Layers, Brushes and Blending Modes

Every digital art app is built on the same core tools: layers, brushes, selections and blending modes. Understanding them conceptually lets you move between apps easily and work cleanly and efficiently.

Layers

Layers are like transparent sheets stacked on top of each other. You can paint on one without affecting the others, hide them, reorder them and change their opacity.

A common organization:

• Sketch layer at low opacity, at the top or bottom.
• Line art layer above the colors.
• Flat colors layer(s), one per object or material.
• Shadows and lights on separate layers above the flats.
• Background at the bottom.

Clipping masks and alpha lock

• Clipping mask: a layer that only shows where the layer below has pixels. Perfect for shading inside a flat color without going outside.
• Alpha lock (lock transparency): paint only on existing pixels of a layer. Great for recoloring line art or flats.
• Layer masks: hide parts of a layer non-destructively (paint black to hide, white to reveal).

Brushes

You need far fewer brushes than you think. A professional set often has 5–10:

• A hard round brush with pressure-controlled size: line art and hard edges.
• A soft round brush: soft gradients, glows, airbrushing (use sparingly).
• A textured brush with pressure-controlled opacity: painting with a traditional feel.
• A flat/chisel brush: blocking in planes.
• An eraser matching your main brush.

Brush settings to know: size, opacity, flow, hardness and what pressure controls.

Blending modes

Blending modes define how a layer's colors combine with the layers below:

• Multiply: darkens. Ideal for shadows and line art (white becomes invisible).
• Screen / Add: lightens. For glows, light rays, fog.
• Overlay / Soft Light: increase contrast and tint midtones; great for color adjustments.
• Color: changes hue and saturation, keeping values. Used to color grayscale paintings.

Selections and transforms

• Lasso selection: paint inside a shape with clean, hard edges, like masking tape.
• Transform, warp and liquify: fix proportions after drawing. Use them to correct, not to avoid learning to draw correctly.

Working non-destructively

• Adjustment layers (levels, curves, hue/saturation) change colors without altering pixels.
• Save versions often (file_v1, file_v2…) and use the history.
• Check values with a grayscale adjustment layer on top, toggled on and off.