To color things in Procreate, keep your line art on its own layer, put color on separate layers beneath it (or on a Multiply layer above it), and fill shapes with ColorDrop, Selections → Color Fill, or a brush. Block in the large color areas first, then add shading on additional layers so every change stays editable. The steps below cover each method, when to use it, and how to hand finished art to a motion pipeline.

Prepare the Canvas and Line Art

Create a new canvas at the size you'll actually deliver. If the art is headed for animation or compositing, pick dimensions that match your comp, because resizing later softens edges.

If your sketch lives on paper, import it through Actions (wrench icon) → Add → Take a Photo, or Insert a Photo if you already shot it. Light the page evenly, since photo quality affects how clean the result is. Set the transform tool to Uniform, then resize and position the sketch.

To clean up a photographed sketch:

1. Select the sketch layer and open Adjustments → Hue, Saturation, Brightness. Drop saturation to zero.
2. Open Adjustments → Curves and drag the top-right point left until the paper turns mostly white.
3. Erase leftover dark patches at the edges with a soft airbrush eraser.

If the sketch came from another Procreate canvas, copy the layer and paste it through the Add menu.

Set Up Layers Before You Color

Most beginner mistakes come from painting on the same layer as the line art. Two arrangements avoid that:

• Color layers underneath. Keep line art at the top and add new layers below it. Lines stay visible no matter what you paint. This works best when the line art has a transparent background.
• Multiply layer above. Lock the line art layer (swipe left on it, tap Lock), add a new layer above it, tap the N icon, and set the blend mode to Multiply. Color then blends with the lines instead of covering them.

If your line art has a white background, a layer underneath will be hidden. Change the line art layer's blend mode to Multiply or Darker Color, and the white drops out so the paint shows through.

Method 1: ColorDrop for Flat Color

ColorDrop is the fastest way to fill clean shapes. It works like a paint bucket you drag into place.

1. Drag the color circle from the top right into the area you want to fill, and keep holding.
2. While holding, slide left or right to change the threshold. Lower values fill less, higher values fill more.
3. Lift your Apple Pencil or finger to commit.

After a drop, tap Continue Filling to fill other areas with single taps. Tap the checkmark or switch tools to exit.

ColorDrop only fills what it can see, so gaps in your line art let color leak. Fixes:

• Close the gaps with a small brush stroke on the line layer.
• Fill on a separate layer and set your line art as the Reference layer, so the fill reads the lines but lands on the color layer.
• Raise the threshold slightly so the fill pushes into anti-aliased edges and doesn't leave a pale halo next to the line.

Method 2: Selections with Color Fill

When you want precise shapes, use selections. Tap Selections, choose a method (Automatic, Freehand, Rectangle, or Ellipse), and switch on Color Fill. As soon as you complete a selection, it fills with your current color.

Some details worth knowing:

• Color Fill works on a single layer, not on a group.
• The setting persists after you leave and re-enter Selections, so turn it off when you're done or you'll fill things by accident.
• Pairing a Rectangle or Ellipse selection with Feather softens the edges, which is useful for vignettes or glows behind a character.

This method suits geometric shapes, backgrounds, and anything where a hand-drawn edge would look wrong.

Method 3: Fill Layer and Recolor

Fill Layer floods an entire layer with the active color. Pick your color, open the layer's options by tapping it twice, and choose Fill Layer. It's the quickest way to make a solid background, and it pairs well with a Multiply or Overlay layer on top for atmosphere.

Recolor is an older tool that Procreate brought back. It's off by default and lives in QuickMenu. Enable it under Actions → Prefs → Gesture Controls → QuickMenu, assign Recolor to one of the radial slots, pick a color, then tap areas to fill. The Flood slider controls how aggressively it spreads. If you prefer tapping to dragging, it's a reasonable alternative to ColorDrop.

Method 4: Painting by Hand

For a painterly or marker-like look, paint directly with a brush on a color layer. Choose a brush from the Painting or Inking categories and test a few strokes before committing. A textured brush at reduced opacity builds up darker, more opaque color as strokes overlap, which gives you natural variation with little effort.

Choose colors from the color menu. The Disc, Classic, Value, and Harmony tabs all offer different levels of control. Save the colors you like to a palette (Palettes → + → Create New Palette) so the project stays consistent. You can also build a palette from a photo or file with the New from Camera/Photos/File option.

