I will tell you a simple and easy way to paint a waterfall-- just put in correct strokes!

[piano plays in bright rhythm & tone] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ I am so excited about painting this waterfall painting because I did the original a while back without the idea of teaching it.

So now when I'm teaching it, you kind of rediscover some of the roots.

Not that I wrote it down, but I have art muses helping me.

My teacher, Claude Buck!

I can just hear him!

Because I went out with him painting landscapes.

He'd say okay, be sure you get your center of interest!

Be sure that everything has a nice graceful movement to it.

So you hear the voices, and they're sure going to be helpful today.

We'll show you what we did as the original waterfall painting.

And when my students do this, they'll say "Don't touch it!"

So I don't touch it.

Over to the right, we have the stage one of that painting.

As you recall, we painted on a very dark ground.

This was the color of the canvas when we started.

So now we'll go ahead, and again I debated up to a couple minutes ago, what should I do as far as a Saturday night bath?

The Saturday night bath is one that you put a paint on with a little Walnut Oil and then it has kind of a harmony.

The colors are throughout the whole canvas.

You work into the bath color what will work.

So we're going to take Walnut Oil and I believe what I'll do is use the Walnut Oil first.

Oo, you already got some bath in there, haven't you?

But if I push this around, you won't see that blue.

That lets you know that there's actually some Walnut Oil on the canvas.

Isn't it great?

You never make a mistake.

It's just a direction!

The GPS from above is maybe not quite hooked in yet.

Okay, now I have Walnut Oil on.

I put it on, spread it around, removed a little bit.

And here's my Van Dyke Brown.

Oh, when I put this on, you're gonna say why did you use that?

And I'm thinking why did I use that?

[laughs] Oh I love it!

You just wait till we rub it around a little bit and then work into it.

It's softens everything down a little bit and makes it wet.

Now we'll wipe.

The wiping spreads it around a little bit, removes a little bit.

And then you'll see places that you'll want to remove more, such as the waterfall itself.

I have a clean paper towel, I'm pushing hard, of course, it's not going to look that light because we haven't put the highlight on yet.

Just a little bit through the windows up there.

A little bit harder on the green grass, and then you let some of this melt in.

That's why I like the Saturday night bath.

It melts in a little bit even though I might just touch it slightly, just touch slightly down there.

Okay where do you start first on putting on the paint?

You could start anyplace, some people start at the top and just come on down and I like to put in the center of interest first.

And my center of interest, of course, is the waterfall itself, so I have Raw Sienna and white-- powerful color.

And you're going to see, and you can see already, the effect of how it looks when it goes lighter, and then you spread it around and as you spread it around you'll have places that are a little thinner so you'll get a feeling of the water moving.

Okay, I think that will be just about enough, and we'll spread that around always with the idea that we can come back and go more if we need to.

So I'm taking the corner of the brush, dry brush, just pulling it down, come right down the bottom.

This is such a good spot right there.

We'll eventually go a lot lighter there.

It shows where the water's hitting the bottom of the falls.

But of course, "the falls!"

This is not quite as romantic as the Niagra Falls, but I'll tell you, you walk up there with a wonderful mate, and you're going to feel that you have arrived where you should be at the right time!

Okay, this, like this, then I'll take a smaller brush, and this is a small round brush, because I want to have less paint but some of it coming down just a little bit in there.

Then some of these need to have just a little bit of stringy feeling coming down.

I think I'll take a little blue and white and mix it just slightly with that Raw Sienna and white too so you get just a few little strands.

And over here, and these have to be very small amounts.

Just a little bit on the sides, like that.

I'll take a mop brush.

That's just to soften out the foam that I put on.

I went up the trees a little bit, so just knock that down.

Okay, let's go ahead with just a little bit through the sky holes.

It has almost a pink feeling, so I'm taking white with just a little bit of rose.

I can't use very much.

That'll be enough.

It is!

I said it, and it really is!

A little bit on this side of the tree.

A little bit over there; a little bit over there.

See how nice that is?

It has a warmth to it, doesn't it?

Then we'll come over here, and as I cut in slightly to those trees then you get a little bit of the kind of the fir tree look.

The other thing we want do on that side is take blue and white.

This is Thalo Blue and white.

Sometimes I'm kind of rushing, and I think wait a minute!

This is oil, this isn't acrylics, so we don't have to rush!

