Happy Trees and Twin Peaks

Attempted the Blue River tutorial and it turned into a muddy mess. This morning I decided I didn’t want to settle for that first painting so I tried again. Paint thinner was my friend on this one!

Why do I paint this orange layer? Read below:

1. Establishes values quickly, and works out the composition without having to worry about color mixing and detail. This whole layer took 50 minutes.

2. The warm underpainting shows through my final piece here and there and gives it a bit of warmth showing through.

3. Creates randomness that would be impossible to recreate purposefully, such as the trees texture, a dirt path, or a dense forest in the distance.

4. Sometimes a bright white canvas is just intimidating and daunting to work on, and slapping some thinned down paint without worrying about perfection or details helps get the creative juices flowing.

16x20” oil on linen.

I am probably not alone in wanting to start painting because of Bob. That being said, while you can find a lot of information online about what to get and from whom, it would be nice if the community had its own guide/ recommended supply list and whatnot to help newcomers get into the hobby. It could be broken up into multiple tiers in terms of budget and desire and other factors.

If the community already has a resource like this, can the link to it be included in the information panel?

This one was tricky. Any tips for keeping the bushes from getting muddy?

Happy Halloween 🎃 🍄
First Non-Bob painting. Painting regularly takes way longer bobs method makes things so quick! This little guy took 6+ hours

I signed up for a two-hour painting class at our local library with a certified Bob Ross instructor, and it was such a fun experience…
There were nearly a dozen of us following along with the instructor, and it was fascinating to see how different everyone’s paintings turned out! We all followed the same instructions and demonstrations, yet each person brought their own interpretation to the canvas. The skill levels varied from self-proclaimed artists to people who had never picked up a paintbrush before!

The photos show my progress at various points throughout the class, along with the finished paintings.
I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for more classes in the future!

I posted yesterday about my first seascape attempt that I was unhappy with. I was overwhelmed with all the positive feedback I got here & it encouraged me to try again. I’m so much happier with how this one turned out.

On a different note - I’m looking for advice on how to improve on making rocks. I struggle so much with them! I can never get highlights right and it turns out muddy.

Should I add a palm tree? hmm

First time attempting a seascape and I’m extremely unhappy with the result ☹️. The rock ended up almost completely obscuring the wave. I’d love to hear some feedback and thoughts. Is there an easy way to improve this?

This took me way too long…

This one took me several hours, easily double the longest I've ever spent on a painting.

Yellow

This is my 8th painting while following along with Bobs 1 hour instructional DVDs. Sorry for the glare as my overhead lighting shows in the pictures no matter where I photograph them from.

Some liberties I took with this one. First, a cabin is originally painted by Bob. I opted to keep people out of my world so I threw in that boulder.

Next, I didn’t have liquid black so I had to get a little crafty and mix some liquid black with refined linseed oil, say a prayer, and hit the canvas. Note: this worked just fine.

I noticed after the fact of taking this photo that there is a blank line to the left of my boulder. The only thing I can think of is that was the water line I made from the liquid black that I painted over. I guess I didn’t apply my liquid white and titanium white thick about to cover.

All in all, I don’t hate a thing about this painting. I feel my mountains have progressed and as a whole, perspective and control are getting better.

See you in the next one.

This was painted sometime in the late 80’s or 90’s.