Preview

Create Cool Watercolor Effects in Photoshop

May 27th in Effects by Fabio

Some time ago I wrote an article on my blog listing some fashion-style illustrations from really amazing designers such as Bruno Fujii, Margot Mace, Raphaël of My Dead Pony, Stina Person, and others. The coolest thing in their design work is their use of watercolor effects. So in this tutorial I will show a quick way to simulate that effect using only Photoshop and some brushes.

Author: Fabio

I am a Brazilian designer living in Porto Alegre (south of Brazil). In 2003, I founded a web design studio called ZEE, with Fabiano Meneghetti, an architect and friend of mine. It's a small studio now, with 4 people working basically with web.

Final Image Preview

Before we get started, let's take a look at the image we'll be creating. Click the screenshot below to view the full-size image. As always, the full layered Photoshop file is available via our PSDTUTS Plus membership.

Preview

Step 1

Create a new document and a new layer. Rename the layer to "texture" and fill it with white. Make sure that the foreground is white and the background is black. Then go to Filter>Texture>Texturizer, and use Canvas for the Texture, 80% Scaling, and 2 for the Relief.

Watercolor Effects in Photoshop

Step 2

Place an image in your document. The one used in this tutorial can be downloaded at this link. Then delete the background. You can use the Path Tool (P) or the Polygonal Lasso Tool (L). Tip: It doesn't need to be perfect because we will apply some filters in the next step.

Watercolor Effects in Photoshop

Step 3

Select the layer of the girl and go to Image>Adjustments>Levels. We want to increase the whites here. Then go to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation, and change the Saturation to -65.

Watercolor Effects in Photoshop

Step 4

Now go to Filter>Artistic>Watercolor. Use the following settings: Brush Detail 9, Shadow Intensity 0, and Texture 1.

Watercolor Effects in Photoshop

Step 5

With the girl's layer selected, go to Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal All. Then select the Brush Tool (B), with black for the color, and mask the body of the girl.

Watercolor Effects in Photoshop

Step 6

We need the Bittbox Watercolor Brushes 2 that you can download at this link.

Next we create a new layer. Then with the Brush Tool (B) selected, choose the seventh brush from the BB Watercolor Brushes. Use black for the color. Then reduce its size to fit the document. After that, rotate and resize the layer. The idea is to create watercolor-style hair for the girl using the brush.

Watercolor Effects in Photoshop

Step 7

Now go to Layer>Layer Style>Blending Options. Change the Fill Opacity to 0. Then select the Color Overlay option. Use red for the color and Multiply for the blend mode. For the Opacity use 70%. Then select the Satin option. Use Hard Light for the blend mode, purple (#5d085c) for the color, 20º for the Angle, Distance 4px, and Size 12px.

Watercolor Effects in Photoshop

Step 8

Create a new layer. Then select another brush with the Brush Tool(B). I used the 17th Bittbox Brush. The concept we're using is to design different creative-looking hairstyles. So let's continue with that. On a new layer, paint some brush strokes in the middle of the screen. Then resize and rotate them until they look good. You should achieve a stylized hair look, as in the image below.

Watercolor Effects in Photoshop

Step 9

Go to Layer>Layer Style>Blending Options. Set the Fill Options to 0. Then add a Color Overlay. Use Overlay for the blend mode, Blue (#002cec) for the color, and set it to 50% Opacity. Then select Satin. Then use the following settings: a slightly darker blue (#065795) color, a Linear Burn for the blend mode, a 100% Opacity, a 19º Angle, an 11px Distance, and a 14px Size.

Watercolor Effects in Photoshop

Step 10

Let's brush in some more hair. This time we'll use green. Create a new layer, and select the Brush Tool(B). Then select another brush from the watercolor set. Select the last one, reduce its size, and paint more hair. Use just one click when brushing. After that you can resize and rotate it.

Now go to Layer>Layer Style>Blending Options. Again set the Fill Options to 0. Then add a Color Overlay, use Multiply for the blend mode, Green (#18ff00) for the color, and 100% for the Opacity. Then select Satin. Use the following settings: darker green (#0b9600), Darken for the blend mode, 100% Opacity, 19º Angle, 4px Distance, and 7px Size.

Watercolor Effects in Photoshop

Step 11

Next we repeat the process one more time. Create a new layer. Then select the Brush Tool(B). Select another brush, reduce its size, and paint more hair. Adjust it by resizing and rotating it until it looks good.

Again, go to Layer>Layer Style>Blending Options. Change the Fill Options to 0. Then add a Color Overlay, use Hard Light for the blend mode, yellow (#ffe400) for the color, and 100% for the Opacity. Then select Satin. Use the following settings: darker yellow (#a2a406), Color Burn for the blend mode, 100% Opacity, 19º Angle, 17px Distance, and 73px Size.

Watercolor Effects in Photoshop

Step 12

Now select the layer with the girl's face. Change the blend mode to Screen. Then make some adjustments, like fixing the neck using a regular brush with a white color.

