I’ve just finished flatting Chapter 2 of Oriental Lieutenant. For those who don’t know, flatting is a term some people use for a process that makes it easier to colour line art in Photoshop. You isolate the line art and then start filling in the various shapes in the image on different layers. In the image above, each different shade of blue is a different layer. For a traditional analogue, think of it like the sort of masking you might do for airbrushing or watercolours.

In the past, when I was colouring my flatted pages, I would CTRL-click the layer thumbnail, which would create a selection of the shape of that layer. For example, in the image above, if I CTRL-clicked the layer with the big flat shape of the sail, I’d get a big sail-shaped selection. Then I’d paint within the selection.

This is the wrong way to do it.

Kazu Kibuishi revealed to me the awesome correct way to do it, and it is very simple. It’s the “Lock Transparent Pixels” button, and if you don’t know about how it can improve your life, I’ll explain behind the cut.

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