- Hi, welcome back, I'm glad to see you again today.

Today I thought we'd do a little animated opening, the little painting that you see just sort of pop, pop, pop, and appear at the beginning of each show.

And I'll show you how that painting was done.

So let's start out and have them graphically run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint along with me.

They'll come across, as usual, in the same order as I have them on the palette.

So, we have an 18 by 24 canvas up here.

It's already been coated with a thin, even coat of the liquid white.

It's all wet and ready to go.

So let's do the same thing.

Let's start off today with the old, two-inch brush, and I'm gonna go into the least, least little touch of alizarin crimson.

Just tap a tiny bit onto the brush, and that little animated picture has a very soft sky.

You almost don't see it, so use very little color.

Let's go right up in here.

And now, I'm just going to lay the least little touch of this crimson.

And just begin working some little areas like this.

Now we're gonna put a darker color in between, so if your crimson gets a little big it doesn't matter because it's a very easy color to cover up and we'll just cover up whatever we don't want.

We don't make mistakes, remember that, we just have happy accidents.

Then just let this come right on down like so.

Wherever, wherever.

Just make a decision, drop it in.

Now we're gonna have snow down here, so while we have this crimson on the brush, we can just put a little bit down here and there.

That'll end up being shadows and little bright spots in the snow.

Okay.

Now then, without cleaning the brush, I'm gonna go into a touch, just a touch, of the midnight black and add the least little amount, least little amount, of phthalo blue.

Tiniest little bit, okay?

There's very little paint on the brush.

Very little.

If when you do this, if you have too much color, just take and wipe your brush on a paper towel or something.

You just want the least little hint of color.

This is a very soft sky, very gentle.

It's almost nondescript.

You don't even notice it in the painting.

There we go.

And that's mixing with the liquid white and automatically you get those soft, blended edges.

And we can throw a little of that down here, we don't care.

This is just a good place to clean the brush off.

Whatever.

Now then, let's wash the brush.

Odorless paint thinner, shake it off.

Give it a good shake, (chuckles) beat the devil out of it.

All right, let's go back up here and begin just blending all this together.

Just sort of follow the angles that you have in the sky.

Let's talk a minute about canvases.

I get a lot questions about canvases.

The canvas that we use is double-primed, pre-stretched.

It has two coats of acrylic gesso on it.

And it's important that you use two coats because it seals better and the liquid white will stay wet for extended periods of time.

If you use a canvas that only has one coat of gesso on it, or a canvas board, it will absorb your liquid white, then in a matter of minutes you're working on a dry canvas and you're in agony city and then you're gonna yell at me.

The other thing, I use a canvas that has a gray primer on it, so that way when you put the liquid white on you can tell exactly where you've got in on, and what's covered and what's not covered.

The other thing a lot of people ask me, with some canvases you get a little, little wooden pegs or they're plastic according to what brand of canvas you buy, and they say, "What are those?"

Those are called keys, and there's little slots in the back and you put the keys in the slots, take a hammer and tap it, and it stretches the canvas out and makes it good and tight.

Now normally what I do to make a canvas good and tight is just take a little bit of water and put it on the back.

And as the water dries up it'll bring that canvas tight as a drum.

And I like a nice, tight canvas.

Okay, enough talk about canvases.

Here's a little blue and black.

Gonna make a little footy hill back here.

So decide where he lives, and just barely touching and pulling down with the corner of the brush, lay in a basic little foothill shape.

This is far away, so it's very light in value, very light in color.

There we go, just like so.

And it's softer down at the bottom than it is at the top.

See, down here it's very soft.

Okay.

A little more of the color.

Now we'll have another little footy hill.

And on this one, I'm gonna make it a little bit darker.

Just a little bit so it stands out.

And you can see a variation.

As they get closer to you it should get a little darker.

You know, it only takes us a couple of minutes to do the little painting that you see at the beginning of the show, but it takes some fantastic people a lot of time to animate it.

They do it one frame at a time to make that little rascal jump out.

We paint the picture in 30, 40 minutes and they spend six or eight hours on it to get it took like that.

They really do some nice work.

Okay, now I'm gonna take a clean brush and I want to create mist.

