How to color a complex line art?

[CAOMouse]

• I have habit of drawing complex line art just for fun, but after that I find it hard to add color. The line art has too many small sections, is there a technique to color those?

[spadedigsbutts]

Depends on the program! Most will allow you to set it to a reference layer of some sort that lets you color it easily, but if your problem is there being too many small spots you might want to try working on a larger canvas size and making the details bigger overall so a fill can get in there?

[NickRowler]

How are you coloring your art currently?

I usually have lineart on it's own layer and colors are done on a difference layer below the line art. Photoshop also has a feature where you can set a brush to only place color behind what is currently in the canvas.

[CAOMouse]

I don't have Photoshop, i only have paint tool SAI
This is how I draw and color

It works well with simple picture, but when I color complex line art like this one, i have problem

[frgmnt]

Just a tip, when you do base colors, try selecting the background instead and then just invert selection? This will not help you fill individual details ofc, works mostly with a plain bg and you have to make sure there are no holes in the outlines, but it does save some time.

[Kiweevil]

I just color on the layer behind it. Start with the colors that cover the most of it, paint over it with a broad brush. Then I just go in and color over that fir the tiny details. I erase where there needs to be cleanup and that tends to work best for me.

[Darth_Biomech]

I also shrink the resulting selection by a pixel or three, to be safe from color bleeding, and use it as a mask for a folder where I contain all the color and shade layers.

[Shanny8]

Create layers- color on the layers beneath the line art; that makes things a LOT simpler.

[Kiweevil]

That's what I've gotta do because programs don't recognize my lineart as solid lines, even if I tinker with the fill settings. But I find that it doesn't take too long to color on the layers below if you just draw around the area and then hit the fill tool ^w^

[monotone_ink]

By buying the objectively superior art program Clip Studio Paint and experiencing complete bliss.

zack 🍓 (vampbyte)

[CodeMonkeyArts]

CHEAT!

Duplicate your ink/line layer.

Choose a color. Make sure to protect the dupe layer so you're just coloring the lines (like protect pixels, lock layer, etc). Make that dupe lineart layer have the color you chose.

Set the dupe layer to Overlay.

Go back to the original layer. Lower the opacity a bit.

You shall then have lines that have a overall tone as well as show a bit of the colors underneath. You may have to go back to the color layers to fill them out a little depending on which color bleeds under the line, but it's a cool effect and saves time...at least to me ^^;

https://www.deviantart.com/looji/art/My-full-drawing-process-812881831 <- I stole the lineart trick from Looji on Dev Art

[CodeMonkeyArts]

...I COMPLETELY MISUNDERSTOOD THE QUESTION!

My process is to cry and flat out each tiny little thing, hating myself forever during the tedious process and drinking a shot of bourbon each time as I forget which color is that tiny spike on the club and which layer that spike belonged too.

...I don't recommend this.

[Darth_Biomech]

By buying the objectively superior art program Clip Studio Paint and experiencing complete bliss.

The trial version just emptied all vector and fill layers I had in my PSD file... So, like, almost all of them in other words. I'm not so sure about the whole "superior" part, though I do agree it has few highly useful features that I wish PS had.

And can it do the FX part? The glows, the custom brushes, layer effects and mixing options, and other special effects I use to create all sorts of stuff? Text effects?

[Shanny8]

And can it do the FX part? The glows, the custom brushes, layer effects and mixing options, and other special effects I use to create all sorts of stuff? Text effects?

YES. The text effects- I'm not so sure about...while CSP does have text/lettering capabilities, I'm not familiar with the full extent; I mainly keep my lettering/text/design/logo making to [Ad*be] Illustrator.