Gradients are everywhere, just look around. The smooth transition of the gray to blue sky, the soft fall off of a pink sunset casting light on the distant mountain, or the slick reflection on a sports car. Using the Gradient tools in your workflow can speed up your painting process, and can help achieve a lot of cool effects in no time. Have you used gradients in your art lately? If not, here’s how!

Linear Gradient

Let’s start with something cool. Have you ever noticed that objects in the distance aren’t as clear as objects close to you? This is called atmospheric perspective, and it can really add depth to your artwork. You can use a simple Linear Gradient to simulate that effect. Give it a try. Drag out a gradient, then pick the color at the base of your subject to colorize it. As objects move farther into the distance, they’re not only smaller, but they also fade into the background.

• From Tools, find the Gradient Fill tool. Then drag from bottom to top on an empty layer to lay out a gradient for your atmospheric background.
• Change the colors of the gradient by tapping the color points.
• Select or create a new layer for the objects in your scene
• If you’re using objects (like the power lines above), open the layer options and Lock the transparency so you can colorize the objects easily.
• Use the Eyedropper to select the color from the gradient background at the base of each object, and fill the object with that color.
• Pro Tip: Pull out of the color button to quickly access the Eyedropper or set your finger as an Eyedropper in the Settings (a great combo if you are using a stylus).

Radial Gradient

The Radial Gradient is great when simulating lighting effects. Take for example the way a light casts on the surface of an object or a glowing sun in an overcast sky. Radial Gradients are a good starting point to achieve those effects.

• With the Gradient Fill tool active, use the dropdown menu to Radial.
• Add color points by tapping along the gradient line, or remove points by dragging them away.
• Change the opacity of color points by tapping them and adjusting the Opacity slider. This is great when you want to create a fall off effect.

Sample a layer

When exploring gradients and other effects, it’s a good practice to keep your artwork separate from those effects. This gives you the ability to change how much of an effect you want those effects to have on your artwork without having to recreate your artwork later on. When using one of the Fill tools, you can sample different layers to keep your artwork and fill effects separated. So you can use Gradient Fill on an empty layer while sampling the content from a different layer.

• With the Gradient Fill tool active, tap the layer you want to sample from and choose the Source option.
• On an empty layer, you can make gradients that respect the content of your Source layer!

Sample all layers

We don’t really see “layers” when we look at artwork. We see the artwork as a single image. Why should Fill be any different? Infinite Painter lets you sample from all layers optically when using the Fill tools. This is great for when you want to make a bunch of color fills or gradient effects while sampling all of the layers in your artwork.

• On a new layer, toggle the Sample All Layers icon on the Gradient/Fill toolbar.
• Fill on top of content to colorize or add lighting effects.
• Fill below content like line work to create colored illustrations.

Changing the Tolerance

Use the Tolerance slider to control how much area is filled. With a low Tolerance, you’re only going to affect the colors similar to your initial starting color (where you first touch the screen using a Fill tool). With a high Tolerance you can practically cover the entire canvas.

• Adjust the Tolerance by tapping the Tool Settings gear in the top left
• Tap and drag within the area you want to place your gradient. The initial touch point will determine your starting color for the fill effect. After the area is filled, you can move and adjust the gradient.
• Tap the checkmark on the gradient to add multiple gradients.
• Use the Blend to merge multiple gradients and create a sense of lighting!

Gradients with a selection

Like spray paint with a stencil, you can mask off certain areas that you want to limit the gradient effect. Use a Selection Tool like the Lasso to create custom shapes for your gradients.

• Open Tools and select a Selection tool.
• Carve out the areas in the selection mask that you want to apply your gradient effect.
• Press the checkmark to make the selection mask active and drag out your fill in open areas of the mask.

Subtle lighting effects

Sometimes you want to add a subtle gradient effect. Use the Layer Blending Modes like Overlay or Multiply to achieve that effect. Clip a gradient-filled layer to a different layer or an entire group to colorize a portion of your artwork or add global lighting effects.

• Group the artwork you want to clip a gradient effect to. With two fingers, pinch the top and bottom most layers together to create a group. All layers in that pinch gesture will be grouped together.
• Add a new layer above the group and create your gradient on that empty layer.
• Open the Layer Options and choose Clip to clip the layer to the content of the group below it.
• Now adjust the Layer Blending Mode and the Opacity to get the desired effect.

Gradients with Layer Masks

Ever wanted to reveal something below an opaque layer, but you don’t want to erase that layer? Layer Masks do just that! Without destroying the layer, a layer mask can hide or reveal content on a layer.

• Select the layer you want to edit, open Layer Options and tap Mask.
• On the mask, drag out a black to white gradient. Masks use the color black to hide content and the color white to reveal content. Gray values between black and white will be translucent.
• Use the Mask to safely hide content without affecting your artwork!

The Result