“We don’t make mistakes, we have happy accidents.” If you’ve ever watched Bob Ross, you’ve probably heard him say that a time or two. In the case of this painting, that’s exactly what happened. A happy accident while adapting a Bob Ross technique to an original painting.

The Inspiration

Volcanic Falls is painting #81, an original piece inspired by a photo I found online. It’s not a direct copy, but the mood and structure of the photo sparked the idea. My original plan was to combine a waterfall scene similar to my last painting, with a volcanic mountain rising in the background. It didn’t exactly go as planned… but that’s where the happy accident comes in.

Materials Needed

Colors

• Bright Red
• Cadmium Yellow
• Dark Sienna
• Indian Yellow
• Midnight Black
• Phthalo Blue
• Sap Green
• Titanium Hwite
• Van Dyke Brown
• Yellow Ochre
• Black Gesso
• Liquid Clear
• Liquid Hwite!

Equipment

• 2 Inch Brush
• 1 Inch Brush
• #6 Fan Brush
• Large Palette Knife
• Script Liner Brush

I almost forgot. In this painting, I tried out a new Bob Ross brush I ordered. I went ahead and ordered the old Round Brush and it works great. I didn’t use it to its full potential here, but for the areas where I did, it performed beautifully.

Can you spot where I used it?

There are a few Bob Ross episodes where he uses the round brush heavily, but I never had it, so I improvised with the one‑inch brush. Now I don’t have to improvise anymore. Highly recommend giving the round brush a try.  

Notes From the Easel

I have mixed feelings about this one. I like it overall, but at the time I painted it, I just wasn’t feeling it. It may have been one of those days or weeks. The painting just wasn’t bringing me much joy.

It was fun in the way that it was challenging and trying to figure out what to do and how to make my vision work by adapting the Bob Ross technique from Waterfall in the Woods. I envisioned the bottom half to look like the falls in my last one but I wanted to have the volcanic mountain overlooking it. I tried that and it didn’t quite work. So I had to scrape off what I had done and cover it up with straight green foliage. As I’m writing this, I’m looking at the painting thinking how I could have made it work. As I’m writing this, I think it just hit me. I might give it a shot again but I’m apprehensive about redoing paintings now unless they’re a Bob Ross replica.

It also just occurred to me that Bob does a painting where there’s a mountain kind of peaking out of the background. I’ll have to find it and try that technique to make my vision work. Stay tuned for that.

If you like this painting enough to hang it on your wall, you can find it, along with many others, in my Art Shop.

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Happy painting.