How To Color Behind the Lines in Procreate

If you’ve ever tried coloring a page in Procreate only to watch your colors spill outside the lines, or cover them, you’re not alone. You just gotta remind Procreate of a little thing called “boundaries.” Like you do with your cat who’s eyeing that cup on your counter (but this is 1000 times easier).

The trick is setting up your layers properly so Procreate knows where those lines actually are. This is, yes, a 10-step process. But you don’t need any advanced skills to get the job done. Plus, common troubleshooting tips will be covered.

We’ll also detail a few bonus tips that help in keeping your workflow smooth. For visual learners, there’s a step-by-step video at the end of the post so you can see everything in action.

How to Color in Procreate

This setup turns your coloring page into a reference layer, allowing the colors you fill in and draw to respect the boundaries. It also separates the line art from the layers you’re coloring so you can make adjustments that won’t affect the original lines.

Instructions

1. Invert
   After importing your coloring page, tap on the coloring page Layer and select Invert.
2. Copy
   Tap on the coloring page Layer and select Copy.
3. New Layer
   Make a new Layer.
4. Fill
   Fill your new Layer with black.
5. Mask
   Tap on the black Layer and select Mask.
6. Paste
   Go to Actions > Paste. (Actions is the wrench icon on the upper left. You’ll find the Paste option under the Add tab.)
7. Merge
   Merge your black Layer with the coloring page Layer. (Use two fingers to pinch the layers together.)
8. Reference
   Tap on the original coloring page Layer and select Reference.
9. Hide
   Hide the Reference Layer.
10. New Layer
    Make a new Layer. Place it above your Reference Layer and below your New Layer.

That’s it! You’ve taught Procreate to not cross the line. (Wish we could help you with your unruly cat!)

Eventually, this will become muscle memory and you’ll be able to set up your pages without this checklist.

Bonus Tips

Here are a few optional steps you can add into your workflow. Whether or not you include these steps will not effect the outcome of your prepped coloring sheet. However, they do make for a cleaner working environment when coloring in Procreate.

1. Name Your Layers
   Giving them a more meaningful name than “Layer 1,” Layer 2,” and so on is really helpful for staying organized. Especially if your project starts to amass a substantial amount of layers.
2. Start With Black
   Whenever setting up a sheet, the first thing you should do is look at the Active Color. If it isn’t already set to black, do that first. This keeps you from mistakenly filling the page with a random color during the “Fill” step and having to refill it with black.

Troubleshooting

The most common troubleshooting question asked after prepping a coloring sheet is “Why aren’t my colors staying in the lines?” Usually one of these two resolve the issue:

1. Check that your original line art layer is set to Reference.
2. Check that your coloring layer is situated above the Reference layer and below your black line art.

In Action

Check out the entire process and a test of the color application in the video below. If you want to color the page seen in the video, you can find it in our alien coloring pages.

More Free Coloring Fun

We hope your coloring page is prepped and ready for work! If you’re looking for more free coloring activities, check out our full collection of Coloring Pages. Each hand drawn illustration offers kids and adults a creative activity they can do anytime.

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