Microsoft Paint is a simple graphics “painting” program that should already be on your computer if you have Windows. This is a great place to learn something new to exercise that mind of yours! We all know it's not just about playing with colors, but about lifelong learning to stay healthy and alert.

Many sophisticated graphics software programs that professional graphic designers use incorporate some of the same basic principles that we can learn using Microsoft Paint.

Believe it or not, one of my talented students did this drawing in Paint!

We are using the Paint program offered in Windows XP and Vista in this Lesson Plan. There are Lesson Plans available for Windows 7 Paint as well which has changed quite a bit.

One of my favorite parts of Microsoft Paint is the Color Box. I feel like an artist holding a palette of colors looking at a blank canvas. Let’s get to know this fun feature.

At the bottom of the screen just above the Start Button is a box containing a number of different squares of color. (If you are using Microsoft Vista's Paint the box will be at the top of the screen.)

The default colors are Black over White as you can see in the first two color chips in the Color Box. Black and white are followed by an array of colors for you to paint with.

Note: Some of the color names are almost as good as the colors themselves! They are called (from left to right) Gray, Silver, Maroon, Red, Olive, Yellow, Dark Green, Green, Teal, Cyan, Navy, Blue, Purple, Magenta, Old Gold, Lemon Yellow, Slate Grey, Kelly Green, Dark Carolina Blue, Aquamarine, Midnight Blue, Periwinkle, Violet-blue, Coral, Brown and Pumpkin Orange. You’ve got to love a color named “Periwinkle”!


Obviously, the Color Box is where you will go to choose your paint color. So let's take a whirl at using this fun feature in the following steps.

Choosing a Color

1. You may already have Paint open. If you do just ignore this step and go on to Step #2.

If you don't have Paint open yet, do the following:

Go to the bottom left corner of your screen and left-click on the Start button .

On the Accessories menu you will find the program—simply called Paint. Click on the Paint icon -- -- to open the program.

2. Left-click on the Red color chip in the Color Box. The Foreground Color (the top of the two overlapping boxes at the left side of the Color Box) will now change from black to red.

3. Try left-clicking on several other colors. Each time you left-click on a different color, the color will change in the Foreground Color box. Remember the Foreground Color is the top of the two overlapping boxes at the left side of the Color Box.

4. Now right-click on the Blue color chip. Notice that the Background Color (the bottom of the two overlapping boxes) changes to Blue.

5. Left-click on Red (like you did on Step #1 above) so you will have Red (the Foreground color) over Blue (the Background color).

6. Just remember, left-click a color = Foreground Color; right-click a color = Background Color.

Drawing a Shape

While we are talking about the Foreground and Background boxes, let’s draw some shapes using different colors from the Color Box. We will also use a couple of tools from the Toolbox which will be a good lead-in to the next lesson plan where this Paint feature is discussed in depth.

Here is what our canvas will look like when we have finished this exercise. This is good practice with the mouse, and gives you a look at some very basic shape tools changing line sizes and options. The canvas can be filled with whatever you come up with:

We will use two tools from the Toolbox at the left of the screen—the Line Tool and the Rectangle Tool.

We will work with the Line Tool first, since you use this tool to adjust the width of the line you draw with.

1. Click on the Line Tool in the Toolbox at the left side of the screen. In the example below the next step, you will notice that five options have appeared at the bottom of the Toolbox for the Line Tool.

2. Click on the third option down to select a fairly thick line to draw with.

3. Now click on the Rectangle Tool in the Toolbox at the left of the screen. When you click on the Rectangle Tool, an option box will open underneath the tools, with the first option chosen. That is what you want.

Note for Microsoft Vista Paint: In Paint you can have both the line options and the shape options open at the same time. In most ways, the program is pretty much the same as before, but this is a nice new feature.

4. Look at the example below and then left-click in the middle of the white paint canvas and drag down and to the right to create a square.

5. Let's do another one. Left-click on the middle option for the Rectangle Tool and draw another square.

You will notice that this square is filled with Blue (the Background Color) with a Red border (the Foreground Color).

6. And finally, click the third option and draw a rectangle.

This time you will create a Red square (the Foreground Color) with no line around it.

Nice going! You’ve used the Color Box and learned to change the Foreground and the Background Colors. To learn about the Toolbox, go to the next Lesson Plan.