To color a photo in Procreate, import it through Actions (wrench) > Add > Insert a photo, then pick the method that matches your goal. To colorize a black-and-white photo, paint on separate layers set to the Color blend mode. To change the colors already in a photo, use Adjustments: Hue, Saturation, Brightness, Color Balance, or Curves. To turn a photo into an illustration, fill and paint on new layers beneath or above it with ColorDrop, Selections, or a textured brush.

Decide What "Coloring a Photo" Means First

The phrase covers three different jobs, and each has a different best tool in Procreate:

• Colorizing: adding color to a monochrome or desaturated photo.
• Color correction or stylization: shifting the hues, contrast, and tonal balance of a photo that already has color.
• Illustrating over the photo: treating the photo as a base or line reference and painting flat or shaded color on top.

Most tutorials aimed at hobbyists cover only the third job, usually with line art or sketches. For motion work, you will probably want the first two, since they preserve the photographic information you may later animate, composite, or grade elsewhere.

Step 1: Import the Photo and Set Up the Canvas

1. Create a canvas at the resolution you need. Match the photo's aspect ratio if you plan to bring the result back into a timeline.
2. Tap the wrench (Actions) icon, choose Add, then Insert a photo (or Insert a file if it lives in Files). Take a photo is also available if you're shooting a print.
3. With the transform tool set to Uniform, resize and position the image. Fit to Canvas is a quick way to fill the frame without distorting it.
4. Open the Layers panel and confirm the photo sits on its own layer. Keep it untouched where possible.

Method 1: Colorize a Black-and-White Photo

This is the approach to use when you want believable color that respects the original lighting.

1. Keep the photo as the bottom layer. If it has a slight color cast, open Adjustments > Hue, Saturation, Brightness and pull saturation down to neutralize it.
2. Add a new layer above the photo for each major element: skin, hair, clothing, sky, background. Separate layers give you independent control later.
3. Set each color layer's blend mode to Color. Tap the "N" next to the layer and choose Color. This applies hue and saturation from your paint while keeping the luminance of the photo underneath, so shadows and highlights stay intact.
4. Paint with a soft or medium brush. Low opacity builds color gradually and avoids a flat, tinted look. Use a hard brush or selection for crisp edges such as clothing and objects.
5. Add a Multiply or Soft Light layer to deepen shadows or warm up highlights where the Color layers feel flat.

Skin tones are where colorization tends to fall apart. Build them with subtle variation rather than one fill: slightly warmer in the cheeks and ears, cooler in areas turning away from the light. Use a reference photo if you are unsure.

Use Selections to Speed Up Large Areas

For big, clearly defined regions, Selections is faster than brushing by hand:

1. Tap Selections and choose a method such as Automatic, Freehand, Rectangle, or Ellipse.
2. Turn on Color Fill and choose your color.
3. Make the selection, and the area fills as soon as it completes.

Procreate's help documentation notes that Color Fill works on a single layer rather than a group, so select your target layer first. Use Selections > Feather to soften edges so the color doesn't look cut out.

Method 2: Change the Colors in a Photo That Already Has Color

If the photo has color and you want to correct it or push it toward a look, use Adjustments. Each one acts on the active layer, so duplicate the photo first if you want to keep the original.

Hue, Saturation, Brightness

HSB is the quickest option. Hue shifts the overall color tone, saturation moves toward gray or toward vibrancy, and brightness controls overall lightness. It works well for broad changes, such as cooling off a warm image or knocking back oversaturated greens.

Color Balance

Color Balance exposes Red/Cyan, Green/Magenta, and Blue/Yellow sliders, along with Shadows, Midtones, and Highlights buttons. That tonal split is what makes it useful: you can tint the shadows teal and the highlights warm, similar to a split-tone grade. Midtones are selected by default and give the most even overall adjustment.

Curves

Curves is the most advanced option. You bend a line on a graph, over a histogram, to adjust contrast and color. You can work on the combined channel for contrast or on individual red, green, and blue channels for color shifts. It's the closest thing in Procreate to the curves workflow you already know from After Effects or Premiere Pro.

Committing Changes

Tap the Adjustments icon again, or choose another tool, to commit. A two-finger tap undoes the change.

A practical caution: Procreate's adjustments are applied to pixels on a layer. Unlike adjustment layers in After Effects, they aren't re-editable once committed. Work on a duplicate, and keep the original hidden below.

Method 3: Paint Color Over the Photo as an Illustration

When the goal is a stylized or illustrated result, treat the photo as a guide.

Fill Flat Color Under the Photo

1. Reduce the photo to a high-contrast line-like layer. Desaturate it with HSB, then use Curves to push the whites to white and the darks to black, which gives you a tracing-style base.
2. Set that layer's blend mode to Multiply so the whites become transparent over the colors below.
3. Create new layers beneath it for flat color so the darker detail stays visible on top.

If the base layer has a solid white background and the color layers underneath aren't showing, set the base layer's blend mode to Multiply or Darker Color. Either lets the lower layers show through.

