Painting a Day: 31 Ideas

Whether an old, metal one for the garden or a cheap plastic one for houseplants, a watering can creates interesting negative space around the straight spout and curved handle.

An odd number of elements makes for a more interesting composition because we don't mentally tidy them up into pairs. So have three or five pears rather than two or four.

If you've a garden with a tree, paint it from life. If you haven't got a garden, paint the tree you would have if you did or go to a local park or public garden.

If you can't get the flower to stay upright in the direction you want, crunch up a plain tea-towel or cloth underneath it. Don't go picking one of your neighbor's prize roses without asking first now!

Shift your focus and composition to contain only the heart of the flower. What the bee sees when its collecting pollen.

If you wet the pebbles with some water the colors show up more intensely. Let them go off the edges of your composition, not restrain them neatly within the edges of your canvas or sheet of paper.

Avoid the temptation to paint every single strand of fur if you want to get the painting done in a day. Instead, use brush-mark texture to convey a sense of the fur.

If you're going to paint a cat from life, best wait until she's asleep! Get the overall shape down first, then focus on the individual limbs. And remember the pupils of a cat's eyes aren't round; forget that and it'll never look right.

Make the flowers the focal point not the vase. Let them fill and dominate the space. Don't constrain them within the area of the painting, but let them extend beyond the edges on at least one side.

Yesterday's flowers should last long enough to paint them again, this time giving the vase or container as much prominence as the flowers.