If the scan is in the canvas layer, duplicate the layer and simply delete everything on the canvas. Make sure the outline is on "Multiply." The scanned drawing is on the layer called "outline" and the layer we will be coloring in is the "canvas" layer.

I will use the new simple water brush under the digital water color tools for coloring this picture. The brush will always have 0% grain, 0 diffusion, and 0 wet fringe. This will make coloring easier and simple. These settings are for realistic simulation of water color. When I color I would vary the opacity between 10% and 30% depending on the level of detail and how smooth I want the gradient of colors. For this picture I used a size 3 - 20 pixel brush.

This is how I set up the windows in corel painter. I find this the easiest set up. There are many other ways this could be set and could vary with different versions of painter. The very first thing I did here was start the background. Here I am coloring it a light blue.

In painter, when using the digital watercolor you must work on the background first and work your way up to the front. Personally, I never color anything with a white background mainly because it messes with my color sense, especially when picking colors to use. I usually pick a neutral tone but for some reason I chose a light blue color. The light blue is still a little to white for me but I decided it was fine.

After finishing the background, I worked on the next back most section. Picking skin color is difficult, especially with a white background. Using a photo or even a previous work would help to find the right skin tone. I always end up changing the skin color when I think it looks like sunburn or albino-esque. Its better to choose a skin color and go with it. I look back and the color I chose was a little yellow but it turned out all right. I always lay out a medium tone of color on the areas I will be coloring. For the skin I colored the arms and head. I made sure to not color out of the lines where it matters. It is all right to color out of the lines on sections where I will later color over. After this I took a dark skin tone and lightly colored in the shadows. I do this by laying done light shades of dark over and over again. The more strokes the darker it gets. This way the transitions of lights and darks smooth out. I refine the shadows by taking a medium or light tone and doing the same thing shaping and smoothing out the darks.

I finished putting in all the shadows and highlights. The light source is coming mainly from the front. I made sure shadows formed under the hair and edges of the body. I took the brush with a dark tone (like dark brown) and lightly touched the tablet repeatedly over the edges of the arms and face. I then took the light tone (near white brown) and did the same thing opposite of the shadows. After that I took the medium tone again and smoothed the contrast between the light and dark.

In step 3 I worked on the shirt and wings. I wasn't too sure what color to put for the wings so I picked the first colro that came to mind and went with it. I lazily colored the wings a light violet. For the shirt I did the same thing as I did for the skin. I took a dark red/violet and shaded the edges of the body and under the folds. I did this lightly at first and then smoothed it out with a medium tone. I didn't really use a highlight because I wanted the shirt a little dark and not too pink. When coloring the wings and the shirt I had to make sure not to go over the skin and the background.

In step 4 I colored the jeans. I am horrible at picking the right colors for things so I searched for a picture of jeans and eye dropped for the color. I colored the medium tone making sure not to go over the background or the skin. I took a dark navy blue and lightly added the shadows under the guitar, folds, and contours of the legs. I colored in the highlights with a light blue. For the texture and natural stiffness of the jeans I simply made sure not to smooth out the gradients of lights and darks too much. I left some natural brush marks and did not go over anything with a medium tone.

For accessories having a good reference would help. I chose a different red than the shirt for the guitar. First I layed down the medium tone. I colored the highlights on the top right and darks on the bottom right of the guitar. After that I colored the white section of the guitar but with more subtle highlights and darks. After I colroed the body of the guitar I worked on the metallic parts. I took a medium tone of silver and colored the metal. I then took a near-white gray and with an even smaller brush, colored the edges where the light would hit. to simulate metal I made the highlights sharp and clear. For the darks I simply did the opposite edges of the highlights.

Coloring the neck of the guitar is always the most difficult part for me because of the spacings of the frets. Fortunately, I usually eliminate the guess work when I draw them in when making the outline sketch. Afterwards, I can simply color the details without worrying about the number and spacings of the frets. I used a reference (my own guitar) to space the frets out and put in the marks. Coloring is simple: Instead of the digital watercolor brush, I took a small 3px airbrush and colored in the metal fret divisions with a silver. I did this for the markings. I also used the airbrush for some of the metal and any small detail the watercolor brush could not do. I find that the airbrush is a very useful tool for small detail.

To draw the strings I took the airbrush and used the above settings. The size varied from 1.5 - 1px. The opacity and resat stayed at 100%, with bleed and jitter at 0. The most important thing is to have the brush straight line strokes selected. This way the lines you make will always be straight. I simply layed down 6 parallel lines from the pegs down to the pickups.

For the hair, I layed down the base medium color first. I then took a lighter tone and colored in the highlights with a slightly smaller watercolor brush. Afterwards I took an even smaller brush and colored in the white highlight streaks. Hair normally flows downwards, so the highlights will flow along the strands of hair.

In step 8 I colored the eyes. For the eyes, I used the airbrush because it was much simpler. I first layed down the white and then a slight shadow. I eye dropped a red and colored the iris. I added the shadows and a highlight using slightly larger brush with a lower opacity. I added the cat like pupils on afterwards with a higher opacity brush. At this time I colored the mouth with white.

This is the last step where I make any final adjustments and do any cleanup. I made sure the colors stayed within the lines and recolored anything that didn't fit with the picture overall. It is always important in any artwork to take a step back and see how you are doing overall. In this case, the wings didn't look to great with everything else. So I colored them a bit darker. I also colored in her jewelry and the feather imprint on her shirt. I look back and I wish I could have done a little more with the background. But I guess it turned out fine.