Make your friends feel that you care for them while they're nearby, for all to soon they are gone just like a stream, it moves on.

[piano plays in bright rhythm & tone] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Whenever my teacher Claude Buck wanted to pay me a complement when I showed him one of my paintings, especially a landscape, he'd say "That looks like an Innis."

George Innis!

Well, today we're gonna do a landscape and I think it looks a little bit like Innis, too.

We're gonna do two parts to this.

Today will be part one, the acrylic stage.

And we'll even add a little addition to that, and I'll tell you about it when we get to it.

And then we'll put oil on the next time.

Let me point out the canvas that I've prepared.

It has six white, one Thalo blue, and one permanent green light.

That is dry of course, and then I put a line on it and outlined it with Ultramarine Blue so you'd be able to see it.

To the left is our model for the day, the middle stage of the painting, between acrylics and then finishing with oils.

And you can see how I have blocked in the colors that we'll be using and I'll explain as we get down to the palette, but some Ultramarine Blue and white, yellow and white, and then eventually just a little bit extra color.

So, follow me to the palette.

And I think what I would like to do-- there's different thoughts on this, but, if I start with the trees and I have a round brush, and this is Ultramarine Blue, and I'm going come up and place these on, and you can see I'm just doing it just fill right through the whole tree.

Eventually, we'll put a little highlights on so that you can have a little more form on it.

I'll leave the smallest branches off until I've scrubbed in the sky and a little bit of the foliage and then you can hang on to them more.

Even when I put these on, I'm doing this with the understanding that when I put the larger foliage on behind them, I might move in and bump a little bit of this off the tree, but it just is a little bit of help so I know where to put the foliage.

Same brush, I just keep dipping down into the water and I place these on.

I'll put--let's see, what else do I want to do before I go to a larger brush?

I guess a couple trees over on the right side.

Just a little--there's one here.

The previous drawing--then was outlined with Ultramarine Blue, and it almost was enough as it was.

This makes it just a little darker.

I love the use of acrylics.

You can put oil on the top of acrylics, you just don't do it the other way.

You take the edge of a canvas and you see where it's white, it's been primed with acrylics, so you're always putting oil over acrylics even if you don't use acrylics first.

So if you ask the question, can you use oils on top of acrylics?

Yes, Buck said so!

This is a great place.

It's a park that runs about a mile long, and it's probably about 30, 40 yards wide.

So it's very narrow.

But when you isolate a little scene on it, then it is so helpful to see it as an entity in itself.

That reminds me, I'm just outlining the rocks with Ultramarine Blue and white; I had one time a studio-- I'll make this one a little darker-- that I had a studio and I had a bunch of paintings on the wall and I decided that I'd photograph them.

So what I did, I took all the paintings down and put up one at a time, and as I did so, some of the small ones you think, gee, they look good.

They had been hidden by the other things.

So it's almost the same way.

When you go out to do a landscape, if you isolate a little spot--in fact, you can take and make a little viewfinder, 2- by 3-inch cutout, and hold it up and you can get your scene and that isolates it just like a little painting on the wall, it looks good when you isolate it from all the storming water and so on and so on.

Okay, now this just outlines a little bit.

Now I'll take the fan brush, still with Ultramarine Blue, and dip it in the water and get a pretty good amount.

At the same time I want to make sure it's sort of watery so I can make it flow rather freely.

So, now I'm coming in-between the trunks and putting some of this on, and as we suggested, as you do this, you might accidentally touch over on the trees.

You could wait just a minute, let them dry, or you could use a hairdryer and it makes it dry well.

We have studio lights here, but that might make it dry just a little faster because it seems to be doing just what I want it to do.

I can still see the trunks of the trees.

Push this up.

And I'll show you one thing just very quickly, and that is taking a paper towel, even before I finish doing this, I might take and just blot a little bit.

So that gives me a little softness on the foliage in advance.

And it also gives you kinda of a little incidental type texture inside.

So here we come over to the right side.

Now, the right side, we put quite a lot of this on but again, still in the watery stage.

You know, there was a famous artist, Thomas Moran, and he had to learn how to paint.

He was following various artists like I follow Innis and the one that he was following was the English artist, Turner.

And he was very surprised.

He went over to England and went to some of the places that Turner did to make paintings himself.

And he was shocked.

He said, "That building, it's not on that side.

It's over here."

He moved it!

And isn't that a marvelous thing, an artist's license to move a few things.

So, you'll find that when you paint you don't always have to be tied to what's there.

If you feel you're better with maybe one tree missing, or add another one in, then feel free to do it.

The good ones have done it.

Let me tell you something further about Thomas Moran.

He's the one who did a lot of painting at Yosemite National Park.

And what's so good about that?

Well congress, when they saw the paintings, decided to preserve the place, which then became a park, because of his paintings.

Boy, do we have a--pay a tribute to that guy.

Okay, now, just a little bit in here.

A little bit on the rocks.

Now notice, I said earlier that I outlined the rocks.

Now, even though I'm coming over on it, it doesn't smear the rocks, I can still feel the outline on them.

I think it's so important that you free up yourself and say, what can I do with what I'm seeing?

