[music] Isn't that a dramatic night painting?

Bob created that for his series 32 of The Joy of Painting.

My name is Nicholas Hankins, and together, you and I are going to break that painting down and I'm going to walk you through it.

So glad you could join us today.

If you'll come on up to the canvas, we'll get started and I'll tell you a little bit about how I prepared this canvas.

And while we get, while we dive right in and I'll give you a little description of the canvas.

They should be running the colors if you want to paint along with me at home.

They should run those across the bottom of your screen here in the same order that I have them out on my palette.

And I'm picking up a little titanium white on a, on a one inch brush today.

And we'll come up here and hit this canvas, this black canvas that was prepared with a little black gesso, a little water based black gesso.

And I stuck on, before I even did that, I, I stuck on a little piece contact paper, cut out an oval out of the center and stuck it to the canvas, applied a little water based black gesso that's been allowed to dry completely.

And once that was dry, I applied a thin, very thin, even coat of the liquid clear and then mixed up a little batch of, mixed up a little bit batch of equal parts, midnight, black and Prussian blue.

Covered the whole canvas with that, so when I touch it with this white paint, now you'll see it sort of turn this beautiful blue gray.

And I'm just, I'm just going to swirl in some of these little clouds here, just using the corner of the one inch brush and little circular, little circular strokes.

Just kind of build up some shapes in the sky there.

Let them sort of drift off and wander away, just kind of wherever you want them to go.

Just little circular strokes, a little something over here.

And there's just a little bit right up there peeking out at the top.

I'm grabbing a clean, dry two inch brush now and just using the same little circular type strokes just the corner the brush, little circular strokes to blend those clouds and then soften them in.

Tell you what, let's grab a, let's grab a little tiny, little, tiny number three fan brush.

Put that little one inch brush down.

I'm going to grab some more of that dark color, the black and the blue, and we can even cut back in here and add some, add some shadows, add some stronger shadowed areas in here, just sort of mix it up a little bit.

Separate things a little more.

If ever you need a little contrast, you can always go back and sort of push your painting in the opposite direction.

Works out pretty well.

Good thing to remember.

Because you well know by now that we don't make mistakes in this technique.

We just have happy accidents.

There we go.

All right.

Now, Bob has very bright light, brightly lit, stringy clouds.

I guess they are.

I'm picking up a little titanium white on that fan brush.

Number six fan brush and we'll come up here and just sort of, just sort of create a little, I don't know, I guess it's light sort of glinting off of distant little clouds, whatever it is, it's pretty.

It's real pretty.

So we're just going to come in and kind of let this swing back and forth.

Come up and meet with the, the rounder clouds that live up here up top.

There we go.

Something about like that.

While I've got that one inch brush handy, I want to have just maybe, maybe a little hint, faint hint of some stuff back here too.

Just sort of connects in far off in the distance.

Feels like that could be the, the glow of a little town or something just over the horizon back there.

All right, back to the two inch brush, two hairs and some air gently float over that.

Now, you can, you can brush across those clouds until they become very diffused if you want them to be.

Or you can leave them quite bold.

I'm going to leave them quite bold and just sort of diffuse them on the edges a little bit.

Let's have a little, a little darker, darker section right about there.

Tell you what, Black canvas is just, they, they still, I've been painting in this method now for, it'll be 30 years this year, and it never ceases to amaze me just how dramatic a black canvas looks.

It's so cool.

It is so cool.

All right.

Now, I pre-made a little mixture of the black and the blue there, so I'm just going to take a little bit of that and I'm going to add some Crimson and Van Dyke Brown to it to strengthen it a little bit.

This will be a great little mountain mixture.

And even though we're working on a dark canvas already, I still need to block in my dark mountain shape so I'm going to cut off a tiny little roll of that color on my knife.

All right, let's come up here and we'll push in a little peak.

Just kind of plan everything out where you want it to live.

Treat this just, just as if it was a any other white canvas painting that you painted.

Just push that paint very firmly into the fabric.

Even if you can't really see it.

[chuckles] Do it anyway.

Do it anyway.

You'll be glad you did.

Another little peak lives right there.

Push all that in very firmly.

