by MadHatter

I love solids. They're fun and simple to use. This is my usual coloring method - the longest one, since I often use tons of different colors for the shading, even 7 or 8 for each surface - but you can easily switch it into a cel-style coloring just reducing the number of colors' values into 1 or 2 for both shadows and highlights~

First of all, be sure to have the lineart on the Layer FG. To unify it there, select the  then click twice on the button to get and drag a rectangle all over the picture.


Select the  and start to color the skin - I usually use the lighter pink of the default palette as base color. Then select a darker value of the base color [the darker pink of the same palette is perfect] and define the shadows accordingly to the light source you have fixed. At this point, go back to the color palette and choose the Hadairo one; I usually use the first five colors on the right side to make the skin's shading. Use the third, fourth and fifth to emphasize the shading; if you wanna be sure to paint only on the shadows' area, select the shadow base color, then rightclick on the button and click twice on it to the color you have chosen [remask = you can color only over the color you have selected].


Now choose the first color on the Hadairo palette's right side [which I called base hl. in the picture above] and start to draw the highlights; if you want to add depth, just draw some little white strokes to stress the area. Don't use ONLY the white to make the highlights, 'cause the effect is very sharp and innatural... always try to blend the values of color with a mid one.


Now, the hair. I usually start with the highlights and leave the shadows at the end, but the process is the same. Fill the area with a base color, then choose a lighter value and draw the highlights.

Remask the highlight base color and stress it, lightening up the central area. [I used 2 lighter values of the base color, as usual - hl1 and hl2; to get a quick lighter value of a color, just select it and click on the button under the palette window: it adds 10 points for each one of the RGB channels - in other words, it satures the color, moving it toward the white area of the spectrum, so the color become whiter [same process, inverted effect if you use the button]. Since the process is automatic, sometimes you'd have to adjust the settings to make the color less "dirty", especially if you're using the Darken button.
Now add the shadows - use 2 darker values of the base color, again. [sh1 and sh2] I added a stroke of another lighter value of the base color to blend the shadows on the right side of the head [hl3].


...now, just color the other areas in the same way. [tie, shirt]. When you have finished the shading, go back to the and add the last details - some other higlights on the hair, for instance, or the white lines on the cheek. And voilą, that's all. If you want to add a bg, remember to unify the whole picture on the layer FG, and draw the background on the layer BG, not the contrary... in this way, the character will be over the bg and you won't have to erase anything to make the character visible.