My teacher gave me these reminders for how to do a small still life, 6" x 8" using acrylics:
set up at least two objects; they should overlap each other slightly. Shadow areas on objects should be made up of the local color of the object. For example, the red of an apple plus a small amoung of the complement of red. The cast shadow and object shadow should be two different values. He told me to "think composition": the main object should not be in the center of the page. Above is a picture of what I was looking at, and here's what I did:
