Wilson Bickford - Video Art Lessons"Mountains" DVD

good series, perfect for the beginner and will give confidence. He's the best and completing one of these with easy directions will make you feel like an artist!

If you want a good beginner DVD buy this. He is the modern day Bob Ross. Easy to follow and lots of fun.

I like wilson bickford and the way he paints.

Easy to follow easy to paint with. When I follow his painting tips I feel like I am getting a personal lesson.

Very Simple and easy to follow instructions that anyone can follow. , Would like to get all of his art lessons.

I've watched a LOT of videos and read quite a few how-to-paint books in the last couple of years. I've been focused on acrylics but am getting ready to try oils. I've seen a few of Mr. Bickford's videos on youtube, have his book, and a couple of his brushes. I really like his teaching style. He's casual and friendly, yet very clear and concise in his direction and instruction. He doesn't babble a lot, and knows exactly where he's going, so the video moves along very smoothly.This video is well over 2 hours long and shows three different mountain scenes. You don't just see how to paint mountains, but also get some little mini-lessons in painting skies and trees as well. There is an easy, medium, and harder demonstration for those who want to push themselves a bit. His method for painting mountains is REALLY cool and easy, and different than the way you've probably seen before (using the pallet knife to drag the paint over the canvas until it breaks). That way is great, and looks really good, but as he points out, it's more tricky and takes more practice. His way anyone can do, with basically no practice and a small, trowel-style pallet knife.One other thing of note is that Mr. Bickford rarely cleans his brushes with solvents. He usually just wipes them off on a paper towel. The only time he used solvents in any of the demonstrations on this DVD was to thin out the paint for painting tree limbs. So, for those of us who are very health-conscious, that's a good thing to know. I just want to add that you don't actually need harsh solvents for oil painting. You can also use baby oil (to clean brushes) and walnut oil (or similar oil) to thin the paints.At any rate, if you are new to painting and you really want to paint mountains, this DVD is a no-brainer. You won't be disappointed.UPDATE: His mountain texturing technique looks SO easy, it seems to be fool-proof. It's not =) It is very hard and I haven't been able to get it right, yet. I wish he'd discussed the variables that could affect this technique, more. I've tried several different things and just can't get it to work.