Add Shading and Depth

A simple and forgiving approach is to shade in grayscale first, then color underneath:

1. On a layer above the base art, lightly paint shadows in gray. Think in planes: where does light hit, and where does it fall away?
2. Set the line art and shading layers to Multiply.
3. Add a color layer below them and fill in your local colors. The gray shadows tint themselves with whatever color sits underneath.

If you're unsure where shadows belong, use a photo reference as a guide.

To warm up the line art, select that layer and open Curves. Shift the red channel up so the black lines lean warm. This helps when you want the lines to feel integrated with the paint rather than sitting on top of it.

A few more habits that keep files flexible:

• Separate by object. Keep skin, clothing, hair, and background on different layers. This makes later color changes a single-layer job.
• Use clipping masks for shading and detail so they stay inside the base shape and don't spill over its edges.
• Block big shapes first. Start with the background and the main elements, then refine. You don't need a perfect palette up front; adjust colors once the big relationships are in place.
• Check values in grayscale. If the shapes read clearly without color, the color will support them rather than carry them.

Prepare Colored Art for Motion Work

If the artwork is going into an animation or compositing project, how you organize the Procreate file matters as much as how you colored it. A few practices make that handoff easier:

• Name layers clearly so they're recognizable in a comp.
• Keep line art, flats, shadows, and highlights on distinct layers for independent adjustment.
• Hide or remove stray scratch layers before exporting.
• Keep transparent backgrounds when you can, so elements can be placed in a scene without matting.

Color decisions made in Procreate often become the reference for a larger project, such as a styleframe, a look-dev board, or character art.

Quick Reference: Which Method to Use

Common Problems and Fixes

• Color covers the lines: the color layer is above the line art without Multiply. Move it below, or change its blend mode.
• Fill leaks across the canvas: there's a gap in the line art. Close it, or use a Reference layer and adjust the threshold.
• White halos around fills: raise the ColorDrop threshold a bit so the fill reaches the edge of the line.
• Can't Color Fill onto a group: select a single layer instead.
• Paint won't show under line art: the line art probably has a white background. Use Multiply or Darker Color on that layer.

Pick one method, set up your layers properly, and build in passes: flats, then shadows, then highlights. That structure is what keeps a Procreate file editable, whether it ends as a finished illustration or becomes source material for a motion project.

To color things in Procreate, keep your line art on its own layer, put color on separate layers beneath it (or on a Multiply layer above it), and fill shapes with ColorDrop, Selections → Color Fill, or a brush. Block in the large color areas first, then add shading on additional layers so every change stays editable. The steps below cover each method, when to use it, and how to hand finished art to a motion pipeline.

Prepare the Canvas and Line Art

Create a new canvas at the size you'll actually deliver. If the art is headed for animation or compositing, pick dimensions that match your comp, because resizing later softens edges.

If your sketch lives on paper, import it through Actions (wrench icon) → Add → Take a Photo, or Insert a Photo if you already shot it. Light the page evenly, since photo quality affects how clean the result is. Set the transform tool to Uniform, then resize and position the sketch.

To clean up a photographed sketch:

1. Select the sketch layer and open Adjustments → Hue, Saturation, Brightness. Drop saturation to zero.
2. Open Adjustments → Curves and drag the top-right point left until the paper turns mostly white.
3. Erase leftover dark patches at the edges with a soft airbrush eraser.

If the sketch came from another Procreate canvas, copy the layer and paste it through the Add menu.

Set Up Layers Before You Color

Most beginner mistakes come from painting on the same layer as the line art. Two arrangements avoid that:

• Color layers underneath. Keep line art at the top and add new layers below it. Lines stay visible no matter what you paint. This works best when the line art has a transparent background.
• Multiply layer above. Lock the line art layer (swipe left on it, tap Lock), add a new layer above it, tap the N icon, and set the blend mode to Multiply. Color then blends with the lines instead of covering them.

If your line art has a white background, a layer underneath will be hidden. Change the line art layer's blend mode to Multiply or Darker Color, and the white drops out so the paint shows through.

Method 1: ColorDrop for Flat Color

ColorDrop is the fastest way to fill clean shapes. It works like a paint bucket you drag into place.

1. Drag the color circle from the top right into the area you want to fill, and keep holding.
2. While holding, slide left or right to change the threshold. Lower values fill less, higher values fill more.
3. Lift your Apple Pencil or finger to commit.

After a drop, tap Continue Filling to fill other areas with single taps. Tap the checkmark or switch tools to exit.

