How do I quickly fill in small color details for my art

[JoshRaed]

When I use the fill tool, it leaves a bunch of gaps, and some of them are super small, but still makes the drawing look very weird.

I don’t want to be stuck constantly filling in tiny gaps in color, so what do I do to speed up the process?

[candiedcotton]

I usually don't use the fill tool for that reason.

Most of the time I'll use auto-select, then use the lasso select to catch the little spots the auto-select wand missed, and then use gradient fills. Gradient filling adds a lot of subtle depth rather than pure flat color.

Once you have your flats, you can make a mask out of them for your shadows and highlights layers.

[BlairFujin]

Depends on a program you're using
In csp you can play around with area scaling value of bucket tool to make the filling bleed into your lines

[JoshRaed]

How does lasso tool catch small details?

[candiedcotton]

You do it by hand. Just try it out.

Fill tool is good if you have thicker lines with large canvases, but I usually have thinner lines and a lot of small spaces and gaps in my scenes (especially when multiple characters are involved) so lasso tool makes me feel like I have a lot more control.

[JoshRaed]

Like you draw the lasso tool around the lines?

[candiedcotton]

[NickRowler]

Your lineart, color, shading, and backgrounds should all be their own layers.

If your line art has no gaps, you can use the selection tool and select the area you want. Expend the selection by a few pixels. Then use the paintbucket on the color layer.

If your lineart has gaps, you can use the brush tool to outline the area then fill in the middle.

On Mac, the ALT key will bring up the dropper tool for quick color selection. I don't know what the Win key is but it also works on Windows. This feature is in both Photoshop and Clipstudio.

There is also an option with the brush tool called Background. This will allow you to only add color behind existing color. This makes it easier to color in small details.

[VibrantFox]

i can't get to it now but you can look it up but if your using csp or i think firealpaca both of them have a version of the lasso tool that makes smooth selections even if there's gaps in your lineart

i cant remember the name and i can link it when im on my computer but its been a lifesaver i know for a lot of webcomics folks and other people

usually my go to is just inproving the quality of my lineart or just going over places i think woulf get screwed by the lasso tool with a chunky bruah for the colors im putting in that spot (again dont have good example but i can cook one up)

[JoshRaed]

That’s pretty different from the lasso tool my thing has.

[LunarScyphozoa]

What are you using to draw?

[JoshRaed]

I use medibang paint pro

[BoomerZ]

CSP has a tool called "paint unfilled area". I don't know if medibang has it but its is a god send. Just fill tool on a layer below your line work, scaling up a bit like people have said here. The Paint Unfilled Area is a tool like a brush you can set for what it fills. I set it to transparent only and literally just brush over the area (specially in acute corners that fill doesn't get into). It fills these little areas.

[VibrantFox]

medibang doesn't have the fancy lasso thing that csp has so you'll definitely want to at least try to improving your line quality

but usually i'll go for the magic wand + bucket tool combo and have the expand setting put to about one or two pixels depending on line thickness and in instances where gaps between lines may be a bit bigger go under em in another layer with the pen brush in the color i plan filling with

but it's definitely important to make sure you've got your lineart and your colors on separate layers and take into account details if you end up needing to go back and edit them

like one of my files looks like this where each folder is a batch of layers separating the background from the character from the effects and so on

and then a peek at one folder group for just the character colors (so a layer for base skin, eyes, clothes, accessories, hair, etc)

the painful reality tho is you just kind of have to practice improving how you do lineart so that the coloring process is quicker or hold out hope that features from one program eventually get added to the one you use (goodness knows i had to do a lot of brush substituting or texture borrowing from other software or websites until medibang started adding more stuff and that's after having used it for more than several years)

[JoshRaed]

So what makes for better lineart?

Also I actually found a solution, if you set the expansion on the fill tool to 1, it fills in most of the gaps.

[VibrantFox]

i swiped this from an online tutorial after searching how to improve lineart but it's pretty good

Liven Up Your Line Art With Smooth, Attractive Lines

but from my own practices usually i go for 'long confident lines' as opposed to 'short and choppy because it's a lot easier to just go back and clean up any strokes that maybe go for a bit too long than trying to tidy up a bunch of strays or smooth things out (of course everyones methods are different so there isn't exactly an exact right or wrong but more things that help to give a certain look so this is more regarding "clean" lines)

it's kinda hard drawing "bad" on purpose since it's something i've spent a lot of time working on but the difference is how you focus on the canvas (flipping, rotating, and zooming in and out) to create longer more intentional strokes than the choppier ones on the other

beyond that is just kind of cleaning them up and filling gaps like for the one on the right i'd prep it for color fill like this

that way once i select the outside area with the magic wand it wont go into the gaps so for comparison here's a side by side with the prep done versus without (my fill + magic wand are already set to expand by 1 pixel)

like anything it takes a bit to improve but consistency breeds success

[system]

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