He’s using gouache. You can get a set of gouache paints, but if you want to experiment, just get a white and mix it with your watercolors to build opaque colors.
600K subs is pretty impressive. Enough to start edging him into the minor celebrity status. Most people struggle to make it into the 100s for subs. Fewer even than that make it into the 1000s. Reaching 100000s is a serious milestone.
Russia has a comparable population to Japan. And there are lots of YouTubers with literally millions of subscribers, and I don’t hear about most of them even in Russian media.
It really is a lot for Japan, if you ever visit ニコニコ動画 (https://nicovideo.jp) and look at the top videos, views pale in comparison to anything on Youtube. Nico video is #28 on Alexa in Japan (Youtube is #2) and is very very popular, it is a Japanese only Youtube site. It is so popular the Nintendo switch app to view the site came out a year before a Youtube app did (7/2017 vs 7/2018).
An old guy who teaches people how to paint in a fun way is interesting? The only agenda is getting people to watch CNN for CNN. This story will get eyeballs for a little while. Sometimes the news is just the news. Even when people think the news is some kind of conspiracy, it usually is just the news trying to get attention and sell some ads.
It's a conspiracy TO sell ads. Conspiracy just means there's some subset of people that aren't "let in" on what's happening, so they don't fully understand the mechanism of what's going on.
Please don't rough up other users like that, even when their comments are bad or annoying (or you feel they are). It damages the community more than it helps.
Not that you shouldn't have commented! but please do it with honey not vinegar. Sometimes users don't understand what the intended spirit of the site is yet. Pointing to https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html is always good of course.
I appreciate your sentiment and thank you for the reminder.
It was very difficult for me to avoid getting personal and using ad hominem attacks in this particular case; I tried to temper my gut reaction by using language like "maybe this isn't the community for you" instead of harsher terms.
In reflection, though, it's not my place to judge others like that, or try and police the community. I apologize.
Dude, 600k people is a small city. He reaches a small city worth of people. That's not insignificant by any stretch of the imagination.
While yes, cnn is just grasping at smoke to stay relevant as less people care about "news", the guy is legit as a celebrity. Plus, he's actually good at his craft and even got an artistically challenged idiot like me into watercolor painting.
> Dude, 600k people is a small city. He reaches a small city worth of people. That's not insignificant by any stretch of the imagination.
Also bare in mind that not everyone who follows YouTube contributors subscribe to their channel. So the actual number of people following his videos will be much higher (eg the tree video in that CNN article has over 5m visits)
Where I live, Norway, 600 k is bigger than the capital city! Even 60k is not a small city. Only ten towns in the whole country have more than 60 k inhabitants.
For most of us having any kind of direct impact on even a few thousand people in a lifetime is quite an achievement.
When I read the title I thought this might be about David Bull, a well-known traditional Japanese woodblock artist who has a great YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/seseragistudio
David Bull is magical. There are certainly some good lessons to learn in how magnetic his videos and storytelling skills are, considering few would list hour-long woodblock printmaking videos a thing they would recurringly watch on Youtube. But here we are.
I mean I guess if you skimmed the title briefly I could see how. But to me that guy seems not comparatively popular on YouTube (and title was talking about taking the world by storm), and working with a Japanese medium and living in Japan still isn’t the association I have when title says Japanese Bob Ross.
I met him very briefly while in Tokyo. He was closing up his shop for lunch and he stepped out for a minute while we were walking past after eating our own lunch down the street. I would have thought he was a tourist or somebody leaving a shop maybe but recognized him instantly from his excellent youtube videos.
He was very nice and quietly energetic and funny and obviously passionate about his craft -- exactly as he is on his videos. He was taking a break for lunch and has his shop closed for a bit. We said we'd be back but ran out of time and never made it back to his place when it was open.
It was an odd juxtaposition to walk about a block away and be confronted with the cacophony of the local Don Quijoti.
Shibasaki is awesome. Always a joy to watch his videos.
