How to Draw and Color with Microsoft Paint

Work in a good file size. Since MS Paint works with very basic pixels, if you want to make your drawing really nice you'll need to increase the canvas size. Do this by clicking the resize button and set the dimensions somewhere above 2000 pixels.

Sketch your picture and upload it to your computer. This process will be much faster if you do a real-life sketch and scan it or photograph it in order to get it on your computer. You can also sketch the picture in MS Paint, but you will need to sketch it in very light gray.

• If you do scan your drawing, just open the file in MS Paint in order to start turning it into a beautiful drawing, but be sure you have the original sketch saved separately somewhere else too (in case you make mistakes and need to start over).

Create your main lines. Using the curve tool, create the main lines of your drawing in black. Find a single continuous line (like the upper arch of the eye) and click on the beginning and then then end of the line. Then, use your mouse to grab the straight line that was created and pull it into the curve to match your sketch. Do this until all your drawing is recreated in black.

• The black is important. You can always change the color of these outline lines later, but for now do them in black.

Clean up your line work. Now it's time to get rid of that sketch! Click select, right-click on the picture, and then invert the colors. Then switch the color to strict black and white by clicking File → Properties. Click OK, let it make the switch, and then switch it back into color the same way. Invert the picture again and you'll have clean art.

• Saving a copy of just your plain black lines can be really helpful, especially if you make a mistake and need to restore them.

Fill in your base colors. Use the fill tool to fill in all of your base colors. Make sure that you get all of the little extra pixels that can get caught between lines that are close together or angles.

Add highlights, shadows, and midtones. Now for the fun part. Select all and copy your drawing as it is now. Then, choose an area that you want to shade (say, the hair). Select that base color and set it to color 2. Then, make color 1 your shading color. Use any of the tools to do the shading however you like. Don't worry about going over your black lines! Just do one area (with the same base color) at a time.

Create "layers". Now to get rid of the colors that got outside of your lines! Zoom out so that you can see your whole drawing, click select, right click the picture, and paste in the base you copied earlier. Now for the magic. Go over and click the down arrow under select. Then click transparent selection. Ta-da!

Continue until done. Keep doing this same process for each area and each shade until you are happy with your drawing!

Work with the limitations of the program. What you have to keep in mind is that MS Paint is not Photoshop. Don't expect to be able to get a Photoshop look with your drawings. You can make nice pictures but they have a very particular look to them. Embrace it. You should also keep in mind that the files save with poorer quality than programs like Photoshop, so don't expect them to print well at high resolutions.

Make the changes that you can. Know what sort of changes you can make to existing images, like photographs. MS Paint isn't Photoshop, but some basic tweaks can be achieved using the program. You can do things like:

• Crop images. Cropping in MS paint can actually be easier than in some other programs, since all you have to do is drag around the corners of the image.
• Cover small problems. Copying and pasting small selections that can band-aid small problems with an image is pretty easy with MS Paint, as long as you're patient.
• Correct red eye. If you have some dark pixels you can copy and paste or if you feel like you can use the freehand tools, then fixing red eye is very doable in a program like MS Paint.