- A tiger once told me that he was the king of the jungle but he was lion.

Join me next on "Painting with Wilson Bickford" as we paint "Eye of the Tiger."

(mellow music) - [Announcer] Support for "Painting with Wilson Bickford" is provided by the J.M.

McDonald Foundation, continuing the example modeled by J.M.

McDonald by contributing to education, health, humanities, and human services.

Sharing since 1952.

Online at jmmcdonaldfoundation.org.

(upbeat music) - The View Center for Arts and Culture is an Adirondack exhibition and performance space featuring in-person and online classes for creatives of all ages and abilities.

Open calls, events, and class schedules, online at viewarts.org.

- Hi, thanks for dropping by today.

We're gonna paint "Eye of the Tiger."

And Glenda and I have our own little tiger right here.

This little ragamuffin was a stray who needed a home, so we took her in a couple years ago.

She's got an older sister, Phoebe, that lives with us, too, huh?

Yeah.

She's a pretty good girl.

She's got some tiger blood in her, look at her markings.

So we got her, like I said, we got our own tiger right here.

You ready to go play?

All right, there you go.

Be a good girl.

Poppy's got to paint.

(chuckles) I'm glad you joined me today.

We're gonna paint this tiger scene, this is gonna be a two part lesson because I wanna do it justice, I wanna be able to slow down and show you all the tricks of the trade here.

I like to paint animals, I've done a lot of animals through the years, especially birds, but I do deer, I do moose and elk.

Name an animal, I've painted it.

Actually, I have some here.

You can use the same techniques that I'm showing you today to duplicate something like this.

This is under-painted with the black acrylic.

I'm gonna explain here momentarily.

This is the same thing.

I've done elephants before.

I've done all kinds of animals.

I'm an animal lover.

This is my first self-portrait.

Now, don't be too hard on me.

I don't do portraits as a general rule.

This is a self-portrait I just did this last summer.

That's me, but I think I did pretty good on- I think I captured my likeness, don't you?

(laughs) Don't be monkeying around.

I think that- I think I did a pretty good job on myself.

So I like to paint a variety of animals.

So I thought this would be a good lesson to share with you.

So if you go to WPBS-TV website, you can download the supply list that we're using today.

It tells all the oil paints, and I'm gonna cap them here for you in just a minute, as well as the brushes.

There's a couple of different sketches on there.

This is the one you're gonna want to trace, unless you want to use your own design, free-hand your own, you're welcome to it.

What I did, is I took the sketch and I put a piece of tape on it here to hold it like a little hinge, you can lift this up and slide graphite transfer paper under it.

Now this was on a plain white canvas, it didn't have the black on it at that point.

I'm gonna get to that.

I put the sketch down, graphite paper underneath.

I use a red pen because it shows up on all the dark lines.

I put all these markings in.

It's a little tedious, it's gonna take you a little while.

Don't get discouraged, hang with it.

Good things come to those who wait.

So once I had the sketch on, I took some black acrylic gesso and my #2 Detailed Scriptliner.

And I painted all those little markings that were on the drawing with black acrylic.

Right here, we have the shadow inside the ear.

I watered it down, so it's very watery and made more of a gray tone there.

And we're gonna build that up with some other color later with the oils.

But paint all those markings, be very careful around the eye, get the eye looking good.

These are just little dots where the whiskers come out of.

So you're gonna duplicate that just the way it is.

From there, I took my #10 Large Flat Brush and I cut in around, tightly around the outline of the black and then finished it off.

If you wanted, you could use- once you get away from the outline, you could use one of these disposable foam brushes.

Whatever it takes just to blacken that.

So this is all black acrylic.

It's dry.

I'm not gonna tape it out today like I normally do.

I don't have to.

So this is just a different twist for you, show you something different.

And you'll have one of these.

As well as the sketch that you transfer, there's also one of these that will be on the website that you can print off that shows you the markings as they're painted in.

So let me run through the materials that we're using here today.

For oil paints, I'm using Cerulean Blue, Ultramarine Blue, Ivory Black, Sap Green, Cadmium Red Light, Cadmium Yellow Pale, Burnt Sienna, a little touch of Red Rose Deep, you won't need much, we're just gonna use a little of that pinkish tone for the nose.

So you won't need much of that color.

And Titanium White.

I also have some White Basecoat and some Clear Glazing Medium.

