Artist Simon Bulls' Painting Techniques

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u/Neddlings55 1d ago

I wonder how long those take to dry as that paint was thick.

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u/DickieJohnson 1d ago

7-10 business days

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u/littlest_dragon 1d ago

So you’d better not start a painting like this before Christmas holidays

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u/ZonixMuse92 1d ago

With layers that thck it probably takes a couple of weeks to fully cure.

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u/CowBoyDanIndie 1d ago

I have an oil impasto painting that I bought a few months ago it was painted, upon taking it home my apartment smelled faintly for several months. The inner parts of some of the thick parts were likely still liquid when I took it home.

Also I have a couple Simon Bull paintings actually, he did 3 live paintings and auctioned them off, the paint was still dripping when I won the auction. They waiting about a month before shipping it, a week or two to dry plus framing time, and appraisal for insurance. Acrylic dries a lot faster than oil.

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u/lofatiger 23h ago

How much were they?

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u/cosmicmeander 21h ago

https://www.artsy.net/artist/simon-bull

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u/Eskimodo_Dragon 19h ago

Ok well nevermind then lol. Beautiful work though. -maybe someday.

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u/CowBoyDanIndie 16h ago

The wild thing is most of his paintings take less than 15 minutes. Obviously there is a ton of talent involves, I am not comparing effort alone, but I have collected other artists in the same price range that only produce maybe 30 paintings a year because their paintings take days. At one auction one person acquired over half of his work for the entire year, literally let their child bid on everything without limit. Probably spent a quarter million that day.

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u/Eskimodo_Dragon 16h ago

Good for them. It's obviously notoriously difficult for artists to make a good living so that's nice to hear.

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u/sum-9 13h ago

Exactly, there are 46 pages of his paintings on that site.

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u/justintheunsunggod 19h ago

Hey, gotta pay for all that paint on the floor somehow. /s

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u/Orisi 1d ago

It's not necessarily just pure paint, could easily be a form of resin or glue that hardens much faster after mixing with pigment.

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u/cash-or-reddit 1d ago

They make painting mediums specifically for stuff like this!

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u/elfmere 1d ago

It would have to be, if it was pure paint it would dry and crack

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u/DoomsdaySprocket 1d ago

Looks like a heavy-body acrylic to me, fluid acrylics of that brand dry fast (minutes) so I’m guessing that these heavy-body ones applied like a texture are probably drying in hours or maybe a day, not weeks.

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u/ThiaMari 21h ago

Most of those seem more like the high flow acrylics, but you’re right that it wouldn’t take so long to dry. Source: I work at an art store that sells those exact bottles (though I’ve never actually poured that kind of paint, only putting it in markers)

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u/Helpful_Western1629 1d ago

Thicc

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u/_LouSandwich_ 1d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/26n6MSDzWXSf98qK4

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u/TotalyNotTony 22h ago

if its oil paint it never will lol

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u/BigBlueMountainStar 1d ago

I think the spinny one looked better before he sped it up

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u/i_am_not_so_unique 1d ago

It looked absolutely magical for a very brief moment.

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u/F-US-FASCISM 22h ago

I thought he sucked until he started making the trees.

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u/Visual_Collar_8893 19h ago

Gorgeous redwoods.

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u/Arctichunter70 21h ago

That's exactly what I thought.

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u/_nixon_vibe_ 1d ago

That’ll be $2.6mil please.

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u/FullClip__ 1d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/l4jOMCo6FM529lLb5D

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u/rheumination 1d ago

Gen X enters the chat

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u/worthing0101 21h ago

"Your book on how to pick up trashy women came today. Tell me something. What's a little boy like you doing with big boy smut like this?"

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u/GooglephonicStereo 23h ago

Plus tip!

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u/Fantastic_Smile9746 23h ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/fAVceM13nPc5G3OfIl

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u/uniqueusername316 22h ago

A quick search shows his paintings sell in the $5-10k range.

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u/Life-Suit1895 23h ago

He needs that money to pay for the 100 litres of paint he uses for every painting.

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u/Imaginary_History985 1d ago

I got 3.50

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u/bonemonkey12 1d ago

Well it's about that time I realized that this artist was about 8 stories high and a crustacean from the Paleolithic era....

