Painting with Bob Ross by Bob Ross Inc

Painting with Bob Ross by Bob Ross Inc. ISBN-13: 9781633226524 Paperback: 128 pages Publisher: Walter Foster Publishing Released: Oct. 9, 2018

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
In 1982, The Joy of Painting made its debut on public television. The unrehearsed, unedited show soon became a favorite among aspiring artists and painters. Almost 40 years and 403 episodes after his on-air debut, and decades after his untimely passing, Bob Ross still has enormous global popularity.

Painting with Bob Ross introduces you to the tools and materials you need to paint beautiful landscapes, as well as basic painting techniques, such as how to load your brush and how to paint with a knife. Following the introduction are 16 painting projects, each with a complete list of tools and materials needed and instructions for preparing the canvas. Jump into painting with step one, then follow the full-color painting progressions and clearly written instructions until you’ve reached the final step. This is the only Bob Ross book with all-color images.

Throughout this book, Bob’s quotes encourage you to keep going. You can paint graceful mountains, ocean waves crashing onto rocks, a winter cabin, a lakeside path, a deep forest river, and many more breathtaking views.


My Review:
I grew up watching The Joy of Painting. Bob Ross made oil painting look so magical. His encouraging words have stuck with me. He's the reason that I started painting (though not just oil painting) as an adult. I'd highly recommend his videos, though I'll mention his system requires that you buy his brand of paint and tools if you want to follow his methods exactly.

Painting with Bob Ross shows how to paint 16 of Bob Ross' paintings. The book started by describing the basic techniques of how to load the brush and such and then how to paint a basic tree, mountain, etc. This section was clearly explained, though it's even easier to follow if you can watch Bob Ross do it on a video. The 16 paintings are signed Bob Ross paintings, which suggested to me that there might be videos showing Ross painting them. Yup. I put several of the painting's titles into YouTube (like "Bob Ross Forest River") and it pulled up the original PBS video showing Bob Ross painting the scene. You can watch every step fully explained and demonstrated in real time on the video. Happiness!

So is the book still useful? It tended to have steps like, "Use these colors to make a dark green and follow the tree technique to create a line of trees at the base of the mountain." The accompanying illustration showed what the end result should approximately look like. Basically, if you're familiar with Bob Ross' method, this book should be fairly easy to follow and will help you produce a wide variety of landscapes. If you're a complete beginner or have no idea who Bob Ross is, you might be better off watching the videos.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.