Maybe Monet?

Monet is fun to try to emulate, because even though he was a master, it is very hard to get it wrong. Monet didn't really paint recognizable objects, he just painted "impressions" of them and let our own visual cortex do the rest of the work!

For this project you will need:

watercolor paper
oil pastel
watercolor pencils


Start by laying in a rainbow line all the way across the paper using a white oil pastel. Lay it in very heavy since we will want the oil to resist the subsequent layers of watercolor. Add another one. Add another rainbow line close to the top one and one about midway between the top and bottom. Add some vertical line along the bridge as supports.
Use oil pastel to add in the colorful flowers and some of the darker areas of leaves.
Do not try to make a flower shape or a leaf shape, just use dots and thick lines of color. Notice in the water there seems to be a movement from right to left and above the bridge on the left the tree is more dotted where as the area on the right above the bride is made more of vertical lines.
Now it is time for the watercolor pencil. In the center above the bridge there is a darker area that seems to draw us to the center of the picture. Lay this in with purples and blues. Avoid black for shadows. Monet used a technique of using the contrasting color to create shadows. It is very fun to learn about and can be an excellent crossover into science. Lay in the water side to side with greens and blues. Try to cover the whole area.
Last of all wet a paintbrush and go back over all the pencil areas, keeping in mind the direction I mentioned above: right to left in the water, dots in above the bridge to the left and vertical motion above the bridge to right.)
Having a sample of Monet's work nearby is helpful, but feel free to simply experiment too. Try some wet on wet techniques and see what happens.
Have fun!

Here are some other resources you may find helpful as well.

Garden of Praise
ArtSmarts4Kids
Miss Julie's Art School- Artist of the Week.(way down near the bottom of the page)