I want it mistier.

So I tap that, just tap it, and then I'm gonna lift upward.

Just upward, like that.

Okay?

Let's do another one.

Same color, just black with a touch of phthalo blue.

Black and blue.

Maybe this one lives, there he is, right along here.

And in your world, you put as many or as few of these little foothills as you want.

Just whatever you want.

See there, but they're that easy to do.

These are far away, so they should have very little detail in them.

We'll tap the bottom of that, and then just gently lift it all up.

And we've got us a little foothill.

Now then, back in here, looks like a little lake or something that's frozen, way back in there, so I'll just use the old two-inch brush, titanium white.

Decide where you want it to be and just put in a little bit of color, just wherever you want it.

This is just straight titanium white.

Now then, come across, look at there, zoop.

See there, that easy.

And maybe, just a little bit of, there it is, a little touch of gray here and there, just little shadows.

Sometimes it's neat to take the knife and just do that.

Now take that and pull it and blend it, see?

See how nice and soft that is?

There we go.

Okay.

Now, right back into the white, and I'm gonna take to that and add a little blue, a little phthalo blue, a little phthalo blue and reach up in here and grab some alizarin crimson.

So I'm making sort of a lavender color on the brush.

Okay, let's go up here.

Now I think there's a little hill right here.

See there?

Just pull that down, make the basic shape.

Tell you what, that's not quite dark enough.

It doesn't show up enough.

I want you to be able to see it better.

So we'll just mix it a little darker and do it again.

Now you can see it.

There we are.

All we're doing here now is just laying on a base color.

Just a little hill.

I like to do these little snow pictures.

I lived in Alaska for a dozen years or so, and God was having a good day when he made Alaska.

Beautiful, beautiful country, so pretty.

All right.

I'm gonna grab an old fan brush.

Let's go right into dark sienna, van dyke brown, and I'm just gonna mix some of these colors on the brush.

Okay, let's go right up here.

Now maybe there's some old dead weeds and stuff that live right along here.

Touch, push, and bend that brush upward.

See, can you see that?

Let me get way back here so you can see.

Bend it upward like that.

That's it.

Okay?

Then let it just wander right off into nothing.

And maybe it comes down the hill in some places.

Just wherever you want it.

Just sort look at it and let it go.

Let it go.

Now this won't be an exact duplicate of what you see at the beginning 'cause it can never go back and dupe, but it'll show you how it was made.

Maybe there's some big ones right there.

Look at there, just turn the brush the other way and you can pop all kinds of little happy things in there.

Okay.

I have several fan brushes going so I don't have to clean 'em.

Now, let's take white.

We'll use the least little touch of the bright red in it.

White and the least little touch of bright red.

Now you can go back and here and begin forming all these little things.

And if you pick up a little bit of that brown don't worry about it.

Makes it look like shadows in there.

See how you can just add all these little things?

Now if you're doing seascapes, this is also a super way to make little sand dunes.

Look at that, look at that.

Now then, let's do some liner brush work.

I'm gonna take paint thinner on the liner brush.

I want my paint to be like water.

It's very thin, consistency of ink.

Turn that brush, twist it, and bring it to a beautiful, sharp point.

There you are.

Okay, let's go up here.

Now there's little trees back in here.

Now this paint is very thin; it'll flow.

If it doesn't flow for you, add a little more thinner.

All right.

And you can put as many or as few of these little trees.

These little trees have lost their leaves for the winter.

As many or as few as you want.

And at home you don't have the clock ticking away, so you can put hundreds and hundreds of little limbs on here if you want to and really add some detail to it.

Here, if I go over 30 minutes they yell and scream at me.

Have no sense of humor at all.

I don't understand it.

There we are.

(chuckles) I'm just kidding, I work with the best crew in television.

Okay.

Maybe, I think there was a bigger one that lived, zoom, right there.

Give him a little arm.

There's another one right there.

Wherever.

Wherever.

There we go, just as many little limbs as you want.

Keep the paint very thin so it literally just flows right off the brush.

Some people will find it easier to pull out, some will find it easier to go down.

Try both ways, whichever works the best for you, then that's the right way to do it.

Look at all the little things you can make here.

