Crimson Tide

- Hey, welcome back.

You know, I've been getting a lot of letters requesting a very simple little seascape that could show a nice sunset type sky, so I thought today that's what we'd do.

Let's start out and have them run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint along with this.

While they're doing that, let me show you what I've got done up here.

The easiest way to do a sunset seascape that I've ever found is on a black canvas, so I've covered this entire canvas with black and allowed it to dry completely.

Then I've taken Liquid Clear and I put Liquid Clear over the entire canvas, and we've started here with a little Alizarin Crimson, and we've slowly started adding Phthalo Blue all the way up, and the same thing down here, which will be the water.

This is just a piece of masking tape so we'll have a nice straight horizon.

We have Alizarin Crimson and it blends up to Phthalo Blue and the same going down.

That's really all there is to it.

I thought today we'd use a little small round brush and we're just gonna put a little bit of the Titanium White on it.

Don't need a great deal.

You could do this with a fan brush, or a two inch brush, or whatever.

I just like this little brush.

Decide where your light source is gonna be here and we'll just begin bouncing in a little color, just a little white and it'll pick up those colors that're already in the canvas and automatically, automatically you don't even have to worry about it or think about it.

This'll begin happening.

Just sort of think about little cloud shapes and formations and work upward here.

There.

Your brightest color is down here.

This is a fantastic little painting to do for friends or relatives, but don't tell 'em that you put color on the black canvas and all they'll do is they'll just see you add white paint to your brush and then touched the canvas and it's like magic happens.

We have instructors that travel all over the country, doing demonstrations and stuff, and a lot of times this is the way they'll do demonstrations and it's unbelievable what happens.

It excites people.

If you're ever doing a demonstration for friends, try that.

I guarantee you that you will certainly get a positive response from it.

There, you'll be the local hero for days.

Okay, of course, everybody'll want the painting and then you have to make the big decision which person gets the painting.

There we go.

Here, all we're doing is just thinking of some basic little shapes that we're looking for and just doing little circles, just sort of winding it up.

Just winding it up, just mixing it.

This is our little mix master here.

He'll just blend it and carry on.

We'll come back with a large brush in a minute and blend it even more, but this is just applying a little color to the canvas.

There, let me wash the little brush here.

Just wash it; shake it off.

(chuckles) Beat the devil out of it too.

This time, I'm going to have the least little touch of Cad Yellow, maybe even a little Yellow Ochre right to my white.

Little tiny bit of Yellow Ochre in there too.

Then we'll go right back in here.

This is gonna be my brightest area and just work a little of that color out, just a little, not much, not much.

It's easy to overdo.

Not much.

Color shows up so much stronger on this black canvas than it does on the white canvases.

Almost unreal.

Now then, a good dry two inch brush.

Be sure it's dry.

If it's wet and you touch this, you're gonna be in agony city and we don't want that.

Using just the corner of the brush, and just sort of wind it up.

Making little tiny circles, little tiny circles.

There we go, there we go.

Just keep it going.

The more you blend this, the softer it'll become.

You have to decide when it's blended to the degree that you want.

There, and when it is, then you stop and it's just exactly right.

You can use any color here.

I just decided today to use the crimson and Phthalo Blue, but you can use any color that your heart desires, any color and it makes some of the most gorgeous things you've ever seen.

Try this, even if you've never done a sunset.

This one will work so well for you, so well.

You don't wanna blend all these little patterns and stuff out.

If you just blend until it's too smooth, I like some of these little rough things in there.

Looks like little floater clouds.

They just sort of sneak around in there and just play.

Little windblown things that are back in the sky, they just sort of make it nice.

There we go.

The more you blend it, once again, the more it'll pick up that color, the darker it'll become.

The color it picks up I mean is the color that's already on the canvas.

There.

All right, it's a good arm exercise too, very good arm exercise.

Okay, and then very gently we just start blending them, something like so.

There we are, okay.

Then you can go back, put a little more color on your brush and you can add in little tiny individual type things.

Let's keep this one quite simple.

I don't want to get too carried away here, but this is also an excellent sky for just doing landscapes with.

You don't have to do seascapes only with it.

You can do anything with it.

You can't believe some of the paintings that people are doing.

In fact, I tell you what, let me show you some of the paintings.

I'm just gonna drop in a little cloud here like this, but we get pictures from people all over the country and you would not believe what they're painting.

