Summarize this article:

While you’re digging holes for the plants, exercise some creative forethought to make interesting designs and configurations. You could arrange different species in alternating rows, or sew brilliantly colored plants in dazzling sweeps and swirls. Remember, your living picture is as much a work art as it is gardening.  Use small, vertical succulents to produce symmetrical designs like swirls or a zigzagging Chevron pattern. Accumulate a gallery of living pictures and use each to explore a different style of planting and arrangement. Hearty flowering plants come in a myriad of unique and unusual hues. Japanese iris and begonias, for instance, are typically a delicate violet color, while Oncidium orchids glow a fiery red when they reach maturity. Incorporate the wide range of plants available to you into your palette and cultivate an arrangement that’s truly stunning.  Succulents like lampranthus, clivia and balsam all produce large flowers with rich, bold coloring.  If you’re unsure what a particular species looks like once it develops, search for photos online or consult the planting and maintenance info guide that comes with newly purchased plants. Look for combinations of plants with shapes and structure that offset one another. In a diverse living picture, Aeonium blossoms will burst forth from a sea of creeping green clover while spikes of spider aloe protrude tower-like from a ring in the center. The possibilities are nearly limitless—listening to your aesthetic sensibilities will help you piece together a one-of-a-kind display.  Find out how big you can expect your plants of choice to grow before sewing them. You don’t want one oversized fern or aloe to dominate your living picture. Prune your plants regularly to keep them from spilling over the edges of the frame. You don’t have to plant over every square inch of your frame. The soil itself can actually be used to enhance the look of a living picture by breaking up dense patches of color and adding depth and visual texture from. See how you might include glimpses of sandy soil and glistening wire to make your designs more purposeful and sophisticated. Embellish your living picture with colored stones, ribbons, pendants and other decorative accents.
Plant your cuttings in an attractive pattern. Use contrasting colors. Mix and match plants of various sizes. Play around with negative space.