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u/Shazam1269 23h ago

"8 stories high" sounds like someone's pretty messed up. I'm only about 2 stories high right now, so only a moderate buzz.

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u/Unicornsponge 1d ago

🌲fiddy

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u/RajunCajun48 1d ago

dammit woman, let me tell the damn story nyah

he said tree fiddy

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u/ByeByeDigg 1d ago

Yeah, but he learned how to do cool shit like that

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u/3D_mac 23h ago

So did every kid in the 1980s.

https://www.reddit.com/r/nostalgia/comments/6ud0r0/spin_art_i_remember_loading_it_with_so_much_paint/

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/imdefinitelywong 1d ago

Sure, maybe for some pieces. But then this exists.

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u/ifmacdo 1d ago

And the eye to put things in the right places. Yeah, it might be "random," but the vision to see where it is leading and the ability to be able to take it to that conclusion is definitely a learned and practiced thing.

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u/vasthumiliation 23h ago

Have you seen his work? He’s asking between about $7000 to $70000.

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u/Kojiro12 1d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/LXzdnJTNfSvMCd9oFG

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u/anony_mf 1d ago

Only idiots pay a lot of money for art like this

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u/ben_woah 1d ago

Jackson Pollock meets Bob Ross

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u/notevengonnatry 1d ago

Pollock at least got drunk and flew into a blind violent rage

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u/Archiive 1d ago

So they both beat the devil out of things?

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u/TheOnlyLordByron 22h ago

how very dare you

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u/-Nicolai 23h ago

There is nothing Bob Ross about this. At all.

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u/ben_woah 23h ago

His woodland technique and style are very similar. So there.

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u/morris1022 23h ago

Jackson pullock meets infomercial actor

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u/terminalbungus 21h ago

Blob Ross

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u/1984SKIN 1d ago

*Job Bollock meets Rackson Poss.

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u/du7y 1d ago

this is oddly dissatisfying

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u/TheLastPeanut_ 1d ago

I liked the first one more before he increased the spin speed.

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u/TheAgeOfAdz91 22h ago

Soulless kitschy art with goofy techniques

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u/kcox1980 21h ago

The difference between "art" and "arts and crafts".

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u/Ardbeg66 21h ago

My buddy bought a toy for his kid to do this. The results look the same to me.

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u/utahmom1958 18h ago

He learned the method at The State Fair School of Art.

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u/Dude_Guy45 1d ago

All I could think about was how wasteful this is

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u/zarawesome 1d ago

all that paint could be feeding kids in africa

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u/L0nz 21h ago

when i was a kid you had to lick your palette clean else you'd get a smack

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u/TheShortBus5000 21h ago

But that's lead free paint. They'll never gain weight with that stuff.

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u/maynardftw 1d ago

If you ever see a video on the internet and it's of a single individual doing basically anything, it's never wasteful enough to warrant focusing on. There's much worse shit going on. Don't get distracted just because you got something put in front of your face.

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u/councilmember 23h ago

Same goes for high wages. Who cares if someone is making $10m a year. The real money is tied up in wealth and needs to be taxed just like housing.

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u/Grays42 20h ago

It is possible to care about multiple things at once

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u/maynardftw 20h ago

This isn't a thing to care about at all, no matter how many things you can care about at once.

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u/ok1092 1d ago

What, you mean you don’t use a whole roll of paper towels to smear your paint?

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u/FloppieTheBanjoClown 1d ago

to be fair, he could probably peel off the outside of the paper towels and use it again.

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u/Meowmeow181 23h ago

Reddit moment.

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u/edjumication 22h ago

How is it wasteful? A dollar for a roll of paper towel? A little extra paint? I really dont get the issue.

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u/satansprinter 1d ago

I mean, i think its pretty fun to do. But watching someone else do it yeah..

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u/Bright_Vision 1d ago

People never watch until the second painting with this Video, which is a shame cause it's so much better than the first

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u/-PM_ME_UR_SECRETS- 1d ago

The video shouldn’t have opened with the dumb spinning one. His other stuff is genuinely good

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u/Akitiki 21h ago

Seriously. I skipped forward when I saw it; "oh, another one of those spin table artists. How original. Is he going to pour paint from a swinging bucket next?"

