Splitting up/Filling color in parts of complex image?

[shg.webdev]

I've been looking up tutorials on how to color in Inkscape, having migrated to this program from GIMP. I need different parts of the image to be different colors, and every tutorial says to use the freehand or Bezier tools to trace over the different parts of the image. That worked well enough for my simple logo image, but the site art I'm working on now is a more complex shape
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B20jOVvhQYqqN2kxRW9HZG9keHc/view?usp=sharing

As you can see, I have some unicorn line art here. The green outlined area and black outlined areas are all separate paths-- I included the Objects pane so that the list of paths is partially visible. The body (green) is one unit, and then all the other parts (horn, tail tuft, hooves, leg tufts, beard, mane hair) are all individual components. Obviously, tracing each part of this image with the path drawing tools would take ages. Is there an easier way? I already had to split this thing into transparent PNG components in GIMP and then reassemble them in Inkscape and that took long enough as it was. I'd hoped that would solve the problem. I haven't found any good solutions here by Googling. Can anyone show me a simpler way to split and/or fill color on a complex image like this? Is there a simpler way?

[Moini]

As vector drawings are based on different objects, that each have their own set of properties (i.e. 'brown fill, black stroke') - no, this is how it works.
You can use blur and gradients for shading, and you can use the bucket tool to automatically fill areas (beware, it's not a very exact tool).

For the black/green outlines, another approach would be to use the PowerStroke Path effect.

For tracing, you could also use the autotrace feature in Path -> Trace bitmap. Be sure to go through the tutorial in Help -> Tutorials -> Tracing, if you want to understand the dialog's options.

[brynn]

Welcome to the forum!

This might not be as difficult or time-consuming  as you fear.  Although perhaps your definition of time-consuming might be different from mine.  I agree with Moini that this is the best way to approach tracing this particular image -- when each piece needs a different fill color.

Here's a tutorial, which explains the basic tracing technique with the Pen/Bezier tool, as well as how to handle the situations where you have 2 objects sharing the same side or edge.  If you trace the 2 objects separately, the edges probably will not meet precisely.  This explains how to use a segment of a path you already traced, duplicate, and attach it to the neighboring object.  So this way, the edges meet precisely.  It also makes it a little faster, because you're duplicating certain path segments which you already traced, rather than tracing them again.

If it's all going to be one color, there is a way which is probably faster.  But it creates certain circumstance where it's harder to put different fill colors in different pieces.  It's covered at the end of that tutorial.

https://forum.inkscapecommunity.com/index.php?action=articles;sa=view;article=47