dalecullenart

And this is why I don’t mention Bob Ross, I don’t teach Bob Ross paintings, I don’t buy anything from Bob Ross Inc. I don’t want to get sued by BRI or those who run it. I have way too much respect for Bob Ross the man to associate myself with Bob Ross Inc.

Here is a tip for you all - never sign up for something when you can do the same thing for free.

So a couple weeks ago I received this from the company working for Bob Ross Inc. In my shorts, I had been using hashtags with Bob’s name and sometimes saying Bob Ross style. I wasn’t always using Ross brushes in some of those as they were my paintings. The company has every CRI sign a bunch of rules and you all can see the referenced one. I went through and changed all the titles and deleted Bob Ross hashtags from my youtube shorts. There will be no more mention of Bob on any of my youtube videos.

After seeing hundreds of shorts pop up using clips of Bob speaking, I added clips as the audio for some of my shorts as well. Well, today I received another email demanding I take the audio off the videos. I wasn’t even going to mention the first instance of this to anyone other than telling Karen and Steve. I won’t say what either said in response.

What bothers me is not the emails, but the fact that many, many people use Bob Ross as a hashtag or mention him. Many prominent painters in the style are not CRIs and use Bob’s name, paintings, images and continue to do so day after day. Not to pick on this creator, but why do you think this video has 2 million views? https://www.youtube.com/shorts/oNNtYZ9fdXI It’s not a bad waterfall and the creator has talent, but the video is driven by Ross’ name and association. I am fairly certain this creator is not a CRI. Don’t you think BRI would go after this content (not that I want them to at all) first before worrying about someone that paid several thousands dollars to be a CRI?

So, I will no longer mention Bob at all unless I am teaching a Ross Sytle class (which is rare.) It’s a sad reality that Bob Ross the person is way different than Bob Ross Inc. I may just end up deleting videos, especially shorts as it really isn’t worth the hassle.

Lastly, I would encourage anyone wanting to paint like Bob to never sign anything related to Bob Ross Inc. As you can see from the success of so many youtube and other social media artists, you don’t need to be certified to be able to share the happiness (best not say Joy) of painting.

Edit - I wanted to add that this is not meant as a "poor Bram" post. I am not going to stop painting and I will still do the occasional "Bob Ross" class. It's only purpose is to serve as a PSA. Don't sign something that puts restrictions on what you can and cannot do. That's all.