Why did we create this site?: Well, TechSmurf came up with the idea, and EvilJekyll decided to go with it in a joint effort between them. The idea was to recreate Thom Curtis's site that no longer exists in its original form(www.paintmash.co.uk), and recreate in their own image.

What is a paintmash? Anything drawn in MSPaint or other low-fi packages is considered a paintmash. A paintmash is usually referred to as a quick drawing, but here everything drawn in these programs is considered a paintmash.

Our purpose: To bring recognition to MSPaint artwork and those who draw it. We have created this as an all-in-one common place for anyone to upload their artwork. We figured it would be easier for everyone than just a plain forum, or a community on LJ or elsewhere. This site can also be used as an image hoster, because many hosting sites either have issues hosting on forums or communities, or the images are deleted by the hosting service.

Basic principles (Thom Curtis's original guidelines): "There are a few rules, all images as .gif, .jpg, or .png files and must have been created in paint, or other low-fi packages. I'm also afraid that any pictures containing photographic elements will be turned down: artistic purity is important to me."

How did it start?: It started with Thom Curtis. Thom Curtis created the original PaintMash in this manner, "I was bored one night after school, so I sat down, loaded paint and started to draw. It was a revelation: drawing stupid little doodles in paint was fun. I drew some more pictures, and I emailed them to some of my friends; they reciprocated, and I decided to collect all of the images together into one place. I decided to build a little website to keep these pictures in, and I called it PaintMash."

Why do you want us to register for the forums/gallery? Pretty simple answer. For the Forums, we would like your feedback on the tutorials and such, and also to prevent spamming and bots. For the Gallery, mostly so you can gain the recognition you deserve, so that we know which artist did what. The gallery also has a comment and rating feature which we feel could be misused.

Want to see Thom Curtis's original site? Click Here

For more information, see our FAQ

Want to contact us? Email us if you like, just be sure to include PaintMash somewhere in the subject so we don't think it's spam:

EvilJekyll (Main Admin)

TechSmurf (Forum Admin and Site Assistant)

Special thanks to DmanLT21 for help with the site.