Painting Cheat Sheets: 7 Printable One-Page Guides for Loose Painting

Seven pages. Pin them up. Paint.

Stuck, muddy or staring at a blank page? These seven one-page cheat sheets sit beside your easel and answer the question before you waste the session. Glance, then paint.

The 7 sheets

1. The 20-Minute Rep: the whole timed-painting method on a page, with a timeline, a before-you-start checklist and an "if you freeze" list.
2. Colour Mixing: a warm and a cool of each primary, clean vs muted secondaries, and how to get greys and browns without a tube of them.
3. Value and Shapes: a 1–9 value scale, the three-value plan, the squint test and the grey card trick.
4. Colour Harmony: complementary, analogous, triadic and more, plus the 70/20/10 rule and a limited-palette idea.
5. Brush Marks: eight marks to practise (drag, dab, edge, scumble and more) and which brush to use for what.
6. Composition: rule of thirds, five layouts that work, and a 2-minute thumbnail drill with blank frames.
7. Stuck Cards and Starter Kit: 20 starters for when the page is blank, and a simple kit list.

Made to be used

• Bold, readable at arm's length, with plenty of white space to write on.
• Works in black and white. Colour is nicer for the mixing and harmony sheets.
• Print one at a time and pin up what you need this week.

• Printable PDF, A4, 9 pages including a cover and how-to-use page.
• These are general painting guidelines, not rules. Colour swatches are approximate, so test on scrap paper.
• Works with acrylic, gouache or watercolour.
• Instant digital download. Nothing is posted to you.