SmallishBeans/YouTubeIf you don’t know who Bob Ross is, I can only apologise for the state your life must be in. I don’t know what you to do unwind after a stressful day, but I sometimes struggle to sleep without a bit of Bob at bedtime.
The late, great artist was the host of a wonderful TV show between 1983 and 1994, but his soothing tones and impressive techniques have ensured he’s remained a beloved star (and ASMR sensation), decades after the show ended – it probably helps that it’s all over Netflix and YouTube, too.
SmallishBeans/YouTubeThe entire premise of the show – which was called The Joy Of Painting – was that anyone could paint along with Bob at home and bring a landscape to life. Yes, even you back there, with your hands down your pants. Pick up a brush and get painting, you big disgusting slob.
But what happens if you don’t have a paintbrush and a pot of the old Titanium White handy? However will we make a happy little cloud without? Popular Minecraft YouTuber SmallishBeans (via Kotaku) has come up with a pretty elegant solution to that particular problem – simply “paint” along with Bob using Minecraft.
SmallishBeans began by creating a large frame, and then logged into a second account and made it so that secondary character was looking at the frame from a distance, allowing him to see the progress of his work in real time.
After that, he simply used one of Bob’s paintings as a reference point and did his best to replicate it (using a mod to quickly place larger chunks of block). The final product is actually impressively close to the original. I’d certainly consider hanging it in my bathroom.
Check out the video below for SmallishBean’s entire process.
There are bound to be plenty of bores who complain that this is an affront to real art, or whatever, but I like to think Bob Ross himself would love this. After all, the man just wanted as many people as possible to discover the joy of painting, and if SmallishBeans has found his own way to get in on the fun, who are we to criticise?
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Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.