Toning in PS: NEED HELP with Blending Mode Issue

[Kulimar]

I have a question/concern. I’m playing around with some tones I downloaded from the internet. First I just cut out a piece of tone I wanted for the face.

http://kulimar.com/sample1.jpg

From there I separated the hair and duplicated the hair portion of the tone a few times and set each layer to multiply to get darker hair.

http://kulimar.com/sample2.jpg

But when I flatten the image or go to merge any of the layers, they all return to normal…

http://kulimar.com/sample3.jpg

Now I’ve been using Photoshop blending modes for quite a while for color works and I’ve never had this happen. Does anyone know what’s going on? My file is 300 dpi, Grayscale, 8-bit/channel if that helps.

Thanks

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[figure2]

Kulimar,

It sounds like what you are doing should work but sometimes when you create artwork digitally you end up tearing your hair out.

First things first: you mentioned that the tones you were using were created by someone else and you downloaded them. Any chance that those colors could be causing some of your problems?

Instead of multiple layers of tone above your drawing, try just 1 layer and set it to "Multiply" or "Linear Burn." Command-click (Mac) or Control-Click (PC) your existing tone layer to create a selection border. Then fill a much darker version of the color you want into the new layer and adjust the layer's opacity.

Sometimes the way you save a file can make a difference. Instead of flattening the PSD file you are working on, try saving a copy of the file with the "Layers" option unchecked. You may get better results.

With digital art, sometimes it's a process of having to outsmart the computer and software to get it to do what you want.