Does the Bob Ross method of painting really work?

Did you realize he died in 1995?
He is really fun to watch and has that soothing voice. I don’t know this since I’m not an artist but I would think you would have to have some talent in order to paint like him.

Yes, I knew he was long gone but I did not know when. His shows are still floating around on various Roku channels. He was doing these in the 80s and 90s, waaay before Photoshop and digital tricks could be used. He is amazing to watch. It seems like he never makes a mistake or has an “Oops moment”. He tosses the brush around and, zip zap, there is the ocean with waves, foam, rocks, sand, clams, fish and seabirds! I can hear the sea gulls calling!
“Just have fun with it.” Surely there is more to it than that!?!?!?

His hair style and the period he was doing these shows make me think his “happy little trees” could be the result of acid.
But he is really good!

I grew up watching Bob Ross on PBS. It would come on right after Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. While I still have never painted with oils, I use a lot of the techniques I learned from Bob Ross when I’m painting with acrylics.

A happy little tree always has a friend. They go in your world, wherever you think they should go. There are no mistakes, only happy accidents.

Bob’s show started a fairly big art movement, and there were Bob Ross method classes everywhere. Some of the episodes will show little kids using his method and painting gorgeous seascapes.

You can still get Bob Ross art supplies at the craft store.

I recently read a biography where someone talked about the hours of practice Mr. Ross put into each painting. By the time it came to filming, he’d have worked the basics of each painting out multiple times.

now to figure out whose biography I was reading

The wet-on-wet technique he used can result in good paintings by reasonably talented people. Other people end up with things that look like awkward PBN (paint by number) efforts.

Side note: a friend of mine used to work as a gravedigger and groundskeeper at Woodlawn Cemetery, and he says the proudest moment of his career was digging Bob Ross’s grave.

I don’t know, but it sure did for Bob, RIP.

van Gogh and Rembrandt together couldn’t make ME a painter.

It may interest you to know he put in 20 years with the Air Force, and many of his paintings are inspired by the sights he enjoyed in Alaska when he was stationed there.

He swore when he quit the Air Force to paint full time, that he’d never yell again. He was quoted saying that he paints because he wants to be happy, and he can paint his world to be as beautiful as he likes. If you want to see something ugly, you can watch the news instead.

I attended a Meetup event at a West Hartford “learn to paint” venue, the Muse Paint Bar, which has apparently become a nice little chain of income generators for some brilliant entrepreneur. The place was packed.

It was a fun event, and we were invited to attend “regardless of skill level”. Well, I do have some experience with painting, but that was mostly walls and a wooden porch floor, and many years ago, so nothing that was ever suitable for framing; nothing on canvas.

The instructor had us all “duplicate” as well as we could an existing – fairly simple-looking – painting in acrylic on canvas. It’s surprising what a little bit of instruction and a lot of practice can achieve. The instructor made a dandy painting that very closely duplicated (or bettered) the original in terms of the effect we were trying to achieve. He also had time to instruct us in the techniques, from mixing colors to sequencing to various brush techniques, and to wander around (as much as he could – the place was literally jam-packed) and offer helpful hints individually.

In this case the painting was not any kind of photo-realism, just “a painting that looks like another painting that looks kinda sorta almost like a scene from nature”. Most of the class did remarkably better than one would have expected from people who have never done this sort of thing before.

And my own work, while not suitable for framing and hanging, was also not worth throwing away, either.

I would expect that you could use those techniques to make gradually better and better paintings… if you were to practice them.

I love those painting with booze classes! I’ve done several, and taught one, and it’s always a lot of fun.

It’s always fun to watch demos but I’ve never studied with a teacher whom I was made to copy. I guess it’s a valid way to learn technique but I don’t feel you’re finding your artistic voice that way. Even with my first teacher, we worked on our own subjects and she made suggestions. But whatever floats your boat.

I like to look at the end result first and then try to imagine how he did it. Where did he start? What was the bottom layer? I am always wrong. When he paints a tree (swish! swash! swoosh! – in 10 seconds), it looks like a freaking tree! It has branches and pine needles and bird nests and snow and shadows and… What the ? How the ? And we all watched him do it!!!

I’m glad to hear that he practiced for hours before producing a particular scene. The spacing and layout is always so perfect. What a mind.
My result would not look so good. I have trouble making my signature fit on a line!

