A lot of people seem to stay away from the magic wand tool. I used to be one of those people. However, while working in a game company I often had to churn out concepts fast, and quality is always expected. If your lineart is reasonably thick and complete, you can get away with this method.

Your lineart needs to be on a transperant or multiplied layer for this to work. If this ain’t you go here or here.

Step One: Select your magic wand tool. Make sure the Contiguous option is checked in the tool options. Set tolerance to something low but not tiny… about 20 should work.

Step Two: Select the area outside your lineart.

Also select any isolated areas which you would expect to be background. (Hold shift to add to a selection)

Step Three: Invert the selection (Shift+Ctrl+I) or Select->Inverse

Contract the selection, according to the size of your image. (Select->Modify->Contract) One pixel should do it for smaller images. I had to contract by 3 for mine. You want the selection be in the middle of most lines.

Step Four: Create a new layer, and make sure it’s underneath your lines layer. Pick a colour and fill in your selection with the paint bucket. Deselect.

Now you have a neatly filled in image. Use the lock transperancy button to easily paint in shadows, highlights etc.

Do the same for any areas with different colour, except instead of contract you hit expand. Take the rest of the day off

 

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