And it might be where you would even make a combination.

You'd have two different scenes and you combine a little bit of this one and, "Oh, hey, I'm combining a waterfall."

But, you're certainly at liberty to do what you want on that course.

Let me just put this on, then I want to say something more.

The one thing you want to be true to is if you have the light coming from one direction and we have it coming from back there, but say you combine two different landscapes or photographs you have, you don't want the light coming from one place and one from another.

Be consistent.

That will make it have continuity.

Just a little bit more and then we'll go ahead and we'll start putting some of the yellow and white on.

This painting, you say, you're gonna finish it in monochrome; yellow ochre and white-- I guess, no, it's cadmium yellow and white, to Ultramarine blue.

That's a "monochrome:" one color kinda scaled out.

But the difference that we're doing this series on a couple of paintings is, when we finish the monochrome with the acrylics, we're gonna let this dry a little, then we'll come with a little acrylic color on before the oils.

So that's new.

I absolutely love doing that.

Just a few washes that make it even better.

Because you're always letting some of the underneath show through on the finished painting.

I think, let's see, I think we have about enough there.

Maybe a little bit--this bush has a little bit of reflection in the water, then, go by say, okay, well, you won the race.

You dripped down to the bottom first.

That will be enough of that, but we're still painting acrylics, and we're not taking any time off for drying.

I'm cleaning the brush with water, and I'm coming down to a mixture on the palette which is yellow-- well, let's just say this: a lot of white with a little cad yellow.

Again having the fan brush.

And I'm coming up, I'll start in the sky first.

I'm just gonna kinda paint-- when I say paint it on-- but just kinda brushstrokes, you can count the brushstrokes if you were into doing it, because it's not all blended together.

This gives a lot of energy and a lot of action when you have the broken type strokes.

So that's really my center of interest, will be, as it comes down into the little stream.

I have the same color showing just a little bit-- oh, this is very close to the tree trunk right there.

Isn't it nice to have the painting right next to you, or next to me, so you can see it develop?

Oh, that's great!

And I don't really care if it looks a little different.

But you get the idea.

You're always under a little time restraint when your doing from the television.

But I love the spontaneity and the energy it takes and just the enthusiasm that it generates when your doing on television.

Oh, I love PBS!

I must love them, I've been with them for 20 years!

Okay, so a little through there.

Then I'm gonna come over here, put just little up in the sky.

When I go to the top of the sky, I'm not having quite as much paint.

I'm still using the yellow and white but I'll do it as I push, push.

As I suggested that I wasn't using down in there.

Because we want our light to be focused and energy there but we also want just a little variation and value as you go higher.

Now, just take a look at this.

I'll do it on the model over here.

The composition of this painting, this is very close to what I saw.

I took a video of this scene.

It was in the winter, in the winter months, therefore you had a lot of rain that gave you this stream.

Now, you see you have the bulk, the weight, which is on this side, a lot of the dark and the large trees and so on.

Then you have the center of interest right there.

Then you have, almost they call it the "lyre" shape.

L-Y-R-E, where you have a shape like this, it looks like the musical instrument, the lyre.

And that opening in the lyre is where you see the distance and on the far left side of the lyre you have less interest then you do on this side.

So it has a nice composition.

And I'll tell you, there was very little that I changed from what I actually saw.

Then you have a pile of rocks down there.

I just absolutely love that color note of that orangish tree in the middle.

So now I'm coming still with the yellow and white, and we'll come down and we'll do the same type strokes that we did up in the sky.

The kind of--just place it, leave it, go to the next spot.

So you find that these are little separate spots of light.

And here, I want to make sure that I allow for the reflection from that tree coming down, so I'll put a little bit of light on each side, yet you've saved that for the tree reflection.

We'll come down lower, and we come in down around this rock.

This rock is totally surrounded.

You're in the middle, you're on stage, your 15 minutes of fame begins right now!

Come down lower, then I'll go over to the right and I'll put select lights on the rocks.

Just a little bit there.

I'm going to change brushes.

This is a small flat brush.

It's just a little easier to draw and tap with it.

I'm using the chisel edge, and work it like that.

I have a little wetness in the yellow and white when I'm using it on the rocks.

Up above, the brush may have been damp, but it didn't have to be soupy like we asked for with the Ultramarine blue.

There are a couple rocks that go right along side the edge so I'll just spot those in.

I don't have any Ultramarine blue behind them, so that will work as they are.

Okay, over in the middle, we also have a bunch of rocks, so you suggest those.

It's pretty hard, not to have them kind of repetitious.

There might be one or two that are just a little smaller or change shape a little bit.

One over in this side.

Oh now, this side's a little different.

This is not rocks, that's light of the water coming through on that side.

I'll put just a teeny little bit on the tree here because with the light coming there, the right side of this tree would have the feeling of being lighter.

Now you notice when you put these on you say, well gee, that looks just like rocks.

It may look just like rocks until we go ahead with color on top of it.

Okay, then we have larger rocks down in this area.

So, we'll start-- this is the top one-- always conscious of where the light's coming from.

And, on the rock, it would light it--lighten it.