Thankfully, there was more and better art. Wonder if that's acrylic paint.

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u/MomsOfFury 1d ago

The second one is gorgeous!!

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u/donkeyrocket 18h ago

Especially as it has some more intent behind it. I have an irrational dislike of the ones that are primarily just paint plus randomization.

It can produce interesting results but just something about them I don’t like.

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u/wackbirds 1d ago

I did, I really liked the second one actually, it was just realistic enough to fall into the category of painting I like. A starry night isn't my favorite kind of painting and I don't care how popular Van Gogh became, nobody is wrong or right about art.

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u/FloppieTheBanjoClown 1d ago

I'm fairly sure some people are wrong about it.

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u/P_Hempton 22h ago

I think starry night is great, not my favorite, but I still think it's great because it's a representation of something real in a unique way, it's not entirely abstract.

The first painting in this video was just a gimmick, look at this cool design a preschool kid could have made. The rest of them are pretty good.

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u/AcrobaticHedgehog599 1d ago

r/restofthefuckingowl with that one though.

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u/Bimlouhay83 1d ago

That one i was like "wtf. Literally anyone can do... oh shit, nvm. That's pretty sweet."

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u/Capraos 1d ago

Same.

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u/Large_Dr_Pepper 1d ago

It doesn't matter. Redditors only think art is "good" if it's photorealism. Any amount of abstractness with art will result in redditors saying "I could easily do the same thing if I spent the time and effort building the setup that this artist built."

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u/brod333 23h ago

There is a difference between something being abstract and something lacking skill. Abstract art still requires skill. Even the simpler pieces still have skill in the thought process for why it is that particular way rather than some other way. The issue with the first piece is there isn’t much thought or skill.

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u/IBetThisIsTakenToo 23h ago

The first one is literally just a spin art toy from the 90s. Which absolutely ruled, and is probably a lot of fun! But I was wondering why he was a known artist at that point. Rest of the video is much better

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u/MeaninglessDebateMan 22h ago

You're describing most people with an entry-level understanding of art. Redditors are like most people for that.

Abstract, true surrealism, non-subjective art etc are all generally polarizing for most people too.

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u/frostyfur119 1d ago

Yup there's always gonna be a ton of anti-intellectualism whenever a post like this hits popular. They lack any willingness to engage with nontraditional art and smugly act like it's beneath them and meaningless.

Plus making art can be fun, it's not illegal if the process is silly and has some whimsy in it. He's chosing to do these methods for a reason, so just because it's different doesn't make it pointless. A curious mind would engage with that and wonder how it impacts the piece not just go "it different, it bad"

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u/Expensive-Jury2913 23h ago

They say "I could easily do this myself!" and just miss the point entirely? Of course you can do this yourself! It's art! You're able to and allowed to do art! You are permitted to see someone else do art and be inspired into doing your own art! We are human, and to be human is to create!

Art is not this elite unreachable thing that only the exceptional among us are allowed to create. If you're reading this, I challenge you to go and create art today. It doesn't have to be big or pretty or good, it just has to be art.

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u/Bright_Vision 23h ago

I honestly love how you worded this comment. Hell yeah. Go do art everybody.

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u/P_Hempton 22h ago

Same, too bad it's kinda hidden in this thread.

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u/JustADelusion 1d ago

He will do anything not to touch a brush

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u/Frink202 1d ago

That's action painting for ya. Just that this actually produces sensible visuals as opposed to looking like the aftermath of a splatoon match.

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u/ThiaMari 21h ago

That’s *literally* what that paint is made for, hence the nozzle cap.

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u/fnork 1d ago

Man dishing out the kebab sauce.

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u/gough_whitlam 1d ago

Not very good, IMHO.

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u/4ssteroid 1d ago

I liked the forest with the stream and trees

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u/6poundbagofweed 1d ago

If these pieces were posted here without the video it wouldn’t get much attention. The video of the process is the actual art they’re selling.

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u/kremlingrasso 1d ago

Yeah, kinda gimmicky and kitsch

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u/gough_whitlam 1d ago

Thomas Kinkade in dayglo.

