How to Combine Several Gradients in Adobe Illustrator

In this tutorial we will deal with some combination of gradient fills with the help of Blending modes, gradients with transparent sliders, and Opacity masks. These techniques allow us to create complex color blends, which typically have real world objects.

Gradient Combining with the Help of Blending Modes

Let’s check out some opportunities of object transparency change with two Blending modes. Create two rectangles, one of which should have a color fill, and the other is filled with black-and-white linear gradient.

Apply the Multiply blending mode in the Transparency panel to the object with gradient fill. As you can see, the white color became absolutely transparent after usage of this mode.

And now apply the Screen blending mode to this rectangle. This time, the black color became transparent.

Here I want to note, that this trick works fully only in RGB color mode. In addition, we need to use absolutely black color R=0; G=0; B=0 for the black color.

And now, let’s see on practice how to use features, describes above. A pole of a stop-sign is filled with linear gradient, which carries the volume of the cylindrical surface.

You can read full version of this tutorial on DesignModo.