- It's a beautiful autumn day, so let's take a stroll through the meadow, down to the pond.

We'll have to pass through the north pasture gate on the way.

But join me next on Painting with Wilson Bickford, and I'll show you how you can paint this scene.

(peaceful music) Thanks for tuning in today.

I'm Wilson Bickford and I have a fantastic little country scene that I want to share with you today.

This one's called The North Pasture Gate.

You know where I live in Northern New York, there's a lot of old farms still around, old silos, old tractors, a lot of stuff for a painter like me that I really like to and enjoy to paint.

Good reference material.

These are some random photos that I've taken recently.

Now a lot of these old gates that used to be in existence, have long since decayed because they were wooden.

The ones nowadays are more metal.

People always ask where I get my inspiration, and my ideas for my paintings.

I always have a camera with me when I go out in my travels.

I stop and I take a lot of pictures.

These are just some random ones of the rural area around my neck of the woods.

And like I said, a lot of these are metal.

You got old remnants of wooden ones in here.

But I always keep a camera handy.

And this is where I get my ideas.

Here's an old wooden one that I really liked.

Still in use.

It's old and tired, but they're still using it.

So this is where I get some of my ideas.

So, take your camera with you, get some ideas, anything that catches your eye might eventually be a painting.

So to show you how I did this, this is gonna be a two part lesson, 'cause there's quite a bit of detail in it, and I don't want to have to rush through it for ya.

It's a lesson, I want you to learn from it.

If you go to the WPBS TV website, you'll be able to download a supply list that tells you all the paints that we're using today, and the brushes and other tools.

There's a sketch on here of this gate.

Basically I just take the sketch, and I position it accordingly on my canvas.

I usually put a little piece of tape up here to act like a hinge to hold it.

This sheet wouldn't be on there underneath, obviously, you want to use just a single sheet.

But I put a piece of tape there to hold it like a hinge.

I lift it up and I slide graphite transfer paper underneath it.

And I trace the design with a red pen because the red ink shows up very well on the dark lines, so you know where you've already been.

And I trace that image on.

This was painted first with black acrylic, as was the gate.

Now it's not on your supply list, you could use a foam brush like this.

And just use the corners to kind of approximate the shapes of the trees underneath, and the meadow down here.

Your number 10 flat brush would do the same thing.

Don't try to paint trees, you're just gonna scrub on a basic shape and an outline.

We're gonna embellish that later with our brush to get the leafy texture on it.

This was all painted in with black acrylic, as was the gate.

Then, I took the tape and I covered the gate.

I carefully trimmed away everything, all the negative spaces.

Everything that wasn't the gate.

So the gate itself is protected.

That way I can freely come in, and just paint right through it, and over it, and I have to try to paint around it, which would be nearly impossible.

So today, as far as paints on my palette, I have burnt sienna, yellow ochre, cerulean blue, ultramarine blue, cadmium red light, cadmium yellow pale, ivory black, and titanium white.

That's a lot of colors on my palette for me, usually I don't use nearly that many.

But I want to put a lot of nice fall colors in this scene.

This is some white oil base coat that I got that I'm gonna use for the sky in the background to get the softness.

And this is some clear glazing medium that eventually I'll use in part two on the gate to wet that down so it's not just dry canvas, and I can blend my colors on top of that gate.

So, without further ado, here we go.

I'm gonna take my two inch scenery brush, and some of this white base coat.

Make sure your tape is pressed down firmly around your gate.

You might get a little bleed underneath there, depending on the quality of your tape and how aggressively you brush, and a lot of different factors.

But if we do get a little bleed underneath the tape, eventually we could clean that up, it's no biggie.

Do I look scared?

I'm not scared.

We can fix it.

So I'm just gonna kinda steer around the black areas a little bit.

And I'm gonna scrub this in very, very thinly.

I'm gonna drop in my sky and background trees.

The white base coat.

Now see, you'll have to infringe on this black a little bit, it won't hurt anything.

Just get right up to it, and go over it a little bit if need be.

We're gonna pull leaves out over the top of that anyway.

You'll notice the sky has a lighter value down here.

I'm gonna use cerulean blue, that's a good distance color.

Because of the perspective, that's a little too dark, so I'm gonna add a little more white back into that.

Work it in evenly, no chunks or streaks on your brush.

I'm gonna go right through the gate.

My background trees will take some of this area out.

But, as of right now, I'm not exactly sure where I'm gonna place those.

So I'll go a little lower than I need to just to be safe.

So that area's covered.

I'm glad you're tuning in for this, this is a fun one to do.

I was born and raised in the country, and I still live there.

And I love rural scenes like this.

So see that's gonna be very pale blue down in here.

