Art: When MsPaint was my 4am friend

A collection of my MSPaint Artworks

On a quiet Sunday evening, as I sat in my tiny hostel room, an odd feeling of homesickness was creeping in. I brushed away the tears that had slowly started forming near the corner of my eyes and tried to divert my mind from the unfamiliarity of my surroundings. I used to draw a lot of sketches in those days and had in fact decorated the walls of my room with numerous art works.

My computer was already running, playing the good old songs of the 90s. I opened Google Images to look for some inspiration. After clicking through scores of sites and jpegs, I came across an image that was painted in MS. I remember being stunned, amazed by the sheer talent of the artist. I wanted to be that artist. And that’s how began our affair, in the year of 2004.

Since then MSPaint has been my 4 am friend. It had seen me grow from an impatient student strangling the mouse, to a cautious artist, who carefully picked colors and chose brushes with correct width. I had drowned my heart-break in dark nights spent drawing ‘midnight blue sky’ and a ‘bright yellow moon’. Some very lonely weeks writing poetry after poetry in Times New Roman. On days when I felt fanciful, I used Verdana. 🙂

mspaint art landscape painting

 

mspaint art

mspaint art paintings

Even my poetry had found shape in MSPaint.

Jubilantly dancing girls to flying dragons.

shape poetry dragon

shape poetry art

Most days, it loved throwing challenges at me. The options weren’t enough and the brush size just won’t make Chibi look right. And yet we stuck together. I don’t know why I never moved to any other software. Maybe I was too emotionally involved.

mspaint art anime

mspaint art anime

mspaint art

The announcement by Microsoft has brought back that odd feeling of homesickness again. It did feel like losing an old friend. A friend who knew the meaning behind all my paintings, and saw me through every ups and down.

mspaint art

I am one of those who is extremely jubilant by today’s news that MSPaint lives on even after 32 years. Yes, I AM too emotionally involved. 🙂

Related Post – Shape Poetry

32 thoughts on “Art: When MsPaint was my 4am friend

  1. I am amazed to realize I had been living under the rock since times immemorial. MS paint could do all of this, I never knew that. Are you for real? Is there anything that you do which the other mortals are capable of doing?

  2. That’s some beautiful work you’ve done on MS Paint! I used it mainly to do grafitti style backgrounds – I never had much patience to do such intricate work with it. Imagine though – 32 years! It’s the end of an era for sure!

  3. We all are attached to certain things which we can’t just part our way with that easily. Lovely works, Raj. You are what talent means. I’m so glad that I get to see your works. Loved the shape poetry too. Keep sharing.

    1. yeah, it is surprising how nostalgic I left while writing this post. Thank you so much Vinitha for your kind words.

  4. OMG! You created all these images and shape poetry on MS Paint!! Amazing!
    I have used it to edit pictures sometimes and so wouldnt be missing it much. But read that it can be downloaded from Windows Store.

  5. I loved reading about your connection to MS Paint over the years, Raj. Loved seeing all your creative artwork and even some fun poems done in amazing shapes. Wow! Never knew Paint could do all those things. I like to use the screen capture feature to quickly change something to a JPEG. I didn’t know it had been around so long. Interesting to learn about.

    1. thank you so much Cat. There was a time when I was obsessed with the software… and would create something almost everyday.

  6. Wow! This is something I am so unfamiliar with. Will now quickly go and check it out.
    And you, sweetie, are a born artist! Loved the poetry. …that is simply splendid!

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