To change the color of an outline in Procreate, turn on Alpha Lock for the line layer, pick a new color, then tap the layer thumbnail and choose Fill Layer. To color inside an outline, set the line art as a Reference layer and drop color onto a separate layer beneath it with Color Drop. To add a colored outline around a shape, such as a sticker border, duplicate the shape, fill the copy with a flat color, place it underneath, and expand it with a Gaussian Blur and the Selection tool.

Which "outline" do you mean?

"Color the outline" covers three different jobs in Procreate, and each has its own method:

All three work best when the line art lives on its own layer. That habit also pays off when the artwork moves into a motion pipeline, which we cover below.

Method 1: Change the color of existing outlines

This is the fastest route and leaves no stray pixels from the original color.

1. Open the Layers panel and select the layer containing your line art.
2. Tap the layer and choose Alpha Lock, or swipe right to left on the layer row. The little blue indicator lights up when it's active.
3. Open the color picker and choose your new color.
4. Tap the layer thumbnail again and choose Fill Layer.

Alpha Lock restricts any edit to pixels that already exist on the layer. Fill Layer therefore recolors the line pixels without touching the transparent background. Zoom in afterward and you should see no black pixels left over.

Multiple colors on one line layer

While Alpha Lock stays on, you can paint on the layer with any brush and the strokes stay confined to your existing lines. This lets you do things like:

• Color the hair lines brown and the clothing lines navy in a single layer.
• Paint a soft gradient across the linework with an airbrush.
• Add a subtle color shift from thick to thin areas.

To go back to black, fill with black again. To resume normal drawing on that layer, switch Alpha Lock off.

A non-destructive alternative

If you want to keep experimenting, don't touch the original pixels. Duplicate the line layer, hide the original, and recolor the duplicate. Another option is the Adjustments menu (Hue, Saturation, Brightness) applied to the line layer. It's less precise than a flat fill, but it's quick for exploring palettes.

Method 2: Color inside the outline without touching the lines

Painting on the same layer as your lines means you'll cover them. Keep color and lines on separate layers.

Set up the layers

1. Keep the line art on its own layer, at the top of the stack.
2. Create a new layer below it for color.
3. Tap the line art layer and enable Reference.

Use Color Drop

1. Select the empty color layer.
2. Drag the color swatch from the top-right circle into a closed shape.
3. Because the line layer is the Reference, Color Drop reads the lines to decide where to stop, but it writes the color to your selected layer.

The fill goes beneath the lines, so the outline stays crisp and untouched.

When fills leak

If color floods outside a shape, there's almost always a gap in the line. Fix it by:

• Zooming in and closing the gap with a small brush on the line layer.
• Switching to a manual method: use the Selection tool, then fill the selection.

Painting instead of filling

For a looser, illustrated look, create a new layer above the line art and set its blend mode to Multiply. Colors then blend with the black lines rather than covering them. Alternatively, put the color on a layer below and clip shading layers to it with a Clipping Mask, so shadows and highlights never spill beyond the base color.

Method 3: Add a colored outline around a shape

Sticker-style borders, cutout looks, and stroke effects need a new outline around the artwork's silhouette. One reliable approach:

1. Duplicate the layer holding your shape or element.
2. On the duplicate, turn on Alpha Lock and fill it with your outline color. For white, you can instead use Adjustments > Hue, Saturation, Brightness and push brightness to 100% with saturation at 0.
3. Drag this colored copy beneath the original layer.
4. With the copy selected, open Adjustments > Gaussian Blur and apply a value around 10 to 12. Higher values give a thicker, softer border.
5. Pick the Selection tool, set it to Automatic and Add, then tap and hold on the blurred layer. Drag left or right to shrink or grow the selection until the edge sits where you want it.
6. Fill the selection with your outline color on the layer beneath your artwork.

The result is a clean, uniform border that follows the contour of the shape. Hide the background layer or place a dark layer behind it while you work so a light outline is easy to judge.

Tips for cleaner borders

• Work at the final output resolution. Expanding selections on a small canvas gives visibly stepped edges.
• Keep the outline on its own layer so you can swap colors or widths later.
• For print and cut, leave a bit of extra margin beyond the border and export as PNG with a transparent background.

