Deep Dive into Blending Modes

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luckyqilin

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Hey there, Qilin here!

Today’s tutorial will hopefully teach you what blending modes are, how to use blending modes to achieve many different effects than can quickly and easily enhance your illustrations. I segmented the tutorial to follow what a workflow process might be like to make an illustration, and each section has a few practical techniques you might be able to use for each stage.

There's a lot, it's a long tutorial, so I hope you enjoy!

Introduction to Blending Modes

So, what exactly are blending modes, and what do they do?

In short, layers set with a blending mode will influence the layer below it. By default, a layer mode will be set to ‘normal’, which means that whatever is on the top layer will be placed over the bottom layer. (You can find the menu in the "Layers" tab)

These blending mode effects fall under these categories: darkening, lightening, contrast, comparative, and composite modes.

To simply describe the blending modes do:

DARKEN modes will create darkening effects.
LIGHTEN modes will create lightening effects.
CONTRAST modes deal with both darkening and lightening to push contrast in images.
COMPARATIVE modes will look at channels and color values in the image and blend changes with the layer below.
COMPOSITE modes look at hue, saturation, and luminosity values in images and manipulate them with the layer below.

These modes can all change your artwork in many different ways, and can help you achieve your desired visions for your artwork! Later, I will demonstrate many practical uses for different blending modes.

Types of Blending Modes

As mentioned before, blending modes fall under categories of darkening, lightening, contrast, comparative, and composite modes. Within these categories, certain modes can have similar, or dramatically different effects. I’ll introduce common blending modes, and other ones I found interesting.

Below, I have a [NORMAL] base drawing. Next to it is what it looks like after adding a new layer with some [NORMAL] colored strokes on top.

Above are 3 examples of DARKENING MODES.

[MULTIPLY] combines colors of the current layer with the bottom layer and darkens it. I would say this is perhaps the MOST common and versatile blending modes.

[COLOR BURN] has a stronger darkening effect than multiply and increases contrast.

[LINEAR BURN] combines both layers after strongly darkening the bottom layer.

Above are 3 examples of LIGHTENING MODES.

[LIGHTEN] compares the colors of the top and bottom layer and uses the brighter color of those layers to combine them.

[SCREEN] has an opposite effect of multiply. It combines the layers together but instead brightens it.

[COLOR DODGE] combines colors in the top and bottom layers, and makes the bottom layer much brighter.

Above are 3 examples of CONTRAST MODES.

[OVERLAY] uses a combination of both multiply and screen together – lighter combos get a screen effect, while darker combos get a multiply effect.

[SOFT LIGHT] uses a combination of color dodge and color burn – lighter combos get a dodge effect, while darker combos get a burn effect. If there are no colors to combine, it is left white.

[HARD LIGHT] uses the same combinations as overlay, except the top layer is still a lot denser than the effects in overlay.

Above are 3 examples of COMPARATIVE/COMPOSITE MODES.

[DIVIDE] divides each RGB value of the bottom layer with the brightness of the top layer.

[SATURATION] applies the top layer’s saturation level, while keeping the same brightness and hue values of the bottom layer.

[COLOR] applies the brightness and hue levels of the top layer, while keeping the same brightness of the bottom layer.

Blending effects can be a little confusing to understand, especially when results look a bit similar. Getting familiar with them by experimenting helps a lot. You can also visit CLIP STUDIO PAINT’s official tutorial which briefly explains every effect, including ones I didn’t mention.

Next we will go into practical uses, categorized by function!

Production

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If you realize hours later into a drawing and find out that you’ve been doing your line art on a white canvas, there are ways for you to still color in your drawings using the [MULTIPLY] blending mode (This also works with SCANNED drawings!).

Let’s say I accidentally drew this on the same layer as the white canvas…tragic…

I really want to color it in…but I can’t put my colors underneath the line drawing since the white canvas is blocking the way…wait a sec! If I set my base color layer to [MULTIPLY], the line art will come through!

