I’m taking a watercolor class at AOEU, and the idea of a random table to generate painting prompts was floated. Whether I was inspired or procrastinating, I’m juuuust good enough at Python to shoot from the hip and try turning such an idea into code.

import random
genre = [
"Still life from imagination",
"Still life from reference",
"Portrait from reference",
"Portrait from imagination",
"Landscape from reference",
"Landscape from imagination",
"Abstract"
]


motherColor = ["red",
"orange",
"yellow",
"Green",
"Blue",
"Violet",
"B&W"]


mainBrush = ["fan brushes",
"flat brushes",
"rigger brushes",
"Watercolor pencils",
"Round brushes",
"Water pens",
"Anti-brushes"]

theme = ["Fantasy",
"Sci-fi",
"Realist",
"Cartoon",
"Food",
"Advertising",
"Horror"]

emotion= ["Happy",
"Sad", 
"Calm",
"Excited",
"Fearful",
"Angry",
"Confused"]

technique = ["Wash", 
             "Line", 
             "Drybrush", 
             "Texture", 
             "Resist",
             "Wet-on-wet", 
             "Ink"]

for i in range(6): 
    print('Paint a {} {}-hued {} {} using primarily {} with {}'.format(emotion[random.randint(0,6)], motherColor[random.randint(0,6)],  theme[random.randint(0,6)], genre[random.randint(0,6)], mainBrush[random.randint(0,6)], technique[random.randint(0,6)])) 
 

A couple edits come to mind, such as skipping all those lists and instead importing from a CSV, maybe using random.choice instead, and if I’m real fancy, maybe learning how to make it a button on wordpress.

So how’d the paintings turn out?