H
ead for the art room and use your camera's macro setting. Look for the icon on your camera that looks like a tulip. It will be important to use a tripod or some other steady camera mount. If you don't have anything else, use a beanbag or even your tennis shoe. That's right, take off your shoe and use it to brace the camera to get a nice steady shot.
Use a large aperture for shallow depth of field, as in the photo below. Try a smaller aperture and experiment with that too.
Color and texture are easy to find in the brushes, paints and chalk boxes. The photo below is a great example from Irene Gr's photostream on Flickr.
![CC: License https://www.flickr.com/photos/irenegr/4118878347/ CC: License https://www.flickr.com/photos/irenegr/4118878347/](https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2649/4118878347_5fe7cf3da3.jpg)