Recently, I've seen a lot of awesome manga colorings from people on Tumblr and on these forums! I really want to try my hand at it, but I have no idea where to start XD 

I can find scans to color easily enough, but I don't have Photoshop--all I have is MS Paint; is that okay or is there another (free please) program that's much better?

Also, I'm wondering if there's some sort of option to make it impossible to color directly on top of the lines on the actual scans, because I was experimenting earlier just to try it out and found myself wishing for that option while trying to get the color perfectly right next to the lines. I am quite a perfectionist sometimes so this totally bothered me XD

Thanks in advance guys!  Like I mentioned earlier, I know some of you guys on here do (awesome, may I add!) manga colorings so I was hoping some of you could help me out.

I only have microsoft paint myself. Why not ask around the artists guild?

Sorry, but I'm not able to provide any tips on how to start manga colorings. I second Cosmos' suggestion to join the Artist's Guild, especially because there is a graphics tutorial or two in there that may be of use to you.

In the mean time, I am going to move this thread to the Artists section, because I think you'll find the help you need there. And, just as an FYI, there's an old thread in the Artist section where people could request and post helpful tutorials. Check it out here.

There is actually no easy way to start this, you just simply start and with more you practice you get better and better.

Personally, i read TONS of 'techniques' of manga coloring, most of them on livejournal. something very important in manga coloring is light and shadows, like if you are doing any kind of drawings. once you figure out this, the rest is easy.

A good example is this panel i made a while ago you can notice some parts have darker colors and other lighter colors, that's basically what you need to 'master'.

After you pick the panel or part of the manga, imagine the sun pointing at the right side of the panel/part of the manga, where would be the shadows? where would be highlights? then you start working with a base color then darkening the parts that need dark and lighting the parts that need light.

I don't recommend paint for this, because for manga coloring i recommend working with layers, and softwares like photoshop, gimp (this one is free) allows you to do that.

Hope this helps a little, if not, feel free to ask me any question, i could try to do a simple tutorial for you if you need it =)

Personally, I would suggest using Paint Tool SAI for coloring.


I made 8 layers using the same purple streak to show you some of the program's coloring features.

In order from left to right:
1. Multiply
2. Screen
3. Overlay
4. Luminosity
5. Shade
6. Luminosity & Shade
7. Normal
8. Binary

You can also adjust the brightness, contrast, hue and saturation of the underlying image--or you can create a linework layer and re-outline the whole image. I love how the linework tools allow you to readjust/move your lines around after you have drawn them.

I forgot about Pain tool SAI, this one is very good! i also recommend that one, is also free =)

I usually work only with multiply and then change the opacity, i feel is easy and looks more 'natural' when you do the coloring.

Haine wrote:

...is also free =)

Although it is shareware, it technically isn't free...unless you are referring to the fan made version? (I think that is a thing? XD) The program is however, insultingly easy to confuse--no sketchiness required--which is maybe why some people might advertise it as free? XD

Anyway, yes, Haine! I second the opacity technique! ...And CLIPPING GROUPS. OMG I almost forgot about clipping groups! Sailor Gallifrey, basically SAI allows you to make a new layer and scribble down whatever the heck you want, like this blue nonsense:



Then, when you put a check mark into the layer's "clipping group" option, it will transform the layer into a clipping group, meaning that your coloring will stay within the color put onto the layer directly below the clipping group(s) (in this case, the underlying green) like this:



It's a great tool for shading, especially if you are a perfectionist!

Paint Tool Sai has a 31 day trial and seems to be about $47 (at the current currency conversion rate) which is honestly...not a bad deal. HOWEVER, if you have no monies you can use GIMP and achieve what you want or you can try to pirate a copy of it which i don't promote even if i may be guilty of it xD.

All the tips above are great and I don't have a whole lot to add (Photoshop has the clip option as well ). Also, it isn't a necessity to do manga colorings but I do recommend some sort of drawing tablet like a Wacom tablet. Painting with a mouse is doable but...can be difficult, tiresome, gives hand cramps and after a long time of doing it a lot could cause carpal tunnel in your wrist. Which is no fun.  But if you are just starting out, with a mouse is fine.

Last I checked Photoshop CS2 is still being offered for free.

Manga coloring is so much fun and relaxing to do! I don't know much about MS Paint, but I do know more about other programs that are really good! SAI and Gimp have been mentioned, but there's another free program called Krita which I find to be pretty excellent on most fronts! I've used it as my main program ever since switching OS on my computer. Here is a link! https://krita.org/

An easy way to keep your lines without coloring over them would be to make a new transparent layer underneath your lineart, and then either color-to-alpha your line art (IE, getting rid of all the white and only keeping the black) (I think this process is usually accessed in the Layers menu or a filter menu perhaps?) OR you can switch the layer mode of the lineart to be multiply and that should do the trick too (though personally I use the first method 99% of the time xD) There are probably even more methods too but those are the only ones I ever use, myself hehe

When I was first starting out, I read a lot of different tutorials on digital coloring on DeviantArt. After reading lots of those and experimenting on my own, some of the tips and tricks they had there just kind of stuck.

But the main and most important thing is to kind of just jump in and try things for yourself. Experiment and have fun and eventually you'll find the things that work for you xD And if there's ever more specific questions, I'm sure everyone here would love to help, too!

Thanks for sharing this! this could be very helpful in the future ^.^

That sounds like a nice program Verdi. I'll have to check it out. :O

I may have to send my sister this. The program looks like it has some different brushes then firealpaca.