In sports there's an adage-- "know your competition."

In art the competition is with yourself.

[piano plays in bright rhythm & tone] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Let's go out in the woods!

Let's push a little sailboat out in the stream.

Let's have a good time painting it.

This is part one of a 2-part painting, "Ship Ahoy."

You can see, I'll show you the midway stage, which is with acrylics.

Here's a little boy pushing a little sailboat there.

And the mother is right nearby.

This is done with a canvas that has been primed with 6 white, 1 Payne's Gray, 1 Permanent Green Light and then we have a very simple palette.

I'll point to the canvas first.

We have a lot of Ultramarine Blue and white.

We have Raw Sienna and white, then the colors that we put on her are a little different so we'll start with her and I'll dip into the water with a round brush, and this is Quinacridone Rose.

I'll come up on her, and I'm sort of outlining so that we'll mix a little white with the color to go a little lighter.

This was my wife and actually it's not her son but our little nephew, Joseph.

What happens on this, you get such a nice start by having the red on.

You know, a lot of the acrylics stage we'll use just like blue and maybe Raw Sienna and white and do the whole thing, then put color on but on this one, I thought it would be helpful, this is Cadmium Red Light.

I'm gonna change my mind, I'm going to go with white with the rose, it'll be just a little cooler.

This will be for the lights on this.

So on this one we're basically doing a monochrome except on her.

Oops, I think I just wiped away the shadow, yeah, there it's back-- of where the arm is-- a little bit up on the leg.

Now, on her hair on this stage, we'll just use some blue.

The Ultramarine Blue, that's the blue that we're using throughout this canvas, and we'll come over on his hat, and we'll do his blue jeans with this same blue.

I have just a small brush... and let's just take a look.

Yeah, he's barefoot, so I won't put any blue on for any shoes.

Do I have any other blue to put on?

No that'll work.

Little bit on the bottom of the boat.

Just a little bit where the armpit's going to be.

Now, before I leave him, let me take a little white into the blue, and this will give us his shirt.

When we put on oil, you will watch we'll use some very nice blue, Turquoise Blue.

All right, now for the flesh, which is just a little surprising that we will use, this is, what are you?

You're Red Light and you're blue.

I'll start first with-- that's pretty close.

I would say 2 red, 1 blue, but don't write it down yet because I don't know if that's it... and a little white.

That's going to work, we'll put just a little more white in.

Do we have any features yet?

I don't know.

We'll put this on here.

This will represent flesh in kind of the shaded space so that it doesn't have any highlights on the face at all.

And the legs, down the feet, then you have just a little of the distant foot sticking out just slightly.

Then we'll come on him with the same on the side of his face, back of his head, his arm down to his hand and then on the feet, yup same thing.

There, okay that will give us a good enough start in the acrylic stage for the people.

So now I think you could do either the darks or the lights.

I kind of like the idea of establishing the lights.

"The lights" that kind of rhymes with "my lights."

This will be Raw Sienna and white.

This is quite light.

I'm so pleased that you're watching the show.

I can feel your presence, and it just, it helps to have somebody there that wants to learn.

Oh, I receive such nice letters, one recently from a gal up in Canada, Diane, and she said she'd never painted before, she just so appreciated what we give, especially the formulas and the certain parts and this part and that part.

So I hope that is helpful for you as well.

I have two brushes, both going into the water to wet make them wet, and I'll start with the smaller one, maybe just a little more Raw Sienna.

Okay, now I have to look at this to see where I am.

I know for sure that when I do this that I know where that big tree is and because I want this to have bark I will skip a little space and put the next one on... and the next one.

Am I far enough up here?

Yes I am, right in the armpit.

And this could go down a little lower.

This tree kind of fades as it comes down off the side, so I won't put any more light there.

The light source, of course, is right in the middle of the picture although you don't see a lot of sky It's a lot of impact of light.

There was one artist, I think his last name was Mumford.

I don't know what style he painted and so on I just know his wife was telling me.

Her name was Pam and his was Art; so it was AM/PM.

They loved to talk about that, but he told these people once, "I can paint a landscape without any sky," and they say, "Oh, you can't, you can't.

So he painted kind of a forest scene I don't know if he even anything coming through, but he painted the reflection of the sky down below and it was absolutely beautiful.

So I'm told by her.