Use ColorDrop for Fast Fills

Drag the color icon from the top right into the area you want to fill and keep holding. Slide left or right to adjust the Threshold, which controls how aggressively the fill spreads, then lift to commit. After a drop, tap Continue Filling to fill other areas with taps. If you prefer the older approach, Recolor is available through QuickMenu once you enable it under Actions > Prefs > Gesture Controls > QuickMenu, and it uses a Flood slider.

Add Shading with Blend Modes

Build depth with clipped layers on top of your flat colors. A Multiply layer handles shadows, and a Color Dodge or Soft Light layer handles highlights. A textured brush at low opacity builds up darker tones naturally as strokes overlap. Shifting your line layer from pure black toward a warmer tone with Curves can also make the final piece feel more painted than traced.

Keep the Process Non-Destructive

A few habits make Procreate files much easier to revise:

• Keep the original photo on its own locked layer.
• Put every color decision on its own layer, with blend modes set per layer rather than baked in.
• Name layers by function (skin color, sky shadow, highlight pass) so you can hand the file to someone else or revisit it weeks later.
• Duplicate the canvas before large adjustments such as a global Curves move.

These habits also matter downstream. Layered exports are far more useful in a compositing workflow than a flattened image.

Taking a Colored Photo into a Motion Pipeline

Procreate is a still-image tool, so the real question for motion designers is what happens next. Export the finished work in a format your compositing tool can read, ideally keeping layers, and bring it into After Effects, Nuke, or Blender, where you can animate layers, add camera moves, and grade in context with the rest of your shot.

Procreate stays where you make precise decisions about palette and tone. Whatever tools you use afterward, keep those decisions on their own layers so you retain control of the look.

Quick Troubleshooting

• Color layer doesn't show up: check that it's below the photo, and that the photo's blend mode (Multiply or Darker Color) allows it to show through.
• Colors look muddy: lower the opacity of your Color layers and build up gradually, or add a Soft Light layer to restore contrast.
• Fill leaves gaps at the edges: raise the ColorDrop Threshold, or fill beneath a Multiply line layer so the lines cover the seams.

Summary

Coloring a photo in Procreate comes down to choosing the right method for the job. Use Color-mode layers to colorize a monochrome photo, Adjustments to correct or stylize existing color, and fills with blend modes to paint over a photo as an illustration. Keep each decision on its own layer, protect the original, and export in a format your compositing tools can use, so the still can move into your motion pipeline without losing the work you put into it.

To color a photo in Procreate, import it through Actions (wrench) > Add > Insert a photo, then pick the method that matches your goal. To colorize a black-and-white photo, paint on separate layers set to the Color blend mode. To change the colors already in a photo, use Adjustments: Hue, Saturation, Brightness, Color Balance, or Curves. To turn a photo into an illustration, fill and paint on new layers beneath or above it with ColorDrop, Selections, or a textured brush.

Decide What "Coloring a Photo" Means First

The phrase covers three different jobs, and each has a different best tool in Procreate:

• Colorizing: adding color to a monochrome or desaturated photo.
• Color correction or stylization: shifting the hues, contrast, and tonal balance of a photo that already has color.
• Illustrating over the photo: treating the photo as a base or line reference and painting flat or shaded color on top.

Most tutorials aimed at hobbyists cover only the third job, usually with line art or sketches. For motion work, you will probably want the first two, since they preserve the photographic information you may later animate, composite, or grade elsewhere.

Step 1: Import the Photo and Set Up the Canvas

1. Create a canvas at the resolution you need. Match the photo's aspect ratio if you plan to bring the result back into a timeline.
2. Tap the wrench (Actions) icon, choose Add, then Insert a photo (or Insert a file if it lives in Files). Take a photo is also available if you're shooting a print.
3. With the transform tool set to Uniform, resize and position the image. Fit to Canvas is a quick way to fill the frame without distorting it.
4. Open the Layers panel and confirm the photo sits on its own layer. Keep it untouched where possible.

Method 1: Colorize a Black-and-White Photo

This is the approach to use when you want believable color that respects the original lighting.

1. Keep the photo as the bottom layer. If it has a slight color cast, open Adjustments > Hue, Saturation, Brightness and pull saturation down to neutralize it.
2. Add a new layer above the photo for each major element: skin, hair, clothing, sky, background. Separate layers give you independent control later.
3. Set each color layer's blend mode to Color. Tap the "N" next to the layer and choose Color. This applies hue and saturation from your paint while keeping the luminance of the photo underneath, so shadows and highlights stay intact.
4. Paint with a soft or medium brush. Low opacity builds color gradually and avoids a flat, tinted look. Use a hard brush or selection for crisp edges such as clothing and objects.
5. Add a Multiply or Soft Light layer to deepen shadows or warm up highlights where the Color layers feel flat.

Skin tones are where colorization tends to fall apart. Build them with subtle variation rather than one fill: slightly warmer in the cheeks and ears, cooler in areas turning away from the light. Use a reference photo if you are unsure.

