Sunset Beach is one block from my home.

I've been there.

Bob Dambach, the producer of the show has been there.

Now you can say you've been there too.

[piano plays, bright in tone] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ "I must go down to the sea again," and you must come with me.

I want to show you the preparation for "Sunset Sea."

If you look at the canvas, it has been primed with Thalo Blue and white.

It's about equal parts, but you check and see what value you like the best.

When you say value, I'll usually say, white is number 1, and 10 is black, and that middle value about a number 5.

You kind of play with it a little.

That's how you get the idea.

After I have placed on the acrylic, which is dry, then I will outline it.

In this case, outline it so you can see it, and also when I put paint over it I can see through it enough for me to judge where to put the next strokes.

You can decide on a priming.

You can use whatever color you want.

Since it's going to be a sunset, and you have a lot of blue in the sky and in the water, it seemed like a logical choice.

I have down at the palette, I have some colors, these are all acrylics.

This is orange, and this is ochre.

I've mixed about half of each, and I'm coming up to the canvas.

I'm going to do one other thing.

I've just decided now, not later, but decided now.

I'm going to put some water on the canvas.

Often we will do this with oil, when we get to the oil stage.

But why not have this just a little wet?

You might use a brush, or you can use a paper towel that's been wet.

I'll push it around.

I don't know why I'm doing that.

It just seems when I put the paint on, it will smooth out just a little bit more.

Oh, that's beautiful!

now look at this.

This is going to be in the sky.

I do like what I was suggesting.

See, when I wipe just a little bit, it responds quite well, because it has been wet underneath.

Oh, I love doing this.

This is so enjoyable to watch something begin.

The colors against a primed canvas, really respond well.

Let's come down with this, because you're going to have into the shore area just a little bit of sun reflections.

I'll put a little bit at the horizon.

You might notice when I've done this, of course, I leave more right where the sun will be.

The home of the sun!

Now I'll clean the brush, and I have a good paper towel, a good paper towel.

I'll come up to the top of the sky.

This is going to be Thalo Blue and white.

Just a little darker than equal parts.

It is about 2 Thalo, 1 white.

Let's see if that'll be enough, yeah, just enough.

It makes it so I can blend in a little bit to the edges of the sun area.

It doesn't change it much, does it?

Just a little bit.

Then as I go over to the left, I'll want to make it darker.

I am going to select just a little bit this is Cobalt Blue, this is Alizarin Crimson, equal parts.

Then I'll add some white into that.

It fun to look as it matches, or it meets, another color on the palette.

You get an idea of what it'll look like when you come up here.

That's a nice dark cloud.

It's surprising to me, I've learned this over the years, and have tried to teach it, is that you see a dark cloud and you make it real dark.

But compare it to something near you.

I know when I'm inside of a car, and you use the frame of the door as being very dark because it's in the shadows.

You look out at that cloud, it isn't anywhere close, isn't anywhere close to being the value of the dark of the car.

So when you put the darks on, you make sure you're not darker than the mountains.

If you're darker than the mountains, it's a pretty dark sky.

Let's thin this out just a little bit as we come lower.

I will come lower with it.

I'll come right down to the bottom of the sky.

If you use a little water, in this case just water, the brush has still some of the paint on.

I'm just thinning that around, that kind of fills in the little holes on it, on the canvas, so you don't see quite so much showing through.

You ask, why do you prime a canvas if you're covering it all?

You would find a very different result if you were putting this on a white canvas.

It truly has a help, where you cover it thinly and it doesn't look weak.

Over to the right side, I think I'll go back to that first Thalo Blue and white I was putting on.

Just a little bit more of that coming down.

You see, at least here, I've covered the line.

I'm not overly concerned if one of my lines is showing through, because when I put the oil on, it truly covers it.

Let's come down to the cliffs.

What they are done with, the front cliff is the Thalo blue and white, maybe just a touch of Alizarin.

Yes, that's good.

I'll watch at the lower edge of this, because we want the feeling like the sun is melting into it.

Even up here, there will be little traces of clouds coming into the cliff that make it feel like it sets back and the sun is kind of melting over it.

See how I push that a little bit, just to soften.

We'll do the same down here.

When I come down here, if that's not soft enough, which it isn't, I'll take a little bit of that orangie color we had earlier, that yellow and yellow ochre, come right down here and push in just slightly.

See how that changes to almost a green flavor, but it's enough where you'll feel that impact.

Over on the right cliff, which is closer to us, therefore we can make it a little bit darker.

Still the Alizarin and the Cobalt Blue.

Did I say Cobalt Blue?

I meant to say Cobalt Blue.

This is Thalo Blue and white, this is Thalo Blue, but down here I want some of the Cobalt Blue and the Alizarin.

I'll put just a little red in there too.

Because I want kind of a warmth.

Great!

"Great" means just right.

Sometimes I'd say, "Clean up your room."

My daughter would say, "Great!"