And again, just as if it were a ... knock out that excess paint ... just as if it were a white canvas.

I'm going to grab that color, pull it down, remove some of the excess.

Just makes the next, the next step where we highlight make it snow on that old mountain, makes that next step just that much easier.

All right.

Let's take a little, let's take a little white, I'm going to move it off to the side here.

Let's take a little white, a little touch of the mountain based mixture and mix it in there.

Maybe even a little touch more of the black.

I'm just going to gray this up.

If it's a nighttime scene, pure titanium white's just a little bit too strong for our highlights so I'll have a little batch of that ready to go.

Let's come off on the other side here, and I'm going to add some more mountain mixture to this one and a little more of the Prussian blue.

So this one's a little darker and a little more to the blue side.

That one's lighter to the gray side.

So we've got our highlight, our highlight and our shadow all ready to go there.

All right.

Clean that dark color off my knife.

Let's come up here and see what we can make happen.

So I'll pull that highlight color out very flat and cut across.

Got my little roll of paint there.

We'll come up here and touch and just, just let your knife float down the mountain, just barely.

[Nic makes "sssoo" sound] And you could come right back in behind.

You can do each individual little peak if you want to.

You can put the highlight on, drop a little shadow behind it or you can put all the highlights in and follow up with the shadow later.

Just whichever works best for you.

There is, there really is no right or wrong here.

You do the thing that works best for you, do the thing that works best.

And one thing that is important that I want to make sure I share with you is when you're highlighting these little mountains, make sure you don't push down or put your finger on the blade of the knife.

Just let it, just let that paint float off of there.

Let your hand float down the mountain.

Because the canvas will take what it wants and it will give you back what's left.

You just have to, you just have to trust that it's going to do that.

A little highlight on this little peak back here.

All right, now, let's go back to our shadow color.

Keeping that very dark or darker anyway.

We'll add a little shadow back here.

A little shadow behind this peak.

You can decide whether it just sort of pushes it back or cuts in front.

Maybe there's a little, little sneaky shadow right in there.

A little bit right there.

And it's going to cut that one off too.

Bob did some pretty clever stuff with this mountain.

Not that he didn't always do that, but this one is especially cool, I think and it's just, just so stark a contrast against all of that dark, all of that black canvas color in there.

There we go.

Let's let this kind of wiggle out here a little farther.

A little shelf comes out there and then [Nic makes "shhoo" sound] comes on down.

Something like so, something like so.

I always keep, I'm just sort of continually making that shadow color a little darker and a little darker as I go.

I feel like it, I feel like it should sort of strengthen as I come forward.

There we go.

Might need a little touch behind that little peak.

I can't leave it sitting there all alone with no shadow.

It would feel left out, wouldn't it?

All right, now back to our two inch brush, trusty two inch brush.

And let's come down here and just sort of tap, tap, tap, tap.

And then I'll lift up.

Sweep, following the angles in the mountain.

You don't want to come through here and just chop it off straight.

Create a little mist down at the base of that mountain.

Very, very soft.

All right.

Now, back to our dark color here.

I'm going to grab a little more of the blue and the black, and just add it to that pile.

We could even throw in a little more crimson and brown if we like, make sure it's just as, just as dark as we can get it.

All right.

Now, let's grab a little fan brush, a little number six fan brush, and I'm going to load it full of that, just full of that dark color.

Wiggle it, pull it through there.

Load up both sides nice and full.

Let's come back up here.

So we'll have a few little trees that live back here, little tiny trees at the base of the mountain.

Just little tiny things.

Pick out where they live.

And since we have that little misty area in there, it works very well.

We can see lots of contrast.

And hopefully the paint's not so thick that we can't paint over it.

If you did have any trouble making your paint stick here, though, don't forget you can add just a little drop of odorless paint thinner to your brush and it will help your paint stick considerably.

It'll always, it'll always mix a little bit when you're working wet paint on top of wet paint.

However, a little drop of paint thinner goes a long, long way.

All right.

Especially when you're painting over thick mountain snow like that.

It's just a whole bunch of little trees back there.

As Bob always used to say, you just kind of let them fall right out of your brush.

