Sources/Inspirations:
- Official Bob Ross YouTube or Streaming Channel
- Amazon Prime
- DVD (unavailable from this resource as of this writing - 5 Feb 2023)
- Book
Materials:
- 1 Canvas (18x24, but I use 16x20)
- 2" Brush
- 1" Brush
- #2 Script Liner Brush
- #5 Palette Knife - Detail
- #10 Palette Knife
- Palette
- Easel
- Paints
- Liquid White
- Titanium White
- Phthalo Green
- Phthalo Blue
- Prussian Blue
- Van Dyke Brown
- Alizarin Crimson
- Sap Green
- Cadmium Yellow
- Bright Red
- Clean-Up
Assignment
I have to say, that this one scared me a little. I mean, McKinley is kind of recognizable and my paintings well, are not ready for that level of ... recognition. But as Bob Ross says, the minute you buy your first tube of paint you are granted Artistic License.
Thank goodness for that!
So, I donned by Scrubs; picked up my brushes and went to work.
Now you will hear Mr. Ross talk about 'loading' the brush with lots of paint. Or loading a small roll of paint onto the knife. Those are important concepts which ... referring again back to finesse ... I currently lack.
However, what I was starting to discover, that in addition to these comments and concepts that I just could not get the right amount of paint to land on the canvas. No matter how much I tried I either ended up with way too much or way too little.
The little end, well that can be fixed. After all, we don't make mistakes just happy little accidents ... right? As long as we can recover or learn from the mistakes I would agree. However there are some other concepts I hadn't heard from Mr. Ross yet. Which is why you, dear reader, might want to watch more than 1 or 2 episodes before starting with your efforts.
Or perhaps not. Again, we often learn more from our mistakes.
It is said (on Wikipedia if you can trust that source) that Thomas Edison failed to create the lightbulb well over 1,000 times. When asked by a reporter how it felt to have failed so many times Edison (reportedly) replied that he didn't fail. He found numerous ways to make a better light bulb. (abridged).
Interesting take - but I cannot afford more than 1,000 canvas in an attempt to paint McKinley. I hadn't learned all the secrets yet. I still haven't. More on that later. Back to ugly babies.
After quite a bit of effort, I completed the following.
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| not Mt. McKinley (c) 10 October 2022 Gilbert Blankenship |
Now understand these comments are not meant to be self pity or seeking salvation from the reader - they are simply to show what I saw when I painted, and thus what a new painter might also see and feel.
This is definitely not McKinley, nor would it be recognized as such. Let's get that out in the open right off the bat. That aside - starting with the sky.
Here is where the paint issue comes in. Bob Ross talks about how easy it is to paint clouds. What I see are cotton balls which could not be "fluffed up" or "hypnotized" as he puts it, without absolutely SMEARING PAINT ACROSS THE WHOLE DANG CANVAS!
Common man!
I mean I had absolute GLOBS of white paint in there. If I breathed on it globs would go streaking across the thing. I tried to blend out the white into the blue and in places it just seemed to make it worse. And don't go thinking adding more blue to the sky will cover that mess up. HA.
The mountain - well I am back in 3d grade art class unable to draw a straight line. Thus "not Mt. McKinley". Now the shadow side. And I swear I did mix down the white - and on my palette it did look darker. What did I learn? Up close (where ya paint, you know six inches from the canvas) it looked ok. Once I cleaned up everything, walked away and came back into the room and looked at my results from a couple feet away it became obvious. Not dark enough. Simple to fix, but too late to fix for this guy. So what did I learn?
As the painting policeman said to me: "Step away from the canvas, sir".
Yup, if you are painting don't just focus on what you are doing. Step away, and focus on what you have done. If you continue to look too closely you will literally miss the forest for the trees.
Paint breaks to make the snow? Not happening. Just cannot get it to work. But, I did get the hazy kind of look at the base of the mountain - so I am claiming that as a win. After all, it's only my second painting (really, cuz I ain't counting the actual first painting).
Time to try the mid ground. Trees. Well, it doesn't look so hard in the video. And I think I didn't do a half bad job of it. Even the evergreens look ok ... at least to me. Pretty happy about those. Yes, some look a little carbon copy-ish but second painting? Ill take 'em.
Water. I am getting the reflections down, at least I think. But those dang straight lines again, with the little water ripples. Some are going up and to the right, some down and to the left, and other I have no idea - perhaps they are off to the movies.
Foreground. Despite the fact that I haven't left any dark in there I am actually kind of happy with the overgrowth look of this one.
Final touches. Bob Ross loves to scratch little sticks into the canvas. The concept is pretty easy. Using your knife simply scratch away the paint. It leaves the look of a stick in the ground and provides some depth. So in a rush I went scratching away. And, if you look closely there is a point where it looks like I have a small tree growing right up out of the lake.
Lesson: Slow down. Sure I could have fixed this too - but again, didn't see it until I had walked away and come back in to look at it from a distance.
Just gotta figure out those clouds. Maybe next week.
- Gil
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