A Statistical Analysis of the Work of Bob Ross

And along those lines does anyone have a fortune(1) for spoken quotes?

there you go:

http://www.artic.edu/databases (TONS!) http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Collection/paintings/all-p...

I think the key phrase there is "look beyond symbol" - when you're illustrating something that has lettering, for example, one often starts writing out the letters instead of illustrating the shape of the letters. The same thing commonly happens when drawing eyes - people learn a technique for "how to draw an eye," and when they move on to a full portrait, instead of trying to reproduce or illustrate the image they see before them, they call their internal "draw an eye" function.

I can't speak to this specific teacher, but as an art school grad I can say there is a really sad strain among teachers to denigrate anything a) pleasingly figurative, and b) commercially successful. Thomas Kincaid is painted with the same brush, his landscapes are conventionally pretty, if a little kitschy, and wildly lucrative.

A surprising number of fine arts professors in modern art schools couldn't draw a convincing likeness if they tried and fewer make a healthy living so there is a tendency to snipe at those more successful.

"Art School Confidential" is a great movie if you want a picture of what it's like at art schools today.

leviathant is correct. My art teacher started each beginner class with a survey that asked students to draw "a house," "an eye," "a tree," etc. He then compared the typical student's drawings with real photographs by pointing out the differences in proportions, "you couldn't even walk through this door," etc.

In general he related things back to symbol vs. reality, the way the brain falls back on abstraction and its unique symbol-vision, and then showed us how a study of proportion and negative space gave us more practical creative power than we had back in symbol-land. He would put a bunch of chairs and objects on a table, wrap it in plastic, and say, "let's all draw that. Start with the negative space." This all goes back to Dr. Betty Edwards' works. In my experience I was even better at analyzing and approaching cartoony, symbolic styles after this practice than I was before.

Edit: Getting back to your question :) I think my art teacher was annoyed by an attitude of "how cool is Bob Ross--look, he's sharing his tree technique where he uses a fan brush," kind of squandering (in his opinion) an opportunity to finally show the public how to see, an opportunity to equip them with useful mental tools for approaching any kind of art.

You may wish to listen to Grayson Perry's Reith Lecutres from last christmas. He talks, amongst many other things, about how "beautiful" is apparently the worst word you could possibly use to describe a piece of contemporary art. It shows that you are using the wrong set of criteria, by postmodern standards.

Theoretically, it's meant to be judged by the statement it makes. However, the most interesting thing about the lectures is the episode where he explains what makes art Art. Spoiler alert: quality, aesthetics and concepts have nothing to do with it. Something is "Art" (as in saleable product) only if somebody from a tiny, moneyed elite says it is, and for no other reason. I found this frank admission quite startling.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03969vt

Surprised noone has mentioned this yet, but here's why I'm not a fan: He didn't teach creativity, he taught techniques. Anyone who watched him enough could follow the techniques to create a painting with mountains, trees, bushes, etc. But in the end, you are left with nothing original or inspiring.

To compare with programming: Bob Ross did the equivalent of teaching non-programmers how to copy-and-paste specific snippets of code. It's enough to patch together a sloppy program--which may or may not work--with the snippets you're taught, but it doesn't give the ability to solve problems with code.

I arrive at the same conclusion... My girlfriend loves to watch "The Joy of Painting," yet she doesn't paint.

It's got to be his soothing tone.

Someone posted the bobrossquotes linke above, and it had this little gem in it:

Oooh, if you have never been to Alaska, go there while it is still wild. My favorite uncle asked me if I wanted to go there, Uncle Sam. He said if you don't go, you're going to jail. That is how Uncle Sam asks you.