I'm gonna come in from the top with a darker blue, which is the ultramarine.

And I can mix it right on top of this little spot that I had for the cerulean, just to save room for my palette.

'Cause I've gotta use up a lot of real estate on this palette today mixing a lot of colors.

I'm trying to save myself some space.

And I'll take ultramarine blue, which is darker.

Work it in evenly.

Notice this one's kind of variegated, and I got some openness in it.

It's not just solid blue.

So to achieve that, I kinda do it this way.

Rub, scrub, twist, turn, roll the brush.

It's gonna look like a train wreck here right now.

But, I'm gonna soften it out.

All will be well.

Now see how awful that looks?

I wouldn't leave you hanging with that, I promise.

If I take the brush, I don't need to wash it.

If I take the brush and wipe it off, I find that the best way to do this, a lot of different artists do it different ways.

But for me personally, I find the best way to do it is to lay the brush down flush, and do a little circle or oval stroke like this.

And watch all that coarseness, and graininess, and harshness just disappear.

I'm not trying to lose all those lighter negative spots in there.

I want to leave those in there.

It looks like you got open holes in the sky, and some depth and distance in that sky.

If you just paint it solid blue, it's gonna look flat just like a wall.

That's what I don't want.

See it doesn't take much to get a convincing sky.

Painting doesn't have to be rocket science.

Everybody's always worried about how difficult painting is.

Painting doesn't have to be difficult, we make it difficult on ourselves trying to be too perfect with everything.

And just like that, we have our sky.

(happy music) If we do want more detail and definition in your clouds, it's a very simple process.

Use a fan brush with some titanium white, you might want to thin it down with just a tad of that white base coat.

And I can build off these light shapes.

Now this makes a nice sky on its own.

But that's not to say that we can't embellish it and put some nice bigger billowy, fluffy clouds in here.

It's all personal taste and preference.

Get a nice billowy shape on the top, and then fade the bottom away.

Just that simple.

But do it the way that you want, and how you see it in your mind's eye.

Okay now we're gonna start working on these distant background trees.

Notice that they're very vague, and almost blurry.

I wanted them out of focus like they're far away.

Soft edges recede, hard edges will come forward.

So these are gonna be very defined, and very hard edged, and a lot of detail and definition, and we want these very vague in the background through that gate.

I'm gonna use my fan brush with titanium white.

Some burnt sienna, I'm thinking fall colors here.

Burnt sienna, a little bit of that cadmium red light.

Get a color that you like.

It's not so much the color that's the important factor, it's the value, how light or dark it is.

I don't really want a lot of paint on the brush, so you'll see I mix it in, then I tap some of it right off the brush.

You can even go so far as to wipe some of it off, if need be.

But I want some of these above the gate, and some through the gate.

And I'm gonna leave some sky space, some negative space in between there, which really opens it up.

So I'm just gonna kinda pace this out in my mind's eye.

And you'll see I'm just taking the corner of the brush, and I'm just stirring little circles, and I'm moving around as I'm doing it.

Really not much to it, guys.

Everybody wants to think leaves and perfection here.

That's the last thing you want right here for this stage.

And we'll bring it right through this little opening here.

And paying attention to the negative areas, those are very important.

You'll notice this one's got other colors in it.

I need to put some deeper shadows in it.

And I will do that.

I'll come back and soften all this too before I'm done with it.

All right now it looks very stiff.

It won't.

At the base of that, I'm gonna take a little more sienna, and a speck of ivory black.

This is gonna be a much darker, richer brown.

I can bleed it right into some of that previous color if it's too dark.

Again, not a whole lot of paint.

And across the bottom here, I want a darker, deeper shadow effect in there.

And I just bring this up and incorporate it into the other.

And I fluff them very lightly with the brush together so that it's a kind of a gradual transition, gradual change.

It might not hurt to go just a whisper darker than that even.

So I'll take a touch more sienna, touch more black.

I want some shadows.

There we go, now we're cooking.

That looks better.

But I want to incorporate that into that so it's just a gradual change from lighter at the top, to the trees falling into shadow at the base, down where all the shrubs, and bushes, and shadows are.

Okay.

That's looking pretty good.

For what I need, I'm gonna wash the brush out.

Remember I said I was gonna soften it?

Well I only said that because I meant it.

I would not lead you astray.

I'm gonna wash this out, and really dry it off.

And if I use, instead of using the corner like I was, I'm gonna use the full end of the brush.

Now there's a billion little brush points there, a lot of surface area.

And if I just lightly tickle the perimeter of that, and soften it against the sky, it blends them out just enough to where they look very vague and distant, and not a lot of detail.

Just enough to push 'em back.

We want these to look like they're in the distance.

