National Gallery at Home: Create your own Monet-inspired drawing and collage!

Follow these simple steps to create a drawing and collage inspired by Claude Monet's painting!

Watch the video and then try it out yourself. You'll find all the materials and instructions listed below. Let's get started!

Watch the video

To watch the video: Due to new e-privacy measures on our site, you'll need to click on the cookie symbol in the bottom-left corner of this page and tick the boxes to accept statistics and marketing cookies in order to watch the video embedded on this page. Alternatively, you can watch it on YouTube.

Materials and instructions

You will need:

• A sheet of paper, any size
• Chalk pastels, lots of colours (crayons and colour pencils will work too!)
• Scissors
• Scraps of paper in blues, whites and browns (you could also use cloth, or feathers!)
• Glue stick

Instructions:

1. Start with your sheet of paper - white or blue will do. 
2. Begin by lightly filling in the background with blue, using the side of the chalk and blending with your fingertips - don’t worry about getting a little messy
3. Use a darker colour, like purple, to create the line of the river and the tree.
4. Start to mark out the leaves and branches of the tree, and its reflection in the water below.
5. Look closely at Monet’s painting - he uses lots of colours to show the tree. Use reds and yellows to create the leaves. What season do you think it is here?
6. Monet used short dabs of blue and white paint to show the surface of the water. Use heavy dashes of chalk to create this effect. 
7. Add white highlights to your blue dashes.
8. Use vertical lines to create the impression of the buildings on the distant horizon.
9. Gather your scraps of collage materials to create your boat. You don’t have to use only paper here - you can try cloth, or feathers, or anything you like!
10. Use glue to stick your collage together on a larger scrap of paper.
11. Cut our your collage.
12. Finally stick the boat in place in your drawing!

Share your artwork!

Would you like to see your artwork featured on the Gallery's website? Take a photo of your artwork and send it to us by email ([email protected]) or using this online form to upload your picture. We'll feature a selection of pictures in the Creative Challenge Gallery, so check back to see if yours is included!

Upload a picture of your artwork using this form

Inspired by ...

Claude Monet (1840–1926), Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sailboat, 1874. Image, National Gallery of Ireland.

This activity is inspired by French artist Claude Monet's gorgeous painting Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sailboat. Look closely at the water - what colours did Monet use to paint it? Imagine the sounds in this scene - what can you hear?

Credits:

This video was created by Joanne from our Education team and her daughter Ciara (aged 7).

About our Gallery at Home videos:

Inspired by works in our collection and exhibitions, our creative activities encourage families to work together to create their own artworks. They are specially produced videos for babies, older children and for those who require sensory input. You can find all the workshops in this series here. Enjoy!