Maybe you’ve been tentative with using colors, and only have a greyscale painting. But what if you want to try adding color? You can use the [COLOR] blending mode to colorize any black and white image!

Here I have another drawing that I made...I wonder how it might look like with some base colors?

It's...um...

Setting the coloring layer to [COLOR] makes everything blend rather naturally! This method works really well when you have a large range of values in your original black and white image.

Imaginative Color Schemes

Color schemes are often a huge step in creating illustrations, and can influence the mood and feeling of your pieces greatly. Looking at references help a lot to come up with color schemes, but you can also use blending modes to adjust colors that might inspire you with a color scheme!

Here I have the drawing from earlier, with base colors added. Let’s add a new layer, and fill it in with an ochre color.

If I switch this layer’s blending mode to [COLOR BURN], and toggle the opacity, it gives a unified color tint that immediately gives a sort of grungy, acidic look, but I’m really liking the feeling of it.

[LINEAR BURN] does a similar job, except the same color looks a little warmer and a little more cozy, and it also influences the white background. Both modes have slightly different effects, but each have a certain mood that might be something you’re looking for. You can also toggle this overall color with the hue/saturation/luminosity sliders, or even by adding other colors with a gradient.

Using this same color, you can even toggle the layers to [LIGHTEN], for a brighter, more dreamlike color scheme effect, or even [SATURATION] to get a bright, pop-like feel. Remember, the color will influence the results, so be sure to experiment!

Shading 🌑

Shading is such an important step in making artwork. They help to give a sense of lighting, which in turn creates a sense of the mood in the image.

[MULTIPLY] is the most common blending mode to create shadows, as you can use a single color to seamlessly add shadows onto a base drawing. There are no restrictions, you can use multiple [MULTIPLY] layers, or even use them over other blending modes.

Here I have my base drawing, ready for shading. As a general rule of thumb, outdoor lighting is usually rather cool because of the sky. Of course, you can pick many different colors, even something subtle and neutral depending on your color scheme and mood. For now, a pale, cool tone will make for convincing shadow tones for what I want.

Let’s shade this simply – because multiply blends the top and bottom layer colors together, it results in a seamless blend. The shading can be done very cleanly if you use a selection of your character’s silhouette, or a clipping mask.

Once you have this step of the [MULTIPLY] layer done, you can elevate it further by softening some of the edges. By using “Lock transparent pixels” you can go in darker, or airbrush in a red-orange color on the edge of skin shadows, to give an impression of warm skin.

I've done some examples of light direction, and how you might use warm colors to tint the [MULTIPLY] layer.

This is a really quick and easy tip! You can use a big airbrush with black or a dark color on the [OVERLAY] blending mode to create a little more depth and contrast on a silhouette.

It isn’t always easy to know how colors might react in certain lighting situations, particularly in natural light settings. It’s important to blend your figures in well so that you keep a consistent mood and atmosphere for your piece.

Our model returns plain! I want to blend her in with this dusky sky. Let’s pick some colors from the background.

Now I’ll use a gradient tool to apply a reverse gradient of the sky colors onto the silhouette of the figure.

And once we set the layer to [MULTIPLY], and toggle the opacity a bit, the character looks like she's a part of the background sky now.

This isn’t the end of it though, you can keep layering on blending mode layers: more [MULTIPLY] layers for specific shadows, add lighting, adding modifications to the sky until your piece feels finalized!

The best thing, is that this technique works for pretty much any "sky" background! Below, I linked the gradient set that I used, which is super helpful to quickly put down a background.

Lighting ☀️

Lighting is shading’s wife when it comes to creating evocative pieces, and blending modes can assist you with adding light to your pieces! Selective placement of lighting can add a lot of magic to your artwork.