Okay, so I'm looking, and I'll point across.

I'm looking right in here, and that's what I have in here.

I might be just a little stronger with it here than here, but that's all right.

Then I come to the next tree.

Where is the next tree?

Right in here, right there.

Just so you get in the right place, even if you didn't, so what?

So there's light showing through other places; big deal-- then up here.

I'm trying to do it this way to be a little I hope helpful for you.

Maybe I'm blocking out what I'm doing.

Let's see.

Okay let's come down near her.

I had planned to use the fan brush too, but this brush is totally adequate.

Then go up a little above, the branches.

The dancing lights coming through is such a nice quality in landscapes.

Next one.

Okay we have there, we go right above there See, I go right above there... and then in the middle.

Where are you?

Let's see, I just went up there, went up there, I might have a little extra.

Oh my goodness.

Okay, one over here and there.

And as I suggested, so there's none here, put one there-- big deal-- there could be!

It could be, there should be.

Then we have some on the right side of the tree.

This will help the tree stand out.

And I think that's close there.

Now we'll come down around her first.

We'll take just a little more Raw Sienna in the mixture, still a little white with it.

Just makes that beautiful dark hair stand out slightly away from the background.

It's so fun to paint people.

I remember my father-in-law one time came running into the studio and he says-- and he was living at that time over on the reservation with some Indians.

He says, "I have Chief Hookie Dookie that I want you to paint.

The photographer's going to be here in one hour."

My gosh, that's the first I even heard I was going to do a portrait that day!

So I quickly did it, and was doing it, and the photographer never came because he was called away to a fire.

But what was interesting, the Indian Chief said-- and I come just closer to the shirt-- he said "I'd better take off my hat" he had kind of a cowboy hat.

He said, "I don't want to look like cowboy."

Gee, I enjoyed that visit with him, whether he made notoriety with the portrait or not.

Okay so that's Raw Sienna and white, which has more Raw Sienna in it.

Now I need to come down below in the water there.

I'm just going to check a little for accuracy too.

This comes down right from the sailboat, so this is where I want to put this.

Then I come to the right of that, I have a little bit.

It's quite light right at the base there.

That's a nice contrast, having a dark down here then the light is up against it.

A little bit in here and then this larger one over here.

You may not do it exactly like that.

You may have more; you may have less-- it'll work, Then on this side.

Okay, I think that would be okay for our highlights.

There is one small highlight, and you know-- what is the name of the painting?

"Ship ahoy."

We better put a little light on the sailboat.

Oh... yes... put that mast up there just a little bit, yes, then there's a slight light right under there and that little light makes it so you feel like the arm is out away from the body.

Just a little sparkle lights here.

Let's go ahead with the blue.

The way I'd like to do the blue would be to take and put in the trunks of the trees first and then kind of a scrub across.

The minute I say that I debate because if I put the trees in, then scrub across, I may lose them a little bit, but if I put the scrub across first, what would that do?

Let's do the scrub across first.

Good Buck!

It's nice of you to have this all planned.

We know exactly where you want to be.

Right?

So this is Ultramarine Blue with water.

I feel that the drawing that I have there is firm enough so that if I scrub across I'll still see it.

That would have been my concern if I had just put the blue tree lines in and they were still wet when I come across, so that makes the decision.

It wouldn't be a bad idea when you do yours when you put the trees in, let it dry for a few minutes.

Gee almost thought we had a rainstorm there.

[soft scraping] I like that priming of the canvas; it certainly is a part of this.

Now, this is going on quite evenly and then I need to kind of make a decision of do I need places that it needs to be darker or not.

[coughs] Excuse me.

Out in the forest, it's just a little cool.

[soft scraping] So you're going to see when I come down lower, of course, I will need more of the dark, more quantity.

And you sneak in a little bit between the lights that we put on.

It's so nice, because you don't have to go just one direction.

It can be very scrubby.

You can notice over here there's a lot of brush marks.

More water in the blue.

The acrylic dries sort of fast especially with some lights around.

Okay down below... over here.

I have a paper towel in my hand so if that's a little sharp, see, then I can just blend a little bit.

Because I need to come in near him pretty close to the head.

I could've used a small brush I guess.

[soft scraping] All right, more going up higher.

A little bit in front of this tree, some there.

