How to draw without lineart.

4 steps

1. CHOOSE THE RIGHT BRUSH

When drawing without lineart, it will be difficult to keep borders smooth...

...using a rough brush will help you mask the imperfections.

Make sure your eraser uses the same brush tip as your paint brush: do not ‘paint over’ to erase, always use your eraser.

Uncheck transfer.

It’s easier to use flat colours in the beginning, even if you don’t want your drawing to be cell-shaded in the end

2. SKETCH

Draw the shape of your character.

It doesn’t have to be precise yet.

3. ADD COLORS

Create a clipping mask layer.

Right click on the layer > 'Create clipping mask'

You can now color your sketch easily!

4. REFINE

When that’s finished you can put all the layers (except the background) into a group folder.

Duplicate that folder for safety and merge it.

Right click > 'Merge group'

You can now refinine the outline of your drawing and add elements to it. 

If you’ve never ‘painted over’ to erase, you should be able to add a background easily.

You can do that simply by painting on the background layer.

That's it! I hope this was somewhat helpful 😊
You can download the psd of the drawing I used in this tutorial below.
Have fun drawing without lineart!

DOWNLOAD PSD