm going to take some Azo Orange.

I have, let's start out this way, one of each, mix it up, I'll have to add some White into that and maybe just a little Red.

This is going to be my color that goes basically in the shadow of the flesh.

So I have 1 Umber, 1 Orange, then let's take just a little bit of my Anthraquinone Red.

So that's about 4 Umber, 4 Orange, 1 Red.

Okay now, let's put some White in that and see what we have.

Oh, I love doing these shows.

We've been doing it a long time, folks.

20 years with Prairie Public, 5 years with Alexander, oh, and if you want to follow me, I have a Web page.

Buck Paulson, www.buckpaulson.com, and an email, buckpaulson@cox.net.

Oh, we've got some exciting things that are going to happen.

One of the exciting things is, we're going to do a show with Buck that will be critiquing paintings, and it's something you can join.

Okay, let's go ahead, let's see, are you right?

Let me just check that.

Oh, you are!

Don't act so surprised, Buck, just be grateful.

Okay, we'll put this on the shadow side of the face.

You know, when you do a series, you do 13 shows, and this is number 11.

Oh my goodness, what a great privilege.

How many people can say they've been on PBS for 25 years?

Phew!

Buck, you must've started out when you were about 9 or 10!

[laughs] Yeah, you bet.

She's such a sweet little girl, she's very loving and kind.

And now she has a little brother.

I can't even remember his name.

I should know it by the time we get to next week.

My wife will say, didn't you mention his name?

I guess not.

Okay, the ear.

And I have this drawn on, and I've used acrylic to outline it, so it's a little easier to take photographs of it so you have, what do you call it?

You have a tracing.

Right, you have a tracing.

When you put yours on, you can do it just with a light pencil or whatever you need just to see it for yourself.

Okay, let's come down the neck.

And even though I put on the oil over the whole thing, you certainly can pick up a little oil here and there.

It depends a lot upon the paint, if it's dry or what have you.

I want it to be pretty dry.

It covers real well.

Leave just a little spot, there's just a little light that comes there.

Now I'm going to come over the side of the nose.

The important thing, let me just point that out.

Form is so important in whatever you do-- oceans, rocks, people, trees.

You have form, you have form.

The same thing applies to your nose.

You have a side, you have a bottom, and you have a top.

And they each should be different values, otherwise it looks just flat.

I'll put just a little under there, and I have it here, a little bit on the side of that because that's the shadow side compared to where the light will be on the left side.

Okay, let's come down the arm.

Oh, you've got two arms.

You're very fortunate.

So we'll put this on here.

I dipped in just a little bit with the Walnut Oil.

Right there.

What are you?

You're another line.

I don't know why you're there.

Now you're not there.

We'll leave a little room for a highlight on the edge of the arm, the back edge.

It's kind of reflected light which will be right on that shoulder.

Because you always know where the light is coming from, and in this case, it's coming from the left.

More, Buck, more.

Oh, great.

It's surprising how quickly the time goes.

you need to have all that.

I think what I'll do instead of putting on the light flesh, I'll run right to the Umber.

Are you Burnt Umber?

Yes.

Let's put this on so we can get just a little bit of a contrast.

Go over just a little bit more please.

Thank you.

What about a fan brush?

Maybe that would go a little faster, and it has kind of a movement of hair.

So fan brush... Umber.

Where did the White come in there?

Gee, you're too young to have white hair, gal.

Let some of this peek down slightly.

I was just going to push that white in, but it probably would make more sense.

Whoo, that's great, El.

How old are you?

63!

Mm, notice as I do this you get various brushstrokes, so it's not all just flatly filled in.

It's almost like you're following the hair.

Oh, it's so much fun to do.

It's fun to watch things come to life.

When we had our children, it was so many years ago, they didn't let the husbands come into the room.

Now I'm watching a child develop, to be born!

Great.

We had one child, the last child, and I'm in the waiting room, and they said it might be twins.

Gee, I mean, this is 5 minutes from knowing what's happening?

Otherwise these people, they have their knowledge already, they can buy their whole wardrobe.

They know it's going to be a girl or a boy and a girl.

I think what I'll do is just, with Umber cut that down just slightly.

That ear is just a little large.

That's better.

Ah.

