- It's getting late and the sun is setting on another beautiful day.

This fellow's coming out to try his luck.

Whether it's fish or frog, it's all good to him.

Join me next, on "Painting With Wilson Bickford" as we paint the evening egret.

(gentle music) Hi, thanks for joining me today.

I'm Wilson Bickford and I have a nice little project called evening egret that I'm gonna share with you today.

This is kind of a tropical egret, down south, sort of the scene.

We've been to Florida a few times, the Bahamas, and around and seen a lotta these beautiful birds.

I like to paint birds, in general anyway, so I figure this would be a good one to share with some of your southern viewers.

This one's gonna start out with a drawing and I masked the bird out.

I'll show you how we got to that point.

If you go to the WPBS-TV website, you will be able to download a supply list that runs down all the brushes, and oil paints and whatnot, that we're using today.

There is also a sketch there, if you choose to use it.

You might have a reference photo of your own or wanna use your own drawing, whatever.

Typically, you would take the sketch, I would put it on your canvas like this, put a little piece of tape to hold it like a hinge.

Lift it up, you can slide your graphite transfer paper underneath it, like this.

(paper rustling) And then I like to use a red pen, any pen would work, but a red pen will show up, you'll see your lines, the black lines with the red ink so you can track your progress, we're you've been.

I actually just traced the bird on there.

That came from an original drawing that I had done of the bird.

And then I applied tape, just regular tape from the masking, or masking store...

Regular masking tape from the hardware store.

I'll get it right here, in a minute.

And I just put a couple layers on there.

Overlap it just enough so you don't get any bleed between it.

I took a craft knife with a number 11 blade and I carefully just trimmed away everything that wasn't the bird.

The bird is completely blocked out and protected so I can freely paint my background over the top, which makes life simple.

"Paint Smart, Not Hard," that's my motto; do it the easy way.

And I have also used some of that wide tape to tape off this border.

You're gonna have a nice white wide border that looks like a matte, when you're all said and done.

It allows us to pull some of the grasses out, you get a nice 3D effect.

And that's the name of that tune.

That was pretty easy, right?

That's pretty easy to understand, you guys can do that.

For brushes today, I'm gonna be using a two-inch scenery brush, a number three fan brush, a number six round brush, a number two detailed scriptliner, a number two long scriptliner, a small painting knife, a one-and-a-half-inch small texture brush and a two liner I have on the list, as an option, I may or may not use it.

For oil colors today, we're using red rose deep, cadmium yellow pale, ultramarine blue, dioxazine purple, ivory black and titanium white.

I'm also using some white oil basecoat here that I'm gonna use in the background to wet that down, and make it nice, and soft and blendable so I can get my soft edges in my sky, where I want them.

Okay, let's get into this.

I'm actually gonna take a piece of tape and tape off some of this section here.

I wouldn't have to, I could paint around it.

I just don't wanna put basecoat down here, I want that area to stay dark.

So I'm gonna take some of this tape.

(tape ripping) I am the king of tape.

Tape makes my life easy, so I tend to use it quite a bit.

I just wanna keep that area primarily free of the basecoat, so this'll help me accomplish that.

Maybe something like that.

(finger scratching) All right.

'Cause I want that area to stay dark later on so it makes no sense to basecoat down there and just try to keep it dark later.

It's defeating the purpose.

So I'm gonna take this large two-inch brush, my scenery brush, and I'm gonna put a thin coat of that over the whole canvas.

As you know, this makes it blendable so I can get nice, soft edges in that sky and in the water, where I want them.

(brush scratching) Scrub it in nice and thinly.

Okay, from there, I'm gonna take my fan brush with a little bit of white and a little bit of this red rose deep.

I just wanna be able to mark out my canvas, stake out my claim, so to speak.

I wanna find this line where the trees and the water meet, where the shoreline would be.

It's gonna be right about here, somewhere, give or take.

Everything above that line, will be trees and sky, everything below it, will be water and reflections.

So once I know where that is, I'm gonna take my scenery brush again, with the white that's in it, add a little bit more of the red rose deep.

Now these are the exact same colors I used, I'm not gonna try to match that one.

I'm gonna probably do it differently, just to show you.

I could match that closer, if I chose to, if I really buckle-down, but that kinda defeats the purpose of showing you how you can customize it and make it your own.

So I'm actually gonna start out with a little more red here which should be a little deeper, like that.

See, that's a little darker tone than this one.

It's all good, I'm doing that intentionally, just to show you.

If I hadn't used as much red, it would've stayed lighter.

I'm gonna go a little more vivid here, the sky.

Live it up and have some fun with it.

(brush scratching) I'm gonna feather this up, go right over onto your border tape, nice and crisp.

I'm gonna kinda fade this out, like this.

I'm gonna take more of that same color and do the same thing in the water.

