At least it won't take you 15 years to figure this out these paint hacks! You don't have to be an art natural to adopt these quick and easy tricks into your next work of art! Whether you've been painting for 15 years or 5 minutes, follow these three steps to make your next piece pop: Step 1 - the outline The most fundamental aspect to giving the painting 99% more structure, by planning it out with light pencil shapes. Many abstract or impressionist art will often skip this step - but it is simply needed for any still-life, landscape or portrait paintings. It's a little difficult to do this with watercolour paintings without having lead bleed through, in which case I recommend using a blue pencil (which you can find at an arts/crafts store - alternatively, a light blue pencil will do the trick.) With a pencil, sketch (not too dark you can't erase, but not too light you can't see it) the outer lines of the big parts of your subject(s),...