I’m trying to break this art block by drawing small things. Little exercises/doodles. I’m doing so little and stressing so much. I don’t know how this was so easy and automatic when younger.

The Bob Ross painting method looks fun and easy, much less rigorous than drawing or traditional painting. But when you look into it the actual materials and tools aren’t very accessible.

The palette knife is a particular style and proprietary. It can be bought in Australia but is like $30.

The magic white is proprietary but can be duplicated by diluting titanium white in linseed oil. However I don’t want to work with linseed oil due to the risk of spontaneous combustion of the rags, and don’t want to use turps in the house around Melbcat. Mineral spirits is also something I don’t want in the house.

I don’t know how I’d go about getting paint that is thick and dry enough without hunting down a particular substitute which could be expensive.

I considered water based oil paints but they are softer/spongier and don’t cure well, are much more expensive than straight up oil paints, and I don’t know what medium is appropriate to thin them.

Wet on wet with acrylic has been tried by others but it’s not suited to the purpose and involves a lot of additives like thinning mediums and drying retardants that would add to the cost.

That’s all without getting appropriate canvases. It needs to be stretched rather than a board (which would suck up all the moisture) and not treated with gesso (same result).

It’s fine, I’d probably just be too lazy anyway