Strong paintings have a strong design. There are some useful things to think about when developing a painting. Try to contain all the elements of your painting within a few large shapes. Being the same value even though they are different colors can link smaller shapes within a large shape. You want the viewer to have an easy-to-discern path for the eye to move through the painting. You can guide the viewer by manipulating the value contrast between shapes. The eye is drawn to places of high contrast and increasing detail; so place contrasting detail where you want the focal point to be. Paintings need contrast and movement. The viewer's eye will move along drawn lines or along the edges of things, as well as through contrast.

Vary the sizes and shapes within your composition. At the same time choose some shapes to repeat in some form. For instance, vary the sizes of large shapes in a background, but repeat some shape from the foreground.

Provide an underlying shape for your composition to give the body of your painting a skeleton. Common structures are the "S" form, a "peninsula", or a cross. For instance major elements can line up along an "S", or the composition might be divided into four different sized rectangles by using a cross structure.