so if you take your existing 8-bit/1-bit layer and go to the top menus - Layer>Convert>color layer, you’ll be able to make it into a regular layer. You can also convert your layers into oter layer types. If you get pixelated edges for the lines and coloring you make, it’s a 1-bit layer. If you pick a medium-light color and it becomes gray, that means you have most likely an 8-bit layer.

When you Rasterize a drawing, you can also set it to be a grayscale version of this and to do this, FA will use the 8-bit layer mode to display the flattened image. The “blank new layer” button should say “Add layer” and the others would be “Add Layer (8bpp/1bpp)”.Ĩ-bit is often used for lineart (for those that want to dedicacte the layer to just black-white-grey) and 1-bit can be used very well for pixel art (works only with “hard” / non-watercolor/smudging brushes) and I’ve seen it used for screentones as well. It could also be that when you made the new file, you set the first layer to be 8-bit - make sure to select “color layer” from where it says “Initial layer” - this way you can also avoid confusion about what layers you are using in your file.Īlso, to make your life a bit easier, I suggest setting an easy to access shortcut for “new layer” - I use Shift+A myself because I was used to it from another program and it is easy to access with my left hand without using the mouse/tablet for something basic like this.Īt the bottom of your program is also a little “tip bar” - if you hover over a button or tool, it will usually tell you what these things are. Please make sure to make “new color layer” or just “new layer” instead of those two. The first button at the bottom of that window is a blank “page” icon though - that is the default layer you usually start the file with. At the bottom of the layer window, they are marked by a 8 and 1, respectively. When you see it in the layer window, In the corner of that layer it should have a black little square with a tiny number on its side to show you that it’s a different kind of layer. Hi! it sounds like you have made a 8-bit or 1-bit layer. Then I want to paint the inside but the color just stays black no matter what color I change to or what layer I paint on. I mean, I make the first layer with the skatch and then on other layer I go over it with the pen brush.

Im new at firealpaca and I just cant understand how to use colors. Hey!! I need your help so bad, I cant find a solution to my problem.

Firealpaca tutorial linework clean up