For brushes, I'm gonna be using a $10 Large Flat Brush, a 2-inch Scenery Brush, a #3 Fan Brush, #6 Small Flat Brush, #6 Round Brush, #2 Detailed Scriptliner, and my #2 Long Scriptliner.

We have a lot of different colors and a lot of brushes going on today, but they all have their time and place.

We're gonna use them all.

Okay.

I'm gonna lubricate the whole canvas with a thin coat of clear glazing medium.

The black, the tiger, all of it.

So I'm gonna take this 2-inch Scenery Brush.

What we're gonna do today is glazing, where normally I put the white base coat on and work into that, this is gonna be clear and transparent glazes.

A glaze is simply a color that's a thin wash of transparent color.

That's all a glaze is.

So see, I'm not using the white base coat, the way that I typically use it.

I'm gonna use some later on, but not in the way that I normally use it for the background.

So you wanna put this on thinly.

Don't be afraid to give this a shot.

The underpainting takes a little time, but it's worth it in the end.

I always search for the easiest, fastest route to get to the end of a painting.

I don't like to spend weeks, and hours, and hours, and weeks, and days on a painting.

I like to get in while the inspiration's there and get done with it.

If I put one on my easel and I have to spend a month working on it, I lose my my inspiration and my fire for it by the time I ever get done with it.

I'm sick of it.

So that's just me, I know that doesn't fit everybody.

That's just me.

But this is an easy way to do this type of a project, even though there's a lot of detail in it.

(brush sweeping) Okay, nice, thin coat.

There we go.

I'm gonna start right in with the background.

Notice he's got a little bit of a glow underneath his chin and there's little orbs out here of what we call bokeh.

If a photographer zeros in on a subject, nice and tightly, a lot of times in the background, you get these little orbs that peak through, especially if you have foliage or something in the background that has porosity to it and holes and openings where light comes through.

You'll see those little orbs.

So the background's pretty simple, but you wanna do a nice job on it.

I'm gonna take the #10 Flat Brush, and I really didn't take much in the way a notes here.

I just paint it and I can look at it and kind of remember what I did.

So I'm hoping today I remember what I did.

And it doesn't matter if it matches that exactly.

This is a greenish tone.

I believe I took some Sap Green maybe, and maybe a speck of the Cadmium Yellow Pale.

Now I can tell already, this is lighter and brighter than what that is.

That's okay.

If I wanna throttle that back, I could put just a speck of the Burnt Sienna in it.

The color is arbitrary, get a color that you like.

And I've told you this before, I don't really like a yellow-green myself, personally.

I'm gonna put just a speck of blue in that.

Green has blue in it because it's made of two primaries, green and yellow- or blue and yellow, excuse me, blue and yellow.

I like to lean mine a little bit on the blueish side of things.

That's just me.

Okay.

I'm gonna try something like that and see what happens.

I'm gonna cut in tightly around his body and underneath his throat here.

Now I've gotta feather that away.

I'm not using a ridiculous amount of paint.

Don't put it on real heavy, because you're gonna wanna fade this out.

So you'll actually hear me scrubbing, I'm putting it on kind of thinly.

And this is just some back-lighting to help bring him forward a little bit.

It's the only reason I'm putting it in there, I just didn't want just a solid, bland, black background.

That's pretty boring.

So I put it on like that.

I'll take my #3 Fan Brush.

And because we have that clear glazing medium on there, it makes it a little oily, so we can fade this away pretty easily.

So see, I just stretch it out away from the area where it starts up there and just fade it out.

I got a little bit on his chin there.

I'm not worried.

I can wipe that off before I paint that area.

This is gonna be a two-part lesson, so this will be part one.

We'll get started on the tiger today, I'm hoping.

Should be able to.

Some of the preliminary stuff and we'll want to tighten up the details in Part Two.

Okay.

That was easy, right?

Yeah.

You can do that.

I'm gonna take the #6 Round Brush.

And I've got different colors in here, some of it is that same greenish color.

Some of it's a little bluer, up here where it's darker in the shadows.

It's all good.

I'm gonna take the #6 Round and some of this same color.

And I'm not trying to match every dot for dot here, orb for orb, I'm just gonna put these around different spaces here.

Don't use a lot of paint, they're gonna come off really chalky and dense, so you don't want them quite that dominant.

As I go up into the darker areas, I'm gonna turn more bluish, like more shadow.

And I'm gonna make them slightly different sizes, I'll make this next one a little smaller.

