Dan Robbins with a paint-by-numbers self-portrait
Posted on 04/09/2019 1:19:45 PM PDT by csvset
Dan Robbins, the artist behind the paint-by-numbers craze that swept America, has died in Sylvania, Ohio, at the age of 93, his son told the AP news agency.
He was working at a paint products firm in the 1940s when he invented the kits.
By the 1950s millions were being sold across the US every year.
His inspiration for the idea came from Leonardo da Vinci, who used a similar method when teaching his apprentices how to paint.
Mr Robbins first joined Palmer Paint, a company selling children's paint sets, after serving in World War Two.
Dan Robbins with a paint-by-numbers self-portrait
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
They should bury him in a paint by number’s coffin.
He was right. The paint-by-number paintings were the butt of jokes but the inventor was light years ahead of the detractors.
In fact, the more some innocent, harmless person or idea is mocked, the higher he/it is in the spiritual realms.
"Paint-by-numbers" is right up there with puns for where to find Divine Revelation because... who's looking there. To the experts it looks like no-talent nonsense, mockery even. Those poor folks lack any discernment whatsoever.
In fact, some paint-by-numbers artwork would look really nice in the Temple, along with Thomas Kinkade's work. And Bob Ross' happy trees too. Let people be shocked and offended.
As for the grounds, I'm not too sure about garden gnomes (they look kind of sketchy just on general principle), but flamingos are definitely in!
I loved those Edmund Scientific catalogues! They now have a website at https://www.scientificsonline.com. Judging by the fotos, however, they only sell to girls and minority children, and big ol’ safety goggles are mandatory.
I guess you could say..his number was up?
I can still smell the paint.
I always wanted to get one of those surplus weather balloons. The power of advertising, I guess. :-)
I liked this stuff as a kid in the ‘70s. Still like to buy this kind of thing for kids today.
I totally forgot about those! Yeah, I would devour them from cover to cover. Sears Catalog was great when you were 5 or 6, but after that, Edmund’s was it! Great memory. Thanks.
Yes it was !
I bought one once and figured I’d get lift by filling it with hot lawn mower exhaust. At 10 or 11 years, I had no idea how to do any calculations, so it was empiricism all the way. It inflated, but flopped over and wouldn’t even stand up at all. What a huge disappointment that was.
Just behind the Radio Shack catalog . . .
Ha - they still carry ant farms and dunking birds. Either one of those would drive our cats right up the flue. *chuckle*
I learned several hard lessons in aerodynamics that day. And it was all in one jump. *snicker*
When I was 11 or 12,I was reading about the history of aviation in the late 1800s. Lots of men were flying tethered gliders and learning about aerodynamics and control. I thought “wow, is that cool” and found plans from probably the 30s or 40s on how to build such a glider out of wood, fabric, and dope, just like upsized balsa wood models. It’s a good thing I never built one because I’m sure I wouldn’t be here today.
Not long after that, modern lightweight hang gliders were invented, but I never took that up.
I grew up making balsa airplane models that I had to cut out of pre-printed balsa sheets (before die cutting), graduated to Erector sets, and then Heathkit. I became an engineer.
Which ones? I have a picture of the beach I want to make into a painting.
You and I had the same career path! Do you remember chemistry sets?
I received a chemistry set for my 8th birthday. By age 9 I’d stumbled onto a crude gunpowder-like mixture. Ah, sweet memories.
I remember those catalogs. They had everything you needed to build your own telescope from scratch. Including the mirror grinding and polishing. I loved painting by numbers. I still do. I have a painting of one with two kittens on my wall. Got it at Walmart for a few dollars.
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