- In part one, we established the background, water and sky in this painting.

Now, we'll move forward and complete this crashing ocean wave.

Join me next for, "Painting with Wilson Bickford."

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(upbeat music) - [Announcer] In rural New York State, bordered by the St. Lawrence River in the Adirondack Mountains is a sprawling landscape with communities that offer self-guided tours for the creatively inclined.

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- Hi, welcome back.

I guess I didn't scare you off with the first episode, right?

No, you're brave and you can do it and I know you can.

I got faith in you.

Remember we started last week with the basic outline of the wave.

We've got the crest of the wave, we put in the eye.

We put in the dump of the wave.

Now we're gonna start progressing and add these other elements.

All the foam and the wave patterns, the foam patterns.

So I'm gonna start with my a long script liner.

And I'm gonna put a nice dark shadow right along the ridge on the crest of the wave, right in through here.

So I'm gonna loosen this paint up.

This is some of the same dark color I had from my water, previously.

Anything dark enough, like that is going to work.

I've thinned it right down.

I want a nice sense of a shadow underneath this area.

So I'm gonna outline that.

I'm gonna lay foam on top of this.

Notice, I have to steady my hand here a little bit.

This is touchy stuff.

I want a nice shadow underneath that.

I'm gonna take a number three fan brush and just kind of soften the bottom edge of that line a little bit.

So it doesn't look quite so much like a line.

Just barely touch it with the ends of those bristles.

But it'll give me a nice shadow underneath that.

Okay, here comes the fun part.

I'm gonna take that same fan brush.

I better switch it out.

Because I just put some green on it a little bit by doing that.

I'm gonna base in this foam.

And notice that it's kind of a blue purpley gray underneath and then there's white highlights on it.

I can't just put it all in white.

It'll have no depth at all.

So I'm gonna take white with some ultra marine blue maybe just a speck of that Dioxazine purple.

It purplizes it, oh yeah.

I'm gonna check this, make sure it's not gonna be too dark against what I've got.

That looks pretty good.

'Cause I know full well, that I'm gonna put white on top of it.

I just don't want it to get lost in the shuffle and have it too dark to start.

You wouldn't think so, but with this being like a purple but even purple against the green if the same amount of lightness or darkness which is the value, they will blend together, So they don't separate all that well, so I'm going to go with something about like this.

Open the brush up and right here on the top of that, I'm going to lay this on there, and you'll probably actually hear my brush crunch a little bit.

It doesn't show up too well there right now, I realize that.

Usually up around the eye, this little ridge of foam gets very thin and skinny, and then it starts widening out as it comes down.

So I'm going to try to keep it a little narrow up there.

Once I get down around the curve here then I can just really have fun with it.

I take the corner and I let it splash.

Don't cover up all of the dump of the wave.

Let some of that show through there.

You see, I'm kind of using the corner of the brush and then I'm going to let it roll and boil.

I'm going to lighten that just a whisker over here, 'cause it's kind of getting lost.

That's what I said, even though that's, purple-y gray against that blue-green behind it, it's either too close to the same amount of lightness or darkness and they blend together.

So I'm going to go just a tad lighter like that, and then it will show up, see?

So that's nothing but an adjustment painting is nothing but a series of adjustments.

You always have to watch out for that.

It wasn't working.

So I had to switch gears.

Are you starting to see it now?

Yeah, see this waves coming together now.

I kind of thought it might.

I was hoping, I was hoping it was going to.

Okay.

It's looking pretty good so far now, see, I'm looking ahead.

I know what it's gonna look like when I put the white on it.

So when I say it's looking good, you're probably thinking, "hmm, it doesn't look all that great to me," but I know what it's going to look like next.

I'm looking ahead.

I can see into the future, at least that far.

Okay, I've switched this brush out and I'm going to take white, straight white, I'll probably add little bit of this base coat again, just to thin it.

And it makes it stick a little easier.

I'm going to tap the bristles open, spread them right out.

And on top of that purpley gray I'm going to put a little bit of light here and there.

I don't want to lose all the purpley gray.

I want to leave some of that in there.

And see up here around where it's nice and skinny?

I'm going to matte the brush together like this.

If I close the brush up and chisel it.

Then I can get a much more skinny line like I was talking about, you on a little narrower up around that eye.

Just typically that's usually the way it is, from what I've seen.

