Learn How to Mix Colors Digitally!

Would you like to learn how to mix colors properly on your computer? That's what this section is all about as mixing paint colors using digital methods is an important skill that digital artists must need to know!

In traditional mediums, you mix paint based on the primary and secondary colors of the color wheel. In the digital medium, color comes readily available depending on the type of settings that your software is programmed to do!

What are these settings? Well, we are going to go over something called 'blend modes' and the smudge tool. YOu will need to experiment a lot on your own because one combination that works for me might not work for you!

1. How to mix colors: the blend modes

The first thing that you need to know about mixing paint colors on the computer is that you need to understand the blending options available. Depending on your digital art software, you will get a variety of blend modes to play with!

Don't worry, though. Rather than know every single one, you just need to know the ones that do three distinct characteristics: brightening the color, darkening the color, and altering the actually color itself in some form or another.

From the screen shot, these are just some of the examples that you will see if you are using Photoshop! You may also notice that these blending options can be designated to most other brushes like the smudge tool, paint brush, dodge tools, etc.

However, do remember that certain tools will not have the full options like the dodge tool. As it's a tool on it's own, you probably won't see stuff like the 'color dodge' blend modes for obvious reasons! Just be aware of this!

2. How to mix colors: blend modes in action

The best way to understand how blend modes affect the colors being painted, it's usually a good idea to experiment on your own! To do that, select one color first and paint just a simple patch of color on your canvas.

Next, select a different color and choose a different blend mode to your brush. Now, paint over the first patch and observe what happens!

Notice the difference in the intermediate colors being created? As mentioned, you want to focus on learning the blend modes that focuses on darkening the colors (first row) and modes that lighten the colors (second row).

As well, the last patch shows a blend mode that actually changes the entire color being reproduced! While not used very often, it's still a good idea to know should you decide to make very color paintings!

3. How to mix colors: the smudge brush

The other obvious way to mix colors is to use to smudge tool! Unlike the previous examples, the smudge tool will alter the shape of your colored objects as it tries to blend the colors together!

Depending on your digital art software, the smudge brush might have its own set of brush types. But that's OK as well as we are only going to focus on two different types of brushes: soft brushes and hard edge brushes.

The settings on these types of brushes for the smudge tool can also be altered by the pressure sensitivity settings on your digital stylus. Depending on how many you select, you will get different results!

Personally, my favorite are the 'shape dynamics' (which changes the size of the brush depending on the pressure) and the 'other dynamics' (which changes how the much color or strength of the smudge will be). See if you can find it in your digital art software!

4. How to mix colors: smudging in action

Note: any time that you don't see a nice blend, sample neighboring colors and paint in the colors manually.

As per normal, you should paint in two separate colors. This will be the initial colors that you want to blend in together. This will be an exercise on how to control the different types of blending outputs.

First, select a round brush and smudge in the colors. Next, select a hard edge brush and then smudge in the colors together. Lastly, smudge using a different blend mode completely!

Do you notice the difference? Smudging with a designated brush will alter the actual shape of object. On the other hand, if you are smudging with a selected blend mode other than 'normal', the shape of the object remains but the colors inside gets smudged!

This is very useful if you want to move colors around on an object without altering its textures! So in conclusion, with the combination of blend modes and the smudge tool options, you can create various different ways to mix colors digitally!

I hope you enjoyed this lesson on how to mix colors. Please keep this in mind as you will be doing a lot of color manipulation near the future!

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