Preparing your doll for use in MS Paint

Please note: These are just my ways of doing things in Paint. I don't use it very much, so there may be easier/quicker ways to do what I am doing, feel free to play around!

1. You will need a base to work with. If you don't already have one, go to my bases section and save one onto your PC.	2. Go to Start/Programs/Accessories/Paint. This is where it is located on Windows '95, '98 & ME machines. If you can't find it there, go to Start/Run and type in mspaint and the program should open up.	3. We should probably make the canvas (the working area) a little bigger as this makes it easier to work with. (If you are happy with your canvas size, you can skip this step) Ensure that your Background Colour is set to white. Go to Image/Attributes. Ensure that Units is set to Pixels and make the Width about 400 & the Height about 300. Obviously, this will vary depending on the base used. Click OK to apply.

4. Go to Edit/Paste From. Ensure that All Pictures Files is selected from the Files of Type drop down or you won't be able to open gifs! Locate your base and click on Open.	5. Left click inside the dotted rectangle that surrounds the doll and, holding down the left mouse button, drag the base a little to the right of the centre of the canvas (this is to leave room for any colour palettes you may open up).	6. We now need to make the doll background white as it is an easier colour to work on. Click on the Fill with Color tool. Make sure your foreground colour (the top colour) is set to white. TIP: Left click on the colour on the colour palette to set it as the Foreground Colour and Right Click to set it as the Background Colour.

6. Left click on all the areas surrounding the doll so that the whole background is white. It may help to use the Magnifier tool to zoom in on any tricky bits, like between fingers. After clicking on the Magnifier you can either click on one of the 4 zooms on the left, or if you just click on the image, it will zoom in at the last level used. TIP: Left click on the image with the Magnifier tool to Zoom In and Right Click to Zoom Out.	7. Now, you may want to use on of those Colour Palettes that are available on lots of dolls sites. If you don't already have some, grab a couple from my palettes page. I suggest you save all your palettes into one place on your hard-drive, it makes them easier to find!	8.Go to Edit/Paste From and locate one of your palettes. Click on Open. Do this for as many palettes as you feel you need for the doll.

Everything is in place, you are now ready to start dolling!
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