And see, I still know where my division is, where my line is, I don't have to close that completely because my trees, and my reflection of the trees, will do that for me, later.

But the reason I paint it all, is because of color.

I love color.

Don't be afraid to throw some on your canvas.

Life is too short for dull colors.

Live it up a little bit.

Okay, maybe something like that.

I'm gonna wipe the brush off and I'm gonna take some of that dioxazine purple.

The dioxazine purple is very strong so I probably won't need too much of it, but that's your own personal taste.

I'm gonna put a little bit of that white basecoat just to lighten it back a little bit.

And see, it's blending in with the red that's on the brush so it's giving me kind of a reddish-purple.

I could actually put ultramarine blue with that if I chose to and make it more of a blueish-purple.

It's a secondary color so it can mean reddish or blueish.

And see, I'm just gonna loosely fluff in a darker tone up here near the top of the sky.

Whatever goes in that sky, has to go in the water.

Let's see, I'm just going to kind of smudge that around a little bit, work it out, take the brush marks out.

Same color's gonna go down here in the water.

I'm just about of it, so I'm gonna mix up just a hair more.

It's a pretty easy color to hit.

I just added white and purple to my brush, my red brush, so it's not too hard of a color to match.

Long as I'm in the ballpark, it'll be close enough.

Okay, just kinda smoosh those in outta focus.

This is actually gonna be background so I'm gonna put these darker accents over the top.

So if it seems like I'm not overly concerned with that step it's because I'm not.

I don't sweat the small details.

I know there's more to come.

Okay, from there, I'm gonna just set that brush to the side and I'm gonna take my fan brush again, remember I had that little bit of pink on it, that's fine.

I'm just gonna wipe it off.

And on this puddle of purple, I'm gonna take a little more purple, maybe a little blue.

This one, I didn't use much blue in it.

I'm gonna add a little blue to mine, today, I feel like I want some blue in my purple.

It's like an ice cream sundae, do you want sprinkles on that?

Well, some days I do, some days I don't.

I paint the way my mood dictates, but I do wanna go darker.

So see, I'm gonna take, so darker and I did put a little bit of blue in this one where this one doesn't have it.

I'm ad-libbing here.

I made it a little darker and it's more of a blueish-purple.

I am thinking more of cloud shapes and stuff now, I'm just gonna randomly dust in a few little darker accents here and there.

If you didn't like the blue in it, just use more purple, you'll end up with something more like that.

Color preference is something totally personal to everybody.

Everybody's different in what colors they like, how strong they like 'em.

Myself, blue is my favorite color.

I have a hard time dealing with green, I'm not a green guy.

You know, I paint landscapes so you gotta have some green but green is not my favorite color, that's for sure.

Now if I put that up there, remember I told ya', if it's in the sky it's gotta be in the water so I'm randomly just gonna kind of suggest this reflected in the water, as well, here and there.

I'm staying out of this area because I wanna put my yellow and my sunspot in there, so I'm not gonna put any of that dark in there.

I'm trying to avoid that area, for the most part.

I'm going to swish this brush out, I have odorless mineral spirits here, in my pail, also known as paint thinner.

(paper crunching) I'm gonna dry that off.

And if I come back with a light touch, I'm just gonna do little circles like this, lightly, with the tips of the bristles, you can see that I can really soften these harsh brush marks, and the graininess, out.

That white basecoat mixed in there is what makes that possible, it's makes it wet, so it's a little easier to blend.

And I wanna leave some of the rough edges in that a little bit, 'cause they look like cloud movements.

So I don't wanna blend it completely.

And see, it's very easy to get a nice convincing sky like that, looks pretty good.

Same thing down here and notice I'm wiping the brush off in-between, as I go.

This one's gonna be a two-part project.

I didn't wanna rush through this and go too fast for everybody, so I wanted to devote two episodes to it, so we can slow down and take our time with it.

It's more of a lesson that way.

You guys are tuning in to learn, so I want you to learn.

I'm gonna learn you something.

Did you hear about the artist who always took things a little bit too far?

He didn't know where to draw the line.

True story (chuckles).

True story, guys.

Okay, that's looking pretty good for that.

All right, I'm gonna take my fan brush again, I'm gonna wash this out.

I'm gonna mix up a yellowish tone.

I'm gonna use titanium white with cadmium yellow pale.

Notice there's kind of a lighter glow around the sun.

It's almost suggestive of cloud shapes, little movements, fragments in the air.

It's gonna mix in with your red, so it's gonna kinda turn orangy a little bit, that's fine.

If it gets too dark, I will brighten it up by adding more white and yellow to it.

See, I'm just doing little haphazard movements with the corner of the brush; irregular shapes.

If you know me at all, you know that I love to paint birds.

I've wanted to paint birds, forever.

