The great piano player, the great athlete were both at one time... amateurs!

[piano plays in bright rhythm & tone] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ All right!

We're ready for stage two, the oil paint stage of "The Piano Player," and I will start with a large fan brush.

Oops.

I want to say something about this painting before I go on to the new one.

All the feelings that you have are without seeing his face or expression, and I think it's a marvelous thing.

The photograph that I took this from that they sent me, he was actually playing.

He was taking a lesson, so that ah-- very authentic.

Okay, so I have Walnut Oil on a fan brush, and I'm going to come up to our acrylic painting, which is dry.

It's had a whole week to dry.

I notice just a little something coming there.

Oh, no!

Don't tell me it's rain!

If it's rain, maybe he can't play ball.

Unless he knows John Harris in Fargo, North Dakota!

He plays in the rain!

I know!

I was there!

Okay, now let's have our Saturday night bath.

This is Alizarin Crimson.

So I put some Alizarin Crimson out and I'm adding just a little oil to it too so I can just splash it on and then wipe, And you think well, I hope you'll wipe!

[soft scraping] As I do this, I don't ever intend, to this point, of having an even covering of this.

I gain that more by the wiping... gently wiping.

I would be a little experimental in your doing this, putting on a Saturday night bath.

You might decide okay, I don't want to use quite as much Walnut Oil so I have a little more control, but a nice soft paper towel does a lot towards giving us the quality that we want.

I'll wipe hard on the keys.

I'll wipe hard right next to the head where the lightest light will be, and then I'll wipe hard down by the pants and the shirt, I mean the bench.

So on the other places, I'm just softly blending.

It still has a little bit of the influence of the Alizarin Crimson.

See, that has a feeling of quality right now.

I can almost hear him playing.

Let's start with the oil paint.

We'll put on the impact.

See, this is a case where we're going to put the dessert on first, and then go ahead and eat the main course rather than waiting to the end and then smash!

You can do either way or both ways.

So let's start with putting some yellow on.

This is straight Cadmium Yellow Light, no, Cadmium Yellow.

It's not Cadmium Yellow Light.

[soft scraping] And the nice thing about the bath, the Saturday night bath is that you come out clean, but you can work into it with just the smallest amount of paint, and it responds.

This is a nice bristle brush, so I can use a little paint and really force it out.

I'm going up high, and then when I come on the other side still with the yellow on the brush.

[soft scraping] I like the little red that's playing through from the acrylics on both sides.

You can see it over here as well.

I need to come a little closer to the baseball.

Now going along with the same idea of putting lights on, let's take the yellow, and we'll come down to the piano bench.

[soft scraping] I don't know if Zach played baseball or not.

It made me think of the many young piano players that could hardly wait to get out and either ride a horse or play some sports or see their friends.

Okay, so that gives me light, light, and then maybe just a little bit.

I'll change brushes, still with yellow and go right along this little line there.

And it can just sort of fade out on the side, but both sides.

You can see I'm leaning my hand against my arm for steadiness.

Eventually, I'm going to put some light in there, so we're kind of holding back from the dessert a little bit.

We're creating a place for it, but the strongest light, let's kind of wait with that.

So now that I've put that on behind him, then I can legitimately go against his head, his hair.

So I'm taking Alizarin Crimson, and let's see, I have some Burnt Umber.

So that's about half and half.

I need to have more Burnt Umber.

I'm going to change my mind.

I'm going to use some Van Dyke Brown.

Van Dyke Brown as the little accents down below... and just a little touch.

I don't go clear out to the edge of the ear, because I want that to be a little softer as it touches against the background.

So what I'm going to do now is take my Van Dyke, well, the brush that I put the Van Dyke Brown and Alizarin on with, and I don't really have much paint left in it on purpose, so that I'm making a little use of the acrylics.

And I notice the hair, if it comes down just a little bit.

A little, I don't know what they call that.

Is that a ducktail or just needing a haircut?

