MS-Paint style, infuriatingly addictive site lets you draw vs the world

Date
30 June 2015

Paint By User should come with a trigger warning for anyone with an addictive personality, those easily aggressed by internet saboteurs and anyone with a propensity for procrastination. It turns out I suffer with all three, but didn’t quite realise until I started playing with the site, created by Matthew Britton and Bertie Muller, the pair behind a site that lets you skip YouTube. It offers up a utopian idea of allowing anyone with an internet connection to work on the same piece of rather basic, but potentially quite pretty piece of art in realtime using rudimentary MS Paint-type tools. What it soon morphs into is a competitive, dystopian pit of cock drawings, people writing things like “spurt” and an oddly indelible image of a bird-like creature with a grotesque arse. We tried and failed to write “It’s Nice That” legibly across the screen but before you can say “nice” some online MORON has painted over it in black. Do, please have a go – it’s viciously good fun – but please, please don’t blame us when suddenly it’s 5pm and you’ve done nothing all day apart from YELL AT YOUR SCREEN and draw willies.

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Matthew Britton and Bertie Muller: Paint By User

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Matthew Britton and Bertie Muller: Paint By User

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Matthew Britton and Bertie Muller: Paint By User

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Matthew Britton and Bertie Muller: Paint By User

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About the Author

Emily Gosling

Emily joined It’s Nice That as Online Editor in the summer of 2014 after four years at Design Week. She is particularly interested in graphic design, branding and music. After working It's Nice That as both Online Editor and Deputy Editor, Emily left the company in 2016.

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