I can remember when I was in second and third grade, the teacher would send us down to the library, and we could pick out books and I always brought home the John James Audubon books with all the illustrations of the birds in 'em.

I was fascinated with 'em.

I would look at those in amazement.

I'd say, "My goodness, somebody actually painted those.

"They look just like photos, almost.

"How do they do that?"

So I always had that interest in it and I should've even known, way back then, that the path my life was going to take.

I can remember that so clearly.

The other kids were taking out the kids books and I was dragging home these Audubon books.

(paper crunching) But I had the interest in it, even way back then.

Okay, see, I'm putting a corresponding glow there.

I'm gonna wipe the brush off and just lightly kinda tickle that.

I wanna leave some of the integrity of the texture in it, so I'm not gonna blend it completely.

I'm just using a light touch with the tips of the bristles, where before, I was using a heavier hand, now I'm using a lighter touch.

And having said that, about the birds, I just have some random samples here.

These are a couple that I've done in classes and whatnot.

I love to do hummingbirds.

This is a rose-breasted grosbeak.

It's all good, there's not a bird I haven't painted at one time or another.

And on a similar theme on what we're doing today, this is a painting I actually just did a couple of weeks ago.

This is a 12 by 16 size.

Very similar idea to what we're doing today, more of a silhouette, more dramatic.

I got the heron out there and I got his reflection in the water.

I just had more time to elaborate.

You know, when I show you guys these projects on TV, I literally have 25 minutes each episode so even if I break this one today, down into two episodes, I have 50 minutes of working time, and that's about it.

So I can't show you everything but I try to.

I try to show you as much as I can.

But if you have time at home to slow down, take your time, it's the same idea, same stuff as what I'm showing you today.

This one, obviously, took more time and I had to slow down a little bit and get the details in it.

But I did it all wet and wet, in one sitting and I was done with it.

So it wasn't like I had to let it dry for a long time in-between.

Although, just be aware that you can, if you wanna let it dry and then really tighten up the detail, that's always a good way to go.

(uplifting music) This is a variation on a theme.

This is from an actual reference photo that I took when Glenda and I went to Florida.

And I saw these two egrets standing on a shore like this and I actually took the photo.

The photo actually, pretty much, looked identical to this as far as the pose of the two birds.

So, you can always put more than one bird in your painting.

This one, I've got some ferns and a lot of foliage in there.

So a totally different scene than what we're doing today but do a variation on it and see what you think.

Okay, I'm gonna take a paper towel and right where I want that sun to be, I'm gonna take my finger and right in this area, notice my sun's roughly about a third of the way in on the canvas.

Don't put it right dead-center in the middle, like a bull's-eye and you wouldn't want it hugging the edge way out here.

It's gonna go in that glow area.

There's nothing on my rag.

A lot of people make the mistake of thinking I'm taking white paint, putting it on with my rag.

There's nothing on this rag, it's completely dry.

No thinner, no paint, no nothing.

And see, I'm just gonna do that and rock my finger back and forth, it cleans out a spot.

It looks good already, but we are going to paint it in.

In the glow area down below, I'm gonna fold the rag up several times like this and get a nice thick, closed cushiony corner, right here.

And in the corresponding area right below, I'm gonna wipe out a swath of paint there.

And again, we're gonna fill that in too and put some reflection in that.

And see already, see how that already says sun and reflection?

With my detailed scriptliner, I'm gonna take a little bit of this white basecoat and a little touch o' yellow, I'm thinking the sun, so I want a little bit o' yellow in it.

I go too yellow, it's gonna compete with that yellowy-orange I've already got, it's gonna be too dark.

So use as much white as you need to to make it really stand out.

Don't go too yellow with it.

So I want it kinda bright, like the sun's coming through the atmosphere right there.

Notice I'm steadying one hand on another, this is touchy stuff.

I'm trying to steady myself as much as I can.

I also have a, if you remember this, from previous shows, this is the best 69 cents you'll ever spend.

This is just a 69 cent dowel from the hardware store.

I even have a string on here, I hang it beside my easel over here, sometimes.

This is pretty handy too, you can always take something like this.

And notice I'm not touching the canvas, I'm bridging on the clamps of my easel.

That will be your best friend, right there.

Get that circle as round as you can get it, obviously.

It's the sun, so we want it perfectly round.

I'm gonna wipe the brush off.

I went out of the circle a little bit so if I just wipe the brush off, I can pull some of this wet background color around it to shave it back into shape, just like that.

I got a little broken brush bristle right there that's probably showing up really good on the tight shot so I'll take that off there.

But get that as round as it needs to be.

You'll have time to tinker with it at home.

Okay, here comes the cool part.

I'm gonna put some shine on that water.

I'm rinsing out my fan brush because I wanna be able to blend with it.

And if I take my painting knife, I want something really close to what I just used which was white and yellow.