See there, just pop 'em in.

Little sticks and twigs, just hundreds of 'em.

Umph.

See, that gives you the indication of all kinds of little things in there.

A little more of the paint thinner.

And I think there's a little fence right here.

Doop, doop, doop, doop, and it comes right on over the hill.

There it goes.

Put some little sticks on him.

Isn't that cute?

See there, make a happy little fence that easy.

That just goes right on over the hill.

We don't know where he goes; don't care.

Now then, let's come back in here.

Let's load a little white on this brush.

Just really, really fill it up.

Reach over here and grab a little of that bluish color.

Okay, now right along in here, just lay a little of that on.

Don't cover everything.

Let some of that pinkish color show through that we put on.

See there?

But we're changing the angle so it flattens this.

There we go.

All right, all right.

We got that almost finished on that side.

Let's go back into some of our light lavender color.

It's alizarin crimson, phthalo blue, and white.

Crimson, blue, and white.

Okay, back here, happy little hill.

He comes right down.

We'll put a bump, see, zoop, let him come right down in there.

There we are.

Shoot, I tell you what, while we got that going, we'll just bring this right on down.

Just laying some of these little colors here and there.

All kinds of little things going on.

Okay, now we'll take our fan brush that has the dark sienna and the van dyke brown on it.

Let's go right up here.

And then, we're just gonna pop in some more little bushes.

Just push, bend upward.

Just bend it upward and let 'em, there we go, just let 'em come right on down like that.

And this is the way you create the lay of the land.

Just like so, just like so.

Now we can take our white, a little bright red in it, come back in here.

See there, and create all kinds of beautiful little things.

You can do it, I knew you could.

I knew you could do it.

See?

There you are.

And then just very softly, blend this, just the way you want it, just like so.

Now then, back to my liner brush.

The very thin paint.

This is dark sienna and van dyke brown.

Very thin, though.

Very, very thin.

And let's just put a happy little tree.

Boop, right there.

Right there, just let him go, wherever.

Wherever.

There, put a few little twigs and sticks and limbs.

(chuckles) Those are fun, those are fun.

Now maybe there's one a little closer to you.

See, we'll put his little foot in the front, let him go right across this one.

And in your world you decide where the trees live and put 'em in.

There they go, just all kinds of little twigs.

Just like so.

And maybe, back here, maybe there's some more little fence things.

We can just have all of 'em that you want.

Wherever.

A few little sticks and stuff that are growing up in here.

See there, there they are.

Okay, now I'm going back to my fan brush with the browns on it, same old fan brush.

I think maybe, there it is.

See, just make a decision.

Just make a decision.

Here's another happy little plain.

See there, how it pushes that one back?

Just sort of let it flow.

This really creates the illusion of the land wherever you want it to go.

See?

There.

We'll just change this angle and make it sort of round, see, so it looks like hills.

This is the place you bring your sled and you go, zoop, right down in there.

With my luck, I'd run into the tree over here and hurt my head.

Okay, back to the liner brush.

And we can just pop in some little sticks and twigs in this plain.

All kinds of little things that are happening.

All kinds, maybe right here, maybe there's a big old post right here.

Just a couple of posts left.

This old fence has just about fell down.

Got one board going across.

Tell you what, maybe there's some, zoop, zoop, that sorta looks neat.

Have some little stuff hanging on there.

Then go through a little touch of white.

Zoop, put a little, zoop.

I gotta make them funny noises or nothing works.

See, that easy.

My fan brush that has the white, with a little touch of the bright red on it.

Now we can go back and create all the little white areas in here, the little highlights, the good things.

The happy little things, there they are.

There they are, here comes one.

Right now all I'm doing is just laying on some paint, but we don't want to cover everything.

Let some of these shadows show through.

If you get carried away and cover it all up then you're back to the white canvas you started with.

Now, very lightly, very lightly, very lightly, just barely grazing the canvas.

Now you can blend all this together.

This is a bristle fan brush and very thick paint.

So you need a brush that's got some oomph to it.

A little soft brush won't move this thick paint like this.

See how you can smooth all that together?

That easy.

Okay, now I think in the one that the beginning of the show there's big, strong almighty tree that lives right here.

