When you’re starting out, it’s extremely useful to know what your core toolbox needs to include, and who better to ask than someone who clearly knows what they’re doing? Michaelangelo could have said “Well, I use a broad flat chisel for for bulk removal, large and small gouge chisels for soft curves, and mainly a v chisel for the finer details”
When you’re trying to emulate a specific style, sometimes the type of tool can be crucial for nailing the look. For example, Bob Ross used a palette knife extensively, and choose very different brushes for different elements. Even a skilled painter would have difficulty reproducing his work if all they had was one 1-inch flat brush.
That seems like the intent of the artist, but the question alone, literally, can be taken either way. I’m just saying that this interpretation is an over-generalization of the question, implying that it’s always meant as “What brand of tool will magically make me good?”.
Not to take away from your point, but Bob Ross had a few episodes where he deliberately restricted himself to only using a single tool for that week’s painting–as I recall, he used a palette knife exclusively in one episode, and a two-inch flat brush in another. (That said, it also reinforces your point a bit because there’s a HUGE difference between an artist’s 2-inch brush and the two-inch brush you buy from the hardware store, and you’re going to struggle massively if you try to follow along with Bob using a regular brush.)
Yes, and those paintings were distinctive and different. If you tried to follow one of his more detailed paintings with only a palette knife, or one of his mountain scenes with just a fan and a filbert, you won’t get very close. That’s why it’s important to have the right tool(s) for the right job, and how better to find out than asking a talented professional?
If he did, I don’t remember watching that episode. IIRC a big part of Ross’s technique took advantage of the way the fibers on the brush spread when pressed head-on into the canvas, and hardware store brushes just can’t replicate that.
But tools are important to a degree.
When you’re starting out, it’s extremely useful to know what your core toolbox needs to include, and who better to ask than someone who clearly knows what they’re doing? Michaelangelo could have said “Well, I use a broad flat chisel for for bulk removal, large and small gouge chisels for soft curves, and mainly a v chisel for the finer details”
When you’re trying to emulate a specific style, sometimes the type of tool can be crucial for nailing the look. For example, Bob Ross used a palette knife extensively, and choose very different brushes for different elements. Even a skilled painter would have difficulty reproducing his work if all they had was one 1-inch flat brush.
Agreed, but that’s not really how the question in the comic was phrased.
That seems like the intent of the artist, but the question alone, literally, can be taken either way. I’m just saying that this interpretation is an over-generalization of the question, implying that it’s always meant as “What brand of tool will magically make me good?”.
Not to take away from your point, but Bob Ross had a few episodes where he deliberately restricted himself to only using a single tool for that week’s painting–as I recall, he used a palette knife exclusively in one episode, and a two-inch flat brush in another. (That said, it also reinforces your point a bit because there’s a HUGE difference between an artist’s 2-inch brush and the two-inch brush you buy from the hardware store, and you’re going to struggle massively if you try to follow along with Bob using a regular brush.)
Yes, and those paintings were distinctive and different. If you tried to follow one of his more detailed paintings with only a palette knife, or one of his mountain scenes with just a fan and a filbert, you won’t get very close. That’s why it’s important to have the right tool(s) for the right job, and how better to find out than asking a talented professional?
Didn’t Bob use a hardware store brush sometimes?
That said Bob was really the prototypical technique guy that this comment is poking fun at.
If he did, I don’t remember watching that episode. IIRC a big part of Ross’s technique took advantage of the way the fibers on the brush spread when pressed head-on into the canvas, and hardware store brushes just can’t replicate that.