One or the other.

Okay, let's see.

What should we do next?

Let's go ahead and stay up here, which means I'm going to put some color on the piano.

That looks like Raw Sienna.

We may have had Raw Sienna there in acrylics, but the oil will be just a little lighter.

Oh, that's good.

You want to have those pretty straight, and yet there's a certain casualness that is pleasing.

Now I'm going to lean against my hand again, arm, so I get close to that, and then I can brush that out.

What I like about this particular subject is, you can just fade it and so much of what happens out there doesn't have to be identified.

It just sits in place.

More Raw Sienna, and I'm going here.

When I go here, it narrows the dark a little bit so it has a side with the dark under it, and as you recall, we're a little casual as we come near an object.

So we'll come near there, you don't see that dark line touching there anymore, and on this side, I can take some of the Raw Sienna and just touch a little bit so it doesn't have that hardness.

Oh, I don't think I put any light on the edge there yet.

So okay.

Right, here's the Raw Sienna.

[laughs] A little wavy piano!

You need a piano tuner.

Okay, when I come down to the keys, I have yellow and white.

I guess I haven't used this yet.

I was wondering why it was mixed up, but I guess it's going to be for the background.

And I'll come right close against there, and you can see the small little marks I have for the keys, the black keys.

So I'm just kind of going in between them.

I'm not going to take time to work those up at this point.

Maybe I will before the show's over, but regardless, you have them shown to you, and then you just make them a little darker.

I'll do one or two so you see.

Okay then on this side, they go the other way.

Sort of a little slant.

This is the front edge of the keys.

Front edge of the keys.

We'll go down now to his shirt.

It looks like we can start with just some Raw Sienna.

I have this large bristle brush; it does a super job.

When I put this on, I'm not using much paint, as you can see.

But what will be especially nice is when we put that highlight on the shoulders and on the hip.

Okay, let's do that.

I have some Yellow Ochre and White.

Most often I'll put it on without being as powerfully lit as I want to end up being.

The building to the light aspect.

What I like about those two lights is that they kind of take the boy away from the keyboard sitting back a little bit.

Now I'll go lighter.

This is yellow and White.

Just a smash right there, and the other one doesn't have as much, but let's do it anyway.

Just a little bit; just not quite as large a deal.

Then when we come down on the hip, we'll still do the Yellow Ochre and White.

And then it's quite light.

So this again is Yellow Ochre and White, and this gives just a nice little touch there.

Oh, that's great.

I like that.

Let's go over to, well, let's go to the piano bench then.

I have some Cad Yellow and White.

This is just a little more yellow than the highlight yellows.

Now I have to push against there, because the dark outline is just a little strong on the pants, and I don't want it to be, And we'll go to the other side.

If anything, I can go just a little stronger and go stronger near him, like that.

Okay, let's stay on the shirt, and I have-- you're Raw Sienna and I would say just Raw Sienna and White.

I had some yellow in that, but it doesn't have to be.

Oh, I need to be careful.

I'm going to the shirt and it's in the shadow side.

So I changed my mind not going quite as much White in it.

And here as I'm placing that on, I'm more or less just using it as an accent rather than do the whole pattern, and this has a good light down near the hip too.

Let's spread those up just a little bit.

This is with a dry brush, and when I spread it up on the dry brush, it fades, but it's there.

This one comes down.

I guess I need to have that come down just a little bit more on the hip there.

What about up here?

And we're doing fine... so I am told.

Okay, let's do a little bit on the hair.

I'm going to take, Raw Sienna might be a little light, but let's see what happens.

Raw Sienna and Van Dyke Brown?

I want to try another thing.

I want to try Burnt Umber and the Raw Sienna.

Yeah, that'll be better, because the Van Dyke Brown could be a little grayish, and this guy is not young.

I mean, he's young.

Notice how I make the strokes.

I'll put it on and sort of pull it down with the full flat brush, and down here maybe just a little bit turn the brush for just a little other type strokes, other representing hair.

