Pettibon meets Bob Ross on acid
This is what I drew this week. No idea why.
Hey everyone,
Hope you had a great earth rotation around the sun! Nothing like an arbitrary date to get drunk on. Talking about arbitrary, as you probably know already, I struggle with knowing what to draw — The classic blank page staring at you and you freeze like a deer in headlights. It’s definitely not cliché at all.
And the best way I tackle the problem is to outsource it. I ask the people around me and tactfully unload the mental energy to come up with an idea. So, last week, my wife kinda dared me to draw a scene out of a Bob Ross painting but on acid. And I, the blithering idiot holding an iPad, gladly took up the challenge.
We’re also doing this thing where we schedule “meetings” in “calendars” for us to “work” on our “art”. It’s all very serious so we can’t blow it off. And our puny brains are falling for it (at least for now). It baffles me that one part of the brain has to trick another just to do something the brain actually would enjoy doing. Fucking humans and fucked up heads.
So, my brain was sufficiently tricked, I conveniently sidestepped the thinking part, picked the right focus playlist, did the laundry, dishes, taxes for the next two years and every procrastinating thing possible, and it was finally time to draw.
First, I scrolled through brushes on Procreate to see what to use. Because I don’t have a discernible style or anything. And I see this one that sounds kinda familiar.
I remember seeing that name in a gallery in New York and thinking about how good his work was. I looked him up again, and Yup, Still undeniably great.
Putting two and two together, I decided to draw a Bob Ross painting in the style of Raymond Pettibon. With great enthusiasm, I started drawing to recreate the styles of the 2 geniuses and the result was stunning…ly bad.
So, I closed my iPad and went back to watching Bob’s Burgers, my eternal comfort. But the next day, I decided to try again, from scratch. And it wasn’t half bad.
And here’s a process video to go along with the process Substack. What do you think? Is Bob Ross turning in his grave? Does Pettibon wish he was in a grave too to turn in disgust? Or is my imposter syndrome writing this post? You tell me!
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser