Digital Painting: Brushes, Layers & Blend Modes
How pixels become paintings
How pixels become paintings
A digital brush is a shape (usually a circle) that gets stamped onto the canvas hundreds of times per second as you drag. The spacing between stamps, the size, the opacity, and the hardness all shape how the stroke looks. Paint on the canvas below.
Photoshop's first version (1990) had just 15 brushes. Today's digital painting apps can simulate oil, watercolor, charcoal, and even wet-on-wet blending in real time.
Imagine painting on transparent sheets stacked on top of each other. You can rearrange them, hide them, adjust their opacity, or delete one without touching anything else. That is what layers do. Toggle each layer on and off to see how the final image is built.
Blend modes change how one layer's pixels combine with the layer below. Each mode is a mathematical formula. Click each mode to see the result and the formula.
Normal: top layer replaces bottom layer based on opacity.
Screens use additive color (RGB): mixing red + green + blue light creates white. Paint uses subtractive color (CMYK): mixing pigments absorbs light and creates darker colors. Click the circles to toggle colors and see how they mix.
Click the colored circles to toggle them on and off.
Red + Green = Yellow. Red + Blue = Magenta. All three = White. Used by monitors, phones, TVs.
Cyan + Magenta = Blue. Cyan + Yellow = Green. All three = dark brown (add black for true black).
Hue = color, Saturation = intensity, Lightness = bright/dark. Easier for humans to think about.
You now understand the tools behind every digital painting: how brushes stamp pixels, how layers let you work without fear, and how blend modes create effects that would be impossible with real paint.
A digital brush is just a shape (usually a circle) stamped repeatedly along your stroke path, blending each stamp with the canvas.
Stack transparent sheets on top of each other. Edit one without touching the rest. This is the single most powerful concept in digital art.
Multiply darkens, Screen brightens, Overlay adds contrast. Each mode is a formula applied to every pixel where two layers overlap.
Opacity controls transparency. Pen pressure controls size and opacity dynamically, making strokes feel natural.
Put your new knowledge into practice!