How to Fill in Procreate: Color Fill Explained

Using Procreate to create your digital masterpieces? You’re in good company—the iPad app has become a popular powerhouse for digital artists and offers a plethora of tools for countless purposes. One of those is the ability to fill in shapes with any color of your choice, a feature that can speed up your creative process and improve your final artworks.

Ready to start filling your digital illustrations quickly and evenly? Let’s explore the various methods Procreate provides to do just that.

A Different Tool for All Your Needs

The drawing app Procreate open on an iPad on a white tabletop. A person has drawn a green leaf outline on the canvas, and is using an Apple Pencil to select a shade of green from a menu labeled ‘Colours.’ — In the Skillshare class “Digital Illustration: A Beginners Guide to Mastering Procreate,” teacher Silvia Ospina chooses a color with which to fill a leaf she’s drawn in Procreate.

There’s much more to Procreate than its diverse array of brushes (though those are certainly outstanding). It also distinguishes itself from other iPad drawing apps by offering a diverse set of tools, and its options for color filling are no exception. Whether you need to create vibrant backgrounds, instantly add a pop of color to your illustrations or precisely fill in tiny areas, Procreate has a feature tailored to your specific color-filling needs.

These tools and features don’t just expedite the drawing process; they can also contribute to the overall improvement of your digital art. For instance, a background that’s filled in with a solid wash of color may look more professional than one that’s been filled in unevenly (depending on the look you’re going for, of course).

From the quick and intuitive ColorDrop tool to the more advanced Reference Layer option, Procreate allows artists to experiment and choose the method that suits their goals and workflow best.

4 Ways to Color Fill in Procreate

A person’s hand resting next to an iPad on a wood tabletop. Procreate is open on the iPad, and displays a line illustration of an elephant which has been partially filled in with a deep shade of blue. — In the Skillshare class “Draw Floral Animal Silhouettes in Procreate,” teacher Cat Coquillette uses one of Procreate’s tools to quickly fill in an illustration of an elephant.

Looking for the easiest way to fill color quickly? Procreate has a tool for that. Want a precise way to achieve more nuanced results? Procreate’s got you covered there, too.

No matter what you’re trying to accomplish, one of these four color-filling options is sure to meet your needs.

ColorDrop

This tool is undoubtedly the fastest and easiest way to fill an area with color in Procreate.

To use ColorDrop, first locate your Active Color—it will appear as a colored dot in the upper right corner of Procreate’s interface.

Next, tap and hold the Active Color, then drag it to any area of your canvas. Finally, release it to fill that area with your Active Color.

Fill Layer

Need to fill an entire layer of your artwork with the same color? No problem.

Just make sure your Active Color is set to the color you wish to fill the layer with. Open the Layers menu from the upper right-hand toolbar, and tap the layer you want to color to select it. Tap it again and you’ll open the Layer Options menu.

Select Fill Layer from the Layer Options menu, and the layer will be filled with your Active Color.

Pro tip: Looking for a way to make your Procreate collages more cohesive? Filling an entire layer with a complementary color can do the trick.

Selection Tools

If you want to fill a more precise area of your artwork, you can do so by using one of Procreate’s Selection tools.

To access the Selection menu, tap the Selection button in the upper left-hand corner. This will open the Selection toolbar, which contains options like Automatic, Freehand, Rectangle, and Ellipse. Simply choose the option that suits you, make sure the Color Fill button is highlighted underneath your preferred option, and start selecting.

For example, to use your finger or stylus to select a particular area, choose the Freehand option. Or if you prefer to select a rectangular area of your canvas, choose the Rectangle option.

Once you’ve selected the desired area with the Color Fill button highlighted, the area will automatically be filled with your Active Color.

Reference Layer

If you’re a cartoonist, comic book creator or concept artist looking to separate your color fills from your ink lines, Procreate’s Reference Layer functionality will soon become one of your favorite Procreate tricks.

To use it, open the Layers menu and double-tap the layer containing your linework. In the Layer Options menu that appears, select Reference.

Now, when you use ColorDrop to fill an area on any other layer, the color fills will still follow the linework of your Reference Layer.

Creating a Color Palette in Procreate

Procreate open on an iPad on a black tabletop. The canvas displays a black and white illustration of a long-haired figure walking through foliage. A person is using an Apple Pencil to open a menu in the upper right corner titled ‘Palettes.’ — In the Skillshare class “Illustration for Beginners: Create Your Style in Procreate through Character Design,” teacher Smitesh Mistry selects from one of his color palettes.

To streamline your color filling process even further, consider creating a color palette in Procreate. By doing so, you’ll make it a breeze to select and save your most-used colors for quick access.

To create a color palette, first open the Color Panel by tapping your Active Color in the upper right-hand corner. At the bottom of the Color Panel, find and tap the Palettes tab. This will open the Palettes menu.

In the upper right corner of the Palettes menu, tap the icon that looks like a plus sign (+). This will create a new palette, which will be named Untitled by default. Tap its name to rename it, then go back to working on your artwork.

Whenever you’re using a color you want to add to your palette, make sure it’s set as your Active Color. Open the Palettes menu, and tap an empty slot under your desired palette (or if all your palette’s slots are occupied, press and hold an existing color and tap Set).

Now, when you want to use a color from your palette, you can simply tap it to set it as your Active Color.

Color Fill Like a Pro with Procreate

Between ColorDrop, Fill Layer and all the other options described above, Procreate offers plenty of ways for you to fill in any area of your artwork with just about any color you can imagine. And by creating your own color palette, you can even find the colors you’re looking for faster than ever.

Mastering color filling in Procreate is just one part of mastering the app itself, though. If you want to become proficient at all of Procreate’s other powerful features, you’ll love Skillshare’s vast library of online Procreate classes and helpful Procreate resources.

Written By

Carrie Buchholz

Carrie Buchholz is a freelance writer who lives in Northern Colorado with her husband and dog.