A lot of these people have never had any lesson other than the television show.

Can you believe that?

They're some of the most gorgeous paintings you've ever seen.

A lot of these are by young people too.

They're not all older people like me.

A lot of them are very young people that've basically had no art lessons other than television shows.

I'd say just from watching this series they're producing some of the most gorgeous paintings and I'm so proud of everybody that's able to do this.

There.

Because this is just the first.

If you accomplish this, my god, then you can accomplish anything.

All you have to do is just believe you can, just believe that you can and success with painting leads to success with many things.

There.

There, that's why it's so fantastic to see people have success, because it carries over into every part of your life.

You learn that you can do anything, absolutely can.

All I'm doing is blending the entire sky now, just to sort of take out some of the little brush strokes and take a look see, maybe if you wanna sparkle one, you can just take a little paint on the corner of the brush.

Maybe put a little sparkler up in there with very tight little circular strokes, very tight.

Isn't that a very simple and easy way to make a striking, striking sky?

All right.

I think that's about all we need for a little sunset sky.

You could go back and you could put in clouds.

You can do all kinds of little things.

Just sort of let your imagination take you where you wanna go.

There, but once you stop, once you start doing this, don't just stop there.

Keep going with it.

All I wanna show you is an idea to get you started and to get you fired up and then turn you loose on the world, because once you learn this, then you can do anything.

Let's take our tape off.

That's just plain old ordinary masking tape, but now we have a very straight horizon and I saved a little bit of that crimson with the Liquid Clear mixture.

Just took a little Liquid Clear and put this on crimson, so I could fill this in right here, because, naturally, there was no Liquid Clear under there or no color, so we just fill that in.

Bring it right up to the horizon.

That easy.

Now we're ready to go.

We can start playing.

(chuckling) Have to beat the brush one more time.

Let me just take a little fan brush.

Put a little white on it.

When I'm doing seascapes, I sort of like to lay out my major wave and have an idea of where it goes, because everything else is secondary to that.

Just use a fan brush, or a Filbert, any old thing.

Decide where your major wave's gonna live.

Maybe it's gonna be here and crash over.

Like that and then the waves back here will just sort of correspond with that.

However you want 'em.

The eye or the transparency will be right in here, right in that area.

Okay, maybe that'll help.

See, it's gonna crash over right there and the rest of it's very easy, once you determine where that wave's gonna live.

Now then, just take a little Titanium White.

I'm using a number three fan brush, but you could use whatever you have and I'm gonna start right back here under the lightest area and just start making little wave things.

Let me exaggerate.

I'm doing like that and I'm really exaggerating.

That way, you get these little wave-looking characters way back in the back.

Don't just go straight across.

Make it so it's got a little wiggle in it.

There, see?

Then we get farther along in the painting, we'll go back and add a little detail to that and, son of a gun, instant waves.

I say, this is a very easy, nice, simple little seascape that you can do without any problems.

There, and we'll wipe all the excess paint off that brush.

Just wipe it on a paper towel.

You're gonna take this light color and blend it back, just blend it back.

There we go.

See, blend it, but once again, we're making an angled stroke like that.

Blend it back, there.

See, that's all there is to it, but try to retain a dark area right along this line here, right along there and it'll all make sense here in just a second.

I know sometimes it looks a little strange when you start a seascape like this, but of all the seascapes I've painted, this is probably the easiest, simplest method that I have found to paint a very effective seascape.

You could paint one that just has the little, you know, the little tiny waves, but everybody does that.

You could make a very nice real-looking seascape quite, quite easy.

See there, already it should be beginning to give you the impression of water moving in there.

All right, let me grab a little Filbert here.

We said the eye of the wave is gonna be right there, so I'm gonna take a little Titanium White.

Put the least little bit, least little bit of Cad Yellow into it, not much, not much Cad Yellow.

Load the bristles full of color.

Let's go up in here.

If this is gonna be the transparency or the eye, go right in here and start scrubbing some color in.

Just scrub it hard.

You wanna push it right into the fabric, right into the fabric and then we'll work outward, 'cause a little light's gonna play right along that wave there.

There, see, just sort of blend that in like that and that'll give us an idea of where our transparency's gonna be.

We'll wash the old brush.

Now then.

Okay, we'll go back to our little-- Some reason, I keep picking up the number three fan brush and that works just as well.