Okay, and then down here again, I've opened the brush up.

I'm using the corner and I'm just gonna lay light on the top and feather it into the purple below, so they're all connected.

I can really let this, see, I can go higher than what my purple was, as long as this melts down into it and they're connected, and they're holding hands a little bit.

See, that's given it a nice splash feeling.

Notice I turn the brush different angles as I do it.

I don't want it to necessarily look like the imprint of the fan brush, so I'm being careful just to round everything off a little bit.

So it doesn't leave just those points, like the corner of a fan brush will leave me.

Okay, as I come lower down in here, I can put another layer right here against the gray.

See, I can put another plane, another layer in there which gives the foam more depth.

All right.

That's coming together pretty well, enough to give you the idea.

Okay, now this one I have spattered, and I'll do it on this one.

I'm going to take white base coat and a little bit of thinner, a couple drops.

And we've done this in previous lessons, I know, but just to refresh you, the idea is I want to take it, pull the bristles back, let them snap onto the pallet and spray those random little dots.

This will give this wave a lot of movement right at the top where that foam boils and an aerates and comes up and separates.

It just makes the wave really boil and move.

Look at the difference in that.

I got a few little speckles down here.

I'm not scared.

That's not going to bother me at all.

I'll brush those right out.

See how that gives it movement?

And also a lot of times I like to take something like the same, I'm going to think in that back up, just a trifle.

And you'll notice on the top where it looks like where that's moving, that separates, and it kind of comes up, and there's a little bit on the top of the dump.

So right here, it looks like the wind's catching it.

And I can just froth it up a little bit like that.

It's all about making that wave look like it's moving.

I'm gonna put a little bit right on the top of that dump of the wave right there.

Maybe a little bit right off the top, right there.

Don't overdo it, just enough to make it look like it's got some movement to it There, that was pretty easy, wasn't it?

Yeah, you guys can do that.

I'm going to go back to this brush.

It's still dirty, but it's been wiped off.

I'm just going to blend these dots out of here.

See, no biggie.

At this point, I kind of step back and I analyze it, and I make sure I got everything in place.

I wanted that nice shadow under there, which I have it.

And that looks pretty good.

Kind of lost the shadow here.

Remember in the previous lesson, on episode one, I mentioned that I wanted that darker and I had it there, but I've kind of lost it.

So I'm going to go make sure I go a little bit darker there.

And I keep going back to that because it's an important part.

You're going to find out that if you are going to paint these waves and you lose your shadows in there, you lose a tremendous amount of depth.

So I'm going to take a little blue, little green, little black, and I'm just going to really emphasize this darker shadow under there.

Some of these wave movements and foam patterns will be laying over the top of that, but you need that darkness under there.

See how that sets that foam up?

It's the little things.

It's the little things that make all the difference.

There we go.

Now we're cooking.

Okay, now we're going to get into the nuts and bolts of this.

This is the part that everybody struggles with.

This is where you might want to refer to this paper.

These lines have a certain curve.

They come out of the eye, very curvy like this.

And as each subsequent line goes back, it lays a little flatter, a little flatter, a little flatter, but every one of them comes out flat down here in the wave trough, ahead down in here, they all come out flat.

Notice these are actually hooking around and almost going that direction.

And then they lay flatter, but they all level out in the bottom.

So that'll be a good reference for you.

You want to maybe print that sketch off and use it.

Okay, here we go.

I'm going in.

I'm going to use my long script liner, believe it or not.

I'm going to take white base coat, and I've got some thinner on this brush too.

I just switched it out, but I got some thinner on it as well.

I'm going to take white base coat with some of this purpley gray foam color that I had.

And I'm going to load this right up.

The brush is full.

And I'm going to start right here in the eye.

And I kinda wiggle my hand and jitter it a little bit.

I lay it flatter, I roll it, I want wide lines, skinny line, fat line, all kinds of variety in it.

They can actually touch each other like that.

These are just foam patterns laying on top of the water And watch how I wiggle and jiggle this.

I lay it down and you'll see, I'm turning it back and forth in my fingers as I'm doing it.

It goes wide, skinny, and I'm pressing down a little harder once in a while, and then I'm releasing just to the tip.

Just so you get a really irregular line.

If you're just drawing, Here's what a lot of people do.

I see it in my classes a lot, and I try to stop people from doing it, and cut them off at the pass before they start doing it.

