Blend Modes Cheat Sheet for Digital Painting

Each blend mode is a small piece of math applied between the layer you are painting on and everything visible beneath it. You do not need the math, only the behavior: does the mode darken, lighten, push contrast, or change color? This blend modes cheat sheet answers that for the modes painters actually use, with a starting opacity for each, so you rarely reach for the wrong one. It is the reference companion to layer blend modes for shading in the digital painting fundamentals pillar.

The blend modes cheat sheet: every mode that matters

The blend modes used in painting, grouped by family, with what each does, the job it suits, and a starting layer opacity.

Mode	Family	What it does	Use it for	Start at
Multiply	Darken	Darkens only; multiplies values together, keeps the surface hue	Shadows, occlusion, tint that keeps the base color	50 to 60 percent
Darken	Darken	Keeps whichever pixel is darker, per channel	Adding a texture or line only where it is darker than the base	100 percent
Screen	Lighten	Lightens only; inverse of Multiply, never reaches white	Soft light, glow, atmosphere, mist, rim light	30 to 50 percent
Add / Linear Dodge	Lighten	Sums values; lightens fast and clips to white	The few hottest highlights: sparks, filaments, sun on an edge	20 to 40 percent
Overlay	Contrast	Darkens darks, lightens lights, using the base to decide	Unifying light, pushing contrast and temperature	20 to 30 percent
Soft Light	Contrast	A gentle Overlay	Subtle temperature shifts without blowing out	40 to 60 percent
Hard Light	Contrast	Overlay with the layer, not the base, in charge	Stamping a strong texture or a bold light shape	20 to 40 percent
Color	Color	Applies hue and saturation, keeps the base value	Recoloring a greyscale value study; a black Color layer as a value check	100 percent
Hue	Color	Changes hue only; keeps value and saturation	Shifting the color of one object without touching its shading	100 percent
Luminosity	Color	Applies value only; keeps the base hue and saturation	Adding shading from a greyscale layer onto colored flats	50 to 100 percent

The W3C Compositing and Blending specification defines each of these formally, and the Krita Manual's blending modes reference lists every mode one app offers with a worked example image.

Darken family: when to reach for Multiply

Reach for a darken mode whenever the layer should only ever make the picture darker: shadow, occlusion, a stain, a line drawing that must sit over color. Multiply is the everyday choice because it darkens in proportion to the base, so a shadow keeps the hue of whatever it falls on. Darken is the specialist for merging line art cleanly.

Worked example: a character's flats are a warm skin tone at about 65 percent lightness. On a Multiply layer at 55 percent opacity, a dull violet at 40 percent lightness painted across the shadow side lands as a believable cool shadow that is still skin. The same violet on a Normal layer at the same opacity turns the shadow to purple paint. To merge inked lines over the colored piece, set the line layer to Darken or Multiply at 100 percent; the black stays black and the white paper vanishes.

Lighten family: Screen for light, Add for the accent

Reach for a lighten mode when the layer should only ever make the picture lighter. Screen is the daily driver: it lifts value smoothly and cannot overshoot, so lit planes, glow and rim light stay controllable. Add (Linear Dodge in Photoshop and Clip Studio) sums values and clips, so it produces the brightest possible result and is only for the two or three hottest points in the image.

Worked example: a lamp in a night scene. On a Screen layer at 40 percent, a pale saturated orange airbrushed around the lamp gives the glow and warms the nearby wall. On an Add layer at 25 percent, a 6 px dot of near-white on the filament gives the one point that reads as the light source. Swap the two and the glow blows out to a white blob while the filament looks dull.

Contrast family: Overlay and Soft Light to unify

Contrast modes look at the base and push it away from the middle: darks get darker, lights get lighter, and any hue on the layer tints both. That makes them the final unifying pass, never the first shading pass. Overlay is strong; Soft Light is the same idea at roughly half strength; Hard Light lets the layer dominate and is mostly for stamping textures.

Worked example: a finished figure looks like it was painted under three different lights. One Overlay layer at 25 percent, a large soft brush, warm orange over every lit plane and a dull blue over every shadow plane, and the figure sits in one light. If the mid values go crunchy, switch the layer to Soft Light at 50 percent. Overlay stacked on a good value structure is what makes values in painting and color agree; on a weak structure it only makes the weakness louder.

Color family: recolor without touching value

Color modes split a pixel into value and everything else. Color applies the layer's hue and saturation while keeping the base value; Hue changes only the hue; Luminosity does the reverse and applies only value. Because they leave value alone, they are safe at 100 percent, and a black layer set to Color is the fastest value check in any app.