Light it!

Lit it!

Okay, stronger ones down here, there just a little bit more in the path of this.

Okay, now let's do this.

Let's--I see one thing I need to do on-- still with the Ultramarine blue, and that would be put just-- it looks just a little strange until you get to the final tree but we'll-- I mean to the final color, but we'll put just a little foliage up in the upper left corner.

So, you're kinda protecting that corner by the, by putting some foliage up there.

Okay, I think what I'll do is take a small brush.

You don't mind if I just leave that in there, do you?

Okay, this is Ultramarine blue.

And this will give me just a little chance to draw these when the back sky is dryer.

Those are so much fun to do, and you know, you're conscious of how branches grow all the time.

Put it on so you feel like you're a branch, it isn't just out and always just a curve.

And I saw one person, he painted such a beautiful painting.

Then he had a tree, and in it he just put a bunch of sticks, like three little sticks from each one.

And it just read amateurism.

I guess I better start from the inside and working out so they're smaller as you come out.

We'll put a few more of these on, and then when we have just a few minutes left we'll go ahead and do that color I was telling you about.

We have one tree over here that now you can see it a little bit with the drawing maybe, but now I'll go ahead with a little more Ultramarine blue on it.

Let's see, on the big trees, I've put the branch on there.

You might just put one or two inside as well.

Just--the main thing on trees is that they taper.

It could be a small tree; it could be a large tree.

99.99% of the time, they'll taper: where they're larger at the bottom and whenever they go up, they taper.

You have to watch it, so you don't just put in a carrot.

But you do need to have that in mind.

I remember once, I ran over to Claude's place and I said, "Claude, I saw a tree that was wider at the top than it was at the bottom."

It was a small, little tree.

He says, "Well, if you have to send a note along with your painting, maybe you shouldn't paint it that way."

So, let's see, I think that will be enough on that.

Let's go ahead then next.

We'll take just a little light; we want to put a little light for form on the trees that we put on this side, the big trees.

so this will come-- again, the light will be on the left side.

I'll put just a couple of these in and then we'll stop for a second, because I want to put on some color.

And that's the thing I want you to feel is new on this series.

It's a step up from just the monochrome.

And you're gonna love the paintings we do on the series.

All brand new, all originals.

We've done a lot of things and I've just loved doing each of them.

Okay, let's stop there and I'll dry this and then we'll come back and put the acrylic color on.

Here is Raw Sienna Remember, what I said.

I have dried the canvas where I did the monochrome.

Now we're coming in with color, in acrylics.

Yellow ochre, oh excuse me, Raw Sienna.

And I'll push this over the rocks there.

This is gonna be pushed on very thinly, because it's merely as a little bridge between the oils and the acrylics, and we have a color bridge.

We'll come up higher on this area, and I'll go right over the tree, because I can still see the tree through there.

This is all meant to get a little color in there.

And also you might say a little softness.

Let's go--a little a green.

I'm taking--this is Ultramarine blue with just a little bit of the Raw Sienna.

And this will give me some of the lower greens.

That's not quite enough.

I'm gonna come back down, pick up a little yellow.

That'll be better.

Yes!

I'll wipe just a little bit to make sure that it's thin enough.

And isn't that nice.

It's a glaze, you're glazing acrylics on top of acrylics.

Let some of this come down lower, and it's always nice to let some of what's above be reflected in the water.

I'll come over to the left side a little bit.

Okay, now I'll come with just a larger area.

And this, I have Burnt Umber and Ultramarine blue.

What else?

I think that'll be enough.

This is gonna go up in across this area.

So it'll be just be taking some of the blue out of the foliage but certainly, by putting it on as thinly as we do, you can see the influence of the blue showing through it.

Now, we'll come over to the left just a little bit, I'll put a little yellow in that.

And I'm coming across here.

It's kind of a little distance, but it isn't quite "the" distance.

"The" distance is gonna be the top of the trees.

Now, I will take a little Burnt Umber and a little water with it.

Be sure you realize I have a little water in it at all times because I want that glaze look.

Wipe just a little bit.

I suppose what I should do before I go to the final little strokes is to take some of the umber and blue, which we put on the right side.

Now we're coming over into the left side.

Just a little more yellow and green.

If I run too fast, I will tell you what I did: umber and blue with just a little yellow in it.

Alright.

Now, the thing that's kinda little bit desert is that I want to put on that orange on that tree, because that's really very catchy.

So, this is cadmium orange.

Isn't that pretty?

And it's so pretty when the way the light will strike it and just make it a feature.

And it is in the center of interest area.

So we're totally on target by not taking our-- pulling our eye away somewhere else.

But once you've done that, you can certainly use a little-- what you'd call echo colors or accent colors.

I could put a little bit over here.

A little bit through there.

See, that doesn't take away from my center of interest at all.

Oh, I can hardly wait to go on.

Even though I've painted that painting before, it's so exciting because I'm not totally tied to it.

I want to make it so you understand how to do it.

But there's gonna be that time when you use a little serendipity.

And you use it!

And you show me what you've done.

Okay, be sure to watch next time, when we do the oils!

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