I thought, gee, she's pleased, that's wonderful.

So as it meets the blue, in this area I'm softer.

But at the top, it can retain its edge.

I will be having some of the clouds come over this too.

So very quickly, I'll do that with some of the clouds.

I will take the Napthol Red.

Let's see, be sure I give it to you Yes, that's Napthol Red.

And I'll come down here because I want to get it where I can add a little bit more water to it.

That works.

This will be the formation of the cloud that's over the sun.

Notice as I come down, it's softer.

Because when you put the bright sun on, you are going to have a great contrast.

At the same time the sun is melting that edge, so it can't be overly stated.

As we come to the top of this, I want to come down with Alizarin Crimson and white.

Now this will be sort of dark, but it will be just a little lighter.

"Make up your mind, Buck."

Ok, I'm going to go a little darker!

This is Alizarin Crimson.

I'll put just touch of the same mountain color on.

When I put this on, it's going to darken it just a little bit.

But remember what I said, it needs to be softer than this.

When we get to the oil stage, we can certainly come with more softness.

When you look at that pochade, you feel some very light pink over there.

That will be necessarily done.

It will be necessary to do it.

Now we'll come down to the water.

The water will go now just a little darker.

This will be the same dark, the Cobalt Blue and white with a little Alizarin.

This is what we used for the distant mountain.

Let's put this in.

When we put it in, you'll see how it frames the light at the horizon.

The other aspect of this dark, as it comes across it becomes a very nice foil, or contrast, with the wave.

Because the wave is your picture.

The sunset is your picture and the wave is a moving aspect.

Well, the sky moves too, so they're both moving, they're both important.

You are together.

Don't you like that already?

The feeling of that?

It just has such a nice mood to it.

I'll put a little bit dark down here.

This will be the shadow under the wave.

Then what I need to do-- we'll change brushes.

I have, this is a flat brush, flat sable.

I'll take some of the distant cliff color, don't have any near cliffs.

We'll place this on.

When I do this I'm conscience of what I have there for a drawing, yet at the same time I want some character in this.

So see how I went above that line?

You could do the same.

It could go straight across.

Today we're improving on nature?

I'm so pleased that you're with me on this.

I love painting on the PBS stations and showing you all that I know-- in 24 minutes!

Let me say this.

We're doing acrylics, it dries quickly.

If you want to do the same thing in oils, then let it dry and come back the next time, that's fine.

You don't have to use acrylics.

I like it for the facility of using them, the vitality, and how good the oil looks over it.

There is one aspect about using the acrylics first that I quite like.

That's if I come with oils and I'm using the same color, in the oils it's a little richer.

So you get kind of a double play.

The acrylics have the foundation aspect, then the oil gives a little of the tints and so on, allowing the acrylic to show through.

That's why we put it on there.

When I teach workshops across the country; we have to use acrylics first, because you're finishing the painting in one day.

Down on the shore-- I'll go back to the fan brush.

Just a little bit of the top right sky color.

That's the Thalo blue and white.

At the same time I'm doing this, I cut in just a little bit with the orange that's there.

Let's go out into the distance.

What we'll take is just a little bit-- what are you?

Cobalt Blue and white.

Yes, we'll make this become our distant waves.

The further out you go on the waves, the less curves you have, because its further away and they haven't started their big splash yet.

I put just a little grace in there, instead of straight across.

If you want to have a little bit of a splash, because it is so far away, you want to be sure you're not overdoing it.

You're not making a caricature out of it.

Now we'll take and go ahead with the color that I put on that distant wave.

I'll come with the same thing.

Now, when I come with the same thing... let's just see what we want to do here.

Let me come check it up here.

Great.

It's just a little lighter, just a little lighter than what is there.

I like that aspect, because you build on a wave.

The thing that I find most offensive to me in judging seascapes, because I'm known for seascapes, is that the people feel if I put Oh, light, light, white, white, white!

It'll make it better, it's powerful.

But it isn't!

You build to the light.

If you just put pure white on, it's going to be very cool, very icy.

The other aspect, which will not happen so much in acrylics, but in oils, is the blending.

If you blend, I would need to blend the edges of here, of this part of the foam.

I'm going to take that brush and bring some that same color of that distant cliff down.

This is the alizarin and the blue and white.

Because that's a little high.

We may let it go up in oil, but we'll bring it down a little bit now.

So we are not tied to a height when we come in oil.

I'm back with this color, which I was talking about.

If you called this value a number 5, this probably like a 4, it's just a little lighter.

But it's a little different color.

It's Cobalt Blue and white, while this is Thalo Blue and white.

I'm not saying one is right or one is wrong.

But having the two, I love the effect that it gives, so I'll put just a little bit more in here.

You always want a feeling is, where's the light coming from?

The sky in this.

In a still life or a portrait it may be different.

It's coming from above, so the lightest part is going to be on the top.

You want to have some the shade still there.

I like to refer to a flat surface like that.