ColorDrop only fills what it can see, so gaps in your line art let color leak. Fixes:

• Close the gaps with a small brush stroke on the line layer.
• Fill on a separate layer and set your line art as the Reference layer, so the fill reads the lines but lands on the color layer.
• Raise the threshold slightly so the fill pushes into anti-aliased edges and doesn't leave a pale halo next to the line.

Method 2: Selections with Color Fill

When you want precise shapes, use selections. Tap Selections, choose a method (Automatic, Freehand, Rectangle, or Ellipse), and switch on Color Fill. As soon as you complete a selection, it fills with your current color.

Some details worth knowing:

• Color Fill works on a single layer, not on a group.
• The setting persists after you leave and re-enter Selections, so turn it off when you're done or you'll fill things by accident.
• Pairing a Rectangle or Ellipse selection with Feather softens the edges, which is useful for vignettes or glows behind a character.

This method suits geometric shapes, backgrounds, and anything where a hand-drawn edge would look wrong.

Method 3: Fill Layer and Recolor

Fill Layer floods an entire layer with the active color. Pick your color, open the layer's options by tapping it twice, and choose Fill Layer. It's the quickest way to make a solid background, and it pairs well with a Multiply or Overlay layer on top for atmosphere.

Recolor is an older tool that Procreate brought back. It's off by default and lives in QuickMenu. Enable it under Actions → Prefs → Gesture Controls → QuickMenu, assign Recolor to one of the radial slots, pick a color, then tap areas to fill. The Flood slider controls how aggressively it spreads. If you prefer tapping to dragging, it's a reasonable alternative to ColorDrop.

Method 4: Painting by Hand

For a painterly or marker-like look, paint directly with a brush on a color layer. Choose a brush from the Painting or Inking categories and test a few strokes before committing. A textured brush at reduced opacity builds up darker, more opaque color as strokes overlap, which gives you natural variation with little effort.

Choose colors from the color menu. The Disc, Classic, Value, and Harmony tabs all offer different levels of control. Save the colors you like to a palette (Palettes → + → Create New Palette) so the project stays consistent. You can also build a palette from a photo or file with the New from Camera/Photos/File option.

Add Shading and Depth

A simple and forgiving approach is to shade in grayscale first, then color underneath:

1. On a layer above the base art, lightly paint shadows in gray. Think in planes: where does light hit, and where does it fall away?
2. Set the line art and shading layers to Multiply.
3. Add a color layer below them and fill in your local colors. The gray shadows tint themselves with whatever color sits underneath.

If you're unsure where shadows belong, use a photo reference as a guide.

To warm up the line art, select that layer and open Curves. Shift the red channel up so the black lines lean warm. This helps when you want the lines to feel integrated with the paint rather than sitting on top of it.

A few more habits that keep files flexible:

• Separate by object. Keep skin, clothing, hair, and background on different layers. This makes later color changes a single-layer job.
• Use clipping masks for shading and detail so they stay inside the base shape and don't spill over its edges.
• Block big shapes first. Start with the background and the main elements, then refine. You don't need a perfect palette up front; adjust colors once the big relationships are in place.
• Check values in grayscale. If the shapes read clearly without color, the color will support them rather than carry them.

Prepare Colored Art for Motion Work

If the artwork is going into an animation or compositing project, how you organize the Procreate file matters as much as how you colored it. A few practices make that handoff easier:

• Name layers clearly so they're recognizable in a comp.
• Keep line art, flats, shadows, and highlights on distinct layers for independent adjustment.
• Hide or remove stray scratch layers before exporting.
• Keep transparent backgrounds when you can, so elements can be placed in a scene without matting.

Color decisions made in Procreate often become the reference for a larger project, such as a styleframe, a look-dev board, or character art.

Quick Reference: Which Method to Use

Common Problems and Fixes

• Color covers the lines: the color layer is above the line art without Multiply. Move it below, or change its blend mode.
• Fill leaks across the canvas: there's a gap in the line art. Close it, or use a Reference layer and adjust the threshold.
• White halos around fills: raise the ColorDrop threshold a bit so the fill reaches the edge of the line.
• Can't Color Fill onto a group: select a single layer instead.
• Paint won't show under line art: the line art probably has a white background. Use Multiply or Darker Color on that layer.

Pick one method, set up your layers properly, and build in passes: flats, then shadows, then highlights. That structure is what keeps a Procreate file editable, whether it ends as a finished illustration or becomes source material for a motion project.