As a WEBTOON creator I like to use texture pencil like brushes for the lineart of my comic. However thick and/or textured brushes don’t really combine well with the automatic color fill tool and hand coloring in 60 panels a week is not viable. The tool may not fill underneath the lineart and create flats that are incomplete or transparent like below.

 

One way to speed past this is by drawing on VECTOR LAYERS.

Vector layers have the unique ability to change your brush to whatever you want even after you drawn the stroke.

 

What I do to efficiently flat my panels is pretty simple.

1. Duplicate you vector lineart layer.

2. Next, go to the object tab located on the side of your work space.

3. Go to the tool options and press the Brush Shape editor.

Below it are tabs of different brushes. Whichever one you press will change the entire canvas of lineart you just drew.

4. Change the brush size to your desired thickness. Usually 2-4px is good for flatting.

 

By doing this I’ve TEMPORARILY changed my lineart from fuzzy and textured to thin and vectored.

And since I duplicated the layer, the original lineart is still safe and sound.

 

5. Set it to reference mode so that you can color it in on a separate layer.

 

6. Use the bucket fill tool and set it to reference mode as well. These are the settings I prefer. Play around with Tolerance and area scaling to your preference.

The thinner, vector line art allows the fill tool to work Perfectly without gaps. When your done filling and coloring, you can simply return to your original lineart and it will mesh seamlessly.

 

The vector lineart is in the exact middle of your texture brush so there won’t be any overlaps.

A lot of artists switch to flat brushes even though it doesn’t combine well with their style. This is a cool way of keeping my brushes thick and textured while also not sacrificing time and effort.

 

This has been my little secret for sometime and has helped me immensely while working for WEBTOON on my upcoming series. Hope you enjoy!