I want to trace some scanned line art using trace tool in Inkscape, add a layer BENEATH the line art, and color it from below. That way I don't lose any lines from colors overlapping them. But as it is, there seems to be an invisible white paint in my scanned line art (which I scanned as a black-and-white bitmap), so i can't see anything in a layer beneath the lines.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance! -bonbonbaron

Hi.

With the auto trace -set more colours, two steps-
you will end up with a group with two paths.
Ungroup it (Ctrl+Shift+G), delete the white at the bottom, and preferably add a black fill to the remaining path.