maybe use a background remover to make things transparent?
ik pixlr x has an option to remove backgrounds??
sorry if u wouldn't be able to do that- idk how to make a picrew sjhfjj

@echoswag
it's definitely an option, it just seems like it'd end up being a hassle, that way...

yeah probably...
i hope u get a stylus soon tho <//3

as someone who Also lacks money for a tablet and primarily draws on their 2ds, heres a solution i use if you have a pc/laptop!!!

if you're willing to color artwork with a mouse, you could draw lineart/a sketch for whatever you want and keep it on a white background. then, if you posted it (on private and/or public) and downloaded the lineart, you could import it into firealpaca and use its "extract lines" tool, it does an extremely great job at removing the white backgrounds and leaving u with transparent artwork!! theres ways to transfer over the colors you've done for a drawing too if u dont wanna color w/ a mouse, but it's a bit more complicated. i can tell you if ur interested though!!

i realized i just forgot to introduce firealpaca lmao whoops, its a free drawing program that has quite a lot of features other ones like clip studio do, its a pretty lightweight program too as i used to use it on my really old and cr.appy pc that could barely run basic apps like discord lmao
if you want to do extremely complicated textures like hair or fur its not the best as its brush selection isnt the best, but ive used it since 2OI9 and its worked quite well for me for a long while
even though i dont use it too much nowadays in favor of clip studio, i still use firealpaca to exstract the linework from my colors drawings all the time!!

@Elininjakat
ive been using firealpaca for years. YEARS. and youre telling me right now in the year 2023 that there has simply BEEN an 'extract lines' tool this whole time. youve flipped the entire world on its head.

SJRGRJDKSHD dont worry it took me a while to find too lmao
its in the "filter" section iirc, somewhere towards the bottom of the list of options. it works best with black lineart on a white background, it can kinda do colors too but as far as i know it usually turns colors into partially transparent grayscale unless you f/ck around with lots of settings? which ive no clue how to do lol

you can still import coloring you've done by separating ur layers Inside Of Colors and (prolly on private) posting the coloring w/o lineart and then importing that under ur transparent lineart, doing it like that makes it a lot easier to cut out the white bg (especially with thicker lines) rather than having everything as one layer and painstakingly cutting out the edges (i hope this makes sense ouhghhhh)

ive done it to finish my colors art in firealpaca/clip studio a lot of times!! i legit havent found any better way to rip lineart out from drawings so, IO/IO method lmao