Accidentally drew on background layer

Support and Advice General Questions
1

I accidentally drew a sketch on the background layer and im wondering, is there anyway to make that layer a paint layer instead, so that way if i add color it doesnt paint over my sketch lines? I’ve tried copying the image but all it does is copy the layer and give me another background layer.
If anyone can help, please help, because im losing my mind a little

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Hi @Jezebel

Have you tried using undo? Of course, that would mean you’d have to redraw your work on a new layer…

Is the drawing all one colour, such as in the case of lineart? You could try to select the drawing using the contiguous selector tool, then edit > delete – then edit > paste.

Others may have even better ideas.

By the way, I changed your title from “help” to something more useful and likely to attract the right people to your request for help.

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Do you mean your sketch has a white opaque background instead of transparency? If you move your layer on top, does it cover the colors you wanted to paint instead?

You have two options:

  1. Create a new layer on top of your sketch, set it to multiply blending mode, and paint colors there. Now they will appear “under” the sketch lines.
  2. Restore the original transparency of the sketch. This is a bit more complex and will only work if the background is white (or the color has value = 100%).

To do the 2) solution, you can do this:

  1. Save your image in case anything goes wrong.
  2. Create a new empty layer above your sketch layer.
  3. Select the sketch, right click, select Convert > Convert to Transparency Mask
  4. Your sketch (now a mask) should still be selected. Press CTRL+I, or use Filters > Adjust > Invert.
  5. The mask should now appear black.
  6. Select the layer above (the one with the mask) and fill it with black color. Your sketch should appear again.
  7. Now Create an empty layer below your sketch+mask layer, select the sketch, right click and use Merge with Layer below.
  8. You should end up with your original sketch, but now transparent. You can put it on top and add a coloring layer below.
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4

Something you could try is making the sketch layer a multiply layer, and putting it on the top of all your layers.
At the end of the day, what you’ve done is paint on the wrong layer. The background layer is itself already a paint layer that has already been filled with white, so it’s probably a lit of a salvage job so to speak. It sucks, but happens to the best of us.

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Your suggestion worked!! Thank you so much, i really appreciate it

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Your suggestion also helped; i appreciate all ya’ll helping me; saved me a whole lot of time. Thanks so much

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