DRAWING A SYMMETRICAL DESIGN WITH WINDOWS PAINT

These instructions will take you through the drawing of a simple shield using Microsoft Windows Paint. In other programs, the names in the menu options and the selection of tools may be slightly different but the process is basically the same:

Use the line and curve drawing tools and left mouse button to roughly outline one half of the shield. (The size does not matter as you will be able to scale it up or down later when finished.) To draw the curve: click at 1 and drag out a line to 2, move mouse to 3 and drag out the curve to desired shape at 4, then without moving the mouse click to fix the shape.

Use the line tool and left mouse button to draw a straight outline for half the chevron.

Use the fill tool and left mouse button to fill in the area with black. Be careful, if there are any holes in the outline then the fill will leak out onto the whole page. If this happens select Edit/Undo from the menu bar.

Use the zoom tool (usually shown as a magnifying glass) to zoom in and tidy up your drawing pixel by pixel using the pencil tool. Note: the left mouse button = black and the right mouse button = white (depending on the colours currently selected in the palette:)

Using the cut-out tool (usually shown as a dotted box) mark off the area by pressing the mouse button and dragging the pointer from the top-left corner to the bottom-right corner.

Select Edit/Copy then Edit/Paste from the menu bar to make a copy of your drawing. When the copy appears (top left-hand corner of the screen), move it next to the original but leave the area marked off.

With the copied area still marked, select image/Flip-Rotate/Flip horizontal from the menu bar. Move the pointer inside the marked area, press the left mouse button and drag the flipped copy until it locks neatly onto the first drawing.

Click the left mouse button anywhere to clear the marked area then select File/Save from the menu bar. Type in a suitable filename and press the [Enter] key.

See also the Paintbrush Tutorials provided by TITLE (Technology in Teaching & Learning)

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