First Thoughts

After completing my first wet on wet “Alla Prima” Bob Ross style painting, I have learned several things.

• If you’re contemplating giving it a try, don’t wait for all the conditions to be “perfect”.
• Jump in with both feet and go for it!
• Bob completes a whole painting in roughly 27 minutes, nearly the amount of time it took me to prep the palette with the colors. My painting took approximately 2.5 Hours.
• Bob has a slew of brushes at the ready, Multiple Fans, Large Landscape brushes, 1″ landscapes, etc. I had one of each, so where he doesn’t spend a lot of time cleaning brushes, I became a master of it. This takes time.
• Beating the devil out of the brush is fun, and it also is a great way to re-decorate your workspace. Make sure if your doing this that the splatter doesn’t get on your painting. (this didn’t happen to me but it has potential to be an issue). For less than $20 you can get a trashcan from your local store, get a small basket from the kitchen area like something you sit in a sink. Push the wire basket into the trashcan so it sits at the bottom, with the bottom of the rack facing up. You now have a nice contained brush beating area. If you get the trashcan with the lid, it will contain most all of the smell.
• Odorless Paint Thinner isn’t exactly Odorless. Regardless of the name, the aromatic components of the stuff actually smell bad. If the fragrance offends you, May I suggest Gamblin Gamsol. It has 100% of the aromatics removed, and it smells no different than water. Works great, and will help those of you who suffer from Asthma or other breathing related issues.
• When loading the palette knife, different effects are achieved from loading the knife correctly. For laying the snow on the mountains, the paint is “rolled” on the “Bottom” edge of the knife. This allows the top down method of applying the paint so it breaks “leaves little gaps”, allowing the base color of the mountain to show through. Water lines are generally painted by loading the “TOP” edge of the knife. I’ll post some pictures of this with a little more detail sometime later.
• A typical oil painting takes a LONG time to dry, resist the urge to touch it somewhere that looks dry, it isn’t. You’ll only end up with unsightly fingerprints on your painting. I painted mine on 2-22-20, a week later some spots were still wet.

You too, can make beautiful things happen on canvas… Bob Ross

Until Next Time…