Where this was the thin white, this was the basecoat, I'm using the thicker paint now.

This is titanium white, a little bit o' yellow, trying to have something to match my sun color, that really weak yellow that I just used.

And I'm gonna really take a fair amount of this and I'm gonna gob it right on here.

Notice how I'm gonna pick it up like that, right on my blade.

Right in this little channel that I wiped out, I'm gonna lay this right in here.

I'm putting it on pretty thick and heavy.

If I don't use that much, I don't have enough to work with, it won't give me the effect that I want.

And then if I take my clean fan brush, I just washed it out.

You'll want a rag in your hand to wipe this off as you proceed.

I'm gonna hold the brush vertically this way and I'm just gonna drag back and forth through here.

Watch how this puts a nice little shimmer and a glint of light on the water surface.

Stretch it out to infinity, on the left and right, so it just kind of sits in there.

So you can go over it more than once but don't do it too much.

See, I'm relying on the fact, you're gonna have those striations and that grain in it, of the brush stroke.

That's what makes it look like it's sitting horizontal and flat on the water.

That's pretty cool, isn't it?

Works well.

You've never tried that technique, give it as shot, works really well.

Okay, I'm gonna come back and mix up a green for the foliage back there.

I'm gonna start out with kind of yellow-green.

We're mixing a secondary color from two primaries, blue and yellow, so it can lean yellowy-green or it can lean blueish-green.

I want a yellowy-green first.

So I'm thinking trees with sunlight hitting 'em.

I'm gonna use my fan brush.

(brush tapping) Notice I'm tapping quite a bit of paint on the brush.

And right in this vicinity, under the sun, I want it a little lighter, like the sun is actually hitting it and making it look yellowy, yellow-green.

Just think of foliage with a highlight on it.

That might be a little too light so I'll dredge a little bit of the other color back in there, darken it, just a tad.

As long as this area, by the sun, is the lightest portion, I'll be good to go.

Before I wash that color off the brush, I'm gonna put some of it here, in the reflection.

I'm just going straight down.

I wanna get darker and darker as it goes to the edges.

So with that in mind, I'm gonna take more blue, little more yellow, but I'm leaning on a blue, more so now, this time.

And the complementary color to this green, is red.

It will dull it and darken it.

If you're familiar with the color wheel, complementary colors, I wanna go darker so if I put a little red with the green.

And see that nice dark green is gonna bring that bird out later.

So I'm just gonna continue, and I'm just making up this land.

I'm just thinking hills and some sort of a contour.

Doesn't take much.

Gonna do the same thing on this side.

I'm mingling it into that previous color so it's kind of a seamless transition, see, if I work this in-between the two.

And before I get rid of that color and change it, I'm gonna use it in the water.

And see how I can paint right over and through that bird and I don't have to worry about him?

I've blocked him out, that was the whole purpose.

I wanna go just a little bit darker on the outermost edges so into that green, I'm gonna add a little bit of purple, believe it or not.

Won't take much.

That will darken that green down more, like this.

This one, I can tell, has a little more blue in it.

I was in my blue mode that day, blue would do it too.

And I'm just going to blend that, like that, a little bit on this side.

I only got a couple minutes left here, but this is kinda right where I wanted to be for today, as far as how far we got into this painting.

So we're gonna be in good shape for next time.

I'm gonna wipe this brush off and I'm lightly just gonna blend that reflection a little more and just kind of blur it out of focus.

My brush inadvertently just hit here a second ago and made that smudge.

You see that?

Yeah, I know, somebody in Boise, Idaho saw that, didn't ya?

I know you did.

You're saying, "Uh oh, he made a mistake."

Well, I did.

It's easily fixable.

I'm gonna clean my fan brush off and I should be able to drag that right out.

Easy, easy!

(paper crunching) Okay, I'm gonna use my painting knife, I'm gonna start cutting in some water ripples here, until the next episode.

Next week, we will finish this up, we'll take the tape off the bird, and we'll start developing him and add the foreground.

And we should have time, probably, to add a few tweaks here and there.

I'm gonna take some of this whitish-yellow that I had from before, load it on my knife like this to get a very thin little sliver right on the edge of the blade.

You'll notice I got a few little sparkles and shimmers in here.

And I'll add these and finish this up, until next time.

When we come back, we'll start in with the bird.

So you can go ahead and put your sparkles on.

Until next time, stay creative and keep painting.

- [Narrator] All 13 episodes of "Painting with Wilson Bickford", series six, are now available on DVD or Blu-ray in one box set for $35 plus 4.95 shipping and handling, or learn the techniques used to paint "Stand of Birches" with the in-depth "Paint Smart, Not Hard" series of Wilson Bickford instructional DVDs.

Additional titles available.

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

More information at WPBSTV.org/painting.

(gentle music)