They live, they live in that little brush.

You just have to push them out.

You just have to push them out.

All right.

Using just the corner of the brush to start [Nic makes "tchooka, tchooka, tchooka, tchooka" sounds] just let them drop right on down.

Get plenty of tree practice with this one, that's for sure.

Shoot, that's working pretty good, isn't it?

Let's have, let's have, let's have, let me go back to that brush with the light color in it.

Back to my fan brush with the light color in.

And this has got some of that blue gray from my mountain.

Pick up just a little touch of liquid white, a little touch of titanium white, brighten it up.

Let's come back here and just add little touch of, a little touch of highlight on those, a little accent.

A little accent from the sky, just sort of sparkling on the snow or the ice.

Whichever.

A little bit of both, I would imagine.

This looks like an Alaskan type scene, doesn't it.

And take that same little fan brush and just come down here to the base of your trees and just bend it, just bend it.

[chuckles] Try to get my hand out of the way, just bend it up like that.

You just take that corner, push the bristles down and push the handle up and you can make some little frosty weeds, ice covered weeds and sticks and whatever.

Frozen ground of some sort back there.

It's crunch, crunch, crunch.

Or maybe it's a light dusting of snow, whatever.

Whatever it is, we'll pull some of that color, [chuckles] whatever it is, we'll pull some of that color down into our, into our little lazy river.

It's coming around there, kind of a slow moving river.

Sweep that down with big brush and brush across.

Take a little touch of my liquid white, we'll put it up here on the, up here on the palette a little bit of that gray color, blue gray color, spin it around, cut through it.

Just a tiny little roll this time.

Let's come back here.

We'll keep our knife very level.

Even though, even though my ground is sort of angling down this way, I don't want to move my knife that way.

I want to keep the blade parallel to the top and bottom.

There we go.

All right.

Trees are working good.

Let's do a few more.

Let's do it, you can never have too many trees.

Not in a Bob Ross painting.

Can't have too many trees.

Now, again, these are going to be very difficult to see as we, as we get started here.

But you hang in there with me.

They'll come to life in a minute, I promise.

One lives right there.

He got a little buddy right there.

This is Clyde.

That's Marvin.

Friends for years.

We got to make friends out here on the tundra.

Let's see, we've got another one that lives right about there.

I'm going to jump over and get some on this side, too.

I don't want to leave that side with a hole in it.

It'd be a tree shaped hole in our painting.

Coming on down.

Again, if you have any trouble getting your paint to stick, just a little drop of paint thinner goes a long, long way.

There we go.

That'll help it stick.

That'll help it stick.

Let's see, another big tall one right there.

Keep your brush well loaded as you make these.

These old evergreens work better if you have a nice full brush and it's loaded to a chiseled edge.

Using just the corner of the brush to start.

And as you work your way down, you push a little harder and a little harder and a little harder and your branches get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and you just zigzag back and forth using more and more and more of the brush.

There.

That ought to work, that ought to work.

Take my knife here, straighten out their little tops just a bit.

Let's use, take, hold on I've got some of that highlight color left from my mountain.

I'm going to add a little brown, a little dark sienna and Van Dyke Brown to that.

Just mix it to a marbled appearance there.

There we go.

Cut across that.

I'll put a little indication of a tree trunk in our, in our trees here.

This needs one, too.

Just a little, little hint right there.

There we go, almost got too bright on me.

It's okay.

We can adjust.

We can adjust.

Pick up a little more of that blue and white and gray.

I'm actually going to add a little more blue to that, blue, make it a little bluer.

There we go, something like that.

Let's come in here.

Now these little trees will show up.

We'll put a little ice and a little dusting of snow on their branches.

A little on that one.

Come over on this side, might even go just a little darker still.

Just corner the brush to start, light touch.

Because I don't want to lose the contrast.

Don't want to lose all that dark that we have back there.

Really frames it.

Really frames the mountain back there and that, that big dramatic sky.

[Nic makes "tchooka, tchooka, tchooka, tchooka" sounds] Forgive my, forgive my noises.

It's Bob's fault.

That's Bob's fault.

All right.

Let me find a clean one inch brush.

