How to draw sub cutaways in MS Paint (2015)(hisutton.com)
hisutton.com
How to draw sub cutaways in MS Paint (2015)
http://www.hisutton.com/How%20to%20draw%20sub%20cutaways%20in%20MS%20Paint.html
65 comments
Astounding. How… how could anyone have the patience?
Sometimes I ask myself the same thing, then think back to elaborate creations I've made in Minecraft. Or elaborately staged bodies and dropped guns in Hitman 2, just to satisfy a head cannon of how a shootout occurred.
> just to satisfy a head cannon
Is this supposed to be written like this? I thought it would be canon in this instance?
Is this supposed to be written like this? I thought it would be canon in this instance?
It should probably be head canon, but bearing the game's name in mind, head cannon might be accurate too.
Oops.
I'm going to blame the fact that I've been playing a Civil War game a lot recently, and batteries of artillery are on my mind.
I'm going to blame the fact that I've been playing a Civil War game a lot recently, and batteries of artillery are on my mind.
I feel like the patience is the base requirement for any kind of art. Ultimately the cost of making outstanding art is pretty much always measured in years. Spending 10 hours in paint vs 2 in photoshop? It comes out in the wash compared to the years spent developing the feel, the eye, the intuition. Truly it is a poor artist that blames their tools.
I don’t do enough art to have put it together that way. Of course! Wonderful insight.
Once you get really good at something and know how to use it really well, it can be hard to change. I look at this and think how much easier it would be for him in Illustrator. But then I remember how hard it would be for him to learn Illustrator from scratch, and all the infuriating things that can catch you out, where he'll be spending 2 hours Googling just to find out how to change the color of a line or something simple like that.
There are lots of things I do that others would consider dumb. I code my own versions of so many tools and projects that already exist, just because I like to do it. Any sane programmer would look at my work and roll their eyes.
There are lots of things I do that others would consider dumb. I code my own versions of so many tools and projects that already exist, just because I like to do it. Any sane programmer would look at my work and roll their eyes.
I'm saddened by the fact he uses paint and GIMP. Like GIMP alone is not usable enough to replace paint. Of course, different tools and different purposes, but certainly a warning about GIMP's usability for simple cases.
Gimp can't even draw circle.
Use the ellipse selection tool while holding down Shift (uses fixed 1:1 aspect ratio) to select a circle, then fill or stroke selection via the Edit menu.
Thank you for this. It's been years since I've used GIMP, and don't think I've ever used it to make a circle, but my brain simply wouldn't accept that it was actually impossible. If not for your comment that would have bugged me until I reinstalled it and proved to myself that it can be done.
Holding down shift to constrain an object scaling has been the defacto standard since before the dawn of man (or something like that). However, Adobe has seen fit to make a change in some of its applications so that using the modifier key releases the constraint making it the opposite of everything else. My brain still gets confused.
Paint Shop Pro 4 was MS Paint enhanced. Not different (like GIMP or Photoshop), but same workflow only better.
My favourite application for simple graphics editing is Acorn. I feel like it’s the spiritual successor to PSP. It’s really really nice.
https://flyingmeat.com/acorn/
(PSP itself is still around, but it has turned to sh*t unfortunately.)
https://flyingmeat.com/acorn/
(PSP itself is still around, but it has turned to sh*t unfortunately.)
How about paint.net?
That isn't true. Here's a video showing how simple it is:
https://streamable.com/yapgz
https://streamable.com/yapgz
I'm pretty sure they could do what they did in Paint in GIMP, more or less.
I use gimp and so do many people I know, it takes some getting used to
I used Gimp until I discovered Krita. It does everything I ever used to do in Gimp and is much, much more pleasant to use.
Irony:
"People on HN complain about using of Paint, a terrible software for the Job"
What that people use?
- Vim - Emacs - C - Pico - Shell (and here stuff like grep...) - ... (fill here your grudges, I not judge you)
"And people wonder: Imagine if that guy use something, like, you know... modern AND good?"
