Trick for blending colors in Procreate that saved me hours of trial and error

I kept getting muddy results when I tried to blend two colors together in my digital paintings, especially skin tones. After like 5 or 6 failed attempts at a portrait last week, I finally tried the Gaussian blur on a separate layer set to soft light. I just painted the two colors next to each other, blurred them, and then lowered the opacity a bit. It gave me such a smooth transition without that gross smudge look. I know this is probably basic for some people here, but I've been doing digital art for maybe 6 months and nobody told me about this. Has anyone else found a weird unexpected method for blending that actually works better than the standard smudge tool?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_sean9h ago

Another trick that COMPLETELY changed my workflow was using the smudge tool on a really low opacity with a textured brush instead of a soft round one. It picks up the colors in a way that feels way more natural, like you're actually mixing paint on a canvas instead of just smearing slush.

lisa_ross168h agoMost Upvoted

Does the brush tip make a huge difference there or is it more about the opacity setting itself? I've been using the mixer brush but maybe I'm overcomplicating things.