How to Add Disconnected Areas to a Selection and Resume Editing It After Painting in Krita

Start with the Freehand Selection Tool. Click and drag around the first patch you want to color. For the next disconnected patch, hold Shift before you begin dragging, then draw its outline. Krita treats that gesture as an addition to the existing selection. The Freehand Selection Tool manual also explains that you can release Shift during the drag once the additive gesture has started. Freehand Selection Tool — Krita Manual

If you have several patches to collect, choose Add under Action in the selection tool’s Tool Options instead. This makes the intended operation visible while you work. A Krita Artists support answer confirms both approaches: hold Shift while creating the next selection, or choose Add mode with the selection tool active. How to multi selection in krita? — Krita Artists

For example, suppose your character illustration has three separate decorative patches that should share a color. Select the first, add the second, and add the third. Inspect all three outlines before painting. This is an illustrative workflow: the useful checkpoint is that every intended patch remains selected after each addition.

Choose the action according to what the next outline should change. Add extends the selection; Subtract removes part of it; Replace starts over with the new area. Intersect retains only the overlap between the current selection and the new one. Krita documents these actions and their default modifiers in its selection guide. Selections — Krita Manual

Your next correction	Selection action	Default modifier
Include another disconnected patch	Add	Shift
Remove an unwanted strip or gap	Subtract	Alt
Start again with one new region	Replace	Ctrl
Keep only an overlapping portion	Intersect	Shift + Alt

With the Freehand Selection Tool, apply the modifier before starting the gesture. If your configured shortcuts behave differently, use the named action in Tool Options. The manual notes that modifier behavior can be changed in Krita’s settings. Freehand Selection Tool — Krita Manual

A useful correction sequence is to collect the larger patches first, inspect the spaces between them, and then subtract any accidental connections. For the illustrative three-patch design, check that a narrow selected bridge has not joined two patches that should remain separate. This sequence gives each pass one clear purpose.

Once the selected areas look right, choose the paint layer intended to receive the color. Switch to your painting brush and work inside the selected regions. Krita’s flat-coloring tutorial uses selections to control coloring and documents Shift + Backspace for filling the selection with the foreground color. Flat Coloring — Krita Manual

To revise the boundary afterward, return to the Freehand Selection Tool. Choose Add to include a missed patch, or Subtract to trim an unwanted area. Switching between painting and selection work is part of the workflow; keep the current selection available while you make those changes. The selection actions operate on the existing selection. Selections — Krita Manual

Use this checkpoint when you change tasks: before painting, identify the destination layer; before drawing another selection outline, identify the selection action. This is a practical decision aid derived from the documented workflow. It helps separate two choices that are easy to overlook when repeatedly switching tools.

If you prefer a solid flat color, filling can be easier to inspect than several brush strokes. If you are adding varied color or shading, continue with the brush. In either case, finish the current pass, inspect the boundary, and return to the selection tool whenever a region needs adjustment.

For small boundary corrections, you can paint directly on the selection mask. First create a selection, then choose Select → Show Global Selection Mask. The selection appears at the top of the Layers docker, where you can select its mask entry for editing. The current Selection Masks reference documents this route for accessing the global selection as a layer node. Selection Masks — Krita Manual

Another entry point is Select → Edit Selection. Krita switches the active layer to the Global Selection Mask and selects an appropriate editing tool according to whether the selection is vector or raster. For an explicit brush-editing workflow, showing the mask and selecting its entry makes the editing target easy to inspect. Select Menu — Krita Manual

With the selection mask active, paint white to add selected coverage and black to remove it. Krita’s original explanation of painting selections documents this convention, including its use on the global selection. That article dates from 2015; the current manual separately confirms that the Global Selection Mask remains editable. How to select areas with the paintbrush in Krita 2.9 — Krita, Selection Masks — Krita Manual

When the correction is complete, select the intended paint layer again and restore your painting color before continuing. Make a small, deliberate stroke and inspect its result. This provides a quick checkpoint that the next operation is applying color to the artwork.

A selection mask can contain intermediate grayscale values, which represent partial selection. Krita’s explanation shows how this can produce partially applied color. If an edge needs complete removal from the selection, use pure black on the mask and check that your brush settings are not leaving partial coverage. How to select areas with the paintbrush in Krita 2.9 — Krita

Use the selection display toggle at the lower-left of the status bar to inspect the mask overlay. The manual recommends this view for seeing different transparency levels, including soft selection edges. Marching ants remain useful for locating boundaries. Selections — Krita Manual

The following diagnostic order starts with the controls most directly related to the last action. It is a workflow recommendation based on the documented tool and mask behavior:

1. A previous patch disappears after a new outline: check whether the action was Replace, then choose Add for the next attempt.
2. Dragging shifts the selection: check whether you started on the marching-ants boundary, where the Freehand Selection Tool can move the selection.
3. A brush changes selected coverage: inspect whether the selection mask is active in Layers.
4. An edge remains partly selected: inspect the overlay and the mask’s grayscale coverage.
5. No boundary is visible: check Display Selection before assuming the selection was removed.

The Freehand Selection Tool reference documents movement from the selection boundary, while the Select menu reference distinguishes displaying a selection from deselecting it. Freehand Selection Tool — Krita Manual, Select Menu — Krita Manual

If you deselected while working, try Select → Reselect, whose documented default shortcut is Ctrl + Shift + D. It restores the previously deselected selection. If you only want to hide the boundary temporarily, use Display Selection, documented with Ctrl + H. Select Menu — Krita Manual

For a selection you expect to reuse, create a Local Selection Mask. With the selection present, right-click the desired layer and choose the Local Selection option; the flat-coloring tutorial presents it as Add → Local Selection. You can recall the stored selection using its round dotted-outline icon in the Layers docker. Flat Coloring — Krita Manual, Selection Masks — Krita Manual

For the three-patch example, saving a local mask becomes useful once the combined shape is worth keeping for another coloring pass. Continue with a simple rhythm: collect the disconnected areas, inspect their boundaries, paint on the intended layer, and return to the selection tool or mask whenever the shape needs refinement.

• Selections — Krita Manual
• Freehand Selection Tool — Krita Manual
• Flat Coloring — Krita Manual
• Selection Masks — Krita Manual
• Select Menu — Krita Manual
• How to select areas with the paintbrush in Krita 2.9 — Krita
• How to multi selection in krita? — Krita Artists