I used to use Paint WAAAY back in the day and had only minor success with it. I remember creating buttons for the web and trying to give them a 3D look. Talk about a task. I used to work hours on such simple things. The lack of paint brushes with hard and soft tips and the lack of layers really made it hard. I still think the hardest thing about Paint is the fact that it doesn't use any sort of blending techniques or filters. Try creating a gradiant in MS Paint
It can be a daunting task.