So let's do him.

I'll take some van dyke brown, pull him out and cut off a little bit.

Now you have to make a decision: Where does he live?

In our world, he lives right there.

There and there and there and wherever you want him to go.

Need a strong base for him to stand on.

This is a big tree.

Excuse my arm there, let me come over on this side.

And I'll just put him right in, like so.

See how it easy it is to make big, strong tree?

Let's go right in here.

Maybe, maybe, yep, there it is.

There's another arm that comes right out.

See, you can take a straight knife and make a curving limb.

I knew you could do that.

There.

And I like trees that have character.

I get tired of trees that look like they're future telephone poles.

I like trees that have some character to 'em.

Well, they got gnarls and bends.

Look at here.

Umph.

I tell you, this tree's had a rough life.

He got hurt when he was little, I can tell.

You don't get looking this bad overnight.

Tired old tree.

Now then, back to our old liner brush.

I'm gonna go into some white, a little touch of the dark sienna, paint thinner.

White, dark sienna, and with that, just very quickly, just sort of jerk that right down there.

Just pull it so it skips, and causes old, rough-looking things to happen.

Just pull it real fast, see there?

So you get all those old, barky-looking things.

That's what my dog does, those old, barky things.

Okay, back to paint thinner and brown.

And now then, let's begin putting in all kinds of limbs and give this thing some character.

A lot of thinner, a lot of thinner, like so.

And we can just go anywhere we want to go with these.

Like that, wherever.

Ooh, there's a nice one.

Nice one.

There's one.

There, and just gobs and gobs and gobs of 'em.

There.

There's some over in here, wherever you want 'em.

Just sort of look at 'em, make a decision.

This is where the birds all sit in the wintertime.

They gotta have a place to sit and be happy.

See there, right on up, like so.

These little limbs are a lot of fun to make.

A lot of fun, but they're very time consuming to make a lot of 'em, so just take your time, enjoy, get you a big glass of iced tea and really have some fun.

And the more of 'em you have in here the more realistic it looks.

Isn't that neat?

All kinds of old things happening in there.

There.

Okay, now then, let's go back to my fan brush that has the brown on it, and I'm gonna take and make a little foot for this tree to stand on.

He's gotta have a big, strong foot out here.

Maybe, maybe there's a little, there it is, little thing like that.

Little thing like that.

Let me find my brush that has the white, a little touch of the bright red, and we go right in here and grab that and bring all this together.

See, if you pick up a little of that brown, don't fight it.

It makes beautiful little shadows in the snow.

It's very pretty.

Look at there, see?

Grab a little of that and pull it.

Just let it go.

And, with our liner brush, we'll take a little touch of the brown, and just pop a few more little sticks and twigs here and there, like so, all kinds of little things.

Just let 'em go.

Like that.

And you can have as many or as few as you want in your world.

Tell you what, we just about have a finished painting.

I'm gonna take a little bit of the bright red, we'll sign this one, right here.

This was a lot of fun.

I think you'll enjoy this painting, it'll teach you a lot.

And I tell you what, you know, I've talked in several of the shows about my little friend, the little bird.

I showed him earlier.

I've had so many people ask me if I'd show him again.

We have a minute or so left here, so let me him bring him over here and show you how he's doing.

Look at here.

This is the little mocking, or the little robin.

Can you see him there?

Look at here.

Look at that, isn't he cute?

See if you, look.

(baby bird peeping) See?

And I always talk about the birds have to have a place to sit.

This little bird was orphaned and he lives with me now.

And I feed him every day and take care of him, and pretty soon he's gonna be a big bird.

He's gonna learn to fly, and we're gonna turn him loose and send him back to nature.

So if you see little creatures around your house help take care of 'em because they're God's little creatures and they're fantastic.

Get to know 'em, make friends with 'em.

This one was loaned to me by the bird lady here in Muncie, where I film.

He's a loaner bird.

I call him Peep because he peeps all the time, always hungry.

Look at that, he'll even eat my finger.

The old clock on the wall tells me we have to go, so from all of us here, and my little friend, I'd like to wish you happy painting, God bless, and we'll see you next time.

("Interlude" by Larry Owens)