"People on HN complain about using of Paint, a terrible software for the Job"
What that people use?
- Vim - Emacs - C - Pico - Shell (and here stuff like grep...) - ... (fill here your grudges, I not judge you)
"And people wonder: Imagine if that guy use something, like, you know... modern AND good?"
that's a bad analogy.
With vim, emacs, C, shell etc... you can still do everything other programs do, there is just more setup and sharp edges.
With MS Paint, no amount of setup can produce gradients or layers with proper transparency. It is not usability/polish question, this is core deficiency.
With vim, emacs, C, shell etc... you can still do everything other programs do, there is just more setup and sharp edges.
With MS Paint, no amount of setup can produce gradients or layers with proper transparency. It is not usability/polish question, this is core deficiency.
I'm impressed these are done with MS Paint. I'm somewhat curious why he either never found, or doesn't like, paint.net. For me, it's a nice middle ground between something like MS Paint and expensive paid tools, and has a ton of both built-in features and plugins that would make his work easier.
I mean, if one already uses gimp then paint.net is basically on the same level from my (limited) experience with it, aside from that p.n runs only on Windows and gimp skills you can take with you to whatever OS you may have chosen or later choose.
> skills you can take with you to whatever OS you may have chosen or later choose.
Off topic, but this is a really good point.
I'm very happy that much of the software I used when I was on Windows was either open source or cross platform, and currently make a point to use cross platform software as much as possible. I'm happy with Linux now, but want to still be able to change!
Off topic, but this is a really good point.
I'm very happy that much of the software I used when I was on Windows was either open source or cross platform, and currently make a point to use cross platform software as much as possible. I'm happy with Linux now, but want to still be able to change!
This guy has been drawing in mspaint for years. I suspect multiplatform is not a major priority for him.
... by using GIMP for the things MS Paint can't do.
Not that it isn't impressive, but the title is misleading when you look at the picture and wonder how are these gradients done with paint? That's impressive indeed (which was my first thought).
> how I draw the illustrations old-school in MS Paint and shade in GIMP
Not that it isn't impressive, but the title is misleading when you look at the picture and wonder how are these gradients done with paint? That's impressive indeed (which was my first thought).
> how I draw the illustrations old-school in MS Paint and shade in GIMP
I remember seeing some very realistic gradient stuff done in Paint aeons ago. Here's one of them (honestly looks less impressive now though): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EV7JHQMDO-w
To save others a cookie wall / TL;DW: it's a combination of flood/bucket-filling regions defined with pencil, and just manually doing pixel art with the pencil (in both cases you choose each individual color in the gradient manually of course).
Impressive, yes. But also time-consuming. I find gradients very hard myself: both hard to match when editing an existing photo and also hard to make look good when drawing something new, but (without knowing how) I would venture that one can save a ton of time by not doing this all manually as shown in that video.
I might even argue this is not "done with Paint" so much as "done by hand / by choosing each pixel manually" (because even with bucket fill, you still choose where the line of each shade of the gradient is, plus choosing the color) which is of course entirely independent of the tool -- could be gimp, could be photoshop, could be mspaint.
Which is not to say that paint can't do cool stuff faster than just doing every pixel manually. Nerdparadise has nice tutorials on that: https://nerdparadise.com/mspaint Now that I check this page again, it actually has gradients, and it actually uses a different technique :) https://nerdparadise.com/mspaint/lineargradient Too bad it only works in a single direction, though. I see many of the submarines have more of a radial pattern which is another tutorial on NP but more manual work and less good result.
Impressive, yes. But also time-consuming. I find gradients very hard myself: both hard to match when editing an existing photo and also hard to make look good when drawing something new, but (without knowing how) I would venture that one can save a ton of time by not doing this all manually as shown in that video.
I might even argue this is not "done with Paint" so much as "done by hand / by choosing each pixel manually" (because even with bucket fill, you still choose where the line of each shade of the gradient is, plus choosing the color) which is of course entirely independent of the tool -- could be gimp, could be photoshop, could be mspaint.
