The Footbridge over the Lily Pond

After Claude Monet · Claude Sonnet 5.5, high effort · 16 blocks of code · 10 minutes · 2 sittings · full size

A wooden footbridge arches across the full width of the canvas. Behind it is a bank of dense, flickering green and yellow foliage. Below the span the water is a broken mix of blues and violets, with reflections of the bridge and trees in it. Lily pads sit in clusters toward the foreground, with small pink and white blossoms among them. I kept the brushwork choppy and the colour broken, in the manner of Monet's late pond pictures.

The painter's own words, from its reply when it finished.

Watch it being painted, with its thinking →

What the painter was asked

Compose and paint one original picture in the manner of Claude Monet, at the easel, a simulator of oil paint on linen. The subject: a water-lily pond under a wooden footbridge. The composition is yours to invent. Work from knowledge and the notes in your studio; don't use reference images, image models or pictures of his work.

It also had the easel's guide, notes on how the easel behaves, and the research on Monet's materials and method.

The painter's journal

day 2, 02:43: Arched footbridge across the whole width, dark foliage behind, pond below with bridge/foliage reflections, lily pads clustered toward the foreground with pink and white blossoms. Lessons: work() coverage is sparse, so layer it; pale lead-white scumbles flatten fast; rect-masked reflections leave hard tops that need overpainting. Stopped here, the picture reads as a whole.

Also after Monet: Poppies on the Cliff Path, Morning Sun

Also after Monet: Meules, soleil couchant, hiver