Bob Ross setup using water soluble paints

I have created a wish list on Dick Blick to make it easy to purchase everything.

Paints

There are several major paint manufacturers of water-mixable oil paints:

• Grumbacher Max — nice, great colors, but can be stiff
• Holbien Duo — very nice, a bit more expensive
• Winsor & Newton Artisan — can be smelly, contains only “hue” colors, and has somewhat less pigment load, also can remain sticky when dry
• Royal Talens Cobra — newer brand, very nice buttery consistency, yet some colors are “off” such as the too-pale cadmium yellows and a too-strident French ultramarine
• Weber wOil
• Lukas Berlin
• Daniel Smith
• Reeves

Each brand seems to have its quirks. I use a mix of Max, Cobra, and Duo paints.
— Outdoor Painter: Working Out the Kinks of Water-Mixable Oils

Bob Ross Brand	Winsor & Newton Brand
Alizarin Crimson	Permanent Alizarin Crimson
Burnt Umber	Burnt Umber
Cadmium Yellow	Cadmium Yellow Light
Dark Sienna	Burnt Sienna
Indian Yellow	Cadmium Yellow Hue
Midnight Black	Ivory Black
Permanent/Bright Red	Cadmium Red Hue
Phthalo Blue	Phthalo Blue (Red Shade)
Phthalo Green	Phthalo Green (Blue Shade)
Prussian Blue	Prussian Blue
Sap Green	Permanent Sap Green
Titanium White	Titanium White
Van Dyke Brown	Raw Umber
Yellow Ochre	Yellow Ochre

Brushes

• Background, Size 2"
• Fan Blender, Size 6
• Script Liner, Size 2

Palette Knives

• Painting Knife - 1" x 3 3/4"
• Painting Knife - 1 1/4" x 3 3/4"

Canvases

Bob Ross uses a standard 18" by 24" (3:4 ratio):

• 3" x 4"
• 6" x 8"
• 9" x 12"
• 12" x 16"
• 18" x 24"
• 30" x 40"
• 36" x 48"

Mediums

• Artisan Water Mixable Oil Linseed Oil

In order to replicate Bob’s “wet on wet” technique, just add linseed oil to the titanium white and use that as a base.

Cleanup

If you stick with the water mixable linseed oil medium, you can just use dish soap and water.

Easels

Note that these are easels and pochade boxes that I’ve found and appreciated:

• STRADA Easels
• New Wave u.go Pochade Box
• KLOPFENSTEIN Art Equipment MFG.
• Pacific Arc Easels
• Guerrilla Painter: Pochade Boxes
• LederEasel

Artist tutorial videos

• Byron Pickering Art (the best for painting the sea)
• Richard Robinson Studio
• Andrew Tischler (great for learning about painting outdoors)
• Bill Cramer Art
• Janhendrik Dolsma
• Steve Atkinson Fine Art
• Bill Davidson
• Nial Adams
• Alexander Art- The Home of Bill Alexander

Thanks to Neale Quenzel for all of the above artist links!

Resource links

• Bob Ross Tools & Colors
• What were the names of the colors Bob used to paint with?
• Water mixable oils - in the style of the TV painters