Troubleshooting common problems

Color still covers the lines. You're painting on the line layer, or on a layer above it set to Normal. Move the color below the lines or switch to Multiply.

A dark fringe remains after recoloring. Fill Layer with Alpha Lock should prevent this. If you recolored with a brush instead, the anti-aliased edge pixels may still carry the old color. Redo it with Fill Layer.

Color Drop fills the entire layer. The layer you're dropping onto is empty and the Reference isn't set. Enable Reference on the line layer and confirm the color layer is the active one.

The fill leaves a gap next to the line. Extend the fill under the line by making sure the color layer sits beneath the lines at full opacity.

Taking Procreate outlines into a motion pipeline

If you're an animator or motion designer using Procreate for boards, character design, or hand-drawn elements, layer separation matters well beyond the iPad. Export your layers, for example as a layered file or individual PNGs, and keep these habits:

• Lines on their own layer. In After Effects you can recolor them or animate color over time, without going back to Procreate.
• Flat color on its own layer. This makes it easy to apply a different treatment, such as texture or grain, to fills versus lines.
• Transparent backgrounds. Hide any paper or background layer before export so outlines drop cleanly into comps in After Effects, Premiere Pro, Blender, or Nuke.
• Export large. Procreate canvases that look fine on the iPad can soften when you scale them up in a 4K timeline.

Where Styleframe fits

Procreate is excellent for authoring a single piece of outlined artwork. Styleframe, an AI video and motion tool built for professional artistic control, picks up where a finished still or a set of stills needs to move or be re-rendered in a different look. You keep your layer-based finishing and color control, and Styleframe handles the generative step under your direction.

Quick reference

• Recolor lines: Alpha Lock, choose color, Fill Layer.
• Color within lines: Line layer as Reference, Color Drop onto a layer beneath.
• Soft, painted color: New layer set to Multiply, or clipped layers over a flat base.
• Border around a shape: Duplicate, fill, Gaussian Blur, expand selection, fill beneath the artwork.
• For motion work: Keep lines, fills, and outline borders on separate layers and export with transparency.

Once the separation between lines and color is second nature, nearly every outline task in Procreate becomes a quick, repeatable move, and your layers arrive in After Effects ready to animate.

To change the color of an outline in Procreate, turn on Alpha Lock for the line layer, pick a new color, then tap the layer thumbnail and choose Fill Layer. To color inside an outline, set the line art as a Reference layer and drop color onto a separate layer beneath it with Color Drop. To add a colored outline around a shape, such as a sticker border, duplicate the shape, fill the copy with a flat color, place it underneath, and expand it with a Gaussian Blur and the Selection tool.

Which "outline" do you mean?

"Color the outline" covers three different jobs in Procreate, and each has its own method:

All three work best when the line art lives on its own layer. That habit also pays off when the artwork moves into a motion pipeline, which we cover below.

Method 1: Change the color of existing outlines

This is the fastest route and leaves no stray pixels from the original color.

1. Open the Layers panel and select the layer containing your line art.
2. Tap the layer and choose Alpha Lock, or swipe right to left on the layer row. The little blue indicator lights up when it's active.
3. Open the color picker and choose your new color.
4. Tap the layer thumbnail again and choose Fill Layer.

Alpha Lock restricts any edit to pixels that already exist on the layer. Fill Layer therefore recolors the line pixels without touching the transparent background. Zoom in afterward and you should see no black pixels left over.

Multiple colors on one line layer

While Alpha Lock stays on, you can paint on the layer with any brush and the strokes stay confined to your existing lines. This lets you do things like:

• Color the hair lines brown and the clothing lines navy in a single layer.
• Paint a soft gradient across the linework with an airbrush.
• Add a subtle color shift from thick to thin areas.

To go back to black, fill with black again. To resume normal drawing on that layer, switch Alpha Lock off.

A non-destructive alternative

If you want to keep experimenting, don't touch the original pixels. Duplicate the line layer, hide the original, and recolor the duplicate. Another option is the Adjustments menu (Hue, Saturation, Brightness) applied to the line layer. It's less precise than a flat fill, but it's quick for exploring palettes.

Method 2: Color inside the outline without touching the lines

Painting on the same layer as your lines means you'll cover them. Keep color and lines on separate layers.

Set up the layers

1. Keep the line art on its own layer, at the top of the stack.
2. Create a new layer below it for color.
3. Tap the line art layer and enable Reference.

