Art History for Kids: Tissue Paper Painting Inspired by Claude Monet

We love learning about famous artists and creating fun projects inspired by their masterpieces!

Today’s project is inspired by Claude Monet.

Claude Monet was a famous French Impressionist painter.

An Impressionist is an artist whose paintings use a technique called Impressionism.

Many impressionist painters used small dabs of paint when they applied their color to the canvas.

 

In this project, instead of using paint, we’re going to “paint” with small pieces of tissue paper!

First decide on a painting to use for inspiration.  We liked Monet’s haystack paintings since they are easily drawn using simple shapes.

We chose this painting.

 

Here are the supplies needed for this project:

• Tissue paper
• Blank canvas
• White glue
• Water
• Paintbrush
• Pencil
• Scissors

*NOTE:  There are two different techniques that can be used with this project. 

1. You can apply the tissue paper to the canvas only with water and let it dry.

Once dry, the tissue paper is easily removed and the color from the paper will stain and “paint” your canvas.

2. If you like the look of the wet tissue paper, you can use a mixture of ½ white glue and ½ water to apply the tissue paper to the canvas and allow it to dry. 

The glue will dry and seal the tissue paper to the canvas permanently.

Now let’s get started…

First, you need to draw the outline of the shapes you would like to “paint” in tissue paper.

Next, apply your tissue paper pieces to the canvas using your paintbrush and your water or water/glue mixture.

If you prefer to use only water with the tissue paper, allow it to dry and you can easily peel the dried paper from the canvas.

The color from the paper will stain the white canvas leaving an “impression” of the subject.

If you prefer to create a more abstract design, be creative and let your imagination fly.

Here is an example of an abstract design.  In the final step, you can see the “painted” stain on the canvas once the dried tissue paper was removed.

A few notes to ensure a successful project:

• Before starting this project you may want to test your tissue paper.
• Some tissue papers bleed more freely when wet than others.
• If you’d like to stain the canvas and remove the dried tissue paper, make sure you have tissue paper that bleeds color when wet.
• Make sure to rinse your brushes right away if you use a glue/water mixture to attach your tissue paper.
• Most of all HAVE FUN and BE CREATIVE!

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