Desert Mountains. Painting #68. Taking Bob Ross to the Desert.

Desert Mountains is painting #68 and stream #12. It is a mix of Bob Ross and originality. Meaning that I used a Bob Ross episode as a template then did a few different things.

The Inspiration

This painting was inspired by a recent work trip out west to New Mexico. I had never been to New Mexico before. I was able to visit White Sands National Monument. while there. That’s a very interesting place. Surrounding the desert are different mountain ranges that look very different than your typical Bob Ross style mountains so I wanted to paint them. To do that, I used the techniques I’ve used to produce a Bob Ross desert painting.

I used The Joy of Painting S25E12 as the basis for this one.

Materials

Colors

• Alizarin Crimson
• Bright Red
• Cadmium Yellow
• Dark Sienna
• Indian Yellow
• Midnight Black
• Phthalo Blue
• Sap Green
• Titanium Hwite
• Van Dyke Brown
• Yellow Ochre
• Don’t forget the Liquid Hwite!

Equipment

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

Notes From the Easel

I didn’t intend to change too much about it except for the mountains. However, as I got further into the painting I realized that I wasn’t following Bob properly so I did a few things different in the foreground as well. Nothing too different. I wanted to paint the mountains like I saw them in New Mexico. They had a unique look to them. I wanted to paint them at distance like I saw them at first and also with a bit more detail as you would see once you got closer.

At first, I wasn’t entirely thrilled with this painting. I was happy with the way the mountains turned out but I felt there was something off about the foreground. Over time, like a lot of my paintings, I came to like it more and more. I like how the soft highlights came out in the background mountains. I also like how the forward mountains look sort of craggy even for having a rounded top appearance. That technique came from Kevin Hill. Bushes were my nemesis once again. I seem to be inconsistent when it comes to highlighting large areas of foliage. Maybe I should do a painting with large areas so I can practice more.

Tips and Lessons Learned

There weren’t many difficulties in this painting but somewhere along the line, I missed a crucial step in Bob’s instruction so I had to sort of improvise. Figuring out what to do in the foreground was my biggest challenge. What I started doing I realized wouldn’t work after missing that step. Think it turned out all right in the end.

Tips for this one: To achieve the soft highlight look of the distant mountains, you can either use the 2 or 1 inch brush and very, very gently pull downward. What may work better to ensure you don’t blend too hard is a very soft blender brush such as this.

To achieve a bit more detailed look on the closer mountains, it takes multiple layers. Start with your base layer as normal then add main highlight color as you would using your typical Bob Ross technique. You can add a lighter version of the highlight color on top of that but you must do it ever so gently. The knife merely has to graze the surface and let the paint come off on the thick parts. To add even more layers, you can take a bit of white and do the same thing but with even less pressure. Just sort of let the paint grab in small parts.

Timelapse Video

This was my second western themed painting and I’m pretty happy with it. Try your own version of a Bob Ross desert painting. I’d love to see it! If you have any questions about this, ask in the comments below.

This painting and others are available in my Art Store. Check it out and follow the studio on social media.

Happy painting!