Felix, I would suggest that either you limit the event to paintings that are ones Bob did or slight variations like same painting without a cabin. I have sent hundreds of students to your site as the best place to search and discover various paintings by Bob.

My experience with other sites like Facebook groups around Bob is that artists who are not following Bob’s technique at all get accepted and post odd paintings that have nothing to do with Bob. There are plenty of art sites - I would urge you to keep this focused on Bob and his work.

At a minimum, every event should have a category of “Best execution of a Bob Painting”.

Yesyoucanpaint Thanks for you input, I really appreciate it! There is a discussion happening about whether we should be limited (or focused) on BR-recreations happening already: https://www.twoinchbrush.com/forum/d/55-should-a-bob-ross-fan-site-contain-all-kinds-of-paintings/13
Maybe you'd like to bring your point up there too? 🙂

At a minimum, every event should have a category of “Best execution of a Bob Painting”.

I don't see the benefit in including such a category. Events are there to get people to try new stuff and explore themes they've never done before or try new techniques. People can upload BR recreations here everyday.
Including such a category and giving awards for best execution is not really the spirit I'm going for with these events. Especially since there are trained Bob Ross instructors on here too, who would snatch up every single one of these contests which would only lead to discouragement for other painters

    Lilikins I agree with you. Bob said many times he's not teaching you to copy, all he does is teach you the technique and set you free on the world, that this is an introduction to the world of art for people who have never even painted before, and that people go on to become artists and do their own thing. He seemed genuinely happy to do that. He made everybody welcome and I get the impression he wasn't about setting boundaries by the way he cared for tiny creatures, then set them free. In any case, where would you draw the line? (pardon the pun). Bob has a massive following and even though there might be a small risk of the site becoming too watered down, there are probably enough Bob Ross lovers here to prevent that from happening. I have a beautiful antique Swiss alps painting by Pierre Delcour that I intend to do BR style when I've had more practice.

      I would say at least a month for "event cycles." For working professionals, busy parents, a week or two is probably too short to give everyone a chance to participate. We need to be mindful that not everyone paints wet-on-wet in one sitting like Bob Ross did (& me!). Some people are using acrylics and painting in many layers.

      Very cool idea. Of course, you can experiment with the cycle time and track stats to see what works best for the community.

        I agree w/TZ.One month sounds reasonable for event cycles.I love using BR wet on wet.Especially for sky,trees & water.when I use acrylics(that dry so fast)i add some fresh white under my trees,then push the paint into the canvas.I like what happens.In my 1st few paintings I was amazed at the effect.Trees look almost real!
        Im happy to be doing the forum.Its my 1st.Cheers.P

        @Felix I was wondering, at the end of this contest, would it be possible to group all the entries together on a separate page so they can all be viewed together for a few days to vote on? Each time I see a new "contest" painting posted, I want to vote on it because they are all so wonderful. I feel like they get lost with all the other paintings posted, and could potentially miss votes they would get otherwise.

        doggymommee8301 You can click on the banner on top your newsfeed or via the top menu: Community -> Events

        Would a "view all entries" button in the banner make it clearer? I think more people are having this problem

            Ahhh, good to know! Thanks Felix for the clarification. Yes, I think a "view all entries" would be quite helpful!

                a month later

                Felix could I suggest an idea for an event? How about taking a photo of your choice then painting it. I've only painted from a photograph once and I personally find this very challenging but also very rewarding and I think other members might enjoy it the process. Could we perhaps when the painting is completed upload 2 pics, ie, the photo and the finished painting, the challenge wouldn't necessarily need to be to create something identical, just an interpretation. I found it challenging and exciting to mentally unravel a photograph and then to build up the layers in paint form and get them down on canvas. It would open up a whole new world for some of us as we realise that we can paint without copying other painters work, similar to what you introduced us to with the water event. I have a few beautiful photographs that I took this summer which I would love to paint, but so far I haven't had the confidence to attempt it. I'm sure we would learn from each other on something like this. What do you think?

                Thank you Felix, I'm happy you like it. I did hope you wouldn't think I was sticking my beak in where it's not wanted, lol.

                8 days later

                I think that would be a wonderful idea, A small competition among friends would be fun, I look forward to seeing what I might be able to do !

                  21 days later
                  15 days later

                  Felix, as a new painter and seeing the standard of some more seasoned painters, I would be discouraged personally m entering a contest, I couldn’t possibly compare with many others here, however a painting of the month or something could be cool, especially if the month related to the current season, that could be cool.

                  what I find hardest is the image quality of the original on site, for me the thumbnail is find but the page with the original I find difficult to work from (and the video links don’t work for me either in the UK).
                  I often find I want to do a painting of the day then don’t have a black canvas or the required colours for it, and trying to find out how to actually do it is a whole other thing.

                  I have uploaded paintings then re done part of them, I also feel it could be nice to have the facility to show the stages of ones painting, without converting the original upload to an original as it loses the link back to the BR painting.
                  Sorry, I realise this post is about contests and challenges.

                      @Mrs C#968 Thanks for your inputs! The events are not contests, everyone is free to enter without competition. The three most liked entry still gets a special badge on their user profile. But nobody can see how many "likes" each painting has received.

                      The images are taken directly from the YouTube videos uploaded by the Bob Ross company, so there is sadly nothing I can do to raise the image quality.

                      Adding more images to "non-originals" is a good point, I'll check how much work would be needed to make this possible.

                      Mrs C - I too live in the UK. Have you tried right clicking your mouse button whilst hovering over the full size image and then posting it into something Photoshop or even Word. These programsw ill enable you to zoom in to the image to let you see clearer details - if that is what you want to do.

                      As Felix said, this is not a competition site where you vie against others. The site is where you can paste you work, warts and all, to show what you have done and how much pleasure you had doing it, happy accidents and all.