Artist Imitation

BenM

Research & Plan

This painting is part of a set of many similar paintings that Monet made of the bridge in his garden at different points in the year. After moving to Giverny in France, he transformed the garden in this picturesque scene with exotic vegetation and Japanese-style bridge. He painted the scene several times in order to capture the subtle differences in the weather and lighting while depicting the inconstant beauty of nature.

I decided to imitate his work as I particularly like the texture his impressionist brush strokes create and would like to find a way to recreate that style digitally. Other than imitating his style digitally, I think I should put a unique spin on my piece, probably through altering the colours or adding in some referential object on or around the bridge. Otherwise, I will probably use this image as my primary reference when recreating this piece.

Water Lilies and Japanese Bridge, 1899. Claude Monet.

Production

I started by flipping the original horizontally as I wanted to repaint it in colours similar to the Upside Down world from Stranger Things, so mirroring the image keeps with that theme while not being difficult to look at, unlike flipping it vertically. Then I went through the main painting stages of blocking out areas, adding finer details and finishing up, always using the original as a guide. At some point I also combined all the layers into one so that the digital oil paint brushes could mix the colours a bit. Finally, I overlaid a slight texture to make the painting look a bit more three-dimensional, like the original.