They're gonna look a little harsh, but do you remember what I always tell you?

Come on, think about it.

Yep.

Tallahassee, Florida, somebody watching, I heard you.

Blending cures everything.

I'm gonna blend these and soften them.

And notice how I didn't put a lot on the outside, cause it's gonna draw the viewer's eye out of the painting.

And notice that the lighter ones are kind of around our subject.

I'm gonna make you look where I want you to look, whether you want look there or not.

And see, I'm just making little orby circles.

Orby, is that a word?

I think it is.

I've had lunch at Orby's once in a while.

Oh no, that's Arby's.

I was wrong.

(laughs) Wrong name.

I was close.

Okay.

Now I'm gonna start getting a little bluer.

I'm gonna add some Ultramarine Blue to this.

It'll darken it, but it'll also make it a little cooler temperature, a little more shadowy.

Again, not much paint.

And I'm gonna put some in here like this and maybe one over here.

I'll make a bigger one over here, maybe.

Like I said, you want them different sizes, different intensities, really, as well.

Any of the brighter ones, you want them by your subject.

And maybe... and try to not line them up in any certain way that you have a constellation.

We don't want the Big Dipper with dots in here.

That's another painting.

I need to sneak over and put some over in here somewhere.

Now I'm gonna soften these down.

They won't be quite so dominant and obtrusive, once I soften them a little bit.

I really don't want it to look like bubbles floating through the air.

Of course, maybe we don't know, maybe there's a birthday party going on, back here behind this guy.

Okay.

So that'll give you the idea.

I'm gonna take my fan brush and lightly whisk over these, just enough to kind of soften the edge of them, blur them out focus a little bit.

So I'm going back to the fan.

Now that might have a little bit of that residual green on there, so I'm just gonna wipe it off, just to be safe.

If you think there's more paint than that on there, wipe it off and wash it.

Get the excess paint out.

I'm gonna come in and just do little circles with the end of the brush.

Just lightly, just enough to soften them and blur them out of focus a little bit.

Now, most likely you're gonna pick up a little paint from the orb as you do it.

So you'll notice I keep the rag right in my hand, and I keep wiping it off.

♪ I've got a tiger by the tail ♪ ♪ It's plain to see.

♪ You guys remember that song, or am I dating myself?

I'm probably dating myself.

It's an old Buck Owens tune from probably the 1960s, maybe.

Yeah, I was here for that.

And before that, believe it or not.

Okay.

All right.

Just as a second thought on my part, I'm gonna switch this out.

And these down in here closer to him, I'm gonna brighten up just a tad, just because.

Would I have to?

No.

But it's a preference.

I'm gonna take a little yellow and white into that green and just brighten it up a little bit.

A little lighter, a little more yellowy.

That's gonna look really bold when I first do this, but I'm gonna mute it down by blending it.

Because as you know, blending fixes everything.

I'll wipe the brush off, put just a little bit on this one.

See, it gives it a little more emphasis, which I think is a nice touch.

Blend that in.

Notice I'm wiping the brush off.

These aren't really meant to represent anything other than just light filtering through the background from somewhere.

We don't know what it it is.

We don't need to know what it is.

We don't care what it is.

It just breaks the background up, so it's just not solid black.

All right, from there, I'm gonna start working on the tiger.

Now he's got an overall orange undertone in there.

and because we're gonna use the paints transparently, I can paint right over the black areas and they stay black.

You'll notice it muted them down a little bit.

They're not quite as bold and black.

At the end, you could always come back with your detail scriptliner and black oil paint, and you could re-blacken them a little bit.

If you need it.

I didn't feel it needed it, so I didn't do it, but I'm just letting you know that's an option on your part.

Every artist is different, everybody's gonna do it a different way.

This is how I chose to do it.

Quick and painless.

Okay, I'm gonna switch out my #10 Flat Brush.

And he's already got some glazing medium on him, so he's all lubricated and ready to go.

So I need to come in with my base color.

And for that, I used some Cadmium Red Light, a little bit of Cad Yellow Light, Cad Yellow Light, I should specify, and a little bit of Burnt Sienna.

So I've got Cadmium Red Light, Cadmium Yellow Pale, Burnt Sienna.

I'm gonna try this and see what I think.

Well, it looks pretty good for starters.

I start with a lighter tone, and then you'll see that I've built it up to darker colors.