I'm to turn that brush up and pull through the paint in one direction, one direction only.

Matter of fact.

Be right back here.

Sorry.

About out of my other so I'm going to fortify with my original mixture there.

Just fill that brush absolutely full of paint.

Then come up here, turning the rounded corner up, rounded corner goes up and you push, push, push, push, push in the little shape of the bushes that you want down here.

Come over on this side.

Same way.

Block in a little dark there for your bushes.

Got another brush going.

Has some, some light color in it already.

I think that was from my clouds.

So I'm gonna pull that through the liquid white, dip it in the liquid white first and then through some of the blue and white and some of that base color, blue and black, just a nice blue gray combo there.

Once again, one direction only.

You should see lots of texture in your paint there when you load your brush.

That's important.

All right.

Lots of paint and a light touch.

We'll just highlight some of these little bushes, pull a little reflection into the water there, sweep it down, brush across.

Probably be a little, a little slip of land right there at the base of those bushes.

So I'll work some of that dark color back in there, maybe take a little bit of my white and blue and black, make a little highlight color.

Just graze over that so it feels very cold.

Very cold.

There.

A little touch more of the liquid white.

And we need a little, little ripple there of gathered up ice.

You know, the ice sort of gathers up against the, against the shoreline on a, in an environment that cold, by golly.

You'd have to put your coat on and hope for the best.

That's a cold little scene.

Let's come up here and get a little highlight on these bushes, too.

Separate them from the background a little bit.

And that's as natural a spot as there ever was to build a little house.

So let's do it.

Bob built a little cabin in his.

So let's do that, too.

Let's just take and scratch out a little basic shape here first.

Just remove some of that built up paint.

We'll take a little Van Dyke Brown, I'm going to put it down here so it's a little easier to get to.

Take a little Van Dyke Brown just drop in the back eave of the cabin.

Drop in the front walls.

[Nic makes "shoo, sshoo" sounds] A little sidewall there.

[Nic makes "sshoo" sound] I'm not going to touch his roof yet because that's a snow covered cabin.

Take a little bit of my weathered, weathered gray wood tone look here and then we'll just barely graze this.

[Nic makes "shoo" sound] Put a little texture on the front.

I want a color that's just slightly darker on the sidewall here because it's facing away from the light.

Just a little accent there, a little touch of it.

I'll scratch in a little door right there for him.

Take a little black, fill it in.

There we go.

That way he can get in.

Old fellow that lives there can get in.

Now, clean up a little space to play here.

I need to take some white and my blue black mixture and maybe a little more of the black, gray that down.

I want some snow on his roof.

But again, it's a nighttime scene, so I don't want to get, I don't want to get too bright.

That would be kind of distracting, so let's come in here and we'll find his roof line back edge of his roof back here.

It's [Nic makes "sshoo" sound] enough snow on there that it pretty well covers the roof.

Sometimes you'll see a little hole in it here and there.

I imagine, I imagine these old little shacks like this probably aren't insulated or if they are, probably not very well.

A little snow piled up on the other side, too.

There we go.

Now we'll take and give him a cabinectomy.

Just cut him off, the bottom.

Get your perspective correct.

Take a little more of that blue white mixture and we'll give him a little path up to the door there.

I'm going to jump back in front once more with my little brush and has the light color on it for the bushes and we'll kind of plant him a little deeper into the picture.

Just poke a couple of bushes over the edge of the path there.

Something like that over the edge of the cabin.

I've got a second left here.

Let's make a little, we'll take a little script liner brush with some paint thinner and maybe there's just a few little twigs sticking up out of the, out of the bushes there.

See a little scrap or two.

All right, it's about time for the moment of truth.

Are you ready?

Let's come up here and see how we did.

We'll peel our contact paper off.

Whoo, it worked again.

It worked again.

Well, I hope you've enjoyed this painting.

Thanks for painting along with us.

If you enjoy the show, drop us a line and let us know.

And until next time, happy painting.

We'll see you then.

[music] [narrator] To order Nicholas Hankin's book of 13 never before seen painting projects from Bob Ross, Call one 800 Bob Ross or visit Bob Ross dot com [music] [music]