There are many, many brushes available for Photoshop, and combining brushes with Photoshop’s layer modes can create some stunning colouring effects.

For this quick tip in colouring in Photoshop you will need brushes that have shading – solid shapes will not work with this method.

Using just a few colours and different layer modes you can create art with subtle shade differences, and the variances are almost endless – this is a great way to learn how the layer modes work, you can adjust, readjust and adjust again until you achieve the desired effects.

I used my Christmas Cheer brushes for this tutorial, and they can be downloaded here 

Step 1

Create a new file using the following settings:

Create a new layer and fill with #F3EBD6

To create the background texture:

Filter>Texture>Texturiser

Apply the following settings:

Step 2

Create a new layer

With black as the foreground colour, select the Brush tool and select Christmas Cheer 8 brush and resize to around 900px.

Click once on the canvas.

Step 3

Create a new layer and name it ‘Red’

Set the foreground colour to #F22626

Set the layer mode to Overlay

Select the Brush tool, a smallish round brush set to about 50% hardness and paint the strip ribbon.

Step 4

Create a new layer and name it ‘Berries’

Set the foreground colour to #A02525

Set the layer mode to Color

With the Brush tool again set to about 50% hardness, paint the berries

Step 5

Create a new layer and name it ‘Green’

Set the foreground colour to #25430A

Set the layer mode to Color

With the Brush tool, paint the fir leaves.

Step 6

Create a new layer and name it ‘Bow’

Set the foreground colour to #CAB15A

Set the layer mode to Overlay

With the Brush tool, paint the bow and the inlay on the back ribbon strip

Step 7

Create a new layer and name it ‘Bells’

Set the foreground colour to #E8A30E

Set the layer mode to Soft Light

With the Brush tool, paint the bells

As I stated at the beginning of this article, you can change the layer modes for different effects. Here are 3 versions. None of the colours have been changed, only the layer modes and opacities have been adjusted. The first one is the result of the above instructions.

The following example used a .png image of a dragon. The first image is the original, the second has had a Black & White adjustment layer applied, set to Maximum White. I then reduced the opacity of the dragon to around 85% and coloured using layer modes to achieve the final result.

As you can hopefully see, this method is very versatile. You can use brushes or images, and if required, you can get different variations without changing the colours.

I hope you have found this helpful. Please leave any comments or links to your own results below.