[DrD]

While I know everyone can potentially make great pictures in photoshop, pixelmator, or other high end programs, part of the fun here is dealing with limitations of these programs with less functions. For instance, most of the time, I'm using paintbrush because I have more macs at my disposal... and paintbrush actually has less features than paint... ie. no lasso tool.

So, lets start a thread here for any tips and tricks that you may have found that lets you use these paint programs to their utmost potential, as a resource for those that want to head that way.

Stick figures still make me laugh though, so you probably won't see much here from me, lol.

[Kohnel]

Ok so first make yourself a box about 100 pixels wide & as long as u need it
draw a diagonal lie from the top left corner to the right hand side of the box as far down as u want in the colur that you want. the fill the space above the line with your top colour. fill below the line with you other colour (repeat in as many lines as your picture needs. When all filled in press ctrl + W then type 1% into the horizontal stretch. press CTRL + W again and type 500% into horizontal strech & repeat until you have the desired width.
Voila !!!

[Kohnel]

Here is a neat trick that I used to make my bouncing card pic.
Draw the picture u want (even looks nifty if u just do a spraycan line)
Use the select tool to draw a box around the pic.
Hold the shift key down & move the mouse.
Voila!! nifty little pics with ease

[Kohnel]

Simply use the select tool to draw a box around the item you wish to change the size of & press CTRL and the + / - keys to make larger or smaller

[Kohnel]

Having trouble getting perfect circles, squares or straight lines?
Try this select ur tool then hold SHIFT whilst drawing ur shape
Perfect shapes every time!! have a play

[Kohnel]

Did u know that you can have 3 colours at a time in Paint?
Most people are aware of foregroud (left click) and background (right click) but there is a 3rd.
Simply press CTRL and select another colour with the left mouse click.
Now when you press CTRL and draw it will be in the 3rd colour of your choice.

[DrD]

Nice info!
How did you blend the grass colors in this one? http://www.ratemymspaint.com/164

[Kohnel]

Nice info!
How did you blend the grass colors in this one? http://www.ratemymspaint.com/164

I used my gradient trick to create a small light to dark green gradient in another paint window then cut & paste it into my sky background then used the SHIFT & drag trick to create the lines of hills ;-)

[DrD]

I think you are the ruler of MS Paint tips and tricks. Like I said, half the time, I'm using paintbrush which has even less features! It's like it should be called MS Paint Lite, lol.

[teachtaire]

I just made my first post, then realised I needed to create an account, a good piece of advice is to make the image larger than you want it it be. And then, rescale it smaller. My rotten bannana space ship (the machariel from eve online) was originally some 1680 x 1050 pixels and a whopping 5.03MB. Its always easier to make things smaller than to make 'em bigger. That's what SHE said.