Learning to Paint: Copying Bob Ross#6
April 2019.
I was getting the hang of using the least amount of liquid white and a smaller amount of paint to keep the painting dry and controllable. Once you get past the beginner mistake of putting too much paint on the canvas, the wet on wet technique is much more enjoyable!
My distant mountains are starting to look distant. For the first time I don’t press too hard while dabbing on the tree highlights: a light touch avoids the mistake of covering all of the shadow areas in the trees.
Recommendation: apply gray gesso in one or two layers to the store bought canvas and let it dry before you apply the Bob Ross liquid white. Why?
1) It makes putting on liquid white easier because the gray background allows you to better see where you have applied the liquid white and what parts of the canvas still need it. Liquid white on a white background makes you wonder where the liquid white is and where it needs to be.
2) As my paintings dried, streaks would appear across the sky and water. I believe the discount canvases I used, although pre-gessoed, were sucking up the oil from the paint causing uneven drying and permanent discoloration (I will show a picture of this problem in a later blog post).
Additional gesso should prevent streaking as it dries and using gray will make putting on the liquid white easier. Two birds with one stone.