Use Selections to Speed Up Large Areas

For big, clearly defined regions, Selections is faster than brushing by hand:

1. Tap Selections and choose a method such as Automatic, Freehand, Rectangle, or Ellipse.
2. Turn on Color Fill and choose your color.
3. Make the selection, and the area fills as soon as it completes.

Procreate's help documentation notes that Color Fill works on a single layer rather than a group, so select your target layer first. Use Selections > Feather to soften edges so the color doesn't look cut out.

Method 2: Change the Colors in a Photo That Already Has Color

If the photo has color and you want to correct it or push it toward a look, use Adjustments. Each one acts on the active layer, so duplicate the photo first if you want to keep the original.

Hue, Saturation, Brightness

HSB is the quickest option. Hue shifts the overall color tone, saturation moves toward gray or toward vibrancy, and brightness controls overall lightness. It works well for broad changes, such as cooling off a warm image or knocking back oversaturated greens.

Color Balance

Color Balance exposes Red/Cyan, Green/Magenta, and Blue/Yellow sliders, along with Shadows, Midtones, and Highlights buttons. That tonal split is what makes it useful: you can tint the shadows teal and the highlights warm, similar to a split-tone grade. Midtones are selected by default and give the most even overall adjustment.

Curves

Curves is the most advanced option. You bend a line on a graph, over a histogram, to adjust contrast and color. You can work on the combined channel for contrast or on individual red, green, and blue channels for color shifts. It's the closest thing in Procreate to the curves workflow you already know from After Effects or Premiere Pro.

Committing Changes

Tap the Adjustments icon again, or choose another tool, to commit. A two-finger tap undoes the change.

A practical caution: Procreate's adjustments are applied to pixels on a layer. Unlike adjustment layers in After Effects, they aren't re-editable once committed. Work on a duplicate, and keep the original hidden below.

Method 3: Paint Color Over the Photo as an Illustration

When the goal is a stylized or illustrated result, treat the photo as a guide.

Fill Flat Color Under the Photo

1. Reduce the photo to a high-contrast line-like layer. Desaturate it with HSB, then use Curves to push the whites to white and the darks to black, which gives you a tracing-style base.
2. Set that layer's blend mode to Multiply so the whites become transparent over the colors below.
3. Create new layers beneath it for flat color so the darker detail stays visible on top.

If the base layer has a solid white background and the color layers underneath aren't showing, set the base layer's blend mode to Multiply or Darker Color. Either lets the lower layers show through.

Use ColorDrop for Fast Fills

Drag the color icon from the top right into the area you want to fill and keep holding. Slide left or right to adjust the Threshold, which controls how aggressively the fill spreads, then lift to commit. After a drop, tap Continue Filling to fill other areas with taps. If you prefer the older approach, Recolor is available through QuickMenu once you enable it under Actions > Prefs > Gesture Controls > QuickMenu, and it uses a Flood slider.

Add Shading with Blend Modes

Build depth with clipped layers on top of your flat colors. A Multiply layer handles shadows, and a Color Dodge or Soft Light layer handles highlights. A textured brush at low opacity builds up darker tones naturally as strokes overlap. Shifting your line layer from pure black toward a warmer tone with Curves can also make the final piece feel more painted than traced.

Keep the Process Non-Destructive

A few habits make Procreate files much easier to revise:

• Keep the original photo on its own locked layer.
• Put every color decision on its own layer, with blend modes set per layer rather than baked in.
• Name layers by function (skin color, sky shadow, highlight pass) so you can hand the file to someone else or revisit it weeks later.
• Duplicate the canvas before large adjustments such as a global Curves move.

These habits also matter downstream. Layered exports are far more useful in a compositing workflow than a flattened image.

Taking a Colored Photo into a Motion Pipeline

Procreate is a still-image tool, so the real question for motion designers is what happens next. Export the finished work in a format your compositing tool can read, ideally keeping layers, and bring it into After Effects, Nuke, or Blender, where you can animate layers, add camera moves, and grade in context with the rest of your shot.

Procreate stays where you make precise decisions about palette and tone. Whatever tools you use afterward, keep those decisions on their own layers so you retain control of the look.

Quick Troubleshooting

• Color layer doesn't show up: check that it's below the photo, and that the photo's blend mode (Multiply or Darker Color) allows it to show through.
• Colors look muddy: lower the opacity of your Color layers and build up gradually, or add a Soft Light layer to restore contrast.
• Fill leaves gaps at the edges: raise the ColorDrop Threshold, or fill beneath a Multiply line layer so the lines cover the seams.

Summary

Coloring a photo in Procreate comes down to choosing the right method for the job. Use Color-mode layers to colorize a monochrome photo, Adjustments to correct or stylize existing color, and fills with blend modes to paint over a photo as an illustration. Keep each decision on its own layer, protect the original, and export in a format your compositing tools can use, so the still can move into your motion pipeline without losing the work you put into it.