The ANSWER, a day late and a painting short

I LOVE Saturday mornings. 7:30am (KAET Channel 8 - Phoenix Valley) is The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross. Today he started with a black canvas. Just like my Series 2 #3 painting last week. I had decided to use a "liquid clear" layer over the acrylic black canvas. Today after seeing this additional episode AND after having done the same treatment last week, I'm pretty sure I didn't need the clear layer.

The reason being that he used a layer of transparent color on both. Mine last week was Aliz.Crimson and Phathlo Blue, and today on TV he used Phathlo Blue and Phathlo Green. In both cased, you don't really see the color on the black. It's when you add the White that it becomes opaque as you start to blend the two.

My painting last week ended up SHINNY with the undercoating. While my paint did indeed move on the canvas, I believe it may have had the same effect from simply the Aliz and Blue.

Here's the photo.  I really dislike it (I typed "hate it" but went back and was nicer to myself) because my white cap waves are NOT believable.  I should have blended them more. I also need to stop making those "smiley faces" with my fan brush.

My trees, while eliciting a compliment from my 18 yr old son, are just . . well, bad.  The grass and bushes are my least favorite as they are WAY TO BRIGHT . .  and I even heard Bob say "be careful you don't make it so bright ya can't stand it" but it must have been after I actually painted them because it was too late.

Lately I have been yearning to go outside and paint something (Plein Air style) that isn't fed to me on DVD.  That would be the real goal of painting with a Bob Ross or Bill Alexander style painter.  Learn techniques that you can apply to your own compositions.  I want to be able to see trees and KNOW how I'd paint them.  It's starting to happen.  I see rocks in and along streams and I can see the contrast between the dark and highlighted sides.  I look and know how I'd paint that.  I silently (sometimes to my husband out loud) say that I'm going to put one of those in my world.

I've been visiting other web sites and forums, just looking for places to learn.   One that I found just recently via another blogging artist site is The Wet Canvas (www.wetcanvas.com) they are very friendly there and while it's FILLED with Artists who can really call themselves artists, many still took the time to welcome me and comment on my painting.  Compared to them, what I'm doing is just entertainment (for me and MiMi and anyone else who wants to watch the video) but someday I'm going to be an artist.

Share the Joy.
Kay

OSU Art Professor Scot Kaplan 30 min. Performance

Here's a guy actually painting WITH Bob Ross' a couple years ago, in a performance at a gallery or similar. Professor Kaplan did a 30 paintings, 30 days, 30 minutes series and was showing the paintings. At that showing he did this video. It's cool. People were cheering him on. Share the Joy, Kay

Series 2 -#3 - Ebony Sea

My first black canvas painting. If you read previous posts you'll see the treatment that was done prior to painting. In the end, Bob was done before I got to the trees and grasses, and there were some horrible "accidents" that didn't make me too happy.

But I promised to post the video, so I did. It's too long and I thank anyone who makes it to the end. When I get it down to 30 minutes real time, the shortened videos should be more watchable. 30 min real time looks good sped up to run 4-6 minutes. So let's hope for that next time. PLEASE leave comments (if you have them) it keeps me motivated. Share the Joy, Kay

I was feeling real good about painting, until I started. . .

Right now I am taking a break.  Yes I started a new painting today.  Probably should NOT have because it is getting late and I'm loosing light (I paint in a huge room that has lots of windows up high, so I don't need lights to video tape) but as usual Bob is done, and I am not.   


I am NOT happy with my painting.  I swear I have forgotten EVERYTHING I've tried to learn.  I watched this video 2 times before starting.  (Not all today, but this week here and there) So when we started I felt confident that I'd be able to keep up. But I quickly got behind and panic set in.  You'll see it in the video.


It didn't help that I've been having a couple of conversations with a few of you and I've seen some of your paintings.  I really wanted this one to be good too.  I was feeling good about the under painted background.  The black canvas that stared at me all week was finally being looked upon. I decided to use liquid clear before the Aliz/Ph.Blue treatment, and I think it went down hill from there.


However I WILL BE POSTING THE VIDEO.  I'm determined to not just do this, but to learn from my mistakes and get better.  I don't really want to just "copy" Bob's work (even tho that's the end result of painting along with his television series) but I don't seem to have any vision once I pick up the brush.  I SEE it when he's demonstrating it.  But I get stupid with a brush in my hand.  


Eventually I want to be able to use the technique I am learning and be able to make "my world" come out in the painting.  I know that it will eventually.  I just did episode 3 for heaven sake, it's not like I'm on #300 and still suck at this.  I have to get better.  Eventually.


Stay tuned.  I will post the whole sad event on video, which might turn out ok, because the whole video thing is really different than the actual painting.  If you don't get too close to it!