Use Color Drop

1. Select the empty color layer.
2. Drag the color swatch from the top-right circle into a closed shape.
3. Because the line layer is the Reference, Color Drop reads the lines to decide where to stop, but it writes the color to your selected layer.

The fill goes beneath the lines, so the outline stays crisp and untouched.

When fills leak

If color floods outside a shape, there's almost always a gap in the line. Fix it by:

• Zooming in and closing the gap with a small brush on the line layer.
• Switching to a manual method: use the Selection tool, then fill the selection.

Painting instead of filling

For a looser, illustrated look, create a new layer above the line art and set its blend mode to Multiply. Colors then blend with the black lines rather than covering them. Alternatively, put the color on a layer below and clip shading layers to it with a Clipping Mask, so shadows and highlights never spill beyond the base color.

Method 3: Add a colored outline around a shape

Sticker-style borders, cutout looks, and stroke effects need a new outline around the artwork's silhouette. One reliable approach:

1. Duplicate the layer holding your shape or element.
2. On the duplicate, turn on Alpha Lock and fill it with your outline color. For white, you can instead use Adjustments > Hue, Saturation, Brightness and push brightness to 100% with saturation at 0.
3. Drag this colored copy beneath the original layer.
4. With the copy selected, open Adjustments > Gaussian Blur and apply a value around 10 to 12. Higher values give a thicker, softer border.
5. Pick the Selection tool, set it to Automatic and Add, then tap and hold on the blurred layer. Drag left or right to shrink or grow the selection until the edge sits where you want it.
6. Fill the selection with your outline color on the layer beneath your artwork.

The result is a clean, uniform border that follows the contour of the shape. Hide the background layer or place a dark layer behind it while you work so a light outline is easy to judge.

Tips for cleaner borders

• Work at the final output resolution. Expanding selections on a small canvas gives visibly stepped edges.
• Keep the outline on its own layer so you can swap colors or widths later.
• For print and cut, leave a bit of extra margin beyond the border and export as PNG with a transparent background.

Troubleshooting common problems

Color still covers the lines. You're painting on the line layer, or on a layer above it set to Normal. Move the color below the lines or switch to Multiply.

A dark fringe remains after recoloring. Fill Layer with Alpha Lock should prevent this. If you recolored with a brush instead, the anti-aliased edge pixels may still carry the old color. Redo it with Fill Layer.

Color Drop fills the entire layer. The layer you're dropping onto is empty and the Reference isn't set. Enable Reference on the line layer and confirm the color layer is the active one.

The fill leaves a gap next to the line. Extend the fill under the line by making sure the color layer sits beneath the lines at full opacity.

Taking Procreate outlines into a motion pipeline

If you're an animator or motion designer using Procreate for boards, character design, or hand-drawn elements, layer separation matters well beyond the iPad. Export your layers, for example as a layered file or individual PNGs, and keep these habits:

• Lines on their own layer. In After Effects you can recolor them or animate color over time, without going back to Procreate.
• Flat color on its own layer. This makes it easy to apply a different treatment, such as texture or grain, to fills versus lines.
• Transparent backgrounds. Hide any paper or background layer before export so outlines drop cleanly into comps in After Effects, Premiere Pro, Blender, or Nuke.
• Export large. Procreate canvases that look fine on the iPad can soften when you scale them up in a 4K timeline.

Where Styleframe fits

Procreate is excellent for authoring a single piece of outlined artwork. Styleframe, an AI video and motion tool built for professional artistic control, picks up where a finished still or a set of stills needs to move or be re-rendered in a different look. You keep your layer-based finishing and color control, and Styleframe handles the generative step under your direction.

Quick reference

• Recolor lines: Alpha Lock, choose color, Fill Layer.
• Color within lines: Line layer as Reference, Color Drop onto a layer beneath.
• Soft, painted color: New layer set to Multiply, or clipped layers over a flat base.
• Border around a shape: Duplicate, fill, Gaussian Blur, expand selection, fill beneath the artwork.
• For motion work: Keep lines, fills, and outline borders on separate layers and export with transparency.

Once the separation between lines and color is second nature, nearly every outline task in Procreate becomes a quick, repeatable move, and your layers arrive in After Effects ready to animate.