[SOFT LIGHT], as the name suggests, can be used to lightly apply colors gently to give an illusion of soft, diffused light. It works especially well using airbrush or gradient to sustain a subtle soft look. Below, I used [SOFT LIGHT] to give a sense of sunlight in the sky. It's reeaally subtle, but helps give a sense of direction of the light.

[HARD LIGHT] works in essentially the same way, except that the effect will be denser, and the colors you use appear stronger. Often times, brighter, saturated colors really help to give impressions of light, so it can work really well for stronger and reflective light. Below, I used it to show light reflecting off the character.

Using [COLOR DODGE] and adding sparse dots adds some dots that reflect the sunlight, giving a more dreamy mood...

One of my favorite techniques is the glowing sunset effect. It blends [OVERLAY] and [COLOR DODGE] together, and it works especially well on top of darker tones since it adds a lot of luminosity. I have my drawing here, with this sunset gradient in the background.

I’ll airbrush some orange around the character on an [OVERLAY] layer, especially near the bottom around the face, and around the neck and shoulders.

Once we go over the same areas with airbrush on a [COLOR DODGE] layer, it comes to life!

You can toggle and experiment with the opacity, for stronger or weaker effects. Doesn't it look easy?

With blending modes you can keep layering effects. Below, I added another [COLOR DODGE] layer where I airbrushed some more color and light in a few select spots, as well as added some "dust particles" for a stronger sense of movement and atmosphere.

Postproduction

There are all sorts of postproduction methods using blending modes that you can use on your illustrations to finalize them. It’s time for a 4 tip speed round!

You can put a vignette effect over your illustrations with [MULTIPLY]. Add a dark gradient, then set it to [MULTIPLY]. Vignettes help create a shadow around the canvas that frames your artwork in a subtle way. Adjust the opacity as needed!

Using rainbow gradients, or any of your desired color schemes, you can achieve an ephemeral, dreamlike quality by setting the blending mode to [DIVIDE] or [COLOR DODGE]. I find this tends to work best on simple line art and base colors, as it is quite a distracting effect, but you can always layer them on with [MULTIPLY] for any shadows you want to draw in.

Here is the rainbow blending mode in action: [DIVIDE] on the left, and [COLOR DODGE] on the right!

Applying textures can be a quick way to add a lot of variety and interest in your piece. I’ll link the texture assets I used at the end of this quick tip!

Simply place the texture on your desired subject, you can add clipping mask to it so it will stay neatly in the shape you want, and change the blending mode to [MULTIPLY] or [OVERLAY]. You can even experiment with other methods to see what works for you!

Neat silhouette shapes help make sense of the texture, but this can also be used to simply add interesting surfaces to an illustration you already have!

I've saved my favorite tip for last: chromatic aberration. It's a technique that is often used to add some texture to digital artwork, and it can be easily created using blending modes!

First, make 3 copies of your final image, and name them respectively RED, GREEN, and BLUE. On a layer above your original, fill the layer with a black color, and name it BLACK. Be sure to have a copy of your original in there, just in case you don’t want the effect anymore! You should have 5 layers in total that might look like so:

Once we select our RED layer, go to Edit -> TONAL CORRECTION -> LEVEL CORRECTION. Our aim is to remove the green and blue channels from this layer. Pick the green channel from the top left dropdown list, and pull the slider to black, which will remove all the green.

Then go to the blue channel, and bring the slider to black.

And you have your red layer!

It’s the same process for creating our GREEN (removing red and blue) and BLUE (removing red and green) layers. At the end, you should have a very red, green and blue layer, and your layers should look like this:

Set the RED, GREEN, and BLUE layer to the blend mode [ADD]! Your image should look like how it was originally. All you need to do now, is to select any of the RGB layers and shift them around to see the effects of chromatic aberration!

Final Words

This tutorial ended up really long, but I crammed in as much practical blending mode techniques that I personally use, and also some that I discovered recently. I hope they were helpful, or gave you inspiration for methods you can try in future artworks!

Thank you so much for looking!

Qilin

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