Maybe it works better, who knows?

Whatever, whatever works for ya.

Let's make the top of the wave.

There it comes (wooshing).

See it just crash over?

Kind of make those little noises.

(wooshing) Just think about water crashing right over there.

There it comes, right over the top (wooshing).

I'll add a little touch of that Cad Yellow to it, just a little bit, just so it separates it from the background a little better.

Oh, that's nicer, that's nicer.

Like there, see?

That's basically all we need.

Let's see, let me grab another fan brush here.

I have several of them going.

Let's take a little of our Phthalo Blue, little crimson.

Make a little lavender type color.

Maybe even a little black in there.

There we go.

Grab a little touch of the white.

That'll make a nice shadow color, nice shadow color for our foam here.

We go back up in here.

Decide where your foam's gonna live.

We can just begin scrubbing in here, just using corner of the fan brush, or you could use a Filbert.

Filbert might even work a little better, depends on what you like.

Just try 'em both and see which one works the best for you.

After awhile, after you've painted for a little while in this technique, you become so comfortable with it, you can literally just about pick up any brush and do anything.

There, I'm going back to my little Filbert.

We'll put a little more of that white with a touch of Cad Yellow into it.

Maybe, maybe, maybe right in here push upward and let's put a little foam splashing right on top of that shadow there.

Just put it in, something like so and we wipe that off.

Get some nice clean color on there.

There.

Bring it right on up, something like that.

Now then, we can use a one inch brush.

Take just the corner of it and very gently blend that until it's just as soft as silk.

Just blend it very gently until it's just very, very soft in there.

Now.

Good clean, dry brush and back to this transparency that we were working on.

We have an idea where it's at.

It's right in here.

We have our white with a little bit of Cad Yellow in it.

Take the corner of the brush, I'm using a two inch, but you can use whatever, and just blend that.

Tiny little circles, and you can blend this-- You will not believe how smooth it'll become.

Just blend it.

There.

Now we can begin thinking about the shape of our wave.

There, grab that and begin pulling it a little bit.

All right.

Time to make some big decisions here.

Let me find my liner brush.

I'm gonna go into a little of that white paint thinner.

This is the white that had the little bit of yellow in it and let's just put a little highlight right up here on top of this (wooshing), just a little highlight.

There it comes, a little bit of splashing up here.

There and back in here.

There we are.

All right, all kinds of little foam patterns that are living back here.

At home, when you have a lot of time, you can just go in here and put all kinds of little details.

They yell at me here if I go over 30 minutes, so we have to hurry a little.

No sense of humor.

Don't understand that.

I'd like to have hour shows, show you a lot more.

There.

All right.

See how that makes that little bit back here just pop right out at you?

That easy.

Seascapes really don't have to be hard and you don't just have to do the little simple-looking ones that we see so often.

There, maybe that comes down (wooshing).

This is where you begin forming all the little things that are happening in here.

Now, a little of that darker color and we'll put a line right under here.

That line will separate it from the eye.

It really makes it jump out.

Back in here, a few little things that you can see through the wave, through the transparency.

Let's get crazy, what the heck?

What the heck?

Maybe, maybe-- I just had another idea.

Let's have that crashing against something.

I'm gonna go into my Van Dyke Brown, black, Dark Sienna, just mix 'em up on the brush.

All three, they're very dark colors here.

Let's have a great big stone that lives out here in the water.

Maybe this is off the coast of California, Oregon, somewhere.

Just take the fan brush, decide where you want this stone to live and come right up in here.

Touch and let's just make a basic, maybe this is one of them big beautiful rocks that lives out in the water.

Something like so.

Just let it go wherever.

The old fan brush is good for forming rocks like this.

Maybe it's got a little point out here.

Who knows?

Gotta have a place for the seagull to sit up there.

I know, I like seagulls too.

What the heck?

Like any kind of old bird or critter.

They're all very special.

There, maybe I'll put a little projection out here.

Maybe it-- oh, almost covered up my little foam.

That's all right; we know it's back there.

We know it's back there, no big deal.

Put a little of that brown down in here too and maybe we'll have a little beach down here, so we'll put a little brown so we put white on there and we'll have some sand.

Now then, while we have that, let's reach up here and grab a little of the white, little Dark Sienna into it.

It's the same old dirty brush.

Maybe there's a little highlight on top of this stone.

