The character arc of Bob Ross
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born on 29 October 1942 in Daytona Beach, Florida, to a carpenter and a waitress. Between then and 1995 sit a childhood spent caring for injured animals, school left in the ninth grade, part of a finger lost to carpentry, the Air Force joined in 1961, the rank of master sergeant and a posting in Alaska where he first saw snow and mountains, a decision never to raise his voice again, retirement in 1981, a company founded with two supporters, and The Joy of Painting from 1983 to 1994. He died in Orlando on 4 July 1995.
Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who was Bob Ross?
Twenty years of shouting, and then that voice.
His father was a carpenter and his mother a waitress, and he was raised in Orlando. As a boy he looked after injured animals: armadillos, snakes, alligators and squirrels, one of which later appeared on his television programme. He dropped out of school in the ninth grade and worked as a carpenter with his father, losing part of his left index finger in the process, which never affected the painting. In 1961 he joined the United States Air Force.
He served twenty years and rose to master sergeant, working as the first sergeant of a clinic at an air base in Alaska, where he saw snow and mountains for the first time and where the landscapes he would paint for the rest of his life come from. The job required him to be hard: in his own description, the man who makes you scrub the latrine, the man who makes you make your bed, the man who screams at you for being late. He decided that when he left the military he would never raise his voice again. He also started painting, learning the wet-on-wet technique from another instructor's television programme, and selling Alaskan landscapes on novelty gold-mining pans until the painting earned more than the salary.
He retired in 1981 as a master sergeant, went back to Florida, studied with the man whose programme he had learned from, and became a travelling tutor. One of the people who came to a session, Annette Kowalski, and her husband helped him raise the money for a company of his own. A station ran his class as a pilot in 1982, and The Joy of Painting began in Muncie, Indiana in 1983 and ran until 1994. He was diagnosed with lymphoma several years before his death, told almost nobody, and died on 4 July 1995 at fifty two. He had intended to leave his work to his family, and the company contested it in court and won.
The moments
Bob Ross's timeline.
The 1940s
Born in Daytona Beach
Everyday. A carpenter and a waitress, in Florida.
The 1950s
The injured animals
Everyday. A boy who nursed alligators and squirrels, and one of them got on television.
Out of school at fifteen
Setback, and it changed his direction. School gone, and part of a finger with it.
The 1960s
Into the Air Force
Milestone, and it changed everything. A boy from Florida, posted to Alaska.
Snow, for the first time
Milestone, and it changed everything. Every mountain he ever painted, he saw first from an air base in Alaska.
The 1970s
He decides about his voice
Milestone, and it changed everything. He worked out who he did not want to be, and then stopped being it.
Painting on gold pans
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Landscapes sold on souvenir gold pans, out-earning a sergeant's wage.
The 1980s
He retires and goes back
Milestone, and it changed everything. Twenty years of service, finished, to go and teach painting from a van.
Retire and teach painting
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: go and teach, taken, or serve on. A station ran his class as a pilot in 1982 and The Joy of Painting began the following year.
Somebody in the room
Milestone, and it changed everything. One person in a tutoring session decided the rest of it.
The Joy of Painting
Milestone, and it changed everything. Eleven years, a limited palette, and a happy little tree.
The 1990s
He dies at fifty two
Setback, and it changed everything. Fifty two, a year after the last programme, and almost nobody had known he was ill.
The programmes still run, thirty years on, at three in the morning and on every screen in a student flat. What it has set moving is not a painting technique: it is a tone of voice, chosen deliberately by a man who had spent twenty years using the opposite one, and it has calmed more people down than he will ever be credited for.
Your turn
Every line draws a unique story.
His decided in his forties what kind of man he was going to be for the rest of it. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
Bob Ross: frequently asked questions
What people ask about his line.
What is Bob Ross's character arc?
Was Bob Ross in the military?
Why was Bob Ross so softly spoken?
How did Bob Ross learn to paint?
How did The Joy of Painting by Bob Ross start?
When did Bob Ross die?
Where does this timeline of Bob Ross's life come from?
More character arcs
Lives that rhyme with his.
Sources
- Bob Ross, English Wikipedia biography.
- Britannica, biography of Bob Ross.
- Public television records for The Joy of Painting, 1983 to 1994.