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u/Large_Dr_Pepper 1d ago

At this point I'm really interested in seeing an art-related post where redditors, and the most upvoted comments, are impressed with the art.

It seems like no matter how unique and innovative the art is, the top comments here are just redditors saying they could easily do the same thing, or that the art showcased surely sold for several orders of magnitude more than it deserved.

What is good IYHO? Is it only photorealism?

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u/Ambitious_Jello 1d ago

there is plenty of art appreciation going around. go to an actual art sub. or a hobby sub. not something that people find on popular

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u/PandaXXL 1d ago

This is not unique or innovative though.

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u/gough_whitlam 1d ago

Bit of a strawman argument you've presented there. What do you consider to be unique and innovative about this? And why is that your criteria for 'good' art?

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u/FuManBoobs 1d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/JfHYC3gw6lWZdSesBw

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u/calicomonkey 23h ago

These are the kind of paintings they sell on Carnival cruises.

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u/Equal-Beyond4627 1d ago

What's good in your opinion then?

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u/Helenium_autumnale 1d ago

It's decorative. That's about it.

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u/Spaciax 23h ago

tbf that can be said for 99% of paintings

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u/isaidicanshout_ 1d ago

i don't think these can be considered unconventional when they are done in every elementary school art room in the world.

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u/Sad_Birthday_1911 22h ago

Moonlit cherry blossoms are the single most popular "paint and sip" class ever.

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u/Dwestmor1007 1d ago

Did you see the finished result though? It LOOKS like a traditional painting but done with seeming randomness

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u/zero-progress0 1d ago

The tree one looks very good I would definitely buy it for a decent price, it gives great vibes

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u/mrcachorro 14h ago

I used to paint exactly like this in fairs when i was a kid.

We where given a squared paper, we placed in on a spinny thing and we dropped paint on top to get the exact same effect as this guy.

I can not take these "artists" seriously...

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u/detailerrors 1d ago

Damn why are the comments here so hateful lol leave it to reddit to comment "that's not art" on beautiful landscape paintings

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u/BambaTallKing 1d ago

Any time there is painting and the process doesn’t use brushes, reddit shits itself

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u/alex3omg 1d ago

Reddit only likes realism generally

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u/Principle_Napkins 22h ago

That's just how normies view art anyways. I've dipped my toes into both realism and abstract art and I can honestly say abstract art is far more impressive. It takes skill to be able to let go of preconceived motions of how things are supposed to look.

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u/Junior_Bike7932 1d ago

Most people are miserable

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u/jumbledbumblecrumble 1d ago

And self loathing

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u/evening_shop 1d ago

Armchair experts who don't even know pencil grades smh. Art is painfully taxing and the dude is in it for the love of the game and he's damn good at it too.

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u/RajunCajun48 1d ago

I'm assuming most didn't watch past the first painting before jumping to the comments to type aways their hate

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u/RavnVidarson 1d ago

Just reddit being reddit

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u/therealleotrotsky 1d ago

That spinny thing is straight out of a T-shirt shop from a mall in the 80's.

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u/SkepticalJohn 15h ago

Ah, yes. Spin art at the school picnic/field day.

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u/Hoshyro 11h ago

My opinion did a complete 180 the instant he went from showing a paint circle to one of the most creatively crafted forest paintings I've ever seen.

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u/Dr_Carl_Hills_Head 11h ago

Carnival street art

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u/AdRepulsive8618 11h ago

I hate this style of "art."

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u/cocksupmyass 1d ago

It's boring, it's ugly. It's derivative at best. And the color choices make it seem like AI slop which is unfortunate cuz this guy preceded Ai by quite a while. The compositions are either boring, cliche and most of the time both and so is the shit he is depicting. It does make me feel quite a bit which is great and impressive for how boring it is. I'm just not sure those are the feeling he wants to associate with his work. I hope he never reads this and keeps on enjoying painting but this shit looks like tourist trap art by a person with zero opinions.

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u/JekNex 18h ago

Lmaoooo miserable reddit

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u/TheLetterOh 1d ago

Im convinced everyone hating only had the attention span to watch the first ten seconds of the video.