So I put just a little bit of seeing through.

I like to use a fingernail on the canvas so I can control and just put the right amount of pressure on these so they don't become too strong.

Here again, I'm taking and pushing into that tree.

See how you establish the edge of the tree as you do that?

Let's come on this side just a little bit too.

All right any other use of this blue?

I see some in here.

Sometimes the blue, and you'll find this as we come down lower, it's used more than just looking through.

It's kind of a color enhancement thing.

How did you get some water up on your tree?

Okay, I'm going to come to that area next, the trees.

All right, I have Permanent Green Light and white with a little Raw Sienna and a little Payne's Gray.

This is the mixture.

It's almost suggested that it's not a complete mixture.

Ah, I'm going to change brushes.

I'll come with my flat sable brush, because the little chisel edge of it gives me a chance to draw.

I hope I'm not blocking you.

Can you see that all right?

Just speak if you can or can't!

A lot of dotty-dot dot dots.

I'll come over on the other side just a little darker.

Right in here.

Then you're going to have a lot of these little type strokes over the far right.

Let me point them out on the original in just a minute.

Okay, so these are the ones I'm talking about.

See those?

So we'll take those, I'm using again some of that-- what are you?

You're Permanent Green plus Payne's Gray plus white.

I wonder if maybe the fan brush could be a better dancer.

And you've danced with some people that are better at jitterbug and some at the swing, some the two-steps, and some of the new steps I don't know.

Yeah, that works quite well, because it covers a lot of territory quickly.

I just want you to get the idea on this.

Be sure to take your time and do a good job on it.

What is quite pleasing in this area, you have where the foliage peeks over just a little bit.

So I'm a little darker than what I've been using there.

So that puts the waterfall behind it and another place that happens is right up at the top, right up here.

Careful, don't want the light to come up, I want the dark to come down.

Okay, shall we do anything else there?

Let's call that enough.

Let's come on the other side, and I'm going to take a little yellow, Cad Yellow, but I'll touch it in with some of this green, and I have the fan brush, like that.

Do we need any white?

No, since we're building to the lights, let's put this on first.

I'll go just a little darker green so we're building to the darks!

It's so nice to be able to go back and forth.

If you need a little extra, if you need to erase a little bit, there's always that opportunity.

But it does help to put in your center of interest first, Now, that's a little jagged, so if I just push that, it has just a little bit of a more smooth look to it.

Coming to the right further with this color, I want to have a little bit down in here.

It kind of just echoes that up there.

Now, up above up in here, let's get a little bit of the greenish tone too, so that has just a little warmth to it.

See, you could spend a long time on these top ones.

Don't rush them-- each tree is most important.

We're rushing a little bit because our time frame is such that it necessitates that.

But I want you to get the idea of what we're doing.

Okay, let's come down to the water and the stream.

I'll have a little bit of lighter blue, so this is Thalo Blue and white.

I better put a little Van Dyke Brown in that too because it's not quite as raw as it might be.

See, this is better, it's just almost a little grayish blue into it, and here I have just a little brighter blue, see, kind of a combination.

And on the other side, and then I blend these.

Let's come a little closer up to near the little logs in the water.

This is such an important path where you come right down to it.

Now those, I have a stiff brush.

Let's see which where are you, stiff brush?

I'll use this one, this is a fan brush.

And I'll kind of just push it side to side for a blend.

For the moment, I'm sort of sneaking across those branches which we'll come and put little highlights on soon.

Wipe them just a little bit.

That wasn't the best Idea Buck!!

Okay, I want to do light at the bottom of the waterfall, then we'll come back to that branch.

This strong light here as we suggested.

Notice the quantity by the use of the knife.

And this, what's kind of pretty, it kind of pops through there a little bit, so you follow it slightly then on the other side it's just kind of a stringy little line.

Then there's some good light in here and there and there and there.

I think what I've done, and I don't dislike it is, I've made it quite strong in through here.

Okay, now I want to take and make that branch just a little better.

We'll take some Van Dyke Brown, and we'll make sure we got a dark line that goes through there.

And then we'll put a little highlight on it.

♪ More more more!

And... you.

Okay now let's put the red light, highlight on it.

Look at that amount of light on that brush!

I'm just barely touching it but the whole brush has a lot of paint on it, so no question about what color it is, is there?