Call it, for the sake of help, I say, "its a 3, 3 value.

Then I'm putting on a 1 value.

As I thin it out, it becomes a 2, so you have a 1, 2, 3.

So you get the form.

you could have 5, 6, 7.

Anything so there's a stepping from one to the next.

The lowest one would be the darkest, or the larger number.

I hope that-- sometimes my explanations need an explanation!

I almost feel like that one needed one.

Let's come over here.

At the same time you are doing this-- see I have a nice graceful feeling like that.

But the top has just a little splash up, not splash up, but the curve, 'cause when you have water tumbling, it really bulges.

That will make it feel like that.

I have my light at the top.

Not the lightest light.

We'll go real light.

Maybe not in this stage too light, but we'll see.

Then I come down to a second level.

The same thing holds true here.

I can put that light on and I blend it a little bit.

You still have some of the darker foam at the bottom of it.

Let's see where else we need to put some-- little there.

I do want to do one other thing I think will be very helpful.

Let's see if I can take-- this is Yellow Ochre and white.

Let's see if you can follow my mixing, I'm jumping over-- here's Yellow Ochre and White and just a touch of Thalo Blue.

What that gives me is towards a greenish tone.

I'll come up right in the eye of the wave.

Such an important part of the painting.

Notice after I place it on, I want to have a nice curve here.

This will be another place where I'm thinking form.

I have a 1, thinning out is a 2, and this is a 3.

So it feels like it has form.

Let's go ahead and put just a little light on the top of the foam.

This is white.

This is white, and you are Yellow Ochre still.

I'm jumping back and forth a little bit.

I hope you can follow me.

This will give us our lighter light that we spoke of.

This-- Oh!

you instantly feel the power in it.

Don't you?

I expect an answer when I ask.

I'm speaking to you!

Same thing down on the shore.

Let's go just a little lighter now in the sky.

This is orange and white.

We're not going to put the sun in at this time.

So we'll put something that'll be a nice welcome mat when we do put the sun on.

Since that is not the sun, I can use the same color and come down and put some secondary level clouds.

Let's have just a little peak up over there.

We'll put some of this right on the horizon.

We need to make sure that the light is traveling in a straight line.

Often what I find, is a little problem.

People will put the sun, they put it right behind the eye, right above the eye.

It doesn't need to be there.

I've looked at oceans, and I've seen way down.

You can see the curl.

That's what they call this, "the curl."

Alright, now let's go with just a little color up in the sky.

I am going to go to the clouds, and this will be putting just a little character in.

This is with the Alizarin and White.

I need to be darker on that.

Let's take some more Alizarin.

That should work.

I'll come over to the cloud area, because there is a lot of incidental cloud effects in front of that.

It takes away-- you don't have just a flat look.

This is all stage one.

If somebody is coming into the room they'll say, "oh, he's painting another beautiful seascape."

I say, "You just wait.

You just wait!"

We'll let some of this sneak down on the cliffs, slightly there.

You realize, because it's in the focus, the center of interest, we don't want any hardness around there.

There's a little bit there, but we can just maybe put a burn on that edge too.

I don't mind it being a little sharper.

Let's see where else we'll put this.

You certainly want some of this reflecting in the ocean.

We'll put a little shoulders on this orange out there.

And the same thing here.

I want to make sure I get one other color in here.

We don't have a lot of time left.

This Alizarin and white, with a little Cobalt Blue.

Come on over blue.

Do your stuff.

Don't be shy.

We come down.

I want to put just a little bit, looks like a secondary cloud in there, or it could be just the character on the cliff.

Just a little character on the cliff makes more sense, because I'm going to bring the same color down and put it on the rocks, the edge of the rocks.

So you are putting a surface on the rocks.

When you do rocks, you want to have a top, you want to have a side, and you might have a front.

It's almost like a nose-- top, side, bottom.

They all need to be different values.

What happened just there is something I like too.

You put this on and you think, oh, gee, I had a little red in the brush.

And you think, that's great!

Let's use it.

I would need to have just a little dark behind here, because you have a shadow from the rock onto the sand.

This will set the rock down onto the shore.

This one not so much, because it might have a little shadow.

This way we get just a little foam behind it.

I'll put on just a teeny little bit there.

Let's come over on this side.

I might want to darken just a little bit this edge of the wave too.

Then it more features-- oh, what are you doing!

I want a little dark in there so you get a form.

That looks just like it should.

Let's see if there is anything else we need to do, because we are about ready to put this aside, and next week we'll come back and put the oil on it.

I can hardly wait, because we are doing it from a pochade.

We're doing it from a pochade.

I don't have an original painting.

I dare you other TV artists-- no, you do your thing.

But to step out without anything finished to look at.

Umm, it's really good.

I don't mean to pat myself on the back.

I am just so pleased that I have the opportunity to do this in front of you and to enjoy, and to share all I know.

It may not be much, but it's all I know I'll give it to you.

See you next time.

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