Happy New Year everyone! Time flies! We just survived the second COVID-19 lockdown here, and now that kids are back to school it’s time for me to start writing again.
We have a saying in Greece: “Shoemaker’s kids have no shoes”. And my talented web-developer husband, after having created websites for everyone else, found some time for my own! So, I have a new website now! And yeah, 2021 is officially rebranded!
Anyways, today I have a tutorial for you, how I add color to my grayscale portraits in procreate.
Create the color palette
Before the actual colorizing, I load my reference photo if there is any. (actions->canvas->reference) I create a new color palette where I save selected colors from my reference. I try to choose the most representative colors.
![](https://ioannaladopoulou.design/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/IMG_0452-1-1024x768.jpeg)
Add a “color” layer
Having my colors ready, I start off with my grayscale image and what I do next, is add a new layer and set layer mode to “color”. Then I paint on top with a soft paint brush, such as the default soft airbrush. The process is similar to when painting from scratch. I try to blend, mix and match the colors, in order to make the image as realistic as possible.
![](https://ioannaladopoulou.design/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/IMG_0457-1024x768.jpeg)
An extra tip
We can leave it here and call it done, but what I like to do is add a couple of extra layers on top. I set the first one to “multiply” mode, where I paint over the dark parts to make them darker and add depth.
And I set the second layer to “overlay” mode, where I paint over the bright parts with a bright color, to make high points stand out.
![](https://ioannaladopoulou.design/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/IMG_0457-1-1024x768.jpeg)
And that’s all! Grayscale to color with minimal effort.
![](https://ioannaladopoulou.design/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/IMG_0455-1024x705.jpeg)