Prior art digital painting applications create strokes by repeatedly applying a stamp at incremental positions along a path. Such applications led to uniform marks being made by the mark making tool along the stroke as the same process as applied by the software application at each point along the stroke. However, some areas of a painting involve repetitive strokes, which can take a lot of time for the user. Embodiments of the invention provide the user with automated methods and systems that maintain a level of control the user seeks or needs whilst removing the repetitive nature of the area filling thereby saving the user time whilst delivering high quality results. The invention fills the area to be filled to painted with actual, individual strokes, offering the advantages of overlapping strokes and mixing paint for an increased “natural” media look and feel. Additionally, the user is able to either specify parameters for the process in advance or to sculpt/tune the result as the software application paints.