Worked example: a greyscale value study of a head, blocked in three greys. A Color layer at 100 percent painted with a mid-saturation skin tone recolors it in one pass and the greys keep every value. The reverse trick: shade on a grey Normal layer, then set it to Luminosity over the flats, and the greyscale shading transfers onto the colors.

Blend mode names across Procreate, Clip Studio, Krita and Photoshop

The core modes exist in every major painting app, but names and menu order vary. When a tutorial names a mode you cannot find, look for the one in the same family with the same behavior on a test layer. Adobe's blending mode descriptions and the Procreate Handbook's blend modes page are the two references used for the names below.

What each blend mode is called in four painting apps.

Mode (this sheet)	Procreate	Clip Studio	Krita	Photoshop
Multiply	Multiply	Multiply	Multiply	Multiply
Screen	Screen	Screen	Screen	Screen
Add	Add	Add (Glow) / Add	Addition	Linear Dodge (Add)
Overlay	Overlay	Overlay	Overlay	Overlay
Soft Light	Soft Light	Soft Light	Soft Light	Soft Light
Hard Light	Hard Light	Hard Light	Hard Light	Hard Light
Color	Color	Color	Color	Color
Luminosity	Luminosity	Brightness	Luminosity	Luminosity

Clip Studio offers both Add and Add (Glow); test both on a spare layer and keep the one that clips later. Krita lists many extra modes in each family, all documented in the Krita Manual, and none are needed for the workflow on this sheet.

Common blend mode mistakes

The mistakes that come up most with blend modes, what they look like, and the fix.

Mistake	How it looks	Fix
Painting shadows in grey on a Normal layer	Dull, dirty color under the shadow	Multiply with a slightly cool hue at 50 to 60 percent
Using Add for every highlight	Chalky white patches, no single light source	Screen for light; Add only for two or three hottest spots
Leaving Overlay at full opacity	Crushed mids, oversaturated lights	Start at 20 to 30 percent, or use Soft Light
Stacking modes before the values read	Effects on a picture that fails as a thumbnail	Fix the greyscale block-in first; modes refine, they do not repair
Shading layers not clipped	Light and shadow spill outside the silhouette	Clip every mode layer to the flats
Pure white on Screen or Add	Flat, clipped light with no color	Use a pale saturated color; the mode supplies brightness

Using the blend modes cheat sheet

Pick the family first, then the mode, then the starting opacity from the table, and adjust by eye. Darken for shadow, lighten for light, contrast to unify, color to recolor: that is the whole blend modes cheat sheet in one line. For how these stack in a real painting, with a numbered layer stack and the order to build it, see layer blend modes for shading, and for where the edges go once the light is in place, hard and soft edges.

Common questions

What is the difference between Multiply, Screen and Overlay?

Multiply only darkens and keeps the base hue, so it carries shadow. Screen only lightens and never reaches white, so it carries soft light and glow. Overlay does both at once, darkening darks and lightening lights according to the base, so it is used at low opacity to unify color and contrast after shadow and light are already placed.

Which blend mode should I use for shadows?

Multiply, painted with a dull, slightly cool color at around 40 percent lightness, on a layer at 50 to 60 percent opacity clipped to your flats. It darkens in proportion to the surface beneath, so the shadow keeps the hue of the object. A second Multiply layer at 70 to 80 percent handles small occlusion where surfaces touch.

Are Photoshop blend modes the same in Procreate and Clip Studio?

The core modes are the same math under slightly different names. Linear Dodge (Add) in Photoshop is Add in Procreate and Addition in Krita; Luminosity is Brightness in Clip Studio. Menu order and grouping differ, so when a mode seems missing, find the one in the same family and test it on a spare layer.

What does the Color blend mode do?

It applies the hue and saturation of your layer while keeping the value of everything beneath it. That makes it the fastest way to color a greyscale study without disturbing the value structure, and a black layer set to Color is a one-click greyscale check for any painting, since it strips color and leaves only lightness.

Sources and further reading

Primary references for the facts and definitions in this piece, all from independent publishers:

• W3C: Compositing and Blending Level 1: the formulas behind each blend mode.
• Krita Manual: Blending modes: the full list of modes in one painting app.
• Adobe: Blending mode descriptions in Photoshop: photoshop's names and definitions for each mode, including linear dodge (add).
• Procreate Handbook: Blend modes: procreate's names and grouping of the same modes.