6 ms·

A Statistical Analysis of the Work of Bob Ross

48 points by robdoherty2 12y ago

Splendor 12y ago
I use this for inspiration throughout my day: alias bob="curl http://bobrossquotes.com/text.php" http://bobrossquotes.com/text.php"
- sogen 12y ago
  "Maybe in our world there lives a happy little tree over there." Awesome resource, thanks a lot!
- groovy2shoes 12y ago
  Sweet. I made fortune (6) file with these quotes, if anyone is interested: https://gist.github.com/anonymous/10669320 https://gist.github.com/anonymous/10669320 Just stick it at /usr/share/games/fortunes/bobross and be sure to do `strfile bobross` on it, then you can do `fortune bobross` any time, without having to make an HTTP request :)
  - joveian 12y ago
    And along those lines does anyone have a fortune(1) for spoken quotes?
evanlivingston 12y ago
Does this help us understand the work of Bob Ross any better?
- mathattack 12y ago
  I think answer was at the end - it doesn't matter, people just liked his soothing voice.
  - D9u 12y ago
    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.
- edkennedy 12y ago
  Indeed, it does. I found the bit about the chimneys interesting. His denial of society in his paintings and focus on nature was new to me, as I never had a comprehensive analysis of his work. This could be related to his time in the army.
  - mediocregopher 12y ago
    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.
ctdonath 12y ago
How about a Markov Chain analysis? Given position and known adjacent color(s), pick a pixel color, repeat for all pixels. Given the number of source pictures and distinct similarity, might give interesting results.
- gms7777 12y ago
  That sounds like it might be a really interesting experiment. A potentially even more interesting result might be doing something like this for multiple artists and comparing results. I just need to find a corpus of decent quality photos of artwork for various artists.
  - sogen 12y ago
    there you go: http://www.artic.edu/databases http://www.artic.edu/databases (TONS!) http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Collection/paintings/all-paintings.html http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Collection/paintings/all-p...
    - gms7777 12y ago
      Awesome, thanks. I've already downloaded 134 Van Gogh's to start from a different site, but it looks like these might be great resources.
themodelplumber 12y ago
My high school art teacher absolutely hated Bob Ross, and routinely encouraged us to look beyond symbol and watch out for "happy little trees" appearing in our paintings. But somehow I can't fault Bob Ross even now that I'm doing professional graphics & illustration work, and maybe the last line of this article explains why. There was a bigger picture and a more substantial social contribution that didn't really have anything to do with the art style.
- yock 12y ago
  Can you expand on why your art teacher didn't like him? I realize that landscapes aren't the most interesting subject to most people, but I can't seem to find fault in taking the time to create art by hand, even if the process is a bit formulaic.
  - leviathant 12y ago
    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.
  - replicatorblog 12y ago
    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.
  - themodelplumber 12y ago
tarblog 12y ago
I googled "Bob Ross cabins" and found chimneys.
- atom-morgan 12y ago
  The author of the article did as well.
corysama 12y ago
If you like this, you might also appreciate "Automated Landscape Painting in the Style of Bob Ross" https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/handle/10012/2761 https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/handle/10012/2761

48 points by robdoherty2 12y ago

I use this for inspiration throughout my day: alias bob="curl http://bobrossquotes.com/text.php" http://bobrossquotes.com/text.php"

sogen 12y ago
"Maybe in our world there lives a happy little tree over there." Awesome resource, thanks a lot!
groovy2shoes 12y ago
Sweet. I made fortune (6) file with these quotes, if anyone is interested: https://gist.github.com/anonymous/10669320 https://gist.github.com/anonymous/10669320 Just stick it at /usr/share/games/fortunes/bobross and be sure to do `strfile bobross` on it, then you can do `fortune bobross` any time, without having to make an HTTP request :)
- joveian 12y ago
  And along those lines does anyone have a fortune(1) for spoken quotes?

evanlivingston 12y ago

Does this help us understand the work of Bob Ross any better?

mathattack 12y ago
I think answer was at the end - it doesn't matter, people just liked his soothing voice.
- D9u 12y ago
  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.
edkennedy 12y ago
Indeed, it does. I found the bit about the chimneys interesting. His denial of society in his paintings and focus on nature was new to me, as I never had a comprehensive analysis of his work. This could be related to his time in the army.
- mediocregopher 12y ago
  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.

ctdonath 12y ago

How about a Markov Chain analysis? Given position and known adjacent color(s), pick a pixel color, repeat for all pixels. Given the number of source pictures and distinct similarity, might give interesting results.

gms7777 12y ago
That sounds like it might be a really interesting experiment. A potentially even more interesting result might be doing something like this for multiple artists and comparing results. I just need to find a corpus of decent quality photos of artwork for various artists.
- sogen 12y ago
  there you go: http://www.artic.edu/databases http://www.artic.edu/databases (TONS!) http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Collection/paintings/all-paintings.html http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Collection/paintings/all-p...
  - gms7777 12y ago
    Awesome, thanks. I've already downloaded 134 Van Gogh's to start from a different site, but it looks like these might be great resources.

themodelplumber 12y ago

My high school art teacher absolutely hated Bob Ross, and routinely encouraged us to look beyond symbol and watch out for "happy little trees" appearing in our paintings. But somehow I can't fault Bob Ross even now that I'm doing professional graphics & illustration work, and maybe the last line of this article explains why. There was a bigger picture and a more substantial social contribution that didn't really have anything to do with the art style.

yock 12y ago
Can you expand on why your art teacher didn't like him? I realize that landscapes aren't the most interesting subject to most people, but I can't seem to find fault in taking the time to create art by hand, even if the process is a bit formulaic.
- leviathant 12y ago
  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.
- replicatorblog 12y ago
  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.
- themodelplumber 12y ago

tarblog 12y ago

I googled "Bob Ross cabins" and found chimneys.

atom-morgan 12y ago
The author of the article did as well.

corysama 12y ago

If you like this, you might also appreciate "Automated Landscape Painting in the Style of Bob Ross" https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/handle/10012/2761 https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/handle/10012/2761