So I stumbled across two new sweet MSPaint tricks. The first is a quick copy and the second is a funky drag.

Open up MSPaint and draw something simple. Take your selector tool and select an area that has some sort of design drawn inside. Hold down Ctrl on your keyboard and then drag your selection… it copies it! HOT!

Now, when I showed this to sander, he happened to try the same thing with SHIFT… and the effect is a lot weirder. To test, draw a long horizontal line across your MSPaint canvas. Select just a small portion in the center with the selector tool. Hold down shift and drag your selection diagonally… What?!? It “sweeps” the edges of your selection tool.

How on Earth is this useful you ask? well, after I shared the idea with Jesse he pointed out that you can now sweep color gradients. Using the quick gradient technique discussed here you can select a gradient and then sweep it. I used this technique for the background of the Halloween MSPaint above. Hot huh?

Speaking of MSPaint, today marks the final day of the MIKE D MSPAINT COSTUME CONTEST. So if you have any last minute inspiration, send it over. A recap will be posted soon.