I don't want much, because this is almost a silhouette.

It would almost be a silhouette.

If you have a sunset, there would not be a lot of color up here.

Just by changing strokes, you can make this look rough and jagged.

Actually almost like you're forming a rock just by changing some of the strokes.

Make all kinds of little projections and stuff.

See how easy that is to make a rough-looking old rock?

It looks like seagulls been living up there for a long time.

Yeah, there.

There we go.

Maybe, shoot, who knows, maybe there's a big old rock right here sort of in the front and you can just form it.

Just decide what shape it is.

Just begin forming the basic indication.

Once again, don't let this get too bright on ya.

Don't do too distinct of a rock, because as dark as this is, this would basically be a silhouette.

You only make out a little tiny bit of detail and it'll lose that illusion.

There.

Shoot, you know a lot of the nice rocks and stuff that out around California and Oregon sometimes maybe that seagull drops a seed up there.

Put a little of that Phthalo Blue, brown, crimson.

Maybe he drops a little seed up there from his lunch.

Maybe a little tree grew up there.

Maybe a little scraggly-- Is that a word, scraggly?

Maybe a little scraggly evergreen tried to grow right up here on the side of this rock and there he comes.

I want him to be pretty rough.

Notice that most of the limbs here I'm putting on one side, 'cause sometimes around that area, the wind blows so hard that limbs only grow on one side of the tree.

Yeah, that's true.

Ugly little thing sometime, but they only have limbs and branches growing on one side.

The wind just sort of wraps them all around, I guess.

Sort of strange looking when you first see it, but that really is the way they look.

I was born and raised in Florida, so I'd never seen anything like Oregon and California.

When I first went out there, I almost couldn't believe how funny some of the little trees looked, but they're beautiful.

They're absolutely beautiful.

There we go.

Now then, let's put some water down there.

I'm gonna take white and get a little touch of that Phthalo Blue.

That's so pretty.

A little touch of Phthalo Blue.

Something, yeah, maybe about like that.

Wipe the old knife off.

Now, I'm gonna take and pick up a small roll of paint right on the edge of the knife there, little knife.

Got the little knife and you have to make a big decision here.

Maybe, maybe, maybe, yup.

Push very hard, very hard.

We only have a little doer right there.

Okay, just put it onto the knife, something like so, then take and wipe this fan brush off.

Get the excess paint off of it.

Better wash it.

You really need a clean fan brush that's good and dry.

Grab that, there, see, and sort of pull it to shape and form your waves, just like so.

There.

Nice easy way of making a little wave.

I'll show you something else here.

Watch how, watch how.

Sometimes you want reflections in your water.

This water's very thin; it's almost on the beach.

Just by pulling down like that, just pulling down and going across.

Put a little right there too.

Go across.

It'll create that shine like you get when water's reflecting.

Now then, let's take our small knife, little bit more of that blue and white, come right up under that rock, and maybe there's another happy little ripple right there.

Push very hard with this knife, very hard.

Make it bend, make it bend.

Then back to our little fan brush.

Grab this and it needs to be straight, because this is very flat here.

See, you just pull this back.

Isn't that the easiest way you ever seen of making that?

There.

See, that's all you gotta do is just pull it back.

Shoot, who knows, I'll tell you what, one more for practice.

One more for practice and here's one right here.

Really, really push hard though, so you get that little ridge of paint there.

I guess that's what you'd call it, a little ridge.

Maybe there's some little doers that come out in here.

This one's really getting shallow in here.

Really getting shallow.

Grab it once again and pull it back.

That's just one of the nicest little ways of making that.

Now, back to our little liner brush.

Little of that blue and white with paint thinner on it.

Make it very thin.

We can come in here and just begin adding all kinds of little details.

The more of these that you put in, the better your painting'll look.

Just drop some of these little doers in right around the rocks here.

See there?

That easy though.

You can make all kinds of little things.

Just put a little rock here and there.

Use a Filbert brush, dark on one side, little bit of light on the other.

Just, see, pop in a little rock or two.

Something like that.

Take our liner brush with that thin blue and just clean up the edges.

That easy you got some little rocks laying up here on the beach.

All right, as I say, this is one of the nicest, easiest, simplest little seascapes that you've ever tried.

You'll like it.

From all of us here, I'd like to wish you happy painting and God bless, my friend.

(relaxing guitar music)