All right.

That was pretty easy, wasn't it?

You can do this, I know you can.

Painting doesn't have to be hard, like I said, just don't be too hard on yourself.

Everybody gets really nervous and thinks that their work is no good.

Everybody's a self-doubter.

Be confident in yourself, you can do it.

I wasn't born with a brush in my hand, either.

So, I had to learn it, it came through practice, and trial and error.

But if you put the time in, you can get there.

Okay I need to start thinking about this distant meadow way back in here, at least down to here before I can start these trees.

So I'm gonna take yellow ochre on my fan brush, a little bit of white.

I washed that fan brush out.

Dried it off.

I'm gonna start with more of a light golden color like this way back through that meadow.

Maybe I'll go a little bit lighter, just for giggles let's do this.

I'm gonna add some cadmium yellow to that.

I don't think I did on this one.

I'm not sure.

I wasn't taking notes on that when I did it.

I just wrote down the colors, and then I kind of wing it.

Nothing is scripted here, it's just off the cuff.

But I want to go lighter in through there so it looks like that distant meadow going way back into the distance like that.

All right.

Beautiful.

And I'm gonna start developing these trees, before I do, I want to make sure I bring some of this meadow color down just enough.

So as I come through that gate, I'm gonna add a little more yellow ochre.

Get a little darker.

Like this kind of goldenrod color.

I can always come back and add more highlights in here too.

I'm gonna go a little darker like this.

And see this section of the canvas is dry.

I didn't really wet it down with any medium.

I don't really need to.

If I felt better about it, I could add a little bit of clear medium down here on this black, but I really don't need it.

Most of it's gonna be covered up, and there's not gonna be a lot of blending on it.

So I don't really feel it needs it.

Okay I'm gonna start working on these trees.

I'm gonna use my one inch scenery brush.

This one's cut at an angle, and if I get it loaded right, it's really dandy for making these leafy textures like this.

So I'm gonna start with a fairly dark, dark color.

And where I've lost this edge with the black acrylic, I'm just gonna bring that out again, and define it with a leaf edge.

So I'm pretty much done with these colors for right now, as far as I know.

So I'm gonna mix right on that puddle.

Again, I've gotta use a lot of space on this palette for all these colors in this painting.

There's a lot happening.

So I'm just trying to save room on my palette where need be.

If I run out, I can scrape off a clean spot, start over.

But this is just a paper palette, I could use a new sheet.

But I paint smart, not hard.

If I can save myself some room here, and keep plugging away, that's how I do it.

So I'm gonna take burnt sienna.

Little bit of black.

Go careful with that black, it's very strong.

And I want it to be dark enough where it's not gonna be a jarring change from this black that I've already got.

Notice how I'm really loading that brush up.

See how much paint I got on there, and I really spread the bristles out.

And if I come up and I use a light touch like this, it'll give you that nice loose leafy texture all day long.

This is gonna take a fair amount of paint.

So you'll see that every now and then, I have to actually stop and mix up more paint.

I mix it right on the fly.

But that's okay.

Doesn't have to be the same exact color, as long as it's in the ballpark.

Like I said before, it's not the color that's the important part, it's the value.

See how I'm bringing back that definition of the edge?

Just about out of paint, so I'm gonna mix a little more.

Just burnt sienna, a little black.

I'm gonna hem this in tighter to this post a little bit down here.

You'll see I'm letting some of that black show through a little bit.

But, mostly I'm covering a lot of it.

Let some of it read through as your shadows.

This'll look a whole lot different, and have a lot more depth when we put the highlights on it.

I'm just gonna bring it down to this level, 'cause my meadow's gonna go right across to the front of there.

I've already got that kind of established.

I had that already figured out.

All right.

Looking pretty good, don't you think?

Hey you there in St. Paul, Minnesota, what do you think?

Yeah, thanks, I thought I was doing okay too.

Thanks for watching.

Okay I'm gonna take some more of that mixture, I'm gonna start working on this side.

I can see the gesso outline that I had there, the black acrylic gesso outline.

I'm gonna make sure that gets covered in just a little bit.

Well see this brush will do the work for you if you get it loaded right.

Most people don't use enough paint.

And, they don't get the bristles opened enough.

This brush will do the work for you if you let it.

I'm just trying to get an interesting shape here.

I'm not trying to match this one at all.

This one's much higher, and I'm aware of that.

Maybe today I'm gonna leave this side a little shorter.

Every day you paint, you're gonna paint what you feel right then.

Right now I'm just thinking that looks pretty good to have that a little shorter right there.

Doesn't really matter.

It's very arbitrary.

I could have a tall tree or short tree there.

It's all good.

Do it however you like it.

