I realize this is barely about Harvest Moon but...., I need help in "Paint" Options

[DreamerGirl]

So I drew a lineart of Luke, and I wanted to colour it in "Paint". I scanned and started it, but then saved it and logged off my computer. The next day, I tried to continue, but near the lines, were huge amounts of pixels of various off-whit colours that make it impossible to use "bucket". This isn't the first time its happened either.... :(
Any Ideas?

[Calliope]

Like Trinest said, PNG is highly recommended seeing that you're working with lineart. Images saved as that don't alter because the PNG format preserves all the information of the original image, unlike JPEG. And if I were you, I'd avoid using GIF. It is pretty much like PNG, but the file size will turn out to be a lot bigger.

Photoshop, Paint.NET and to add to the other suggestions, Gimp are pretty much the programs you'd need if you're going to work with digital coloring. However, I'd say it'd be best to go for Paint.NET since you're obviously running Windows and are just looking to color lineart. Plus it's free.

Gimp has a tad more features compared to Paint.NET, but it's quite hard to use at first and the interface is not as user-friendly as the latter.

Another suggestion is that perhaps you can learn how to digitally "trace" the lines in your scanned image. The final image would come out smoother and, more or less cleaner looking. There are tons of tutorials that can guide you through it, Paint.NET Lineart Tutorial by ~DemonedAway is an example.

However, that's just one way you can do it. You're your own artist, you can go about it however you want.