Adding Colour to Black & White Line Art

[Kristine]

Hi there. Thanks in advance for any assistance.
I have a series of black and white tile line art images (in PNG format with transparent backgrounds) such as those shown below.
I would like to colour them in (using different colours for different areas), however I don't want to retain the black lines. I would like the colours to be solid with no borders, such as the example shown below.
I've played with some different ideas though can't figure out an efficient method. What would be the best way to go about this?
Cheers.

 

[IamSam]

Hey.

You first sample image is very small, six patterns at 826 x 826. Do you have a single pattern in a larger image that we can experiment with?

 

[Kristine]

Sorry, that was purely a copy/pasted example of the image style. Is this better?

 

[IamSam]

Is this better?

Yes.......thanks!!!

 

[IamSam]

Not sure if you're up to this, but here is one method. It's actually fairly fast once you get it down.

Pick a half. I chose the left half.

Using the PNG as a template, add in guides for all the points/crossings, horizontal, and vertical lines.


Use the Pen Tool to create paths and selections for each of the colored areas.
I used the line template to follow the right area.........but turned it off for the screenshots.


Fill in the color.


Repeat for the next area.


And the rest.



Guides hidden, add in a BG.


Duplicate layer, flip horizontally, flip vertically, and position.

 

[IamSam]

Here I have converted the paths/patterns to white and made them into clipped layers for complete control over the colors using solid color adjustment layers.