1. Color Between the Lines
This first technique is the most basic one: treat Procreate like a coloring book. Once you’ve drawn your outline, color it in like you would as a child. You can be as messy or as clean as you like.
You can use this technique on the outline layer or on a new layer. If coloring on the outline layer, your color strokes will go over the top of the outline if you’re being a little messy. By coloring on a separate layer, you can keep the outline intact, even if you color outside the lines.
This technique is great when using brushes that replicate crayons, markers, or felt-tip pens. These are some of the best Procreate brushes you should try.
2. Drag From the Color Picker
When adding block color to areas of your illustration, dragging straight from the Color Picker is one of the quickest and simplest ways. Use the Procreate Color Picker tool to choose your color from the spectrum or palette, and then drag your finger or Apple Pencil from the color swatch to the closed area you’re adding color to.
If your outlines are clean, this will fill the entire space with one color. However, if your outlines are not smooth—which happens with certain brushes—you may be left with a small white border just inside the outline.
3. Color the Layer Underneath
As mentioned in the previous method, if your outline brush isn’t smooth, you may get a white border inside the outline when dragging a fill color into the space. The brush texture may also prevent a closed loop, so it can’t be filled. To avoid that, add a new layer under the outline layer and use a smooth brush like Monoline from the Calligraphy set to draw around the outline.
Draw directly under the outline and ensure your color outline creates a closed loop—even if your outlines have gaps—so you can fill successfully. You can lower your brush’s opacity to keep the top layer’s effect visible.
Then all you have to do is drag from the Color Picker to fill your colored outlines on the below layer. It will fill without any white borders. You can keep the layers separate or merge them together.
4. Use Alpha Lock to Recolor Your Line Work
Occasionally when you’re drawing the outlines, you might want them in a different color. If you’re already happy with the line work, you don’t want to redraw the whole thing just to change the color.
The easy solution to recoloring your line work in Procreate is to use Alpha Lock. This works similarly to a clipping mask but without using an extra layer. On your outline layer, swipe the layer right using two fingers to turn Alpha Lock on. You’ll see the background of the layer’s thumbnail will become transparent, represented by a white and gray box pattern.
Change your color using the Color Picker, and using any brush, simply color over your outlines. You can recolor the entire outline or color over specific areas if you only want to change or add color to select parts. Once you’re done, swipe the layer right with two fingers again to remove Alpha Lock.
5. Use a Reference Layer
Setting your outline layer as a Reference will allow you to fill new layers with color only in specific areas. Similarly to dropping the color into the drawn space, this works in the same way except you’re adding the color to a blank layer instead of inside the outlines.
Tap your outline layer and choose Reference. “Reference” will appear under the layer’s title until you switch it off. Then open a new layer by tapping + in the Layers panel. Drag the new layer below the outline layer, keeping the new layer selected.
Then drag your chosen color from the Color Picker into the space you want to color. You can add multiple colors to the same layer or add a new layer per color. Any layers below the Reference layer—while it’s switched on—will work this way.
This feature doesn’t work for spaces that are not drawn as closed loops, such as the hair of the subject in the example. And you should also note that this feature only works when the outline was made by a smooth brush and not a textured one.
6. Use Automatic Selections
You can use the Selection tool to dictate an area to color fill. You can use this on the same layer as the outline or on an empty layer below.
Start by selecting the outline layer, then tap Selections (the S-shaped icon) > Automatic. Ensure that Add is highlighted rather than Remove. Then tap the empty space you wish to color; it will turn bright blue. At this point, you can choose whether to keep your color on the same layer or on its own layer. If you want to add a new layer, do so now and select it.
Select the Color Picker and choose your intended color. Then drag it to the blue selected area—or if you opened a new layer, then drag it to the area that doesn’t have translucent stripes covering it. Tap Selections to switch off the selected area, leaving your new color neatly behind.
7. Use Freehand Selections
Steps 5 and 6 only allow you to drag color into a closed loop, but if your illustration style leaves gaps in the line work, that means you can’t drag color to the space using those techniques. Like the Automatic selection tool, there is also a Freehand selection tool.
Freehand selection works in the same way, except you can draw the selection where you want and then fill the entire selection area with color. Again, you can draw the selection on the outline layer or on a new layer. The outline will stay visible even if your selection goes over it. If your outline uses a textured brush, it is best to make the selection on a new layer underneath.
Once you’ve drawn your closed loop selection, drag the color from the Color Picker to fill the area with color. Tap the Selections tool to deselect.
This technique is great for drawing shadows and highlights on your illustrations as well as filling areas without a complete outline. Now that you know the solution to this problem, check out our guide to other common Procreate problems and how to fix them.
Add Color to Your Procreate Art
After reading these tips, you’ll never wonder how to add color in Procreate again. You can color between the lines like a digital coloring book or add shadows for realistic illustrations. Procreate is a versatile art tool that makes it quick, easy, and fun to take your art from a black outline to a colored masterpiece.