All right, that's looking pretty good.

Into that, I'm gonna take my long script liner.

You'll notice there are some indications, they don't show up really well.

But there are some indications of some tree trunks in there.

If I take some of this white base coat, I can probably go right into this color I just used 'cause it's very brownish.

You will have to thin this down with some paint thinner.

So I'm using Odorless Mineral Spirits over here.

I'm rolling the brush to points quite thin.

And just randomly, I'm gonna put in a few indications of tree trunks and limbs.

Something's gotta be holding up all these leaves.

Most of this will get buried in, and you won't see it anyway.

But you will see some of the trunks showing through a little bit here and there.

Kinda gives it that skeleton in there that it needs.

See, and that even gives it another layer of depth.

Notice the leafy stuff I put in first looks like it sits behind this now.

I'm layering it, it gives it more depth.

And then when we put the highlights on top, that really sets it off.

Okay, speaking of highlights.

It's that time.

I'm gonna go back to this one inch scenery brush.

I got a lot of dark on there.

I really don't need to wash it.

Everybody gets fanatical about washing their brush.

I don't do a lot of brush washing, I usually don't need to.

If I just wipe it off, I can get it plenty well wiped off enough, and sufficiently that I can keep going with it.

So I'm gonna take some titanium white.

Some of this cadmium red light.

I'm making a fall color.

I'm thinking fall leaves.

I live in Northern New York, so I get to see a lot of the fall leaf color.

I'm a lucky guy.

So I'm gonna use a color, maybe something like this.

Notice how much paint I've got on there.

When I'm lifting the brush back up, I'm almost getting a little stalactites, or stalagmites, whichever the ones that go vertical.

Almost like, they say when you make lemon meringue, you have to lift it and see the peaks.

I'm almost getting little peaks.

Brush is really loaded.

When it's really loaded like that, make sure you use a light touch.

Let's see I just kind of using the top corner of that brush, is what's doing all the damage.

That's why it's cut on a bevel like that.

It opens the end up.

Let's see it doesn't take much.

Turn your brush.

You'll notice this one's got a layer in it.

I let it dissolve back to dark, and then I put a brighter color in.

So in here I just let it slowly melt back to dark.

I use less pressure, less paint.

And the dark that I've got on the palette already kinda overtakes it.

And see if I come in with stronger, I can put another little shrub or bush down here in front.

It gives you that layer, and that extra depth.

All you're looking for when you're painting is getting depth on a flat surface where you really don't have any.

This is a flat canvas panel.

We're trying to show depth on here where we really don't have any.

I'm kinda running out of that color, so I'm gonna mix up a little more.

I'm gonna skip over to the other side here.

Hoping I don't get my shoulder in the way for you.

But I gotta kinda lean across here a little bit.

See you'll want that looseness against the sky so it looks like the wind could blow through and rustle those leaves.

Don't make is solid.

Notice every time I touch my brush, I'm in a different spot.

And I'm rotating the brush different angles.

I don't get the same lie, same footprint on the brush.

Same thing here, I'll let that kind of melt back to dark.

I'll come in here a little later across the front.

And I can also re-highlight here, which I probably do here in just a second.

You see how we build that up?

Okay I'm gonna take this brush, and I'm gonna wipe it off.

I'm gonna go a little lighter and brighter.

See how distant that looks in the background?

Those trees are washed out, it looks like they're several hundred yards away, that was the whole point.

Okay I'm gonna go in with more white.

This time I'm gonna use some of the cadmium yellow pale, this is the brighter yellow, into some of that cad red light with white.

Again, get enough paint on that brush.

Don't be stingy.

I'm gonna try that.

I don't know without putting it on my canvas if it's a whole lot lighter or brighter or not.

Not really.

That's not a mistake, it's an adjustment.

It's like making soup.

You have to dip the ladle in and taste it every so often to see what it needs.

Okay that's a little brighter.

There we go.

So see I'm gonna add a little extra brightness here and there.

Watch how this one pops out, look at that.

See how it just brought that forward?

All right.

I hope you're gonna give this lesson a shot.

I love painting old gates and old farm scenes like this.

So I'm very happy to be able to share this with you.

So I just brought that one forward.

It's all in just using a lighter value, and working in layers.

So next time, we'll start working on this gate.

We'll bring the meadow forward, we'll add some more details in this.

And we'll jazz this up and see how we end up.

Thanks for watching.

Give this a try, and if you do a version of this, I'd love to see a copy.

Send me a photo of it.

You can contact me through my website, WilsonBickford.com.

Don't forget you can download the supply list and the sketch at the WPBSTV website.

And until next time, stay creative and keep painting.

- [Announcer] 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.

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(happy music)