In the era of millennials where animation, illustrations, and graphics are becoming unbelievable close to real-life, one man defies all trends to jump on the newest digital editing tool train, and yet creates beautiful illustrations. Patrick Hines is a Boston-based artist who has been faithful to the tool, Microsoft Paint for more than a decade to create highly detailed artworks. It was growing need for digital artists to adapt to latest tools such as Adobe Photoshop or GIMP to save time. The 34-year-old artist, however, has tried them all, always finding his way back to MS Paint. In his own words, he “sucked at Photoshop.”
“Paint’s simplicity and limitations are what I enjoy the most about it. I like the idea that you don’t need an expensive program or materials to create something that’s nice to look at.” Pat Hines
MS Paint came as a free drawing tool with Microsoft Windows 95, in the mid-90s. However, Pat Hines was acquainted with the tool some 12 years ago, during his job as a security guard, at the reception desk of a hospital. As a way to pass the time, Pat did not enjoy Windows games Like Solitaire instead he would doodle on MS Paint. In over a decade’s time, amateur artist Pat’s illustrations improved notably, and he was able to develop his signature style. He learned the peculiarities and the technicalities of the tools so well, he does not feel the need to buy expensive editing software and tools to create these fascinating images.
The sheer amount of details in the illustration of this self-taught artist can be seen in his first e-book Camp Red-blood and The Essential Revenge. How does he do it? Well, you can see his work process in detail on DeviantArt, where one can appreciate the details by zooming into the image. Pat has created portraits and cityscapes as custom works of arts and is currently working on narratives. The artist is an Emerson College graduate who plans to put his film degree to good use by writing horror comic books, screenplays, and storyboards for short films and commercials. Here are some of his illustrations;
