How do I fill an area in Procreate?

Procreate offers multiple ways to fill an area with color. This article aims to cover the most prominent ways to fill an area with color in the app.

ColorDrop and Continue Filling

This video demonstrates how to use Procreate’s ColorDrop feature. Think of it as a paint bucket that you can drag out to fill an area with color:

1. Drag the Colors icon from the top right into the area you want to fill, then continue holding down

2. Keep holding down and drag left and right to adjust how aggressively the color fills (the ColorDrop Threshold). Left will fill less, right will fill more

3. Lift your Apple Pencil (or finger if using this) to commit the fill

You can see the percentage of the Threshold at the top of the interface. Tap ‘Continue Filling’ after performing a ColorDrop to fill other areas with a tap (or tap hold and drag to adjust Threshold). Tap the tick at the top or switch to another tool like Paint to exit Continue Filling mode.

Recolor

Recolor is an older feature that we removed but brought back because lots of folks liked it. You can only access it via QuickMenu, which is off by default. It is an alternative to ColorDrop and Continue Filling.

To enable QuickMenu, head to Actions → Prefs → Gesture Controls → QuickMenu, then toggle on the way you want to invoke it.

If you prefer, watch this video to see how to enable QuickMenu:

Watch this video to see how to set up and use Recolor from the QuickMenu:

1. Set one of the QuickMenu radial options to Recolor, then tap it to enter this mode

2. Select your color in the top right

3. Tap areas you want to fill

4. Adjust the ‘Flood’ slider to change how aggressive the fill is

Color Fill with Selections

The Selections → Color Fill feature automatically fills any area you select (with Selections) with the current color you have selected.

Across the next few videos, we use this process:

1. Tap Selections at the top

2. Tap your preferred Selection method from the tabs at the bottom

3. Tap on Color Fill to enable it. It is enabled if highlighted blue

4. Choose your preferred color by tapping the Colors icon in the top right

5. Perform your selection to have that color fill the area as soon as the selection is complete

This video demonstrates Color Fill with an Automatic Selection:

This video demonstrates Color Fill with Freehand Selection:

This video demonstrates Color Fill with Rectangle Selection, and using Selections → Feather to soften the areas and frame the artwork:

This video demonstrates Color Fill with Ellipse Selection:

The Color Fill setting will be remembered even if you exit and reenter Selections at a later point. Be sure to turn it off if you no longer need it.

Fill Layer

This video demonstrates how to fill a layer with color from the Layers → Layer Options menu:

1. Select your desired color by tapping on the Colors icon in the top right

2. Tap Layers to enter it, then tap twice on your desired layer

3. In the Layer Options menu that appears, tap Fill Layer

This video demonstrates how to use Selections and Fill Layer together to limit the areas you fill on a given layer:

Check out the ColorDrop , Color Fill and Selections parts of the Handbook if you’re stuck, and let us know if you need any help .