In the real world, when you place a second brush full of paint over paint that's already there, different things happen, depending on the color of the paint you're applying—how opaque it is, whether the first layer is wet or dry, and so on. In Photoshop, you can control all these factors by applying what's called blending modes. You'll find them on a pop-up menu in the Tool Options bar, as shown in Figure 8.12. Blending modes apply to all tools that can draw or paint, including the Pencil, Clone Stamp, and Gradient tools, as well as the more obvious ones. As you can see, there are quite a few modes. Take a quick look at the blending modes and how they work.
Suppose that you're working with only two colors. One is the base color, the one that's already in place. The second is the blend color, the one that you apply with each blending mode enabled. You get a third color, a result that varies according to how you blend the first two.
Figures 8.13–8.35 display what happens when you choose each of the options. (The examples were painted with a firm brush in hot pink on a limegreen background, except for those with the letter R, which have the colors reversed.)