Along similar lines I would like to recommend Ishitani Furniture's Youtube channel. The videos are not tutorials like Shibasaki's but it is a joy to watch Natsuki Ishitani make made-to-order furniture. Equally good videography and editing by Chie.
I do art on the side and came across Shibasaki's videos maybe a year ago. I agree with others on the thread, he's a wonderful man.
One note: if you are inspired to try watercolor after seeing this article/videos, don't be discouraged if you struggle. Watercolor seems easy (that's what kids do, right?) but it's very difficult to master.
Do not compare this guy to Bob Ross. No offense to Bob Ross fans but Ross was not an artist. His paintings were not of high quality amongst the field of what is considered art. This assertion goes beyond subjective tastes. His paintings were amateurish, but much better than people who do not paint.
Bob Ross was a wonderful figure who democratized the act of painting to the mass consumer demographic. The level of fame he attained is much higher than the quality of his paintings.
I disagree. Even though paintings use simple techniques doesn't mean it's not art. It's liked by the people, doesn't matter what experts consider high quality or not. And you're saying like democratizing act of painting has nothing to do with art, his overall contribution to culture was probably not less than Picasso or any other high known painter.
Who’s the definitive authority of “level of art”? There isn’t one because, by definition, art is subjective. Just because you see it as “lower effort” or whatever doesn’t mean it can’t be a high “level of art”. Piet Mondrian drew lines and colored in some of the boxes. Seems pretty amateurish to the “uneducated eye”, but they’re still held in high regard.
I'm not saying Ross' painting is as bad as this extreme example, but to even a casual appreciator of world class art, Ross' paintings are of very amateurish quality. The stuff you'd see hung in a motel breakfast corner for example.
What are some example reasons why Ross paintings are of amateurish quality?
I've seen plenty of motel paintings, watched plenty of Bob Ross episodes, but the comparison doesn't seem fair. Motel paintings are often printed - you can tell by the CMYK dots if you come close enough. Ross at least seems to use actual oil paint on canvas supported by real solvents which seems a lot higher quality than the usual school process using acrylics or temperas. (Although granted using liquid white seems a bit dodgy).
So what is Ross missing. Not enough detail? Does not take enough time to paint a painting? Not enough paint on the canvas? Not photorealistic enough? Too photorealistic?
Art for arts sake I guess. That’s what is best about Ross. Paint because it brings you joy. Learn and hone techniques and find yourself improving over time.
I’d say he certainly was an artist. If he was a good artist or not is a matter of opinion. Certainly from a technical and conceptual point of view there’s good argument he wasn’t exceptional. But certainly his work, or the labor of his work, has been appreciated by many.
How do you become an artist? Make art and say you are an artist. How do you become a professional artist? Have someone pay you to make art. I'd say he qualifies.
I would say Bob Ross is more famous for being an art teacher than for being a great artist, and I think his fame is rightly deserved there. He never claimed to be a Money or something like that, he just tried to spread the joy of painting :)
I wonder why everything has been ascribed to COVID-19 now.
Unlike what the article claims, the resurgence of Bob Ross popularity on VoD/streaming has very little to do with the pandemic but has already been a thing for many years due to Twitch streaming Bob Ross's The Joy of Painting [0].
And while most Twitch chats are toxic dumpster fires, a surprisingly wholesome community grew around that Bob Ross channel.
55 comments
[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 109 ms ] thread> japanese Bob Ross
sounds a bit exaggerated considering he only got 600k subs on youtube
CNN.. what's in their agenda? they want to fabricate celebrities?
If you are the first to identify it (or make it up where it doesn't exist) you automatically have an exclusive.
If you consider 600k subscribers to be paltry, perhaps you should focus your efforts on YouTube and leave the Hacker News community.
Not that you shouldn't have commented! but please do it with honey not vinegar. Sometimes users don't understand what the intended spirit of the site is yet. Pointing to https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html is always good of course.
