Step 1: Prep Your Layers
Before you touch a texture or brush, prep your file. Separate your line art, colors, and text into their own clearly labeled layers. Group things logically so you’re not hunting for pieces later.
It might feel like a boring setup, but when you're deep in grunge and need to make quick adjustments, this structure will save you from total chaos.
Step 2: Add a Paper Texture
Retro art never starts on a blank white canvas — it starts on paper. Import a texture like Phantom Paper, Paper Boy, or something from the Funny Papers Pack, and place it beneath your artwork. Set the blending mode of the paper texture to Multiply, then dial down the opacity if it feels too heavy.
This instantly warms up your colors and gives your work the cozy imperfection of old print stock.
Step 3: Use Vintage Coloring Brushes
Flat fills scream “modern.” Instead, recreate the look of old print with vintage texture brushes. Create a new layer above your flat color, select the area you want to paint, and use brushes from ColorLab or the Risograph Brush & Texture Kit to fill it in with rougher, more organic strokes.
You can also lean on tools like the Classic Ballpoint Pen or Dry Ink Brush from the Standard Pens Pack. The goal here is irregularity — real-life print fills are never perfect.
Step 4: Misalign Your Colors
In vintage printing, colors never lined up perfectly. That’s part of the charm. You can mimic this by selecting your color layers and nudging them one or two pixels in different directions.
Make sure snapping and auto-alignment are turned off so you can manually misalign things. It’s a tiny shift, but it makes a huge difference in creating that offset ink look.
Step 5: Add Ink Bleed
That soft fuzz around the edges of old comics? That’s ink bleed — caused by cheap paper soaking up too much ink. To simulate it, duplicate your ink and color layers and apply a very light Gaussian Blur (about 1–3%).
In Procreate, you’ll find this under Adjustments > Gaussian Blur. In Photoshop or Illustrator, use the basic blur filter. The result should soften your lines just enough to make them feel printed, not painted.
Step 6: Subtractive Defects (Without Erasing)
Now it’s time to start subtracting — carefully. Instead of erasing parts of your art directly, use layer masks. Add a mask to your ink or color layer, and use black brushes from the ColorLab or Risograph kits to remove bits of detail. This mimics ink flakes, edge wear, or printing skips.
Focus on corners, outlines, and small detail areas — that’s where prints wear down naturally. You can always use white to “paint back” parts of the layer if needed.
Step 7: Additive Effects
Just as you took things away, now you’ll add things back — messily. Create a new layer and use brushes from the Edge & Fold Pack to apply ink splatters, overspray, or smudges. Use black at low opacity and work around borders or random focal points.
Once you're happy, you can add a layer mask to fine-tune it. This is the messy, human side of print — a little unpredictability goes a long way.
Step 8: General Wear and Tear
To make your whole piece feel like it’s lived a long life, add scuffs, creases, and scratches. Use the Edge & Fold Pack brushes again, but this time paint with white on a layer set to Screen or Overlay.
Want a realistic fold? Paint a white fold line, duplicate the layer, fill the copy with black, nudge it slightly, and switch it to Overlay to create a subtle shadow. Adjust opacity as needed until it feels integrated.
Step 9: Ink Modeling
Ink modeling refers to the uneven way ink used to settle on cheap paper, leaving splotches or pools. Create a new layer above your color layers, grab a gritty paper brush, and paint broad strokes in black over the entire piece. Set this layer to Overlay and reduce the opacity until it adds depth without overpowering. It’s subtle, but it gives your art a more printed-on feel.
Step 10: Adjust and Refine
Step back. Squint. Take a break. Then come back and see what needs tweaking. Adjust opacities, soften effects, and erase anything that looks too “on purpose.”
Real vintage art is messy, but not chaotic. Your goal is authentic wear, not post-apocalyptic damage. Fine-tune until the textures feel natural, not overbaked.
TL;DR: Make It Messy (On Purpose)
Clean digital art is nice, but if you want your work to look like it time-traveled from a dusty print shop in 1962, you’ve got to rough it up. Start with a solid paper texture, layer in gritty brushes, misalign your colors just enough, and stack on subtle defects like ink bleed, scratches, and folds. Use masks (not erasers), keep your tweaks subtle, and always step back to see the full effect.
With the right tools and a little controlled chaos, you’ll end up with something that looks authentically imperfect — and that’s the goal.
