Photoshop - an oldie but a goodie

[inkbot_uk]

I'm having real torouble blending colours in photoshop. I have all the colours down i wish to use, but the actual blending part seems lost on me (though it seems to be hit and miss when i do seem to get it right). Does anyone know any good reading/tutorials on how to do it?

[GriNGo]

I believe you want Photoshop to mix colors in a "natural" way. Photoshop is different in this sense. Color blending in Photoshop doesn't work like in Painter. They just don't "mix" up in a natural way just like Painter tries to emulate. The only tip I can give you is to set your brush opacity to 50-60% and start painting that way. The colors will mix, but not as "natural" as you may be used to Also try setting your brush mode to multiply (if you want the "mixing" to churn out darker colors", or to "overlay" if you want some lighter ones. Photoshop, as an illustrator, forces you to know more about color theory in this sense...

[J Wilson]

Photoshop doesn't mix colors well. One proof of this is make a gradient blend from blue to yellow. You won't see green where they meet, instead you'll find a greyish color. I'm sure there is someone here who can tell you why, and why that works for Photoshop, but it doesn't work well for painting. Instead of mixing in that way, you really need to use the color you want where you want it in Photoshop. If you want green between blue and yellow, you need to put it there.

Some of the mixing modes as mentioned above may work sometimes, but they still won't react how you expect. I find it's just easier in Photoshop to place and use the correct colors you need.

[aea]

There are plenty of tutorials on this site. Including the Digital painting in PS thread that is in this section. If you look there, you may find advice given to those at similar levels. You can find the fundamentals there.

The best advice is when trying the technique...is practice practice practice. You will need to observe and have patience. Block in your colors and then work at varying opacity levels depending on what stage you're at. Use Alt/Option key (Dropper tool) frequently to pick colors in between to continue to blend. See what works for you.

I know that sounds unhelpful, but that was really how I picked it up. There's really no secret to it. It's just practice. It's like learning any other new medium. It's just time and effort.

Here are the above mentioned:
Digital painting in PS (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=47859)
Digital painting in PS #2 (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=107217)

[Iridyse]

It's probably frowned upon to link to your own thread but I did a post a little while ago about a new blending brush I made. Hopefully that's what you are looking for and you find it useful.

http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1706080&postcount=135

Another way to make a quick blender brush is to take the regular hard round brush (or even a textured brush will do) and set it to scatter a bit.Save this preset and use it as the smudge brush with verrryyyyy low opacity ( I usually use between 1-5%, it's really strong!) and use it along the endges of the patches that need blending. Use this sparingly though, superblendyness can look really artificial :)

Let me know if none of this makes sense, I'd be happy to explain.

[Naomi Ningishzidda]

I use the smudge/transparency glaze combo. :)