Hehe! So sorry no alligators for you! :)
I love encouraging people to draw and paint.
Have you ever made a colour wheel with three primary colours? There are many colour scheemes. But an easy one is to use some colours on one side of the wheel (these colours harmonize together), then only take one colour across on the other side of the wheel (that's your contrasting colour). Play warn colours against cool colours to make you painting exciting.