It was very difficult for me to avoid getting personal and using ad hominem attacks in this particular case; I tried to temper my gut reaction by using language like "maybe this isn't the community for you" instead of harsher terms.
In reflection, though, it's not my place to judge others like that, or try and police the community. I apologize.
While yes, cnn is just grasping at smoke to stay relevant as less people care about "news", the guy is legit as a celebrity. Plus, he's actually good at his craft and even got an artistically challenged idiot like me into watercolor painting.
Also bare in mind that not everyone who follows YouTube contributors subscribe to their channel. So the actual number of people following his videos will be much higher (eg the tree video in that CNN article has over 5m visits)
For most of us having any kind of direct impact on even a few thousand people in a lifetime is quite an achievement.
I mean I guess if you skimmed the title briefly I could see how. But to me that guy seems not comparatively popular on YouTube (and title was talking about taking the world by storm), and working with a Japanese medium and living in Japan still isn’t the association I have when title says Japanese Bob Ross.
I know it's not classical art, but I think it's still rather artistic to re-imagine a knife with new materials.
He was very nice and quietly energetic and funny and obviously passionate about his craft -- exactly as he is on his videos. He was taking a break for lunch and has his shop closed for a bit. We said we'd be back but ran out of time and never made it back to his place when it was open.
It was an odd juxtaposition to walk about a block away and be confronted with the cacophony of the local Don Quijoti.
1 - https://mokuhankan.com/
Along similar lines I would like to recommend Ishitani Furniture's Youtube channel. The videos are not tutorials like Shibasaki's but it is a joy to watch Natsuki Ishitani make made-to-order furniture. Equally good videography and editing by Chie.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7FkqjV8SU5I8FCHXQSQe9Q
One note: if you are inspired to try watercolor after seeing this article/videos, don't be discouraged if you struggle. Watercolor seems easy (that's what kids do, right?) but it's very difficult to master.
Bob Ross was a wonderful figure who democratized the act of painting to the mass consumer demographic. The level of fame he attained is much higher than the quality of his paintings.
I'm simply contrasting the level of fame Ross achieved, to his level of art. They are not equivalent at all. His paintings are of rather low quality.
I'm not saying Ross' painting is as bad as this extreme example, but to even a casual appreciator of world class art, Ross' paintings are of very amateurish quality. The stuff you'd see hung in a motel breakfast corner for example.
I've seen plenty of motel paintings, watched plenty of Bob Ross episodes, but the comparison doesn't seem fair. Motel paintings are often printed - you can tell by the CMYK dots if you come close enough. Ross at least seems to use actual oil paint on canvas supported by real solvents which seems a lot higher quality than the usual school process using acrylics or temperas. (Although granted using liquid white seems a bit dodgy).
So what is Ross missing. Not enough detail? Does not take enough time to paint a painting? Not enough paint on the canvas? Not photorealistic enough? Too photorealistic?
I would apply the uncanny valley dynamic to his landscape paintings. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley
Maybe not professional artists where we get paid to partake in our creative outlets.
On the other hand, Vincent Van Gogh only sold a single painting in his lifetime.
Bob Ross was more professional artist than most. He is still widely known for his work teaching people how to create new creative works.
I’d say he certainly was an artist. If he was a good artist or not is a matter of opinion. Certainly from a technical and conceptual point of view there’s good argument he wasn’t exceptional. But certainly his work, or the labor of his work, has been appreciated by many.
How do you become an artist? Make art and say you are an artist. How do you become a professional artist? Have someone pay you to make art. I'd say he qualifies.
I agree. You summarized my point much better
Unlike what the article claims, the resurgence of Bob Ross popularity on VoD/streaming has very little to do with the pandemic but has already been a thing for many years due to Twitch streaming Bob Ross's The Joy of Painting [0].
And while most Twitch chats are toxic dumpster fires, a surprisingly wholesome community grew around that Bob Ross channel.
[0] https://techcrunch.com/2015/11/09/after-pulling-in-5-6m-view...
https://www.youtube.com/user/gurneyjourney