How to Paint

Difficulty: 3.5/5
Colours: Chromium oxide/green, white, cadmium yellow, ultramarine, burnt sienna
Brushes: Medium flat brush (for sketching), small round brush

Claude Monet hardly needs an introduction – as the father of French Impressionism, most of us will have seen his work at some point in our lives. You can find a list of fun facts about this series of paintings here (e.g. Water Lilies was not just one piece – it spanned over 250 works!)

The Water Lily Pond is an exercise in colour …as all Monet works are. The key here is to build depth using warmer and cooler greens, in both lighter and darker tones, by mixing in blues and yellows:

The word on the street is that Monet never painted with black! So as an alternative, you can darken greens either by adding ultramarine/blue, or adding burnt sienna. What you’ll get is a much softer tone that appears black, simply in relation to the lighter tones surrounding it.

Another thing to remember when painting a Monet is patience. Take 3 hours, or 5 hours. It can be tempting to rush into results, but trust me – that has never worked in my favour!

p/s If the slider below looks weird – try refreshing the page!