Book Image

Draw and Paint Better with Krita

By : Wesley Gardner
Book Image

Draw and Paint Better with Krita

By: Wesley Gardner

Overview of this book

Krita is a free, open-source digital painting program with industry-leading functionality and a creative suite of tools able to bring any visual idea to life. It allows for a fast, clean approach to creating digital art, without the hassle of pay-to-play or subscription license fees, but just like all other art software, it takes time and effort to learn it. This book provides a comprehensive look into functional tools, visual problem-solving, and leading painting techniques using Krita to unleash your inner artist. You’ll learn the functionality and tools of Krita for creating digital and print-quality work as well as explore manipulation toolsets, custom brush creation, overviews of color spaces, and layer management. As you progress, you’ll get to grips with ‘key styles’ needed to make professional-grade digital art, through techniques such as photobashing, 3D paint-overs, and more traditional painting methods, along with covering how Krita handles these workflows. Next, you’ll work through a few step-by-step art pieces using the skills and tools learned throughout the book. By the end of this Krita book, you’ll have a solid understanding of the Krita work environment and be able to bring your artistic visions to life with a myriad of leading industry-standard techniques.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
1
Part 1: Intro to Krita and Digital Art Terminology Review
6
Part 2: Methods of Visual Communication within Krita
11
Part 3: Projects Unleashing Your Inner Artist with Krita

Understanding layer modes

At their most basic level, layer modes (also known as blending modes or layer blending modes) are just rules in which two layers (or more, if dealing with layer groups) interact with one another using algorithms and computer logic within Krita. For instance, the 
default blending mode within Krita (known as the Normal mode) has the basic logic of "If a layer is above another layer on the Layers panel, display the contents of the top layer on top of the contents of the layer below it, with relation to the transparency of the top layer's contents."

This may not seem like something useful just from the definition, however, this is a powerful benefit of working digitally. Layer blending modes are extremely valuable to learn, as the flexibility they provide can take your art to the next level by adding realistic texturing, controlling more subtle light and shadow usage, and integrating photographs into your compositions, for example.

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