During the coronavirus pandemic, The Joy of Painting television series provided comfort to many people in the UK, including me. Rather than just watching the show, I had a go at painting along with the presenter Bob Ross, and the results were quite pleasing.

While Bob Ross used oil paints, I initially used acrylic paints, as that was all I had. My sister kindly bought me a set of oils one Christmas so that I could paint along with Bob more easily (as acrylic paint dries quickly, whereas Bob made use of the wet texture of oil paint for things like reflections in water). I recently happened to find a small pad of black canvas in the stationery/art shop WH Smith, so I decided to revisit some of the episodes of The Joy of Painting that had used black rather than white canvas (when I previously painted along with those episodes, I had just used grey cardboard or black acrylic paint as the base for the scenes).

Fascinating to compare and contrast my early attempt with my recent attempt to paint the sea and a palm tree under the Moon. The acrylic painting has grey tones to it, whereas the oil painting is much more vibrant. The textures of the two scenes are different, as well.

SashaQ

22.07.24 Front Page

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