I don't know if I saw this scene with my eyes or if I saw it with my imagination.

But it was there, for I saw it.

[piano plays in bright rhythm & tone] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ I need to read something to you, because it goes along with what I'm talking about as far as seeing what's there or see what you see with your imagination.

This was Wright Morris, and he said, "He brought so little to what he saw, he saw what was there."

In other words, see more than you see.

Isn't that a marvelous attitude?

I think that's what we'll be doing today.

Let me tell you about the painting, which will be stage one.

We'll do it in acrylics and then we'll finish next week in oils.

We have a canvas--now, I want to read this to you, the priming of the canvas... And that is pushed evenly over the whole canvas, and it covers it quite well.

Alright, now we're ready to go ahead and put on some color.

And we're going to do this with acrylics, and I'll do it with this large one-inch brush.

If you get any bristle brush to work well that you can push around a lot of paint without too much water in it.

I'll use a little bit of water, however, dipping into it.

Coming over--this is 3 Naphthol Red and One white.

I want to put this on in the sky area.

I like this having a brush that you don't have to abuse it, you just push it a little bit hard and you accomplish what you need.

I don't mind in doing this if I go right across the drawing a little bit.

I can still see where it is.

Make sure that you, that when you put your drawing on, you make use of it by having-- you could outline it with-- I did acrylics here, just the blue and white, or you could do it with Alizarin or Ultramarine Blue.

This is kind of an even coverage and then when coming back, a little bit more of the same thing right in there.

Now, while I'm doing that, let's just see-- and I've already seen, now I show you what I saw.

That is taking some of the red and putting down on the horizon.

That is established in very early--a feeling of the light shining on the water and then down front, we'll have a little bit of this on the shore.

Just a slight bit like that.

Isn't that exciting already?

The prime of the canvas is such a help.

You know, there's many artists that have been on television.

I remember my friend, Bill Alexander, he would paint on a black canvas.

Well this is kind of a compromise in-between.

This is kind of a middle tone, not quite black, not quite white.

Alright, now I have a color that we're gonna use for the clouds.

And this is Quinacridone Rose and Ultramarine--no, that's not Ultramarine Blue-- yes, you are.

Make up your mind, you're Ultramarine Blue.

Okay.

A little more of the rose, then the blue.

I would say about two rose and one blue.

I went over and dipped into some water to have this flow just a little freer.

You can see now, I have an outline where the clouds are, but I'll start down inside, then after I've used a little bit-- kind of wipe the brush, I'll come to that edge and put just a little character into it.

In fact, I want to even soften that more.

And I'll take a paper towel and just wipe a little bit, so it's not quite such a sharp edge.

See how that softens it?

That is very pretty.

That's on the outside edge, on the inside edge we'll just keep pushing this around, and I'm doing it very quickly.

The cloud on top of the red, which means some of it will blend in a little bit.

It's surprising how fast this'll dry.

And I don't that, but see, as I thin it out, you can-- you scrub a little bit more without much paint on the brush.

You can kind of feel it mixing in with what's there.

Pushing up.

Again, we'll come with a little paper towel and kinda push slightly to soften that top edge.

And even down on the inside, I think I'll do this a little bit because it's slightly tacky.

That's because the drying time under studio lights might be a little different than you would have in a studio.

What are you?

Oh, your just kind of a little opening.

Okay, we'll come down closer to the horizon, like this.

And I'll just narrow this a little bit so it's not just so oval looking.

Just like that.

I think I'll take a little bit of this color which I've just been using, the blue and the rose, and now I have to tell you the truth, blue and rose-- you're blue and you're rose.

Ah!

There's just--it's just a teeny touch of white in there too.

So don't forget the white.

Alright, so I'm taking some of this, and I'm coming down onto that cliff.

[soft scraping] Wipe slightly.

You make use of the underneath showing through.

That's such a good base, it's almost--we've done many times where we do the Saturday night bath, a wash all over, well, this isn't the Saturday night bath.

And we most often would use that in the oil stage, anyway.

But I do feel just a little bit of this on the areas where we're going have some dark.

So you have the mixture of some of the grays from the canvas and some of the rose and then we put the color on that we want for the color of the cliffs and that.

So I'll do just a little bit in there.

Isn't it fun to discover things as you're doing them?

That's what I like about art.

If you really allow your imagination to have some free play and say, okay you're loose, imagination, take me where you're going.

Don't be afraid.

I had another quote, "See things not as they are, but as you feel them!"

Gee, that's a great quote, too.

So we're doing some of each today.

Alright, let's continue down below, and when I say that, let's come to the cliff here.

And I'll just use Burnt Umber.

And I'm wetting a little bit, and I have a fan brush.

I'll start this up here.

Just kinda go around like that and you notice what I'm having-- how it works is by that little rose color there, that's certainly is better than just having gray there.

I really feel that is a nice compliment to the color umber that I'm placing on.

