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How to paint Waterlilies after Monet

watercolour waterlilies at Harrow Art Centre.jpg
Impressionism
 

The term was coined from Claude Monet's painting, "Impression, Sunrise" (Impression, soleil levant), which was criticised at the time, for being merely an "impression" rather than a finished artwork.

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Impressionism was a late 19th-century French movement that shifted painting away from polished studio realism towards capturing fleeting moments of light, colour and atmosphere, often painted outdoors. Artists used visible, broken brushstrokes and vibrant, unmixed colours to suggest rather than precisely define their subjects. In doing so, they prioritised light, personal perception and immediacy over traditional detail, laying foundations for modern art.

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Monet painted his waterlilies in oils - we're going to attempt them in watercolour.  Yes, a bit of a challenge, but watercolour is perfect for capturing the light.
 

When you go out to paint, try to forget what objects you have before you, a tree, a house, a field, or whatever. Merely think, here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow.

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– Claude Monet


Materials
 

  • Watercolour paper, 300gsm cold pressed 

  • Tube watercolours - cerulean blue, pink, yellow, indigo

  • Optional convenience colours (sap green, purple and orange) - but try and make yours from the above. (blue +yellow = green, yellow +red = orange, blue + pink = purple).  Pink added to green will give you a lovely olive colour and adding indigo will give you darker versions of your colours.

  • Brushes (large flat or round wash, medium round + liner brush)

  • White gouache 

  • Tissue / kitchen roll

  • Water pot

  • Watercolour Pencils and sandpaper (Optional)

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Handy Hints
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Aim for the idea for a waterlily pond, not perfection.  Look at Monet's waterlilies below. There's not much detail, just light, colour and gestural brush strokes.  We'll be using a few techniques to paint the water.  You may find you cycle round the techniques a few times until you are happy with your result, I did.  Remember, keep some lighter patches showing through in the water.​  Water has no colour of it's own, it reflects the sky, clouds and surrounding foliage.

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Monet Waterlily Example 1911.jpg
Materials
 

  • Watercolour paper, 300gsm cold pressed 

  • Tube watercolours - cerulean blue, pink, yellow, indigo

  • Optional convenience colours (sap green, purple and orange) - but try and make yours from the above. (blue +yellow = green, yellow +red = orange, blue + pink = purple).  Pink added to green will give you a lovely olive colour and adding indigo will give you darker versions of your colours.

  • Brushes (large flat or round wash, medium round + liner brush)

  • White gouache 

  • Tissue / kitchen roll

  • Water pot

  • Watercolour Pencils and sandpaper (Optional)

Monet Waterlilies Example 2LR a.jpg

Things in foreground are bright, have detail - those further away, recede.  They are smaller, flatter, lack detail, blur into each other, have desaturated colours
 

  1. Pencil in lily pads and flowers loosely, the lily pads at the front are larger and rounder, the ones in the distance are flatten out and get smaller
     

  2. Paint the WATER using a wet into wet technique - Lighter in the middle, lighter at the top, darker as you move down and out.  As you  approach a lily pad, paint it in a watery yellow and let it blend into the surrounding colours.  Vary your colours .  Use a large brush.   Think about placing in a variety of colours and keep light blue/white in the middle.  We will layer more on top of this later, we are just establishing where the colours will go for now.  DRY

3.  Lily pad & water shadows - What is the colour of the surrounding water? Using dark colours, sketch in a shadow under the lily pads loosely with a dry brush.   Lighter shadow for far away lily pads.  Also colour in the lily pad splits,  on 3-5 of the lilies only.

4.   Using a dry brush technique, in the surrounding water colour, start to darken the edges all around the painting.  You'll need to load up your brush with fairly concentrated paint and swish your brush lightly across the texture of the paper (horizontally) to get the skippy dry brush effect.  As though you were using a feather.   Less is more, you can always add more later.  If the effect seems too much in areas, just a slightly damp brush to soften out some of the texture / tissue to pick some paint up

5.   Using a liner or rigger brush, create some horizontal ripples in the water.  Pay attention to the surrounding colours and try and harmonise with them.  Vary the pressure on your brush to achieve a ripple effect.  One of two ripple s-curves add interest too.

6. Using Pink and orange, place in the main lily flower. do this in a gestural way like Monet, no detail.  

Reinforce the shadows under the lily pads

Add some light and dark shades of green to the foreground lily pads and a little orange.  Use a damp brush to blend these colours together slightly

7.  Final Details

Look at your painting.  What else does it need to fill it out?
 

Lily Pads - add impressionist strokes of colour using thick paint.  Keep distant leaves blurry and out of focus.  I used white,  white mixed with a little cerulean blue and bright orange.  I kept these brushstrokes distinct like Monet.  Just quick flicks of the brush, following the gentle curves of the leaves


Does it need some more contrast in water? 
further lines & ripples?
splashes?
watercolour pencil shavings?
more shadows under lily pads/flowers?
Some light spots lifted out?
Some white or hot pink on the lilies?

Stand back periodically, to asses your painting,  maybe it is finished?  Less is more in watercolour

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"I'm never finished with my paintings; the further I get, the more I seek the impossible and the more powerless I feel."

 

"Color is my daylong obsession, joy, and torment."

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– Claude Monet

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