So any of the areas here that are white, notice he's got white around his eye, and his whole muzzle and throat area here are white.

I've gotta steer around those.

If I get paint on them by mistake, I can wipe them off.

But if I'm a little more careful, I won't need to do that.

Either, or.

I'm not saying too much yet, cause there's a very likely chance that I might get paint on there.

I'm gonna base it in with this value first.

And see, it's transparent, I didn't add any white to it.

White is the most opaque paint that you can find.

So you wouldn't wanna put white with it.

If I needed to lighten this color, I would add more glazing medium to it.

That thins it down and makes it more of a lighter tint.

Don't add white.

We'll use some white in this painting later, a few touches here and there, but not much.

Most of it's gonna be done with glazing.

And see, because it's fur, I don't have to worry about getting it completely smooth.

I don't mind a few little digs in it like this here and there and once in a while, as long as it doesn't look like a blatant brush stroke.

Okay.

I gotta go up around the top of his ear.

Now I'm using this big brush.

You could scale down and use the detail scriptliner around his ear in some of these smaller areas.

And see, I know this color is weaker, not as orange as this.

I'm gonna build it up.

I'm gonna put more color on here as I progress.

I don't kick the door open and go in screaming, I sneak in and do a little at a time.

I'm gonna be careful around that eye where it's white and paint around it.

So I'm just gonna keep adding this color.

Notice how thinly I'm putting this paint on.

Oh, I gotta watch myself here, I was getting carried away, doing more talking than watching what I'm doing.

I gotta make sure I don't get too much down into that white area.

If I do, I will wipe it back with a rag.

I gotta put a little bit out on his front of his nose and snout here.

Okay, and then it comes out around here somewhere.

(brush scrubbing) Okay, now I'm pretty much running out of that color, so I'm just gonna mix up a little more.

I'm gonna get close.

If it's not a dead ringer for that color, that's okay.

I want some variety in the colors, anyway.

And I am gonna come back darker later.

Now this looks quite a bit darker, but I'll try it.

See what I think.

Eh, it's in the same family.

It's all gonna work.

I am gonna go darker later on.

Okay, so I'm just looking where the white areas are, leaving those open.

(brush scrubbing) Once I get it on there, I will smooth it down a little bit.

(brush scrubbing) I hope you give this one a shot.

And if you do, I'd love to see your version of it.

Even if it's not this one, the other ones I showed you, the other tiger views there, they're done the same way.

It makes it easy.

Easy's a good thing.

Okay, I'm gonna go right here.

For the most part, his white area of his muzzle is gonna just stay the white canvas with the clear glazing medium over it.

It will look like it's painted because it has that clear glaze over it.

So it'll be shiny just like the rest of the oil paint and the rest of the painting.

We're just gonna impart some glazes in it to show the shadows.

Yes, I could put white paint over it at the end, if I choose to, if I want it a little brighter.

We'll check it out, we'll analyze that and see what we think when we get there.

Okay, now I think got a little bit too much, right in this area.

I wasn't paying attention.

So if I take a rag and just get a little bit of thinner on it, slightly damp.

I'm gonna wipe some of this glaze off.

See, it comes right back to the white canvas, no harm done.

That's the beauty of having the under-painting, you can work with it.

See how easily that is correctable?

And just take that right off to about there somewhere.

All right, that's getting us in a good spot for the next episode.

When we come back, we are going to paint his eye and his nose, darken some of this fur down, then we'll start developing the white fur on his muzzle and his ears.

In the meantime, look up that song on the internet.

"I've Got a Tiger by the Tail."

It's a good old tune.

And that's gonna take us into the next episode.

Don't miss it, and we'll complete this old boy next time.

Thanks for watching.

Until next time, stay creative and keep painting.

- [Announcer] Support for "Painting with Wilson Bickford" is provided by the J.M.

McDonald foundation.

Continuing the example modeled by J.M.

McDonald by contributing to education, health, humanities, and human services.

Sharing since 1952.

Online at jmmcdonaldfoundation.org.

(upbeat music) The View Center for Arts and Culture is an Adirondack exhibition and performance space, featuring in-person and online classes for creatives of all ages and abilities.

Open calls, events, and class schedules, online at viewarts.org - [2nd Announcer] All 13 episodes of "Painting with Wilson Bickford" Season Eight 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 "Sundown Beacon" 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 from at wpbstv.org/painting.

(mellow music) (mellow music continues) (upbeat music)