[1] Painting the flat colors

I’m going to paint most of the parts on separate the layers.

 

 

 

■1. To start, I make a new layer folder called “Colors” between the “Rough draft” and “Line art” layers.

 

I make a new layer called “Character” in the “Colors” folder, and use the “Slim lines” brush that I made in part 2 to paint the flat colors.

 

Hint:

When painting flat colors, it helps to add a fill layer as a base so that you can easily see any unpainted areas when painting with lighter colors, such as for the skin in this example.

I used gray as the base color here, but you can choose any color you like.

 

 

 

■2. For areas that are completely surrounded by lines, I use the [Fill] tool > [Refer other layers].

 

With this, you can fill the flat colors while referring to the line art layers. This is a really easy way of coloring flats.

 

 

 

■3. Some small areas between lines can get missed with the [Refer other layers] sub tool, so I paint these using the [Fill] tool > [Paint unfilled area].

 

Then, I paint any remaining areas with a brush tool.

 

Areas with a lot of lines often end up with unfilled parts, so I paint over all of them to fill them in.

 

Hint:

The [Paint unfilled area] tool fills in any enclosed areas that you paint over.

It is useful for filling in small areas that are missed by fill tools that use the click-and-drag method.

 

This tool doesn’t fill in unenclosed areas, so it will only fill in the missed parts even if you paint outside of the line art.

 

Now I’ve finished tidying up the flat colors.

 

 

 

■4. I finish painting the flat colors for the background in the same way. At this point, I haven’t decided the final colors.

 

I select all my flat color layers and turn on the “Lock Transparent Pixel” icon at the top of the layer palette.

▲When the transparent pixels are locked, the icon will show at the right of the layer information.

 

[2] Painting

I paint the colors of the whole piece while referring to the rough draft. This brings it closer to the look of the final piece.

 

Because [Lock Transparent Pixel] is turned on, I can paint without going outside of the flat color area.

I’m painting with the “Slim lines” brush I made in part 2 of this series.

 

I decide to change the color of the fish.

 

I also change the coloring of the character to be closer to my draft.

 

Now I’ve finished adjusting the flat colors.