But a lot of people just do wiggly snakes.

That's not what I'm doing at all.

I'm just kind of really loose, and I can't do it with this marker, but it's fatter in some spots, skinnier and others.

And you just don't want to get into the habit of doing the snakes.

That's not gonna not going to cut it.

So it's just a lot of these lines.

Like I said, each subsequent one that goes back, they keep laying flatter and flatter.

Like that, but they all come out flat and level here in the bottom.

You see, once you break it down like that, it's not really that difficult.

See, that's starting to come together already.

My paint was drying out, so I just added more thinner onto my brush.

Now these look very course.

I'm going to soften them out a little bit.

Blending fixes everything.

And I'm squinting at this as I'm doing it.

I'm looking for large areas of negative space where there's just nothing going on and it looks empty.

If it looks empty, I have to fill it in, plug it up with something.

Let's see that really isn't as tough as you probably thought it was.

In actual practice doing it, you're going to have to do it a few times to get comfortable with it.

'Cause I'm not doing anything specific.

If I was doing something specific and say I'm making round shapes or I'm making shapes that tells you what you need to do.

I can't tell you that I'm not doing anything specific.

I'm just doing irregular wiggly shapes.

And that's what makes it difficult for people to grasp.

But like I said earlier in the first episode, a lot of people have just asked me about doing these waves.

So I figured this would be a great lesson.

I'm going to go back up in here and I've darkened the color down just a little bit, 'cause it's very light right there with a yellow.

And this would be more shadowed in behind here.

And I need to put a few of those little foam patterns up in here as well.

Well see, up here, they're actually a C shape almost they're going right, right around.

'Cause they go around into that dump of the wave.

It's a tube that spins right around.

Okay.

That's comin'.

♪ Do do, do, do, do, do do.

♪ Okay.

Now I need to soften that.

There's two options.

I can use a clean dry fan brush if I use a really light touch, and just graze it with the back of the brush, or I can use a mop brush either/or, but just be aware that whatever you use, you have to use a really, really light touch and I'm just barely touching it.

I'm kind of patting very softly with just the back of the brush.

Just enough to kind of soften the edge of the line a little bit.

It makes it slightly, slightly, slightly blurry and out of focus, which makes it look like it's got movement.

I see a couple spots up here I don't like.

This doesn't look like it's joined up with some of the other lines as I'm just going to kind of, it's just an adjustment, nothing serious.

This one's a little lighter in behind, and I achieved that by using a liner brush.

Now this is the smaller liner.

And if I take white and yellow, I use the base coat, I can always go back in between those wave patterns and put in a little extra light filtering through there.

I'm doing it in between those wave lines.

And then I have to soften it again.

You're right, I heard somebody in Albuquerque say "that needs to be blended."

You're right.

It does.

So I'm going to take my fan brush again, and I'm just lightly going to kind of soften those in.

Let's see, it gives you, that transparency of that light shining through the wave which is what everybody looks for.

If you're going to paint seascapes that's what everybody hinges on.

They want to see that eye of the wave.

Down here in the bottom, in the wave trough, I like to add something lighter, like whatever light is coming in, this is going to be in shadow the way it's curled up.

But down here in the flatter portion, it levels out and it's going to be a more in light.

So I try to put a little bit more light down in this area.

So I've just taken white base coat, and I put a few down in here that are lighter, catching some of the light, but hopefully that will give you the idea of how to do these.

They're not as tough as what you might think.

You just got to practice them a couple of times.

Practice is the key with anything.

I don't, it doesn't matter if you're painting a barn or you're painting flowers, you have to practice your subject and know your subject.

See, I can lighten this up down here.

I'm going to put some rocks down there eventually, and speakin' of rocks, I got to get going on those.

But hopefully that will give you the idea of the wave and, see, once you put these on, I've added those, and you can actually come back and soften these in a little more again just like we did the first round.

Okay.

Hopefully that'll give you the idea how to do that.

And I'm going to go back to my number 10 flat brush.

We have to put this rock formation, this headland way out here.

I'm going to take white with burnt sienna and little bit of purple just to kind of gray it down.

I want a nice distance color.

How far into the painting you bring it.

It's totally up to you.

You could stop it shorter over here or whatever.

You could have it on this side.

I just thought there was a lot of weight in the painting with the wave on this side.