Now this time, what we'll do, we'll do this all acrylics, and then next time we'll do all with oils.

Let's cut across here a little bit.

Alright, now, let me stay on that cliff just for a little bit and that's to take some of the color that we mixed for the sky, that's this reddish color-- I think what I'll do, let me try a bit.

I don't know if I want more white in that or not.

Let's try this.

This will kind of establish some of those little cliff edges.

Yes, this works alright.

I'll put it on where I want the darker lights, or brighter lights, and then we'll go up higher-- when we go up higher, you're going to be less paint on the brush and working into a dark color, the umber, which is still wet, so it'll be a little softer than the light that's down in the open.

Hm, very, very nice.

Now, generally, what I would like to do would be to put the rocks in last, because when I put the foam in I don't want the rocks banging, or the foam to bang-- yeah, I don't want the foam to bang into the wet rocks.

So let's do it that way.

So we'll avoid the rocks, even though they're gonna have the same color as the cliff.

And let's come ahead with the-- working towards the foam.

So this is Yellow Ochre and Thalo, excuse me, Ultramarine Blue.

If I say Thalo, it's only Ultramarine I have today and just a touch of umber, touch of umber.

We'll put this on for the water.

Might be able to go a little darker, which means I'll use a little more umber and a little bit more blue.

Yes...yes.

And just a little bit in the distant water.

A little bit behind here.

I have to be careful behind there, that's quite red.

I can see the original.

This is the total original, it's not an in-between stage.

So when I finish this today you're gonna say well, it doesn't quite look like the original.

That's right, because we have the oil stage coming next week.

On some of these, we have an in-between stage to do.

Okay, let's come down to another line here, using a little bit of water.

You use the water just to make it flow.

There's not a lot of paint coming through, but the minute I say that, I realize that as I go along here--look at this.

See how the little gray is still showing?

I think that is very helpful.

A little bit over there, more in here.

I almost like what happens when you don't overmix your paint.

You find where--here's a little more yellow showing, even though I just took the mix up to the palette, or to the canvas.

We'll cut in slightly to the large gleam.

Just wipe a little bit on the edges.

Okay, I think that'll be alright.

Let's come back to this area up near the eye of the wave.

I'll take, same brush, and we'll just take some white and come over here on the edge where you have a little Yellow Ochre and a little bit--what are you?

What are you doing there?

Permanent Green Light?

I'm glad you came, we'll use you.

This will give us our good eye color.

See, when I tap this on it has a rounded shape at the bottom.

It's still wet, so I'll be able to zigzag the dry fan brush.

Zigzag very evenly... and then you just blend out the zigzags.

See, I wiped the brush a little bit after I zigzagged.

And if it needs more zigzag, then you're more gentle a second time, so it's not as large a stroke, it's just very soft, then blend back and forth.

See, that's the eye of the wave.

And that's what everyone says oh, I just love how you got that eye of the wave, it looks so real like you can see through it-- and it's not that hard.

It's just putting two values on and blending them and you get the nice form.

Okay, let's go ahead, we'll put some foam on.

When we do the foam today, it will have blue and white.

This is Ultramarine Blue and white.

Maybe just a little bit of Yellow Ochre in it.

It softens it slightly.

Let me just hold this up.

Yeah, that's pretty close.

It's just a little more yellow on the original, but that could happen when you come with the oils on top.

So, this is all one value.

I won't splash too much up with this, past the edges.

We'll do that more with the oil.

I wiped the brush a little bit so I have less paint on the brush.

And down in front-- just had 3 cameramen move down when I said "down in front," but see, down in front here you have another wave that goes along there.

This actually comes against a little cliff, you find a little there.

And then you have this line across here.

So that's a nice second wave.

I guess you could even call it a first wave, because the one behind could be the second one.

Then another little wave just touching down the edge there.

Okay, I'll continue putting these on.

There's two ways of thinking about this too.

You could put it on like that.

You might wipe just a little bit so some of the gray shows through.

We want to make sure that this goes above the horizon.

Kind of breaks it up.

So you could have the nice rhythm moving up into the sky.

There's a little foam that's coming right along here and that also splashes up.

The nice thing about working on a primed canvas, and when I say that, the prime of this is already quite dark.

So you get a feeling that those rocks are there right now, even though they have their other color on them.

They work well enough, good enough, to make you feel how things are turning out.

I do want just a little bit of water.

And I took some of that same green over on this side.

So maybe we better, could we borrow a little bit of you?

And just put in there, so that's not all foam.

You see the water going up into that.

I'll take--let's see, the umber now.

We'll come with this small flat brush.

This is Burnt Umber.

What I might do on the right rock, not the wrong rock, the "right" rock.

I'm taking Ultramarine Blue and the umber.

So that darkens it.

And that will give me a real nice accent against that edge, against that foam edge.

And you're making so you feel like there's a little bit of craggyness on that rock edge.

So then I'll bring it down inside a little bit.

