Blending Modes

Blending Modes Techniques

some of my frequently used blending modes techniques

Paint with Blending Modes

usually done mode with visibly strong effects

  • Vivid Light: easily create bright saturate strokes
  • Multiply, Color Burn: darken value
  • Subtract and Difference: create weird color and gray neutrality
  • Lighten/Darken: very versatile
    • clean out sketch when overpainting
    • edit light shape without affecting dark shape and vice versa

every blending modes can be utilized for the Dithering Techniques🌱

Misc Tips

  • Using a blending mode on a adjustment layer is equivalent to duplicate the content under it and set it to that blending mode.

Transparency Shapes Layer

  • when I was going through SAI settings, I discovered something in Photoshop called Transparency Shapes Layer (TSL).
    • context: Photoshop layer has another slider called "Fill" that is separate from Opacity
      • Fill affects 8 Special Blending Modes where they reduce the intensity of the effects applied, rather than just decreasing the transparency of the effects.
      • video about Fill here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vsk4bh4j3WQ
    • the thing is, layer with TSL turned off brings that behaviour to the transparency of brushes
      • for example, let's take a airbrush with a 100% opacity in the center and fade to 0%
        • the 100% part will look like 100% Fill
        • the 50% part will look like 50% fill
        • and so on
        • video with timestamp here, but it's best to watch from the beginning: https://youtu.be/Yo5m-vMXfvw?t=250
    • Shade, Shine, Shade/Shine in SAI is Linear Burn, Linear Dodge and Linear Light in Photoshop with TSL turned off. (Other special blend modes like Difference and Hard Mix in SAI work similarly)
      • that's why it maintains a beautiful gradient as you paint on it.
    • Add (Glow) and Glow Dodge in CSP are the only ones with this behaviour.
      • Add (glow) might be Linear Light with TSL turned off
      • Glow Dodge might be Linear Dodge/Color Dodge with TSL turned off
      • now it would be nice if we have linear burn with TSL turned off too