Sometimes, cartoon characters will paint with one or two strokes in colour combinations that simply cannot be done that way in the real world, such as stripes, checks, polka dots, or even more elaborate patterns.
Finding one of these might be assigned to a naive person as a
Snipe Hunt.
Examples:
Comic Books
- In the French comic Les 4 As (The 4 Aces) about four kids (a sporty boy, a smart nerdy boy, a fat Big Eater and Supreme Chef, and a ditzy girl), the girl actually manages to paint a car with checkered paint, which she claims to have invented herself. The Smart Guy is stumped, of course. Strangely, the comic is without Magic and Powers and such.
Literature
- One Norman Hunter book had the protagonists needing to fulfil a promise by painting with striped paint. They faked the effect by painting the stripes in advance and whitewashing over them. The 'striped paint' they then demonstrated was water, which removed the whitewash and left the stripes.
LiveActionTV
- In one episode of Home Improvement, Tim claims to have a machine that can scan anything and make a color of it. Perfectly reasonable at first, but then Tim scans Al, produces "A nice can of Al", and proceeds to paint his portrait on a wall with a paint roller. Everyone else is shocked or amused by this, so in-universe it's probably just a magic trick.
Video Games
- Some of the Rainbow Pool paintbrushes from Neopets.
- And the Chia pops, the transmogrification potions, and the Lab Ray colors.
Western Animation
Real Life
- One type of Snipe Hunt is to send someone out looking for striped or tartan paint.
- Many paint programs have a tool, typically represented by a paint bucket icon, that can fill an area with either a solid color or a pattern.