Okay now, let's come down to the palette, and I'm going to use-- where are you?

Right here.

Thank you for coming along.

I want to put on yellow and White in the background.

And I'm going to start with the idea of again kind of building to the lights.

It's surprising when I look at it at the palette and up here, I didn't think I'd be light enough.

And I notice when I look at that, oh, maybe it touches a little bit against the hair, but it's not any great quantity.

You almost feel like that baseball sitting there is a metronome.

♪ Dingk, dingk, dingk, dingk!

And go up above, because that again is the source of the light.

Okay, I'll take a mop brush and just blend that slightly.

Is that hair from the brush or is it from the boy?

I don't know.

It's painted so realistically, it could be from the boy.

Now just the smallest amount with the knife.

Yellow and White.

It's just a little lighter than what's there.

Add a little bit on the other side.

[soft tapping/scraping] Push a little closer to the ear.

I think it's going to be all right.

[soft scraping] Okay, going on, we'll take and put just a little light on the ball, and I'm taking, it's the same yellow and white we've been using.

Oh, that's a security when painting a solid object.

There's no deviation, it must be right.

Okay, a little bit of Alizarin on the stitching.

This looks like one of the balls that maybe my brothers and I put together.

It looks kinda amateur stitching... but you get the idea.

Just a little darker.

I think if a person hits that, it's going to go a long ways in many different directions at the same time.

Splat!

Okay, let's put some work on the hat.

I have Cadmium Red Light.

Just a little bit of the light is peeking around hitting that.

And they have two caps.

They have one that is a red bill, but they have another one that is kind of a bluish-red.

Well, make up your mind.

I'm trying, I'm trying!

Oh, there you are.

I was sent a Cincinnati Red hat.

Oh, this is not it, but I was sent this one as well.

They sent me one that was the authentic one.

I don't know what this was, but I like it.

Okay, on the initial up front, you have a C for Cincinnati.

And now notice when I'm picking this paint up, it's not pure white, even though if this were in the light, it would be pure white.

So I put it on... like that, and on this side they almost touch.

Good job!

I'm going to underline that cap, and I have some Van Dyke Brown.

That will make it form up a little bit better.

Okay, I want to put a little bit of Raw Sienna on the back of his pants, because it was a little kind of-- the acrylic wasn't quite as smooth as this will be.

And I'll come over as we've done in other places come close to the outline so you narrow the outline.

It's probably necessary to take a little Umber on the shirt, and I'm going at the bottom of the shirt, I'm putting this, and it really, it doesn't, well, it might do a little bit there.

But what is kind of needed is have it on there and then you can soften the line a little bit.

Let's go on above the shadow right in here, and just the same way-- just a little bit of waviness.

There's a little bit of light that needs to come out so you see that elbow area a little bit better.

Let's see over here if there's anything else.

I haven't done it, but I'm going to do it now, is take a little bit of Alizarin and the Van Dyke Brown... and just push that dark so you-- I'm not getting quite what I want.

Let's take more just the Van Dyke Brown.

And those are just strokes.

I mean, they're not real blended or real even.

Just sort of it's kind of looking into the dark, and what do you see?

We'll come over on this side.

On this side, I feel a little bit of Raw Sienna just sort of going crossways.

You're seeing something.

It must be reflections from the back part of the piano.

Could I put some of that in there too?

Why not?

I'll come right against that bench so it's a little better.

Okay, I have only a little time left and just a little left to do.

I'm taking the Yellow Ochre, and I want to bring this down to the edge there on both sides.

Okay, I think we've kind of made "The Piano Player" a winner, and I'm sure hopeful that you can make yours a winner.

I have just a little dark.

It'll give just a little bottom of the collar.

So we'll see you next time!

Where are you?

There you are!

Thanks for watching "The Piano Player" and watching Buck swing the bat!

We'll see you next time.

Bye-bye!

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