Today I finally got to paint on canvas (and not on a pumpkin)! This might be the first time in the last 10+ years that I’ve painted on canvas. The task today is to paint Bob Ross’ Secluded Bridge by following his video. I painted this in a group setting, so time was limited!
I started off by choosing my brushes. I chose quite a few – round, flat, angle, fan, wash, and a couple more – trying to get different sizes and shapes to create different textures. I also didn’t want to have to get up from my seat in the middle of the video. For the paints, I didn’t really look at what colors each table had. I just chose a table that had a good view of the TV. Thinking back, I definitely should have considered the paints, since some colors are much harder to create if you don’t have the correct base colors.
The video started off with mixing a few colors. I did my best to follow, but he was going so fast I barely had enough time. The blue at my table was a bit dark, making my color look more blue than I wanted. Since we only had a quick glimpse of what the final painting should look like, I also didn’t think too much of it, but I would have preferred something that looked more like a sky blue. This color ended up becoming the sky and the ocean.
Next, we drew trees. For this part, I wish I had a closer look at the final product. Not only did some of my trees end up looking very thick because of the paintbrushes, I also didn’t know where to connect my trees. Bob Ross kept drawing more and more trees, but I had a hard time catching up to his painting speed and ended up with much fewer trees. My paintbrushes were also not able to recreate the same texture for the leaves, which I was just slightly annoyed about as I kept painting. It didn’t help that I was seated next to someone who wouldn’t stop talking.
We added in a piece of land and a waterfall. It took me some time to figure out how to use the brush properly for a waterfall, but by that time, the damage was already done! My waterfall ended up a little bit too dark. Two big trees and a bridge came next. I definitely liked these trees more than the first set of trees!
Just when I thought the painting was almost done, Bob Ross started drawing more land and a lot more bushes. More and more bushes everywhere. Then some more land. I ended up just painting enough to cover some of the blank spots on my canvas. Once that part was done, I decided to just let it be. No more trees and no more bushes.
My favorite tree is the big tree on the right. I wish my painting was a bit brighter and had some more different colors. My tree trunks also blended in with my bridge a bit, so I should have made one of them lighter.
Although this was an interesting (and at times, frustrating) experience to paint with a video, I would prefer to paint at my own pace. It was nice to be able to follow how he paints step by step, but with the different tools and paint colors, it actually became quite difficult. I might have been better off looking at the final painting and trying to paint off of that.
What do you think?