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u/MyOthrCarsAThrowaway 1d ago

It went from “this is shit” to “ok that’s pretty neat” by the end, for me.

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u/evening_shop 1d ago

Am an artist. This sort of thing bothers me a lot. Insane amounts of money and hours to into the craft, they're only looking at the tip of the iceberg.

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u/Lawrence_s 1d ago

Hotel art

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u/ShinyJangles 17h ago

Yep. The art here is "a process to mass-produce large, inoffensive art pieces to sell to hotels." Especially the small-chain "luxe" hotels with dark walls

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u/SpotTheF0x 19h ago

Rare moment where I actually do have the balls to say I can do that

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u/Dingofox 18h ago

"art"

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u/ConcentrateJealous94 16h ago

Some people call this art! 🤣🤣🤣🤣

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u/CharleyZia 15h ago

Seems more craft than art.

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u/3rrr6 8h ago

Human slop

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u/jakeeeR666 1d ago

My god yall are such haters

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u/gogul1980 1d ago

I wasn't on board to begin with, the spiral painting felt like kindergarten experimentation. But then he actually started putting shape and colour into the work and I was glad he wasn't just throwing paint around. Very good paintings, some vibrant colour etc very glad I kept watching. Would love a piece like that for our walls.

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u/RemotestOfSpheres 23h ago

Simon Bullshit you mean.

This is such low effort schlock. All these tik tok drip paintings are going to be in thrift stores someday. They are the modern version of pastel seascapes that adorn motel rooms

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u/BunkerSquirre1 1d ago

Very pretty, lot of talent there

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u/Vegetable_Quote_4807 1d ago

It looks like something anyone could do - but actually can't.

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u/FlukeStarbucker 21h ago

Yeah I would've called it good after the first five seconds

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u/cwif 1d ago

ITT: People not realizing they're admitting they didn't watch more than the first 30 seconds.

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u/Low_Direction1774 18h ago

"""artist"""

more artist than the AI clowns but less than "actual" artists. "oh look at me im extremely wasteful, you cant critisize me, im an artist making insanely simplistic paintings using an insane amount of ressources".

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u/Farside-BB 17h ago

He went to the School of County Fair Art.

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u/Schmenge_time 10h ago

So bad.

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u/PsychoPassProstitute 1d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/xKSB7TTLav6g0
Helicopter helicopter

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u/kewlbeanz23 1d ago

Hating ass comments

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u/I-like-cheeese 1d ago

Technical skill demos do not evoke emotion like art should that’s why the comments here are negative.

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u/Funkopedia 1d ago

Seems less like technical skill than "Let's see what would happen if i tried this!" Bro's having the time of his life.

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u/EquivalentFishing229 1d ago

Bro sneezed on a canvas and charged $20,000.

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u/evening_shop 1d ago

Lots of armchair experts in the comments hating on the guy. I just checked his work (as anyone should before typing up hate and judgment) and he's unbelievable.

Honestly... A bit embarrassing to see non artists judge a professional at work

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u/rambogambomogambo 1d ago

This is awesome and oddly satisfying

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u/silhouette951 1d ago

It's different for sure, but i just keep thinking about how wasteful it is.

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u/scorchedarcher 1d ago

To be fair I think we all do far more wasteful things too

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u/Colorspots 1d ago

I also used to think that.

But somebody in a video said, that art supplies used to make art are never wasted. Even if doesn't come out perfectly, you made something with it or learned something or made you have a good time. So you should never feel bad about using art supplies.

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u/CaptainFoyle 1d ago

Most things people do are more wasteful.

Stop throwing away the food you bought, for starters.

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u/dankhimself 1d ago

I had a spin art toy that ran on batteries in the 80s.

My art sucked

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u/bgray002 1d ago

my friend tried those swirly brush strokes once, failed miserably

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u/Worldly-Story507 1d ago

Regardless of what you think of the art… could you imagine catching one of those spinning corners at high speed right to the shin?!?

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u/FloppieTheBanjoClown 1d ago

First 30 seconds: A 5 year old can do this.

Second 30 seconds: Nevermind.

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u/blackdog3232 1d ago

Artist Simon Bulls' Painting Techniques

You are about to leave Redlib

*Job Bollock meets Rackson Poss.