And what's so neat, see, we put some of that reddish tone on there and I see it on that rock.

So that's kind of a time saver.

The more simply that you can do these, the better.

They look more powerful so they don't get too busy-looking.

Let's take and go over on the left one.

It has more umber than with the blue in it.

I have such a great view from our home.

The ocean is a block away and you go down there.

I have a great view today too.

I see the painting, it is so nice.

It's nice to have the completed painting there.

And there was a quote.

Let's see.

ah, I don't know where it is.

I'll get to it before something, but I think it's the introduction to when we do the oils!

But you wait for that, you come back for that.

Don't you dare miss that!

You know, they talk, the politicians, they talk about Joe the Plumber.

I'm gonna talk about Harry the Artist!

He was just recently, I've never met him, but he called and he was saying, Buck, what is that that you use so you can paint?

His doctor had told him to quit painting because of the toxicity of everything.

And now with what I'm doing and the techniques and so on, he say, "Buck, thank you!

The doctor said, 'Go for it.'

" Gee, that was neat, that was really inspiring.

Okay, Ultramarine Blue, maybe, just maybe the smallest touch of white in it.

And I'm going to go up to the distant cliff.

Yes, that just puts it away from the sky slightly.

And what's always neat on secondary cliff, which this one is, particularly when it's against, well, it's right in the eyesight of the big front wave is that you work just little carefully, then I'll show you what we do.

Let's take a little of this blue and white and come over to the red and pick those up.

I'll add a little water.

This will give me some of the little cliff look on the back-- I need just a little more red.

There.

You're going to have this right in your line of site because you have the sun, you have the reflections there and then right above it you have this beautiful little soft, subtle character and subtle colors.

That, I like that!

I want to do a few more things before we leave the acrylic stage and one of them-- let's take this-- I have the same brush, the flat sable brush.

I'm coming down to the foam color.

This is what we've already been using.

I want to use this to draw a little foam patterns.

The main thing on the foam patterns is the direction.

The direction-- that shows the movement of the wave going this way.

Then, the other thing is a variety of strokes, shapes, a variety of shapes.

So you have some that are small, you have some that are a little wider, and they all go up into the wave.

I've told you this before, but I like to repeat it and that's where I said that people used to say about Buck's oceans, that he was a very spiritual seascape artist because anybody could walk on his water, because it was so hard!

Now it looks hard in the acrylic stage, but when we soften it with the oils, then it would feel like foam, very frothy and can move as it would desire.

We continue this down.

You'll find down in this area that the foam is in preponderance.

So you have very little openings showing.

It's just when it goes up into the wave.

And you can find--there was a great seascape artist, Waugh, W-A-U-G-H, was his last name.

And he painted some very authentic seascapes.

And some of his were just filled with foam patterns as it they went up inside.

Okay, here's more.

You notice on this one, this one becomes an edge of a little wave moving in.

We have another one right here.

The thing I am watching on that is that I have a nice graceful feeling.

And then, this again is very filled with foam patterns.

It's such a nice feeling to get these started so that when you come with the oils you put highlights in them, but you don't have to fill the whole thing in.

Let's see, down here we have, on the shore, we have an edge of the foam but we don't have any real foam patterns there.

I think I just painted the easel.

Okay, let's see what else we might want to do.

Let's put a little bit of this light.

This is the red and blue and white.

I used a little water.

And we're gonna put this over on this rock.

See, when you don't have a middle stage, and then you sort of decide how far can I go, should I go, with the acrylics.

On that I'll put just a little bit of the blue too.

So we get a little foam.

I have some of the blue and ochre and white.

So it's a little darker than what's on the big waves.

This will kind of build out so you can see that shape of the rock a little bit more than just having the red alone there.

Just a little umber to kind of give a little dark shapes there.

Let's see what else we should do.

I guess we could put a little bit of that same reddish tone that we just put on that rock, put a little bit over on here.

Some of this, when you start putting on oil, you may lose it before you bring it back.

I want to have a little bit of dark in the corner.

And that would be taking umber.

When I say "the corner," I'm talking about the sand on the beach.

This is the beach itself.

You watch your edges, there, like that.

Okay, where we have time, then why not go just a little bit further.

I'll take Yellow Ochre and white, touch of blue.

Yellow Ochre and white, touch of blue.

You always allow yourself the opportunity to go a little lighter.

So I'll place this on as a beginning to the highlights on the foam.

And you're always conscious of form.

So if the lights, which is up there hits the top of that, then for roundness, these would automatically be a little darker.

So you're hitting the top-- I've compared it to a sheet cake, where it's a cheap, cheap cake.

You just have frosting on the top, not on the sides.

So if you can remember that when you're painting form for foam.

Cheap cake.

This is kinda fun, 'cause it lines up where the lights going to be.

So we'll just put a touch in there and a touch down here.

We're going to see you next time when we go to the oil stage.

Stay with me.

Bring your wet suit, we're going swimmin'!

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