The forefather of French impressionism, Claude Monet is known for his soft-focused portraits in pastel pinks and blue hues. With a sharp grasp of lighting and its effects on the eye, Claude Monet was able to paint a popular body of works that are often reprinted today on posters, calendars and other merchandise.
Instructions
1. Enroll in a fine arts school. Claude Monet studied at the Le Havre secondary school of the arts, where he started out with charcoal caricatures and drawings.
2. Study the masters-but don't copy them. One popular story about Monet's formative years is that the painter visited The Louvre in Paris while he was studying fine arts, and opted to paint what he saw outside the window of the building rather than copy the breathtaking work inside.
3. Use your home as your subject. Monet lived in a country house with two acres of land, and also had a garden and water lily pond which became popular subjects of his paintings.
4. Paint with short, rapid brush strokes of varying, unmixed oil colors. The visibility of the brush strokes in a painting is one of the hallmarks of Impressionism, and the unmixed colors increase the painting's intensity.
5. Work outdoors. It might not seem like a very novel concept by today's standards, but painting outdoors became pivotal to the Impressionist movement during the mid-1800s. In addition to the proximity of the scenery, Monet also painted outdoors because of the advantages of natural light.
6. Create a series of paintings based around one banal object or theme. Monet painted a series of haystacks, depicted from different angles and at different times of day; as well as a series of poplar trees and a series of portraits of the Houses of Parliament.