And a little stronger, as we've said before, on the base, you strengthen that so you feel like it tapers correctly.

Okay we'll put this on up through that little light.

we'll put just-- I notice on those, those are pretty dark.

They're almost just the dark, so we use the Van Dyke Brown.

They have a definite need or a place, you might say because they're right below the waterfall, and they kind of help point towards it, towards the path.

I'm going to put just a little red on there even though I don't see it I'm gonna put that on and say that it worked.

Okay, we have the lower right corner, we'll spot in quickly.

I have a fan brush, and this is Permanent Green Light.

The minute I say that, I think okay, on the way stop and see your buddy Thalo Blue.

Because you see a lot of the green already so this will just, this is making use of a lot of the acrylics that were already there.

Some of the red and white over to the side.

Oh gee, you're beautiful!

And what that means is, you may not be right, but you're beautiful.

I'll hit that one, it's just a little little large.

So we take some purple and just touch that guy a little bit like that.

See there's no problem with that.

We'll take some quite light, almost white, just a touch of green in it.

So these stand out just a little bit from the water.

Okay, let's see, let's put a little light on the tree up above.

What's kind of nice on that bare tree...

I didn't see any bears!

There's one up here!

...is if it has just a smallest little branches going out.

But sure, you just ah, the smallest little ones.

I don't know what causes that.

You know, often the trees, they're long, long branches, but that one, they're not very long.

We can give you one long.

Then the middle trees, just partially hidden, but you put just enough light on them so you can recognize them as being trees through there.

And maybe one back there so they're not just spaced too evenly.

The far right, it looks like it's a branch or something hanging down there, so we'll put a little light on it.

Kind of narrow it out down on the end.

I like a branch I see over here-- what color are you?

You're Burnt Umber and white.

Just down here, just a little bit of a branch there.

Touch it so it's not too strong, then we better put a little light on the banks.

I'll take some of this green and we'll put it just on the edge.

That's too, too light, so I'll darken a little bit.

This is Van Dyke Brown and a little green.

That's better.

It sort of establishes where the rocks are, and this is a little bit of moss on the rocks.

We'll go over to the right.

Just a little bit of feeling of the bank there.

This one kind of needs to have a little doctor work.

Oh, I need more than a doctor on that one.

Let's take some Van Dyke Brown and I'll just kind of make him a little bit darker.

There's always a solution.

You just need to know what it is!

Okay, we have just a little time left, but we need to have some dots over on this side.

Take a little of the darker green.

That's good, and some of this, as it touches into the blue, it makes the blue look more surrounded by its entourage.

A little bit up into there, not much.

What about up in the distance?

If I have just a little Van Dyke Brown and white, this will give me some distant trunks.

See the difference between these?

But it makes these trees feel like trees, because you can follow the trunk.

Okay, let's keep looking at this now.

This tree on the far left, I could have just a little bit Van Dyke Brown and Permanent Green Light, just a little bit coming out the edges.

Little bit on this guy, it'll soften the edge just slightly... and inside.

I'm liking what's happening.

I'm liking what's happening.

How in the world did you get over here?

Somebody must have been helping me without my knowing it!

And you know what's always neat when you have a lot of green, If you put in just kind of a nice little complimentary color, the purple, it really helps to enhance the green.

We've already done it down in this area.

You know I did something there that I don't want, but it suggests something, and that's down below here.

Where I put this in, if I wipe it then it will be softer, and that's what I needed to have.

Softening down at the bottom of that waterfall, because there's kind of a mist that comes there.

There's always somebody that helps guide this brush.

I hope they take their turn cleaning it!

Okay, I want to just sort of sweep across that with a dry fan brush, and I would say I hope it's a clean dry fan brush!

Let's see if I stand here, can you see all right?

This is kind of the final strokes that you put on, and it's so neat, again, let me repeat.

That Saturday night bath, the Van Dyke Brown is quite a help, because when you soften it, you may not see it, but you can use very little paint and it really helps give you some blending, some nice quality.

I like what happened there, this goes up just a little bit, then some of this just glances into that.

It's been such a pleasure being with you guys.

I really hope that you'll try this one and send those pictures to Buck!

See what you've done with it!

The fish are jumping!

Ah!

And I feel great.

Thank you for watching!

We'll see you next time, and next time can't come soon enough!

Ah!

Best to you!

Bye-bye!

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