Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for November 15, 2022

Artists are never conformists.

Trying to make your work better than the one on the box? Eh, go for it.

duh, Hobbes

And why would Calvin, of all people, want to get the picture on the box? Never happen.

I repeat.. “Duh”.

The picture on the box is only the manufacturer’s opinion on how the painting should look.

You can follow the instructions, or let your spirit run free, with art, either way works.

Yet another strip which shows that Hobbes is not part of Calvin but someone who thinks very differently from Calvin. Hobbes can be more imaginative and more mischievous than Calvin but he is also more of a conformist than Calvin could ever be.

The first thing my left brain does when I get a jig saw puzzle is sort the pieces. The first thing my right brain does is throw away the box.

Wait, Calvin is actually using the paintbrush provided? So much for non-conforming.

I was going to use the name of a certain artist starting with Jackson to pair up with Calvin, but it seems that that name is under GoComics banned word list…

I used to get paint-by-number kits as presents—which my mother would then take over.

I finally put my foot down and said the last one was MINE!!

Eventually, I learned to paint without numbers, and my mother couldn’t interfere.

If that had been a tiger based painting, Calvin might have tried harder.

Color me….no, not that one…this one!

My wife does that virtual paint by number thing. She enjoys it so much that I really don’t mind having to buy new monitors all the time. (I kid, my wife really deserves better, but she insists she’s with me for the duration. :^) )

I wonder if people over the age of 12 paint by the numbers. I mean, I would if I was so inclined, but I never hear of anyone who does it.

I remember liking how those pictures turned out and tried to make hand-made drawings that looked like that (with colors and shadows were arranged in blocks, not fading into each other).

I’m waiting for him to use it as war paint.

Follow someone else’s arbitrary guidelines? NEVER.

Don’t want that. No way.

And the picture on the box is boring.

I gave my mother a paint-by-numbers of kittens and it came out very expressionist — as if it was less a painting of kittens and more like a painting about what it feels like to be a kitten.

A day in the life of young Picasso.

You gotta make your own kind of art. Draw your own kind of picture. Make your own kind of art. Even if nobody else paints along.

Why would he want to make a copy of what’s on the box? It’s already there.

Training for future Ikea furniture assembly.

Me thinks Calvin always colors outside the lines.

The birth of Jackson P.

I always found color by numbers kits very satisfying.

Creating depth in a landscape is the challenge. Look at value, temperature and intensity.

Picasso is born.

Painting-by-numbers is one step up from sudoku. :)

That actually sounds like a fun and not bad idea…

Hey Hobbs. He’s right, ya know.

The bigger life picture lesson.

Riighht. Why bother??

I would build LEGO sets according to instructions, then take them apart and combine the pieces differently.

Deep!

And post-modern art is born…

This why he doesn´t like thrillers – he doesn´t read between the lines.

I’ll bet Hobbes could make up a substitution code for the colors.

LOL… Calvin the ‘artist’?… hmmm.

Perhaps he could get the same result by simply starting with a blank piece of paper, but it wouldn’t be half as much fun. Anyway, using this method he can say that all his art is focused on such themes as defying authority and thinking outside the box.

Hobbes might try to assemble a jigsaw puzzle without looking at the box

Right on, Calvin. “Express yourself.” ;-p

Hobbes, since when you started thinking that six year old boy goes by the rulebook.