Blending modes are important features that allow you to quickly edit your artwork and if you are a digital painter, whether you use photoshop, procreate or other digital painting software, blending modes are a must-have if you want to create a finished full illustration. There are many different modes and each of them does different things, some of them you will use very often and some you will rarely use, depending on your preferences and workflow. In this post, I’ll briefly go through each blending mode currently available in the Procreate app 4.3.
The modes are grouped in 5 different groups: Darken, Lighten, Contrast, Difference and Colour. Within each group, there are different blend modes that do similar things but yet different.
Blending modes affect how the colour on one layer interact with colours on the layers beneath it. By default, the blending mode is on Normal, which means whatever that’s painted on a layer will cover whatever that’s painted on the layers below it.
Darken blend modes
Multiply
Darkens. Affects the darkness and colour depending on the colour you use. The lighter the colour the less it darkens. If your blend colour is saturated it will affect the colour too together with the darkening. Good for adding shadows.
Linear burn
A lot darker than multiply and more saturated.
Colour burn
Darker than multiply, more saturated than linear burn, affects lighter areas less compared to darker areas.
Darken
compares the base and blend colours from each colour channel. If the blend colour is darker than the base colours in their respective colour channel, then it will replace the base colour. If the base colour is darker, then it will not change. Eg: face: green vs flesh colour, green will show, flesh colour won’t.
Darker colour
compares the base and blend colours. If the blend colour is darker than the base colours, then it will replace the base colour. If the base colour is darker, then it will not change.
Lighten blend modes
Lighten
Blend colours lighter than the base colour will replace the base colour. Blend colours darker than the base colour will not show.
Screen
Similar concept to multiply but reversed. The darker the blend colour, the less it lightens the base colour, the lighter the blend colour, the more lightens the base colour. Saturated blend colours will change the colour too.
Add
Similar to screen but more intense.
colour dodge
Similar to screen but more intense in saturation for mid-tones and brighter for highlights.
Lighter Colour
No blending of colours, if the blend colour is darker than the base layer, there will be no changes. If the blend colour is lighter than the base layer, it will be replaced with the lighter colour.
Contrast blend modes
Overlay
Uses screen mode on lighter colours and multiply mode on darker colours, changes are based on the base colour.
Hard light
Uses screen mode on lighter colours and multiply mode on darker colours, changes are based on the blend colour.
Soft light
Weaker than overlay.
Vivid light
More intense form of overlay. When your blend colour has brightness/ value of less than 50%, the base layer is darkened, when your blend colour has brightness/ value of more than 50%, the base layer is lightened.
Linear Light
Lighter blend colours will use dodge on the base colour, darker blend colours will darken the base colour and less saturated. This effect is very intense.
Pin Light
When blend colour is lighter, darker colours on the base layer is replaced. When the blend colour is darker, lighter values on the base layer is replaced.
Hard Mix
Similar to vivid light but more intense, also the resulting blend will be black and white or the primary colours: red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, or yellow. Details can be lost in this mode.
Difference blend mode
Exclusion
Similar to difference, but blending with 50% grey result in 50% grey.
Difference
Uses the different of blend colour and base colour. if your blend colour is white, the base colour will be inversed, if your blend colour is 100% black, there will be no changes.
Subtract
Subtract the blend layer from the base layer. if your blend layer is light and blue, your blend result will be darker and more red is the opposite of blue. The darker your blend colour, the less dark your blend result is.
Divide
Opposite of subtract. The darker your blend colour, the lighter your blend result is.
Colour blend modes
Hue
Changes the hue of the base colour, saturation and brightness are not affected.
Saturation
Changes the saturation of base colour, hue and brightness are not affected.
Colour
changes the hue and saturation of the base layer. Brightness is not affected.
Luminosity
Changes the brightness of the base layer. Colour and saturation are not affected.
So these are the different blending modes and how they work. Some may seem very complicated and difficult to understand exactly how it works and how to use, but you can just mess around and see which mode has the effect you like the most. Personally I use the multiply, colour, hue, dodge and overlay very often. Sometimes I just go through each of the modes and see their effects and decide on the one that looks the best. I’ll create another post showing examples of some of the more popular blending modes.
If you are interested in learning how to use the Procreate app, I’ve made many tutorials on how to use them, I’ve linked them down below. I will be writing tutorials on how to use Photoshop in the future.
I hope you’ve learnt something new and found this post helpful.
Try out the Apple Pencil to bring your creative process to the next level on the Procreate App!
These artist gloves for digital painting are a must for me when I paint on the iPad, when I don’t wear the gloves, sometimes the Procreate app sense my palm resting on the screen as 2 fingers tapping and holding and start undoing! Or sometimes it starts colour picking. I’ve tried the different palm support options but I still get the problem sometimes. If you’re having these kinds of problems as well, the gloves may be your solution, it makes you feel and look more professional too!
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