Which is not to say that paint can't do cool stuff faster than just doing every pixel manually. Nerdparadise has nice tutorials on that: https://nerdparadise.com/mspaint Now that I check this page again, it actually has gradients, and it actually uses a different technique :) https://nerdparadise.com/mspaint/lineargradient Too bad it only works in a single direction, though. I see many of the submarines have more of a radial pattern which is another tutorial on NP but more manual work and less good result.
Tangentially:
One wonderful result of Adobe moving to Creative Cloud subscriptions, and generally making it less easy to pirate, is the growth in genuine alternatives to Photoshop and Illustrator!
One wonderful result of Adobe moving to Creative Cloud subscriptions, and generally making it less easy to pirate, is the growth in genuine alternatives to Photoshop and Illustrator!
I always thought that the smartest model for creative software was to give it away for personal use and charge a lot for using it professionally.
Interested people can download and use it for non-commercial purposes, then want to use it in the industry. Bonus if there are indie licensing levels that are heavily discounted.
Interested people can download and use it for non-commercial purposes, then want to use it in the industry. Bonus if there are indie licensing levels that are heavily discounted.
This used to be how It was for Photoshop.
Intentionally or not.
Nowadays it's just not worth trying to install CC without a license IMHO.
Do I trust the tools that will hack a CC license?
No sir, I do not!
My kids "Photoshop" things but they don't use Photoshop. They recommend free or cheaper tools to each other and that's what they use.
Intentionally or not.
Nowadays it's just not worth trying to install CC without a license IMHO.
Do I trust the tools that will hack a CC license?
No sir, I do not!
My kids "Photoshop" things but they don't use Photoshop. They recommend free or cheaper tools to each other and that's what they use.
That is extraordinary work. Beautiful illustrations.
I recently started experimenting with a similar technique in inkscape. It seems like a much better tool than paint+gimp for drawing, layering, and shading polygons. That said, the tool is only an enabler for actual artistic skill, the ability to translate an image from your head to a medium. To me that's the hard part.
I recently started experimenting with a similar technique in inkscape. It seems like a much better tool than paint+gimp for drawing, layering, and shading polygons. That said, the tool is only an enabler for actual artistic skill, the ability to translate an image from your head to a medium. To me that's the hard part.
The mspaint parts with shapes could be done in inkscape (which is a fantastic and underrated program), then still transfer to gimp.
Ah Inkscape, also a pain to use because of the complete lack of hardware acceleration. I get 2 fps dragging simple shapes on decent hardware. I had better performance in Corel Draw on Windows 3.1.
I've heard this complaint a lot but edited documents with tens of thousands of elements effortlessly. Guess it's heavily constrained but only on specific hardware
A lot of people do crazy stuff with Paint... just imagine what they could do with good software
While this is an easy idea to agree with, I don't think it holds up to scrutiny. Michelangelo made David with what are surely basic tools when compared to modern machining apparatuses. Yet he still created something for the ages. While advanced tools can definitely cut down the amount of time you spend on something, they don't necessarily make the outcome any better. A master can create a masterpiece even with just a chisel (or Paint).
Art has been my job since about 2020.
My experience is that, while I can certainly do lovely work with any way of making a mark and enough time, shitty tools will take a lot of time to get decent work, decent tools will take a sensible amount of time relative to how much people are willing to pay me, and power tools - once you've learnt how to use them properly - will let me work a lot faster for the same quality of work.
Pushing single pixels in Paint is like writing assembly language for artists, except we don't even get the benefit of all that time spent coming back as blazingly fast execution. We just had to spend a lot more time than other tools could have let us take.
My experience is that, while I can certainly do lovely work with any way of making a mark and enough time, shitty tools will take a lot of time to get decent work, decent tools will take a sensible amount of time relative to how much people are willing to pay me, and power tools - once you've learnt how to use them properly - will let me work a lot faster for the same quality of work.
