Filling and styling shapes
A drawn line is not a solid shape until you fill it. This page covers the whole Fill group: staging curves into amber and pressing Fill shape, restyling with the Paint Bucket, deleting and re-stacking shapes, and dressing each one in the Shape style panel with fills, outlines, gradients, and ready-made swatches. By the end your outlines will be flat colour with real polish.
1A line is not a shape until you fill it
This trips up nearly everyone at first, so here it is plainly. Drawing a closed outline gives you a line, not a coloured region, and the line stays hollow until you explicitly fill it. Filling is a deliberate two-part act: you tell the surface which curves wall in the area, then you press the button that paints inside them. Once you have the rhythm, it is second nature, but it is never automatic.
2Find the Fill group
Everything on this page is in the Fill group on the tool rail, the lower half beneath the Draw group. It holds Create Shape, Paint Bucket, Delete Shape, Hidden Edge, Raise, Lower, and a Line Width control. You still need to be in Draw mode, since Rig and Test do not fill. Keep your outlines closed and this group does the rest.
3Create Shape: stage the curves in amber
Pick Create Shape, then click each curve that bounds the area you want to fill. As you click, the curves stage in amber, showing you exactly which edges will wall in the fill. This is the surface asking you to point out the region rather than guessing, which matters when outlines overlap. Click every curve that forms the boundary, all the way around, until the whole perimeter glows amber.
4Fill shape, and Clear staging
With the boundary glowing amber, press Fill shape and the region floods with the current style. That is the moment a hollow outline becomes a solid shape you can colour and stack. Changed your mind partway through staging? Hit Clear staging to drop the amber selection and start pointing out the boundary again. Nothing is committed until you actually press Fill shape.
5The Shape style panel opens
Select a filled shape and the Shape style panel appears, where you set every shape's colours and outline. It controls the fill colour, the outline, the line width, gradients, and quick swatch paints, all in one place. Any change you make here applies to the currently selected shape, so you can restyle after filling without redrawing a thing. Get comfortable here, because it is where a flat drawing becomes designed.
6Enable fill and pick a Fill colour
Turn on Enable fill to give the shape a solid interior, then choose its Fill colour. This is the base colour of the region: skin for a face, blue for a shirt, whatever the shape represents. Toggle Enable fill off and the interior goes hollow again, which is handy when you want only an outline with no colour inside. Most shapes want fill on with a chosen colour.
7Enable outline, Line colour, and Line width
For a drawn edge around the shape, turn on Enable outline and set a Line colour, then dial the thickness with Line width. A dark outline gives art that inked, comic-book snap, while a matching or absent outline reads softer and more painterly. The Line Width control also lives on the Fill group rail for quick access. Thick lines feel bold and cartoony, thin lines feel delicate.
8Gradients: a soft blend across a shape
Flat colour is great, but sometimes you want a blend. Tick Gradient and choose linear for a straight fade or radial for a fade that spreads from a centre point. Press Add stop to introduce more colours along the blend, so you can go skin to shadow, or sky-blue to deep-blue. Gradients add roundness and light to a shape without you painting a single brushstroke.
9Swatch paints: keep a consistent palette
The Swatch paints are ready-made colours you can apply with a click: Black, Dark grey, Mid grey, Light grey, White, Oxblood, Red, Orange, Amber, Green, Blue, and Purple. A toggle decides whether a swatch sets the Fill or the Line, so the same swatch can colour an interior or an edge. Building a character from a fixed set of swatches is what keeps its colours consistent across every shape.
10Paint Bucket: restyle a shape you already made
Once a shape is filled, you do not have to rebuild it to recolour it. Grab the Paint Bucket and click the shape to repaint it with the current fill and stroke. Set the style you want in the Shape style panel, then bucket-click every shape that should share it, which is the fast way to recolour a whole character or swap a palette. It restyles, it does not create, so the shape must already be filled.
11Raise and Lower: stack the shapes
A character is many shapes layered up: skin under shirt under buttons. Raise moves the selected shape up the stacking order and Lower moves it down, deciding what covers what. Build back to front, so fill the furthest shape first (the body), then stack nearer shapes on top (clothes, then details). When two shapes overlap, Raise and Lower are how you say which one wins.
12Hidden Edge: tuck a seam out of sight
Where two shapes meet, an outline can leave an ugly seam. Hidden Edge hides or shows the edge running through a point on a filled shape, so the line vanishes exactly where a sleeve overlaps an arm or a strap crosses a shoulder. The shape stays filled, only that stretch of visible edge disappears, making two shapes read as one continuous piece. Click the tool, then the point whose edge you want gone.
13Delete Shape: remove a fill cleanly
Filled the wrong region, or need to start a shape over? Delete Shape removes the fill without touching the outlines it was built from, so your points and curves stay put and you can simply Create Shape again. This is different from deleting points, which removes the drawing itself. Delete Shape is the gentle option: it clears the colour and leaves the line art intact for another attempt.
14A full fill-and-style pass
This is the whole workflow in order. Close your outline, pick Create Shape, click the boundary curves until they glow amber, and press Fill shape. Select the new shape, then in the Shape style panel set Enable fill with a Fill colour, add Enable outline with a Line colour and Line width, and reach for Gradient or a Swatch as needed. Finally, Raise and Lower to stack, and tuck seams with Hidden Edge. Repeat, back to front, until the whole character is solid colour.
Fill and style a shape
From hollow outline to painted solid. Links into the app. Saved on this device.
Fill and style questions
The outline is probably not closed, or you did not stage the whole boundary. Close the loop by clicking the first point, then pick Create Shape and click every curve that walls in the area until it all glows amber. Only then does Fill shape have a sealed region to flood.
Amber means staged, not filled. When you click curves with Create Shape they turn amber to show which edges will bound the fill, so you can confirm the boundary before committing. Press Fill shape to actually paint it, or Clear staging to start pointing out the boundary again.
Set the colours you want in the Shape style panel, then grab the Paint Bucket and click the shape to repaint it with the current fill and stroke. You can bucket-click many shapes in a row to recolour a whole character quickly.
Yes. Enable fill and Enable outline are independent switches. Turn on only Enable outline for a hollow line-only shape, only Enable fill for a solid with no drawn edge, or both for the classic filled-and-inked look.
Delete Shape removes only the fill and leaves your outline intact, so you can re-stage and refill. Deleting points removes the actual drawing. Use Delete Shape when the line art is fine and only the fill went wrong.
Use Hidden Edge. It hides or shows the edge running through a point on a filled shape, so the seam where a sleeve meets an arm disappears and the two shapes read as one. The fill stays put, only that stretch of visible line is tucked away.
Select the shape and use Raise or Lower to move it up or down the stacking order. Build back to front, filling the furthest shape first and stacking nearer ones on top, and overlaps will resolve the way you expect.
Choose a small set of Swatch paints early and reuse them everywhere, flipping the Fill or Line toggle as needed. A tight, repeated palette is what makes a character look intentionally designed rather than a bag of random colours.
Your shapes are solid and styled
You can stage a boundary, fill it, dress it in colour, gradients, and swatches, stack shapes back to front, and tuck seams with Hidden Edge. That is a fully painted character, built entirely from points and curves. Next, learn how to fake masking and clipping cleanly, since the useful skill is knowing the workarounds.