Some parts of this website will not work with Internet Explorer.

Please use a different browser such as Chrome or Firefox.

Original Creation

No. 14

Alex_Ander 19 Apr 2021

Took a 12x16 canvas, oriented it portrait-wise, and tried to paint bigger while envisioning it a 16x20 landscape canvas (with the outer 4 inches chopped off). I thought I'd put fewer things in there, and it shouldn't take as long. Right? Wrong. This still took me 3 hours to paint, not including prep and clean-up time.

How long would you folks take to create something like this?

Just watched Bob crank out a scene in 27 minutes while walking the treadmill. And that included a minute of him just showing one of his new birds. I decided to time him using the treadmill clock...

5 minutes to do a sky and a few clouds.
10 minutes for a snowy mountain.
7 minutes for background trees, a patch of distant snow and ground cover, and a few tall (& taller) pines.
The rest of the time was spent laying in some water and snow.

Now, I know I don't have his skill or years of experience, but still...3 hours for me to paint something simple like this?

So, I'm curious on your painting times. A rough estimate is fine.

As far as the work itself goes, I've done worse. I like the mountain. Not too keen on whatever's happening in the middle-ground area. And the foreground is 'so-so.'

Thanks in advance for your insight.

Regards,
Alex

Oils

Comments

Just re-read my post. Bob wasn't walking the treadmill while 'cranking out a scene in 27 minutes.' 😁 I was the one on the treadmill. Painting and walking at the same time...that would be a real feat.

Felix Creator of TwoInchBrush.com

That shadow color is on point!

At very beginning Bob Ross paintings were taking 2-4 hours. The longest for me was royal majesty. It was 5-6 hours if I remember correctly. Recent Bob Ross made with gouache on paper (Letter/A4 size) were taking 1.5-2 hours easily, the most recent ones I posted with oil and the same size of canvas panel like that paper were 1-2 hours. All this does not include cleaning and setting up time.
There is no point to rush yourself at all, you need to master the basics first, maybe 30 paintings or so, then you can try to speed up. However I do not see any value in rushing through the painting. If when you paint time disappears and you just realize when you look on the watch that three hours passed don’t even think to speed up, this means you are in your happy world and Flow with it.

Also I must admit that at some point I got tired of Bob Ross and started investigating other artists online like Kevin Hill, like painting with Yovette, etc. Now I do BR just for fun on smaller sizes, but still takes some time.

Thanks for the painting time frames, Sunnylady. That helps to know I'm sort of on point with others.

Watched two Kevin Hill videos. The second one was very similar to Bob Ross' style, even the words Kevin used were almost identical. I was taken aback by Hill's first one, though. He made a mess of the canvas, blotted off some of the paint with a paper towel, then went to work adding details. By the end of the video I was amazed at what he had done, a super landscape scene.

Thanks for the tips, words of wisdom, and new artists to check out.

I am a Bob Ross CRI, and it still takes me about 3 hrs to finish a painting (depends on the painting). I still watch the Bob Ross UTubes and try to follow his step by step. Sometimes I feel that takes me longer that way, than if I would just watch it once and then just start painting without following his step by step.

I think you are right, Christina. I just did a painting where I watched some of a Bob Ross video then tried painting that portion. And it seemed that it took longer than it should have. My next attempt will be what you said...watch it once then paint it.

Sign in to leave a comment.


Not a member yet?
Join over 5500 other painters and share your paintings with the world!

Register now