Okay, let's get some flesh color on there.

I can use that Umber while I have it, for the eye... eyelid... pupil... eyebrow... Um, gorgeous eyes, Miss El.

Eyebrow... eyelash... oh, that looks great.

okay now, let's mix some color up for the flesh, for the flesh light.

Let's try, this is the Azo Orange.

And I'm going to put White with that, then I'll decide on the Umber.

I'm putting it over to the side.

This is the Umber.

Umber, let's try you with 2 Orange, 1 Umber, 1 White.

And we need just a touch of red.

Which one should we take?

Let's have the, this is the Quinacridone Rose.

Quinacridone, oh it's so pretty-- Quinacridone Red.

Let's hold this up.

Ah, I think that's going to work.

okay, I'm cleaning the brush; this is a badger brush.

I thank Laurie for sending them from Alexander Art Company to us.

They're great.

I love it because it's got a little-- it's not sable, it's kind of bristle, so you can kind of control it a little bit more.

Isn't that a pretty color?

You need to go up the sides just a little bit there.

Good.

Thank you, thank you.

Then on each side of the hairlock.

I'm glad we don't have to do this all in 24 minutes.

We used to be with the Alexander Art Company.

We'd do 13 individual shows, and boy, did you have to rush.

If I'd have done this on there, that's about where we would of had to stop, say well, get the rest in the book.

That's a good idea!

We don't have a book, but you have the DVDs, so you can replay, back up, oh, what advantages you have.

A little bit just above, and just below the eyebrow.

Those can be softened just slightly, but for now let's put them like that.

And we have this on.

I quite like having that line to go to.

You need to go out past it like that to disguise it, but it's a very nice guide for putting on the paint.

Um.

What happened there?

I think that dark goes up against that.

Yes.

A little light in here.

I need to push this over a little bit.

Good.

Good, good, good, good.

Before we put the lips on, we'll put a little bit of the White and Blue.

I have this real, this Phthalo Blue... Phthalo Blue Red Shade.

And I have just a touch of gray in it.

I keep looking for my yardstick to lean against.

See, we really don't have to change that much because that priming-- I think I told you, 6 White, 1 Payne's Gray, 1 Permanent Green Light.

It's almost the color of what we want in there for the eyeball.

And let's send these... you're not doing much blending now, but just a little bit.

Okay, how about some red?

What color are you?

Maroon Perylene.

Maroon Perylene.

I'm going to put a little White in that.

So that's about equal parts, and White.

Um.

I can give you maybe a little fuller lip.

Would you like that El?

Yeah, let's bring it down just a little bit more.

Um, and I'll use that straight Perylene right through there for the middle.

And the top lip.

I think I'll take that same thing, just a little.

Let's see, what are you?

You're Naphthol Red.

You're such a favorite color.

Why are you sitting over on the side?

Let's put Naphthol Red and Umber-- equal.

Can everybody at home see?

If you move, we can, Buck.

Oh, just a little bit, like that.

Soften that, soften the far side.

Okay we'll now, oh, I had a little bit of that light that we mentioned earlier.

This is the flesh color that we put up here.

We have just a little bit down here, right below the chin.

It helps.

Then I'm going to add a little more Orange to that.

And we'll put that over here.

Okay, let's see what the dress... we better put a little bit of that on.

Boy, there's one blue there I'd sure like to use, but I won't use it yet, maybe next week.

We'll save the colors.

Okay, this is Blue and White with a little oil.

♪ Boom, boom-boom, a little more blue.

♪ Sweet, sweet, sweet.

Oh, I'm looking here, and I'm thinking.

What in the world?

What happened to your arm, El?

You didn't fill it in!

And it's just flat, it's not, well, let's get some Blue below and then we'll fill that in.

So this is all going to be blue just filling that in.

Oh, poor little girl, your arm, your arm!

No arm, no fall.

Is that the color?

Is that the color?

Yes.

Just lucky, oh, I'm glad we caught that when we did.

See you next week.

Bye-bye.

[piano plays in bright rhythm & tone] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (woman) Funding for "Painting With Paulson" is made possible by... To order the complete 13-episode series 20 of "Painting with Paulson" on DVD including Bonus Features and Line Drawings, please visit or call...