Happy trees and hot dogs

I had forgotten how much I loved Bob Ross.

Channel surfing at the gym, I came upon the man himself, armed with his palette of leaf greens and burnt siennas, brushing away in his shadowy lair somewhere in The Void.  Maybe it was the sheer joy of watching colors work together. Or the ‘fro. Or perhaps it was the fact that I would be stuck running in place for the next 28 and a half minutes.  Whatever the reason, Bob had me in his thrall.

I watched, spellbound and occasionally hydrated, as from the blank canvas sprouted forests, rocks, and mountain ranges.  As four strokes of blue and two of titanium white became a gushing waterfall.  As some well-placed stippling could bring a burst of spring to the land.  This wondrous transformation was punctuated by Bob entertaining the viewer with such monotone exclamations as, “Trees are beautiful.  They are our friends.”, or “Oops, I used too much Sap Green.  I got waaaay too excited there.”  Classic.

It doesn’t sound like much, but this man left his mark on many of us.  I spent entire afternoons of my young life watching PBS, starting with Sesame Street and 3-2-1 Contact (does anybody remember that one?), and eventually into Nova and all the great educational programming, which included Bob Ross and his immortal painting demonstrations.  I know, I was an odd kid.  But a smart one, too.

It was about this time that I got my first art lesson.  I don’t remember if it was Bob specifically, or another artist in the PBS stable.  Whoever it was, 1 and 2 point perspective was the theme of the day.

Mini art lesson:

1 point perspective has a single vanishing point on the horizon.  Imagine a road in the desert disappearing into the distance.

2 point perspective has 2 vanishing points.  Find a cube, place it on a table with a corner nearest to you.  There you go.

 Anyway, I’m about 7 years old, watching this on the little mini black and white TV in the back of my parents’ office.  The artist is using these perspectives to draw a lovely house.  I want to draw along and make a lovely house as well.  I scour the office for crayons or markers, but all I can come up with is a ketchup red ink pen and a mustard yellow highlighter.  Not lovely house colors at all.  But great for a hot dog stand.  It came out looking similar to this:

And I don’t even like hot dogs.  Which reminds me, time to get off the treadmill and go draw.