Pushing single pixels in Paint is like writing assembly language for artists, except we don't even get the benefit of all that time spent coming back as blazingly fast execution. We just had to spend a lot more time than other tools could have let us take.
I don't think that's a good comparison. Paint is to Photoshop as a crayola 64 pack of crayons is to a paint brush and palette. Yeah Michelangelo did crazy stuff with old tools but he'd still use the same thing today, he'd just be able to speed up the first part where he's just clearing away material by using a jackhammer or something but he'd still use a chisel at the end. He wouldn't have been able to do the roof of the Sistine Chapel with crayons, though.
They probably could do a more beautiful art faster if they knew how to use modern tools. But I get your point.
It's a bit like debating whether an axe is better then a chainsaw... I used both and I can tell you that an axe requires a lot more efforts....
It's a bit like debating whether an axe is better then a chainsaw... I used both and I can tell you that an axe requires a lot more efforts....
Overall it seems to me like a confirmation that when you know how to do something very well (drawing) the tools used become less relevant when you have also the dedication and patience.
I mean, you could provide me with any graphic tool in the world, even the most advanced ones, and I wouldn't be able to produce anything half as beautiful as those cutaways.
I mean, you could provide me with any graphic tool in the world, even the most advanced ones, and I wouldn't be able to produce anything half as beautiful as those cutaways.
I used to make some art in photoshop, and this really does make me think how hard/inconvenient it would be to sketch some straight lines or basic shapes. I understand that's maybe not an overwhelmingly common need, but it does seem like it shouldn't be that hard.
Really wish I had taken more time to get comfortable in Inkscape.
Really wish I had taken more time to get comfortable in Inkscape.
Do take some time, learning a bezier tool is amazingly useful in all sorts of scenarios including laser cutting!
I recommend starting with tracing a simple logo (place reference image on a locked layer), then try and trace a country's coastline. Should only take an afternoon. From there you're off to the races!
I recommend starting with tracing a simple logo (place reference image on a locked layer), then try and trace a country's coastline. Should only take an afternoon. From there you're off to the races!
Wow, just.. wow!.. Dude, if you're okay with mspaint, how about at least LodePaint? It's free and opensource...
Is this guy some masochist/performance artist like the guy who wrote a book without the letter E? Paint is perhaps the worst drawing tool in existence.
> Paint is perhaps the worst drawing tool in existence.
Excel artists beg to differ: https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2017/12/tatsuo-horiuchi-excel...
Excel artists beg to differ: https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2017/12/tatsuo-horiuchi-excel...
> I am now ready to start rendering in GIMP. I use GIMP because it's good and free, but I prefer PAINT for the drawing.
?
?
Paint me surprised. I would never guess that it was made in the old ms paint. It does not seem like an adequate tool for the job. Still the effect is great, so maybe I am missing something.
Yes, you're missing the fact that he shades using GIMP.
Thats impressive, but why paint?
> Apparently I am crazy to draw with these outdated tools but I like the hand-drawn look and feel.
I've never heard of this person or seen their illustrations, but after reading the article and viewing the finished artwork it's hard to argue with - clearly, he enjoys the process and has no desire to change it, and the end result looks great.
I've never heard of this person or seen their illustrations, but after reading the article and viewing the finished artwork it's hard to argue with - clearly, he enjoys the process and has no desire to change it, and the end result looks great.
Occasionally I stumble on this guy's site and end up going down rabbit holes on ships and submarines. Very fun amount of information.
I guess for pixel-precise drawing without antialiasing and for simple selection tool without layers and "proper" transparency.
[deleted]
Wow, what a workaround for not having layers!
At junior high, this guy sitting close to me would spend all lessons where a computer was available to draw Scania trucks in paint. Somewhat similar in style to this random one I found by a search now, but sometimes even at an angle with perspective https://www.flickr.com/photos/145204045@N05/31629814288