Share the Joy,
Kay

Dark Skies Ahead

OK I'm ready to do #3 in the series and have a small problem. I'm going to have to "make a big decision" and not the easy kind like where to put the land and the trees. I'm going to have to draw upon my extensive Bob Ross(tm) watching experience. All 8 months of it ;)

Sort of funny that I didn't know him as a child. We had pubic television. Heck I was ON "Bart's Clubhouse" in my home town (shout out to the Iowa folks from the 1960s) but I didn't see a Joy of Painting show until about 8 months ago when we hooked a tv up the the basic cable and couldn't get The Discovery Channel. . . but I digress . .

At the end of the last show he said we would be doing a black canvas. He said to prepare a canvas by painting it black with acrylic, and let it dry. So I did. Now I've watched the episode and he begins this one by putting Alys.Crimson in the center surrounded by Ph.Blue around it. The colors are transparent so you don't actually see them on the black canvas, until he started blending them with white.

What he didn't say was whether or not he put on the magic white (he still hadn't 'invented' his own liquid white, and used the Bill Alexander product . . . I love Bill Alexander too. They are putting a lot of his stuff on YouTUBE lately. I have watched a lot of him too. He's funny, in an old German Grandpa sort of way. Could have been MY grandpa) but again, I digress . . You might find I do that a lot.

Im guessing that at this early time (remember I'm on episode 3, probably from 1960's as well) there was no "magic clear" or "liquid black" or otherwise. I suppose one might have used Linseed oil on a dark canvas, because white would produce a grey effect. Nice maybe, but NOT what he was starting with.

He did say the Crimson and Blue were "transparent" and I don't know if he means the colors in general, or that he'd thinned them with something. His canvas still looks black AFTER he puts on these colors (he did this before the show began, and just "told" me about it, which is why I'm left wondering) but as he adds white to the center, it begins to pick up the red and blues, and they seem to be blending as if there is/was a liquid medium of some sort in play.

SO I'm going to make a big decision here. I'm going to decide to use liquid clear, or liquid black, or neither. I know what I'm going to do, but don't want to say so yet. Building suspense so that you just MUST come back when I'm done to see, or maybe so that you'll give me your advice and it won't spoil the audience pool. So I'll let you know, or you let me know. Whichever comes first.

Share the Joy, Kay

TRANSFORMER di ROBOTER

If you are a Bob Ross fan, you will thank me for this . . . It's a most hypnotic song that you will be singing if you listen to it. . . . "see that lonely cloud, let's give him a friend"

Share the Joy, Kay

Series 2 #2 -Winter Sun

OMG - That was HARD. I forgot how to hold the brush, and my colors got all mixed. In the end I had lavender snow. BUT I DID IT. I broke the Ice with this Icy painting.

Sort of anticlimactic considering Valentine's Day and the Start of the Olympics and all, but my own little Victory none the less.  I had watched the episode a couple of times before starting.  I ran it once at regular speed with sound. That's the one that makes me drift off. Then again, muted.  Then I ran it in fast forward just to remember the scene we were going for.  Even after all of that preparation, I still fell behind Bob.  I had to pause him about 5 times throughout just so I could mix my paint (which I remembered that I'm horrible at) and then I ran out of white because I turned it all lavender with Alys.Crimson and too much Phalo Blue.  Oh Yea, AND since I am watching the earliest series the colors are not the same.  He's using Burnt Umber and I don't have Burnt Umber.  I know it's probably just like something else.  I need to Google that.*

Anyway, please enjoy the video.  I edited out a lot of "thinking" time, and of course sped it up 4x normal.  I still think it's a little long for enjoyment.  Next time I'm going to edit it down more so we are entertained, and not bored.

Share the Joy,
Kay

*Wikipedia : Burnt Umber was one of the frequently-used colours on the pallet of Bob Ross during early seasons of The Joy of Painting. Later he switched to mostly dark sienna for his lighter brown colours, while still occasionally using a Burnt Umber acrylic to under-paint some of his works.

My husband gave me flowers just before he left me . . .

alone with his mother on Valentine's Day weekend.

It's the weekend for lovers. The weekend to prove to those you love, how much you love them. Of course when my daughter and her friends wanted to go skiing for the weekend (no school Monday) my husband wanted to prove to her how much he loves her so he's making the sacrifice.

But I ask you, which one of us made the bigger sacrifice?  For context, we've been married for nearly 26 years this year, so Valentines Day while cute and all, is overrated. And though MiMi does require some effort and attention, we're talking 3 days without the kids or husband. Nothing to worry about. Well mom will worry about things anyway, but I'm going to paint.

I'm going to paint at least 2 of the series paintings, if not 3. That's just like me, set a goal. Not a small one. Oh No. Go Big. I've already proven to the few people who've read anything I've written here that I'm a huge procrastinator.

But I work best under pressure (yea, so you've said) and this is my weekend.  So if you have nothing else to do, stay tuned.  I'll post the painting video as soon as it's done, so it could be a busy weekend of blog following. . . I'm just kidding . . that's sort of lame.   But then who really cares?

Share the Joy,
Kay