From the Easy Chair to the Easel

dracula

I was wondering what made others decide to start painting along with Bob Ross.

Like many of you, probably, I grew up watching Bob Ross on TV and always had a fantasy of following along. When I was younger, the expense of oil painting made the barrier to entry too great, so I primarily painted in acrylic.

A bit over a year ago, I finished work on a long, complex (non-painting) project and was pretty burned out on creative decision-making. That said, I am always making stuff and being creative generally, so following the Joy of Painting seemed like a great way to start painting landscapes in oil in a fun and relaxing way.

Painting along with Bob on a weekly basis has put me on a very rewarding trajectory and deeper study of landscape painting in general. I'm am planning to eventually use what I'm learning to produce my own body of work. Maybe in another couples years.

What made y'all go from sipping iced tea in the good ol' easy chair to picking up your paints & brushes and following along?

anabutrico

Unlike you, I didn't know Bob Ross until about 2 years ago on YouTube. I'm 28 years old, but I'm brazilian so It wasn't something I would stumble up very easily.

I'm a psychologist, but I've been strugling with ansiety about one year. Trough this process I've learned that art in general can be very helpfull, so I entered this world and I'm in love. I'm on my 5th painting and, for now, Just want tô hang them on my walls or give them as presents to my family and friends.

I'm sorry for my english! 🙂

Lilikins

I grew up watching Bob Ross on PBS. My friends and I did one of those “painting with a twist” classes where you paint while drinking copious amounts of wine and I commented that I could probably do the same thing while watching Bob Ross. For my birthday my friend got me a little starter set of acrylic paints.

I’ve only been painting since March, but it’a become one of my favorite ways to unwind on my days off. Nothing is more relaxing than spending an afternoon with Bob! Someday I would like to graduate from acrylics to oils but until then I just follow along with him as best as I can.

Sunnylady

My story goes back some time. I liked painting when I was 14-16 years old. At that time gouache and watercolors only were affordable. But I mixed them to achieve thick textures. One of those best early paintings was hanging on the wall for almost 10-12 years. And that was a landscape with a rock and pine tree on it and a water body across the beautiful blue sky. As you know at that age girls are very sensitive to the critics and my brother was not modest about criticizing at all. So I stopped. Then there was a lot of studying and students parties and first loves, so no time for painting at all as you would guess. After I graduated and got employed I substitute my desire to paint by digital photography, I really loved the process, I had wonderful support from my husband with photography. Then we had quite a curious geographical move and we could not travel inside that country until one time we broke all those rules and drove to somewhere special. There was a wonderful and incredible beauty of the almond trees blossoms. We went to the store and I bought a first set of acrylic paints in 2014 or 2015 to paint those beautiful trees and mountains. Since then I was painting, first with acrylics for 4 years (painting with a twist and what not) . This is when I discovered Bob Ross videos. I fall in love with his way of painting and very often was falling asleep while watching Youtube with him painting. Then while I was in USA I learnt there are classes held by instructors, I went to paint with certified Bob Ross instructor - Lynn Harris and I fall in love with oil paints but did not think I am good enough to paint in oils plus I had a full studio setup for acrylics, I did not want to spend additional money. Then in 2019 with a push from my husband I got oil paints and got away from nervous acrylic painting. I started enjoying relaxing way of painting nature with Bob, His personality influenced me and I started getting to my own internal calling for painting. He taught me I can do anything and achieve anything I want just need to be curious and learn things. Also my husband is very supportive to my love of painting and I am grateful to him for it. Another important thing is that with time I got more calm when it comes to critiques, because this is learning process too even sometimes I overreact 🙂.

I am very-very grateful to Lynn, German Orihuela, Bob Ross, Kevin Hill, Mark Carder, Bill Alexander, Igor Sakharov, Bob Burridge, Tatyana Zubova and many many others whom I met on my painting path.
I am also very grateful to the community here for a wonderful and kind support and growing together as artists when exchanging knowledge and providing feedbacks. Especial thanks to @Felix for creating this great place that unites people from all the different countries!

Felix

I started in 2015 when twitch.tv had the "The Joy of Painting" marathon for Bob's birthday. That was when I first discovered Bob Ross (he's not big in Europe).

I got an oil painting starter set for christmas that year and really liked it.

When I noticed that there wasn't any organized way to chose which Bob Ross episodes you're going to paint along with I decided to just build something. That was when TwoInchBrush.com was born!

It took from September 2016 to March 2017 (I think) to force myself to watch all 403 episodes of the show, gather the used colors and add a screenshot, maybe a small description. The website got a big boost when Huffington Post wrote an article about it. All the other content like painting-uploads and comments came later.

Now I'm only painting in oils maybe once a year as I just have the space to keep an easel set up in my apartment. I'm just starting to learn to draw in pen and ink. Really liking it for the small amount of space it uses at the moment.

The work on TwoInchBrush.com became sort of my creative outlet for the last three years. Writing code is an astonishing creative activity!