Bob Ross oils are low-end. Cheap. Their intended audience is people inspired by Bob Ross to try their hand at painting. I bought a tube of Ross Indian yellow as part of a recent purchase of paints that I intend to review, shown here.
Bob Ross oils do not have their pigments listed on the tube. Ross oils might be the only brand that doesn’t list their pigments. Looking at the tube, I learned that Bob Ross oils are owned by the large manufacturer Golden.
I put some of the Indian yellow on my palette and used it over several sessions. The Indian yellow is the third yellow from the left on my palette. Indian yellow used to be a regular on my palette and I have a lot of experience using it.
In retrospect, I wish I would have purchased another or a different tube. Indian yellow is a transparent yellow, in fact, it’s one of the most transparent colors that you can find. This is true of all manufacturers, not just this brand. Transparent colors are good for, well, transparent passages, such as glazes. It’s a tinting color, not a body color. Testing the covering power of a brand’s body colors is the best way to evaluate a brand. So, in this sense my review is incomplete.
I used this color on the yellow sweater on the figure on the right. The paint is very transparent and good for glazing, as I used it here in this unfinished painting. This Inidian yellow has the least tinting power of any brand I’ve used.
Bob Ross paints handle surprisingly well for student- or amateur-grade paints. If the body colors perform as well as its tinting colors, it’s a reasonable brand to start with.
Oil paint brand rating: price: A; quality: D.
I can’t encourage/endorse any Bob Ross merch or products after seeing the recent doc, Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal and Greed and how he and his son continue to be exploited. A shame that an artist who brought so much happiness to people would have this legacy.
Thanks for the review on the paint,tho. Your paint reviews have helped me make solid decisions!