The end result

The final composition shows aspects of all four layers we began with: the shape of the kite and some feather detail, the ripples of the sea, the clouds and the blood moon can all be picked out. While some combinations of layers and blend modes are more effective than others, you should never be afraid to experiment – Pixelmator, like many other image editors, supports multiple levels of Undo, so rolling back less successful edits is just a case of pressing ç+Z. The app can save in all major image file formats, and its Save for Web feature allows you to keep file sizes down without causing too much compression damage to your files. Exporting as a JPEG or PNG will flatten your layers into one, so to save your layers for later editing use Pixelmator’s PXM file format.