Model Airplane Color Design - Part 2: How to Draw an Aircraft Paint Scheme

Tutorial Part 2 : How to Draw an Aircraft Paint Scheme
	The introduction to Microsoft Paint was completed in Part 1 of this tutorial. It covered where the basic tools are and how they work. In Part 2 we'll learn how to use these tools for drawing our aircraft paint scheme. We're using Microsoft Paint in this tutorial, but the same techniques learned here can be utilized when drawing with any other paint program.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Beginning to Draw : MS Paint is one of the easiest paint programs to use and it's perfect for learning how to draw on your PC. Let's start MS Paint : Click on the Start button, select All Programs, Accesories, and then select Paint. We're going to use our MACD program's Cap 232 right wing image to start drawing our paint scheme. If you want to follow along, here's how to load the right wing image in MS Paint: 1. Right click here and select Save Target As... Then save it to the Desktop. It's easier to find it there. 2. In MS Paint, click File / Open. Navigate to the Desktop, select TESTRWT.bmp and click the Open button. 3. You should now have the right wing image in the Drawing area of MS Paint. See below.
	Drawing a Straight Line : Click on the Line tool to activate it. It's the tool on the sixth row, left side and it's highlighted with a square. Bring the cursor over the wing and place it close to the wing tip. See below. Press and hold the left mouse button then drag the cursor down to meet the bottom of the wing tip. Release the mouse. A straight line is drawn. See below. The line must be touching the leading and trailing edges of the wing. If the line didn't come out right, we can fix that. Go to the top menu and click Edit / Undo. Then try drawing the straight line again.
	Drawing a Vertical Stripe : Using the same procedure as above, draw a straight line parallel to the line we just drew. See below. Again, if it doesn't come out right, go to the top menu and click Edit / Undo. Then draw it again. Let's fill the space between the two lines with color. Click on the Fill with Color tool. It looks like a paint bucket and it's found on the second row of tools. Now click on the red box in the Color Palette. That will give us a red color to paint with. The last step is to click between the two parallel lines. Now you should see a red vertical stripe. If not, check that your lines are touching the leading and trailing edges of the wing. They have to touch so the red color doesn't spill out to the rest of the wing.

End of Straight Lines and Stripes :

We learned how to draw straight lines and stripes in our Beginning to Draw section. If you don't plan on using curves in your paint scheme design, you might want to skip the next lesson, Drawing a Curve and go straight to the next section Intermediate Drawing.

Before we start, we need to reload the right wing image. Go to the top menu, click on File / New, and press the Don't Save button. Now click on File / Open, navigate to the Desktop, select TESTRWT.bmp and click the Open button. A clean right wing image should be in the Drawing Area now.

Drawing a Curve : Click on the Curve tool to activate it. It's located on the sixth row, right side. Now click on the red box in the Color Palette.

Press and hold the left mouse button then drag the cursor from bottom left to top right side of the wing. Release the mouse button. See below.

Place the cursor on top of the red line, press and hold the mouse button and drag the cursor upward. The line will bend into a curve. Stop moving the mouse and click twice. A curve is drawn. See below.

Click on the Fill with Color tool to activate it. Now click above the red line to paint the top part of wing.

End of Beginning to Draw :

We have learned how to draw the basic graphic elements of paint scheme design. These graphic elements are Lines, Curves and Stripes. Most paint scheme designs will have one or more of these basic graphic elements. The next step is Intermediate Drawing, where we'll put these basic graphic elements to work.