I Shrank a Bob Ross Painting (Literally)

Hi! There are some pretty small Bob Ross paintings out there, but I thought I could use a trick to make a really tiny painting: shrink plastic!

Supplies

shrink plastic (white)
pencil, ruler and scissors
watercolors
fine paintbrush
oven or heat gun

For the tiny easel:

matchsticks
craft knife
sand paper or file
paint (optional)
superglue

Step 1: What Is Shrink Plastic?

It's a plastic that shrinks with heat (like from a heat gun or oven), usually with a sanded side that you can draw, print or even.. paint on. I had never actually tried painting on shrink plastic, so I had to research and test it.

I've seen some people use acrylic paint - but I think it can look a bit shriveled up after it shrinks. That's why I decided to go with watercolors - I did a test and it worked quite well.

I’m using white shrink plastic today. In general, shrink plastic starts out as a thin sheet and gets thicker in the shrinking process. The plastic I used stated that it will shrink to about 40% of the original size.

I tested shrinking a 5,5cm x 4cm piece and the end result was about 2cm x 1,5cm small. I was happy with those dimensions for the painting.

Step 2: Painting With Watercolors

Since Bob Ross uses oil paints, my painting process will be a little different. As far as I know, with watercolors it's best to start with the lightest areas first. This is almost the opposite of working with opaque oil paints.

I don't have a lot of experience with painting, but I am okay at copying stuff. So I used "Mountain Reflections" by Bob Ross as a reference.

Painting on the plastic worked surprisingly well. The only difference is that it doesn't absorb water like paper, but it still dried fairly quickly.

The colors get more vibrant and dark when shrunk, so I tried to keep that in mind.

I worked on the sections in this order:

cool shadows of the mountain
blue sky, leaving space for the clouds
mountain details with watered down black
bushes
trees
shadows of bushes and trees
soil beneath the bushes
water reflections

I made an easel out of chopsticks so I could present the end result. I just cut them with a little saw/knife, sanded, painted and superglued them.

Step 3: Shrinking Time!

Now it’s shrinking time!

The instructions of this shrink plastic said to put it in the oven at 125 degrees Celsius. But it depends on the brand.

Let’s be honest, I had to clean the oven window since you couldn’t see anything at all ;)

I only had to wait for a few seconds. First, the plastic folded in on itself. This is normal, but sometimes the plastic sticks to itself and then it’s hard to save. I heard that you can dust a bit of cornstarch on the plastic so that doesn't happen.

Luckily, the plastic unfolded again and became flatter. Often it flattens all the way, but I needed to help it a little by pressing it flat right after it came out of the oven. Put a bit of baking paper, silicone or aluminium foil on top of the plastic before you press it flat. You can put the plastic back in the oven for a bit if you need to flatten it again.

Depending on how much pigment you used, the pigment will pile up a bit after it has been shrunk. When you press it flat, it looks better. You can also gently brush the painting, but you have to be careful as you can accidentally remove too much pigment.