Alright so Iâm just going to treat this post as an art notes section even though I feel like I probably should put it in my phone notes but why not share it with others?
BLENDING MODES 101: When and What Type to Use
Idk about yâall but I had such a hard time with blending modes and I just found out I could use them about a year ago. I use CLIP STUDIO PAINT for my digital art so the blending mode names may be different on other programs.
For general shading:
- NORMAL is typically okay
- for darker shades (directly out the sun), MULTIPLY or OVERLAY (multiply for darker)
For lighting (very tricky):
- for general lighting: OVERLAY and the color white basically (overlay is your best friend when it comes to lighting bruh)
- for intense lighting: OVERLAY + ADD (ADD adds a whole lot more intensity. Good for direct sunlight or just really bright settings
For adding a nice touch:
- literally any bright and saturated color with either (or all) OVERLAY, SCREEN, PIN LIGHT, SOFT LIGHT, VIVID LIGHT, LIGHTER COLOR, or DIFFERENCE (difference is really cool btw)
- typically, saturated red and blue-ish colors go well with these filters and make the colors pop, but experimenting with other modes is fun too
- PIN LIGHT creates a cool, unique painting effect depending on the darkness and saturation of the color (for example, using a dark blue instead of a lighter blue would work better)
- REALLY COOL TIP: light red + LUMINOSITY = lower contrast, high saturation (like a nice indie filter!)
Small exampleâŚ
Second image: Pink + SOFT LIGHT 15% + LIGHT COLOR 13% (using combinations creates a cool effect too)
OTHER TIPS:
- 99% of the time youâre never going to use the full 100% opacity
- use different combinations of blending modes!
- to group layers with different blending modes, put them all in a folder and put the blending mode for the folder on PASS THROUGH or THROUGH (idk if anyone else had to do this, but for CLIP STUDIO I had to in order to group them together)
- literally have fun, no one is judging you for using 2837384737 different blending modes on your art. literally go crazy with those layers fam














