Bob Ross
I turned 28 last week. I don’t feel 28. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve aged past 1989. That was the best time of my life and I’m still living in that time period. I still buy G.I. Joes, I still play with my toy lightsabers, and my favorite movie is still Back to the Future. So I guess you could say I’m a 9-year-old stuck in a 28-year-old’s body.
Anyway, for my 28th birthday, I received a Bob Ross Joy of Painting paint set! I was so excited about this present. I know a lot of you out there have dreamed of trying to paint like Bob so I thought I’d share my experience with you. I for one have always wanted to try it. Painting appeals to me because it lets you create your own world in a visual medium. I’ve never been any good at drawing but I thought maybe I’d be good at painting.
Before I go on, let me explain that I have never painted anything in my life. I don’t consider myself an art expert. I told my cousin who was an art major in college what I am doing and he snickered. Apparently, Bob Ross’ style is ridiculed in finer circles. But I don’t care. He makes those clouds and mountains look more real than most paintings. (And no cracks about just taking a photograph.)
Before I started painting, I watched about 20 episodes of the show that I found online. I paid extra special attention to what he said and did in preparation for my first painting. The Bob Ross technique is a Wet-On-Wet technique – meaning that you first cover the canvas with a really thin coat of liquid white. This allows you to blend the paint right on the canvas.
My first attempt at doing the Bob Ross technique was a disaster. I used a small canvas – like a 6 x 8 inch canvas board. I used way too much liquid white. And if the canvas isn’t the size Bob uses, you don’t have enough canvas space to mix the colors enough. So my sky was drippy and too dark. I did 3 of these little boards before I realized my mistake.
I got really frustrated that the technique wasn’t working. I couldn’t get the paints to stick to each other and it all just blurred together. On the 2nd painting, I just got angry. Actually, the title of the 2nd painting is “I Got Angry.” The title of the 3rd is “Escape from Paint Island” because I actually quit. I didn’t want to try it again.
But after a few days of feeling like Bob Ross lied to me by telling me I could do it, I decided to try again, this time with a bigger canvas and painting along with Bob.
So the first thing Bob had me do was the sky and water. The blue is the easy part. The clouds were tough.
My biggest problem is getting the paint to stick to the underpaint. You have to use GOBS of white paint to make those clouds stand out. But in the end, I was quite happy. So far so good. I had made clouds.
Then came the mountains. This was cool. I used the knife to make the edges and then a clean brush to pull the shape.
Then the snow on the mountains. I did this with a tiny roll of paint on the knife. This is really hard. You can see where my hand touched the water and made dark spots. It doesn’t look this good up close. I still have to work on my snow.
Then I started with the trees. This is a SCARY point in the painting because I was so proud of my clouds and my mountain that I didn’t want to screw those up by messing up the trees.
And then came the foreground. By this time, my blood pressure is WAY up and I’m telling Bob to shut up and wait. I tried doing it as fast as he did but there was no way.
And after about 3 hours of working on a painting that takes Bob 22 minutes, I had a finished painting. I show you this not to get applause (because it really isn’t that good) but to say that Bob’s technique really does work. But it still takes a lot of practice to perfect his technique. I need to work on my trees and bushes. The paint still sort of blurs together and its tough for me to put a highlight color on top of a darker color because the darker color comes off the canvas and sticks to the brush and then it all just goops together. Really frustrating.
And here is Bob and me, painting together. I gotta grow my hair out and perm it like his.
At one point in the process, the painting fell onto the floor. Fortunately, I had an old blanket on the ground. Let me warn you, paint gets everywhere. It gets all over you. And it gets all over everything that is near you. I got a few spots on the carpet and on some clothes that I shouldn’t have been painting in. They came out because I treated them before they dried. But next time, I won’t be painting in my room. It will be in the garage.
So that is my Bob Ross painting adventure. I strongly urge you to go out and try it. You can get the paint set for about $90. Aside from that, you need canvas – I got 3 large boards for $10 – and you need some odorless paint thinner – that’s another $20. So for $120, you can get started painting the Bob Ross way.
Good job bob. Painting is so much fun! I’ll have to look his videos up online.
P.S. I see you finally bought a new computer monitor…is it apple? I can’t tell.
Great post… enjoyed it immensely.
looks great!
I did not snicker! I might have given that impression indirectly, though.
Seriously, if it gets you thinking visually and helps you to break down the construction of elements and spatial relationships, then go for it. Lookin’ good. I think you’d be surprised to see how much of this stuff you’re going to subconsciously incorporate into your filmmaking.
My wife loves this guy. He’s so soothing to listen to, but she has never tried painting anything other than the walls.
Hi. I just did my first Bob Ross painting today. (Same motiv as you did.) And I have much the same problems as you. I probably used to much color (liquid white and sky color) so when I tried to add the clouds then they immediately took up the blue paint and I could not make them stand out. Also agree that the snow is really hard and my bushes and trees also need a lot more practice. (I got a few bushes right so it is possible.) Glad to know I an not alone
I’ve seen him wipe the brush on a paper towel before going back into the paint – I think that might be a key to keeping the color from mixing too much. Thats something he doesn’t tell you to do. He also uses a little liquid white with his brighter colors – makes the paint thinner and sticks better. I’ll try that next time.
Hi, you gave me hope again!!!
I did my first painting this afternoon and can confirm all what you went through, paint everywhere, taking ages to do what Boib does in seconds, putting some of the black of my mountain in my sea (arrrgghhh). Still decided to give it another go tomorrow, though !
Yeah, keep trying Anne. You can do it!
I just got a Bob Ross set for my birthday as well. I am older and dumber and have no artistic talent myself. I have been watching many of his shows myself your problem with the paint nor sticking was mentioned by Bob in one show I watched “thiner paint sticks to thicker paint” you may need to thin the color for the snow some. Now after i get my snow working I will be here posting that my snow did not work either lol
Cool. Definitely post a link to how your painting turns out. I’d love to see it. We can share tips.
Hey Jeremiah,
Thanks for the post. It must have been about 4 years ago that I found myself watching Bob Ross on UK Living and I was totally amazed by how easy and quick Bob managed to do these paintings. With so little effeort and amazing results I had to try, I went out and bought myself a painting set but it was about £80 which was a little pricey but I had to give it a whirl.
I have only done one painting and I have photographed it and uploaded it below:
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/1706/dsc05614y.jpg
Now the painting took about 6 hours to complete and I think it is generally a success (I am no artist by any means). The problem though is that I haven’t attempted another painting since because a) I didn’t have the time and b) I am very worried that the first was a complete fluke and don’t want to do another one that doesn’t turn out as good.
But as you can see the results of mine and your paintings are pretty amazing considering I would find it challenging to draw a stick man without making a mistake.
I am going to give my Bob Ross painting set another attempt so am looking for some how too guides so far I have found –
http://www.bobross.com/howto3.cfm?type=Landscape&Page=MysticMountain
It looks like the painting you did was from the same set as mine.
Yeah, great job James. Let me know if you do another. Would love to know if it is a fluke. I doubt it. The principles seem sound.
After taking a really good look at your picture I must add that your Mountains look really good. I found this one of the hardest parts to accomplish.
I have also found another painting I might attempt called “The Great One”, I think a lot of his mountain pictures look the same. I am not so keen on the snowy ones or the flowers etc..
Have you done any other paintings since this?
James
Thanks James. As a matter of fact, I haven’t. I discovered Oil painting is terribly messy. I don’t have a place to do it. I’m glad I tried it – I know it works – but I don’t really have a desire to paint right now. Maybe later on.