Journal Entry 2: MS Paint

I thought I should write another journal entry since my first one was literally years ago.

A few things first- thanks to everyone who sends nice comments and favorites my stuff. I greatly appreciate the support and encouragement. DeviantArt is much friendlier than the imgurs and Reddits of the world. I don't think I've ever had to actually prove that my stuff is MS Paint on here, which says a lot about the users.

Which brings me to the subject of this journal entry: MS Paint itself and my relationship with it. Why MS Paint? My history with Paint is a long one, going all the way back to 1995 when my aunt bought my family our first computer, a Compaq Presario. It was a beast! I had always loved drawing before that, and taught myself mostly. I thought paint was cool (and promptly used to to draw a sadly long-lost MS Painting of the Terminator's infrared view screen from Terminator 2), but even at a young age I saw its glaring drawbacks; to this day a straight diagonal line makes me cringe. So I ignored it for a while, as I did drawing in general, to my own expense.

Fast forward to 2004, when I was working overnights as a security guard at a hospice. After a while I got bored of reading ghost stories on the old Weird NJ website and had to find some other way to pass the time. I'm not a gaming fan, so Solitaire and Minesweeper and most of eBaum's world were out. So I opened MS Paint, found a Google image of Galadriel from The Fellowship of the Rings (early 2000s I was predictably mad for everything Tolkien) and started drawing.

I didn't finish that one, but to my surprise I found it didn't look awful (or rather, it DID, but not for an MS Painting).

Since then I've tried to push MS Paint as far as it will stretch. I don't like Photoshop because I'm truthfully not very good with computers. All those options send my mind reeling. I've tried going back to traditional drawing, but my stuff never comes out the way I want it to that way, unlike in Paint, where it usually, inexplicably, does.

People have asked me to put up tutorials, but I never get around to it. The best advice I can give would be to make the canvas size as big as you can (I got a larger, separate monitor just for MS Painting work and the canvas sizes are still usually double the size of the screen), the line tool should account for 85-90% of everything you do, and don't skip the details just to finish a piece and get it out there.

That's it for now. Still working on new paintings and designing what I hope becomes an MS Paint comic book. Also have started doing commissions for friends and family. If you'd like to commission something, let me know and I'll be happy to do it (as long as it isn't one of the million cartoon foxes or dogs that everyone seems to draw in Paint. Can someone explain to me what that's all about?)

Anyway,
Keep up the good work everyone!