So it balanced out nicely on this side.

So however you see it.

I just want a nice straight line across there like that.

And I'll bring it maybe to over to about here.

And then I'm just gonna press down on the brush a little more.

I want that a little darker.

I want it to look kind of distant, so I don't want it too dark.

And this is just burnt sienna and purple, believe it or not.

'Cause I'm going to highlight it.

There we go, that's not too bad.

It's a, just a cliff, so I could make it any shape I choose.

Maybe there's cliff divers over there and they're going to jump off into the water.

Did you ever watch any of that?

They're braver than I am.

I don't think I'd have wanted to try that, even in my younger day.

I surely don't want to now.

I'm just mixing up more color here.

I am running out.

So I'm just mixing more, and because it's rocks and a cliff, you don't have to get the same color all the time.

Maybe something like that.

I'm going to wipe this off, and I'm going to take white, more white, into my dirty brush, which still has a little bit of that color in it.

And I'm just going to lay a little bit of highlight on here.

Doesn't feel like it wants to stick, so I'm going to put a little bit of base coat with it.

That will make it bond a little easier.

There we go.

Or you could add couple drops of paint thinner, do the same thing.

I just want light and shadow on these so they have shapes.

I can pull one cliff in front of the other.

All right, just so I got lighten and dark in there.

I'm going to switch this out.

I'm going to take a darker color and I'm going to put in some rocks down here in the water.

If I take burnt Sienna, and maybe black this time just to darken it down.

I can have a few little rocks sticking up out of the water.

I'll bury them in with a little bit of foam.

See, this foreground was pretty light.

So this dark accent really helps.

Gives us more contrast.

I'll wipe this off.

Same idea as the background, if I add white to this, gives me a little bit of a highlight on the tops of the rocks here and there.

Don't loose all of your dark.

If I take my fan brush and make sure it's clean, I'll wash it out.

I'm going to take a little bit of white on the ends of the bristles, and I'm gonna put a little bit of foam boiling around the base of rocks.

And you can have some foam just kind of here and there in through here once in awhile, just to make it look like it's got a lot of turbulence and action.

And if I take my number two liner brush, I'm going to put some birds on the wing back here.

Anything that's kind of closely related to your sky color will work.

If I take some of that purpley gray foam shadow and put a little more blue with it, just dark enough to show up against your sky.

May have to go a tad darker than that.

Maybe just a speck of black into it as well.

Don't get them too dark.

Dark always looks closer.

We want these look distant, so you don't want them too much darker than your sky.

I'm going to get my little steady stick out here.

And I've thinned the paint down and rolled it to a point.

And we got some birds way off on the wing back here.

If you listen close, you can hear him.

(squeaks) I heard him.

Did you hear 'em.

Yeah.

I don't know if that was a boy or a gull bird but it was, (laughs) it was a bird, definitely.

Now notice I make them different sizes.

All it is is a letter V that's kind of flattened out.

If you make them different sizes, see this one's bigger than this one.

You can tell that one's farther away.

It gives you different depth so I can get depth in my canvas just by something as simple as that.

Well, the clock on the wall tells me it's time to go.

And that's about a wrap for this lesson, but I hope you enjoyed it.

(gentle music) I really hope it helps you with your seascapes and your crashing waves.

Until next time, stay creative and keep painting.

- [Announcer] Support for Painting with Wilson Bickford is provided by the J.M.

McDonald Foundation, continuing the example modeled by J.M.

MacDonald by contributing to education, health, humanities and human services.

Sharing since 1952.

Online jmcdonaldfoundation.org.

(gentle music) In rural New York state bordered by the St. Lawrence River in the Adirondack Mountains is a sprawling landscape with communities that offer self-guided tours for the creatively inclined.

Learn the stories behind the barn quilt traditions, family, agriculture nature, and beauty.

St.Lawrence County, life undiscovered.

- [Announcer] All 13 episodes of painting with Wilson Bickford season seven are now available on DVD or Blu-ray in one box set for $30 plus 4.95 shipping and handling.

Or learn the techniques used to paint Sunset Lake with the in-depth Paint Smart, Not Hard series of Wilson Bickford instructional DVDs.

Includes the bonus episode "Don't Be So Koi".

Additional titles available.

Order online, or watch or download directly to your computer or mobile device.

More information at wpbstv.org/painting.

(upbeat music)