Spent 2 years blending layers wrong in Procreate and a 12 year old at Starbucks showed me

I was at a coffee shop in Austin last month working on a commission piece. This kid leans over and goes 'why are you using multiply for everything?' I told him that's just how you blend shadows right? He showed me on his iPad that I should have been using overlay and color burn depending on the light source. I felt so dumb but also relieved. Has anyone else had a random stranger just walk up and fix their whole workflow?

2 comments

2 Comments

abby_robinson5824d ago

Wait, hold on, do you really think overlay and color burn are better than multiply for shadows? I gotta push back a little here. In my experience, it really depends on what you're going for. Multiply is great for deep, heavy shadows where you want to lose some of the underlying color, like in a dark alley scene or something. Overlay can make things look too washed out if you're not careful, and color burn can get super intense real quick. Your mileage may vary, but I've ruined more than a few pieces by using overlay when I should have stuck with multiply. Take this with a grain of salt, but I'd say the kid wasn't totally right, he just showed you one way that works for his style.

jordanl8224d ago

Overlay's a total gamble with dark scenes for sure.