How to Create an Outlined Stamp Brush with an Opaque Interior in Krita

An outlined stamp needs three distinct regions. The outline and center both contain visible pixels; only the surrounding area is transparent. A white center must therefore be painted white. Leaving the center empty produces a hollow outline, even when it looks filled against a white canvas.

The choice of brush representation matters. GIMP’s official manual illustrates the distinction clearly: ordinary grayscale brushes treat white as transparent, while RGBA color brushes retain their artwork’s colors and transparent areas. A black-and-white design can still require a color brush because white is part of the finished image. GIMP Manual: Brushes

For this project, use fixed colors throughout the stamp. Decide on the outline and interior colors before creating the tip. This keeps the first version straightforward to inspect and avoids introducing recoloring settings before the basic stamp works.

Create a 320 × 320-pixel RGB document with a transparent background and an empty paint layer. These dimensions are illustrative working values. Leave room around the badge so its outer edge does not touch the canvas boundary.

A reliable construction method is to make one dark disk and place a smaller white disk inside it. This avoids having to fill a hand-drawn outline with possible gaps.

1. Choose the Elliptical Selection Tool. In Tool Options, use the replacement selection action, enter a width and height of 256 pixels, and lock both dimensions.
2. Place the selection near the center of the canvas. Set the foreground color to black, then choose Edit → Fill with Foreground Color.
3. Deselect. Make a new circular selection measuring 224 × 224 pixels and center it inside the black disk.
4. Change the foreground color to white and fill this smaller selection using the same command.
5. Deselect again and inspect the result.

Krita’s Elliptical Selection Tool supports locked width and height values. Its Edit menu provides a foreground-fill command that fills the selection without applying the current painting opacity. Make sure you have an active selection before filling, because the command otherwise fills the layer. Krita Manual: Elliptical Selection Tool, Krita Manual: Edit Menu

With concentric disks, the illustrative border thickness is (256 − 224) ÷ 2 = 16 pixels. If one side looks heavier, reposition the smaller selection before filling it. For a different character accessory, the same construction principle applies: a complete outer silhouette with an inset region painted in the interior color.

Check that transparency appears outside the disk and that the center is white. Save the editable artwork as a .kra file before converting it into a brush. Krita’s native format retains the working document’s layers and other editing information. Krita Manual: Saving For The Web

Keep the source artwork on its transparent paint layer. If you added a temporary background for inspection, hide it before copying the stamp.

1. Select the artwork layer and select the entire canvas.
2. Copy the artwork.
3. Open the Brush Settings Editor with F5 and start with a Pixel brush engine preset.
4. Under Brush Tip → Predefined, use the Clipboard option to create a tip from the copied image.
5. Turn off Create Mask From Color when creating the tip, so its colors are retained.

Krita’s official brush-tip tutorial documents the Clipboard workflow and explicitly instructs users to disable Create Mask From Color when preserving image color separately from transparency. The manual also explains how to open the editor and select the Pixel engine. Krita Manual: Heightmap Bristle Brush Tips, Krita Manual: Loading and Saving Brushes

Select the resulting predefined tip and set Brush Mode → Color Image. This mode uses the image as supplied, preserving the black border and white center. For this fixed-color stamp, changing the foreground swatch is not the way to recolor the artwork. Krita Manual: Brush Tips

Set both Opacity and Flow to their maximum values. Krita defines opacity as stroke transparency and flow as the transparency of individual dabs, so both matter when you want a solid impression from a single click. Krita Manual: Opacity and Flow

In each setting’s panel, disable Enable Pen Settings for Opacity and Flow. Krita’s preset tutorial demonstrates disabling both controls to remove their pressure-dependent transparency. Keep size fixed during the initial test as well, so changes in dimensions do not distract from checking the fill. Krita Manual: Loading and Saving Brushes

Begin by placing stamps with individual clicks. If you later want a row of separated badges, adjust Spacing, which controls the distance between brush-tip impressions. Increase it while testing a short stroke until neighboring badges have the gap you want. Choose the spacing by appearance at the intended badge size. Krita Manual: Brush Tips

Use this background-and-overlap check before saving the preset. It is a practical diagnostic sequence derived from the difference between image color and transparency.

1. Create a separate test document with a medium-blue background.
2. Add an empty paint layer above it and place one stamp. The center should remain white, with no blue showing through.
3. Place another stamp partly across the first. Its white center should cover the earlier stamp’s black border wherever they overlap.
4. Inspect the result at the size you plan to use for the character artwork.

The overlap check is especially useful because a hollow stamp can look correct on a plain white background. Covering an earlier black border demonstrates whether the center actually contributes visible paint.

Use the following observations to decide what to inspect next:

What you see	What to inspect next
The center shows the background clearly	Check whether the source center was painted and whether the tip uses Color Image mode.
The entire badge looks faint	Check Opacity, Flow, their pen settings, and the test layer’s opacity.
A rectangular patch surrounds the badge	Inspect the copied artwork for a visible background.
The center covers earlier artwork, but the border looks uneven	Inspect the source geometry and whether the inner disk is centered.

Treat the table as a troubleshooting order, since more than one setting can contribute to a similar appearance. Change one thing, place a fresh stamp, and compare it with the previous result.

Choose Save New Brush Preset, give the brush a distinct name such as “Outlined Badge — White Center,” and save it. A brush tip contains the stamp artwork; a preset combines that tip with settings such as opacity and spacing. Saving the preset preserves that combination for reuse. Krita Manual: Loading and Saving Brushes

If you also need a standalone image of the badge, export a PNG with Store alpha channel (transparency) enabled. Keep the surrounding area transparent and the center painted. PNG supports full alpha transparency, while the .kra document remains your editable source. Krita Manual: *.png, Krita Manual: Saving For The Web

Finish by switching to another brush, selecting your saved preset again, and repeating one overlapping impression. Once the white center covers the earlier outline and the exterior remains clear, the stamp is ready to reuse in your character artwork.

• Brush Tips — Krita Manual
• 5. Brushes — GIMP Manual
• Elliptical Selection Tool — Krita Manual
• Edit Menu — Krita Manual
• Heightmap Bristle Brush Tips — Krita Manual
• Loading and Saving Brushes — Krita Manual
• Opacity and Flow — Krita Manual
• *.png — Krita Manual
• Saving For The Web — Krita Manual