Getting to Bob Ross in Acrylics

[Yellow Ogre]

My daughter is coming home from college and wants to take up painting - ie.e. use my paint stuff for a Bob Ross video course. I am not going to be home for a while.

I understand the Bob Ross method uses a wet-in-wet with a liquid white undercoat. How do you duplicate that in acrylic?

White liquid gesso with retarder or water was my first guess.

[tj84]

Some parts /techniques are doable with acrylics, not so much the full wet on wet part of it. Unless you work very very fast..
I usually do layers of acrylic colors instead of the BR wet/wet.
One nice thing is , if you mess it up just let it dry and go over top of it.

But his brush use & techniques/style for greenery and scenery are pretty easy to catch on to.

I've used his style from PBS tv shows & youtube with water color & acrylics.

If she really wants to step up some notches skill wise she should look up the Jerry Yarnell website & his youtube vids. Also on some PBS stations.

Also the Partner: WetCanvas Live! section here is really good place to learn and see critiques & explanations.
http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=528

[RayleneAus2]

Jerry Yarnell is amasing in his teaching .. i have only been painting a few months and have just cottoned on to jerry and have learnt heaps ... my first attempt was a bob ross style and it was was to quick and i could not grasp anything. I also do not like his style because i downloaded about 40 videos of his and watched them all and in the end i could not work out any differance in paintings - everything just looked the same and really no detail.

[chammi kaiser]

I would certainly choose a Jerry Yarnell course against that of Bob Ross. All his paintings are almost identical to each other and sort of pretty/pretty and in my opinion far too 'chocolate box-like' and I think she would learn more with Jerry Yarnell. I agree with Raylene completely.

[keith.a]

Check out Tim Gagnon on youtube , he is an amazing artist. I just came across him a couple days ago while studying landscape techniques . His videos are timelapes but you still get the idea .

[Mz_Sketch_Pad]

jerry yarnell is excellent as well as the pbs show welcome to my studio with helen van wcyk. she explains art technicques such as shadows and lighting

[cem]

I must agree. Jerry Yarnell is the way to go. I have learned so much from him.

[autolisp]

You can do the BR technique with acrylics. Darrell Crow is the artist you want to watch. Like Jerry Yarnell he is easy to watch and very informative. He has a DVD in which he demonstrates the very topic you have asked. Google his name and visit his site.

autolisp

[Yellow Ogre]

AutoLisp,

Thanks for the heads-up on how to do Bob Ross wet-on-wet with acrylics.


When I first started painting, I learned from Bob Ross videos and books. He made it simple and fun. I learned how to paint clouds and trees and reflections in water first from from him (and many others later). I don't paint anything like him now but I am grateful for what he showed me and I still take his advise to look at happly little clouds and trees a lot.

God Bless

[Aires]

I wish I'd known about the Jerry Yarnell method of acrylic painging when I determined to learn to use acrylics as it would have saved me a lot of frustration with fast drying and blending. There are many free acrylic demonstrations on the internet but I think Jerry's methods best demonstrate how to keep acrylics moist and workable for seamless blending. Taking advantage of his techniqe does not limit an artist to any one style of painting, you ae free to follow your individual preferences.