[soft scraping] Let me talk to you just a minute.

I'm painting a scene that I saw with my eyes and with my mind, which means I may have moved a tree here and there so that she would have a nice place to lean against.

It might have been over further over this way and I wanted it closer to where the light was.

So be free!

And use the things that will work best for you in your picture.

I'm aware there are some things you can't use-- let's see, I'm just trying to think of an example but I can't.

I'll think of it before we end here, but basically you can paint whatever you want.

If you're painting somebody's scene for them, they might say "Be sure and include the windmill."

Okay the sparkle-sparkle.

Let's come down lower, we're spending a lot of time just pushing this in, but it's so important.

Oh I know what I want to do-- let's go ahead with this big one.

I was thinking on painting, I was painting a portrait once for a fellow of his wife, and I didn't want him to see it.

It was going to be about 4 sittings and after the second sitting he says, "Oh I want to see it."

I said "No I don't want you to see it yet."

And he insisted and he insisted, then when he was looking at it, because he twisted my arm, he said "Oh, she looks a little younger."

So the next sittings rather than saying let's get this right, this right.

we're constantly, I need to make her look older; I Need to make her look older.

That's a horrible burden to put upon yourself, so if you're painting something, well, it's kind of nice if you can do your rendition and then have a time for them to make judgement.

Because I probably would have made it look a little older anyway, but I was so conscious of it then.

That's a great dark.

You're a good tree.

Let's come down with the dark below, right along in this area.

[soft scraping] And for sure when you're down there you want to avoid hitting any of the peoples.

I've told before how I was showing a painting to somebody in an office, and I guess an interior decorator walked by the office.

And kind of look at me while I talk to you on this.

I'm holding the painting up for the one who's going to buy it, a seascape, and the decorator goes by and says "Oh that's awful!"

He wasn't asked what he thought of it, he just mentioned it.

But then I always counter that with a story when I was down 20 miles from home, from Santa Barbara.

And I was ready to do an art demonstration.

I came in-- here's where I use a small brush-- I came in, set up all my paintings-- they asked if I'd bring along, so I had about 20 paintings there and I set them all up and this gal came in early.

She didn't know who the artist was, but she looked at them and she says "God bless the hands that painted these paintings."

And I thought, boy, that sure balanced things out; that was good, So you're going to encounter both.

You're going to have people who don't care about your work and others will praise it.

And they both have their right to their opinion.

And it shouldn't deter you one way or the other, because there's some people that don't like a particular color, they'll say well, I don't like turquoise and they don't say that, but they come out and say I don't like that painting.

And it's probably in turquoise, and that's the reason.

So you never know why somebody's saying something and you don't have any need to guess.

Paint so you please yourself!

And you justify the privilege that you have of using your art.

Express gratitude for that talent and use it the best you know how.

So the trees having been outlined sort of take care of themselves, but I will finish this, then we'll go ahead and put just a little bit of stronger trunks on.

This is surprising that we get this far and yet you say this is-- still a lot left to do, but that's why we're doing 2-part paintings.

All right now I have 2 brushes, one is flat, the other is round.

The only difference on them in my use is that the flat one, I can make a longer and flatten it out, and I get a wider line right away whereas the little one is pretty much for one size and you get the small little branches.

So I'll put a few a more of those in, and when we get to the oil we'll do each of them.

That's a good one there.

This one this size of this tree counterbalances the one on the right.

And it's also significant because it's the leaning post, isn't it, for our little gal.

I love that gal.

She's my beloved.

She's been there all the time for me, I mean, to leave a profession-- I was a recreation supervisor-- at the age of 35 and with 4 children at the time go into art full time?

Oh my goodness!

and she never complained.

Oh, that's great!

All right, over here I want to make sure we can feel there's a couple of the trunks.

A little one over here.

And then there's sort of a larger one there.

What are you doing?

You're dripping a little bit?

Just a little bit.

Boy, that's so fast!

Is there any part we should darken more?

If there is, over here, this gives just a little height on this side so it feels like you can go up this way.

And up in here we can have just a little dark too.

This is basically where we want to stop on this one.

Maybe a little stronger dark in there.

But I love that idea of using a primed canvas because it really works into the color scheme very well.

A little bit more down here.

So you out there-- you saw it, now you watch when we go ahead with stage 2.

Bye-bye.

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