I do love the hair style and how the low resolution TV smooths it out. In HD it would probably look like an angry ‘fro. This way he looks as mellow as he sounds.

I’d love to see a Mr Rogers v. Bob Ross “Mellow off”. We could all watch while dressed in footy pajamas and drinking warm milk with chocolate chip cookies just before bed.

My daughter is a wonderful artist, and she loves Bob Ross.

@LuckyGuy Let’s do that on November 8!

Remember the Malcolm Gladwell meme about all it takes to become really proficient at something is 10,000 hours of practice? I’m sure Bob Ross put in the time. It is fun to watch and pretty amazing.

My first teacher encouraged us to paint something every day. I don’t and I should.

(I’m watching it and falling asleep – which is a good thing! So soothing.)

Bob would win the mellow-off, he has baby squirrels, and Mr. Rogers has creepy hand-puppets.

He was cool to watch but unless you want to reproduce, step by step, paintings that might be lucky to be found in a Best Western motel room, meh….I am the free spirited creative type, I want to create, not copy, and always found drawing and painting books to be dull. I am not discounting some good tips here and there, but overall, I find any kind of rote applications to be a creativity killer.

The techniques are so amazing. I wouldn’t think to make my own color, or if I wanted to make a pine tree I’d have to use a tiny brush and make each pine needle. It would take me forever. Also he uses all sides of the brush, with strokes in all directions. That has been a no-no for me since I learned to paint the porch deck.
No question, he is(was) talented.

I have never tried his method in full, as I am not a landscape guy, I am more of a subject man with action and people or objects as the focus, and more enchanted worlds like that of Frank Frazetta. From an artist perspective, I say Bob Ross’ style is a great example of the economy of brush strokes; it is more color and contrast than actual detail. But because any ”realism” in art is created by the contrast of light and dark how he has mastered it in very few brush strokes, it obviously works. What is not there in detail the mind puts there, like when you think you can actually see an elk stroll out of the tree line or see a whale breech the surface of the water. Production of trees in art is not that difficult if you study the nature of trees to work the pastern of nature. If I were a landscape guy like him, and could knock them out like that, even if each piece were let go for a paltry $75 bucks, I could still make a small killing.

You also have to pay attention to which type of brush he uses and when he switches from one to another.

You can get amazing results from one little fan brush which would take 10 times longer using a diffetent type, if at all.

What i like most about his approach is that its not dogmatic and is very well suited for people who just cant draw well. A lot of people are scared off from trying to paint because they think that one has to be able to draw fairly photo-realisti:ally. His technique is the pergect counter to that mistaken belief.

I couldnt draw accurately to save my life but after watchinv him for years and going to a street fair and watching a pretty sloppy and mediocre face painter, i just knew i could do better; much much better.

And so i did and made a decent amount of coin and had tons of fun in the process.

So, my type of paintinv wasnt his but i learned a lot from him both in attitude, freedom, blending and using different brush types.

His enthusiasm is contagious.

If you type “Bob Ross” into the FB search bar, you’ll find tons of pages and groups about his paintings and people who imitate them.

@Buttonstc is right – the correct brush with various techniques can make a world of difference.

I certainly am not going to take up the hobby. I just appreciate what he does with little apparent effort or forethought. Zip zap Done! A happy little tree!

The key word here is “apparent”

@Buttonstc “apparent” Absolutely! That is why I asked the question. I doubt that mere mortals can make a tree look as happy.

There’s some finesse in learning how to use the brushes, and gaining the right muscle memory. The pallet knife technique he uses to do the mountains and little houses blows me away. It really makes me want to invest in oils and learn how to do it.

@LuckyGuy I watched the whole clip. I am fascinated by such apparent talent and ability to picture mentally what you want to paint, put it on canvas and see the dimensions “come alive”.

@si3tech Incredible, isn’t it? He has a whole channel on Roku TV. All Bob Ross all the time.

Not a painter, could not say, but I remember watching the show occasionally. Unfortunately I thought it was the most boring thing ever.

Why not angry little skulls, cute little entrails and discontented birds of depression?
But no. The man had skills, and while I didn’t appreciate him as a kid, mostly because I wasn’t interested in his clouds and trees, I watched it because I thought it was cool how he came up with whole paintings so fast. He’s also a meme on the internet, and it’s one of the least annoying ones, in fact it’s endearing.

Bob Ross rules!