By adding a blending mode, you can alter how the colors on a layer blend with those on lower layers. Simply altering the blending modes will make the appearance of your artwork look more enhanced. So, how to blend in Krita?

There are several ways to blend in Krita. The techniques can be divided into two categories: on-canvas and off-canvas. On-canvas techniques include glazing, smudging, and scumbling. The off-canvas techniques include color sample blending and the digital colors mixer. 

Keep on reading to learn more about each blending method in Krita!

On-Canvas Blending in Krita

These are the techniques where numerous colors are combined directly on the canvas. This is a useful feature for creative explorations and has many forms.

Glazing

Glazing is the process of layering on top of several ‘semi-transparent’ layers to combine colors on the canvas. To use this method to blend in Krita, follow these steps:

1. Begin with the foundation colors and lines.

2. Add colored layers for the shadows and mid-tones using a partially transparent brush. The ‘multiply’ blending mode will darken each color in a unique way to produce shadows.

3. After that, choose the resultant colors with a low-flow brush and create additional layers. This helps create different planes in your illustration to give it a more three-dimensional look.

4. Continue using the reduced ‘opacity and flow’ to produce softer gradients. You can edit the edges of your subject to make them smoother or sharper. 

Smudging

This is another blending technique in Krita and can be done using the color smudge brush engine’ tool. Use this tool to blend the colors below your current brush color together. 

Although this is more time-consuming than glazing, it gives a smoother painting finish. 

Scumbling

This technique is like glazing but uses layers of textured or patterned paint instead of having one semi-opaque layer. Several ‘brush tips’ can be chosen in Krita to create a more defined texture.

Having discussed the three on-canvas techniques, we will now detail the off-canvas blending in Krita. 

Off-Canvas Blending in Krita

This blending method is more popular among Krita users and has two techniques. 

You can also use this as a visual guide to the tutorials below: 

Color Sampler Blending

To use this technique for blending, follow these steps:

1. Choose the ‘color sampler tool’ and pick any color from the existing pixels on your canvas. Instead of simply picking up a new color, this tool allows you to absorb some portion of the sampled color.

2. You can modify the proportion of the paints that mix with the color of your current brush to get the desired color; for example, setting it to 50% will give you a mix that is halfway between them.

The Digital Colors Mixer

This is another off-canvas technique in Krita. Follow these steps to use this technique:

1. Choose the ‘digital colors mixer’ tool from the ‘dockers’ menu. This has six separate color mixers that independently combine your current brush color with any other desired color.

2. Then, select the ‘color buttons’ under different mixers to pick a mixing-color palette.

3. Above each color is the ‘color patch’ tool. Doing this combines the desired amount of your existing brush color and the palette color to create a new color.

Conclusion

In Krita, there are primarily two approaches to mixing. While off-canvas techniques allow the artist to generate the colors they want away from the canvas, on-canvas techniques enable mixing right on the canvas.