Watercolor Effects in Photoshop

Step 13

Type the text you want; I typed PSDTUTS. Then go to Layer>Layer Style>Gradient Overlay. Create a gradient using Red, Yellow, Green, and Blue. Use 180º for the angle and Normal for the blend mode.

Create another layer, and make sure that the text is on top of this new layer. Then with the Rectangular Marquee Tool, create a rectangle selection and fill it with white. Next we merge these two layers (the text with the white rectangle). This is necessary to add some text effects; otherwise the filters wouldn't work well.

Watercolor Effects in Photoshop

Step 14

Now we apply some filters to the text. First go to Filter>Brush Strokes>Sprayed Strokes. Use Stroke Length 17, Spray Radius 0, and Stroke Direction Vertical. After that go to Filter>Artistic>Watercolor. Use the following settings: Brush Detail 11, Shadow Intensity 0, and texture 1. That will create a nice text effect, or you could experiment with different filters until you achieve optimal results.

Watercolor Effects in Photoshop

Conclusion

This tutorial presents a quick and easy way to create a nice design. We achieved this by mixing a photo with watercolor effects. We used some watercolor brushes and played with blend modes. Keep in mind though, if you can paint it for real, you will be able to create very original artwork, like the designers I mentioned before.

Watercolor Effects in Photoshop

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User Comments

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  1. dubD May 27th

    First~! : ) Very nice tutorial! Thanks!!


  2. Mads May 27th

    Cool stuff :D


  3. venom May 27th

    Looks awesome! Gonna try this out!


  4. Davy May 27th

    i’ve seen this kind of waterpainting tutorial around before, not really a new and interesting tutorial.. Come on psdtuts, there is a lot more to explore with photoshop!


  5. Andre May 27th

    nice tut…helpful info!


  6. Ben Griffiths May 27th

    Neat effect, thanks for sharing :D


  7. Jonathan Solichin May 27th

    That’s one slick effect. Another great tutorial. Thanks!


  8. Chad Holmes May 27th

    More than the actual image affect your going for, i think the text in this design is incredible. Very crow quill.


  9. shmuli May 27th

    Now, that’s a cool effect! TFS (thanks for sharing!)


  10. Pavel Ciorici May 27th

    Nice effect :)


  11. giackop May 27th

    lol i just wrote a post in my blog with the similar video tutorial of godonholiday.. the tut of fabio in indeed much more detailed..

    cool one again fabio!!


  12. Jake Teton-Landis May 27th

    This sort of thing has been around for a while, but using Multiply brush mode or Multiply layer mode rather than layer styles…


  13. amirreza May 27th

    perfect same as always …


  14. D. Carreira May 27th

    Great Tutorial!

    Thanks for sharing this…

    David Carreira


  15. Yuri May 27th

    good!


  16. godonholiday May 27th

    Cool, lots of detail! very nice technique.

    I have just released a similar VIDEO tutorial over at

    http://www.viddler.com/explore/godonholiday/videos/11/

    great tutorial fabio!


  17. Tutzor May 27th

    Nice effect, gonna try it on my own photos :)


  18. dariuszman May 27th

    Oh.. evening relax with such a great tutorial :-)
    Thank you very much


  19. Danny May 27th

    The end product looks pretty okay, not one of my favorites but still very useful!


  20. styxz May 27th

    Huw nais!


  21. lethrj May 27th

    Very nice and simple. I love it. Great work on your Obama print BTW.


  22. Granty May 27th

    Site should be renamed FabioTuts. Always him posting on here.


  23. revy May 27th

    Great tut. Love these brushes!


  24. lethrj May 27th

    Oops! I must be high. My apologies to you and Scott Hansen. I think I must have seen the print on your “Best Of” list.


  25. Salva May 27th

    tomorrow i will try it. another great job Fabio


  26. Andrew May 27th

    I’ve been looking for a tutorial like this. The final result is awesome!


  27. Toni May 27th

    Genial el tutorial!

    Muy sencillo de seguir y con unos resultados excelentes.

    Gracias!


  28. Ruben May 27th

    Nice and original work Fabio! Interesting :)


  29. Erika May 27th

    Nice. Kinda has an overprint feel to it.


  30. Joefrey Mahusay May 27th

    Nice one! Great watercolor effects! Thanks for sharing :)


  31. serum May 27th

    Lovely. Beautiful. I’m really addicted to this tutorial - apparently for no reason really :) I just love it and was waiting for this one for such a long time. Thank you big time Fabio!


  32. Jim C. May 27th

    I really like this one. Can’t wait to get my computer back from the shop…


  33. Toxel.com May 27th

    Looks awesome. Thanks


  34. Devin May 27th

    Nice, I’ve been looking for a way to do watercolors in Photoshop.


  35. ebola5114 May 27th

    Great one…nice concepts !
    thanks for your post


  36. Arnaud Alves May 27th

    Really cool effect


  37. Reader May 27th

    great tutorial - what kind of typo is used for »by abduzeedo« ?


  38. GeminiArt May 27th

    wowwwwwwwwwwwww….. nice effect ;) great job ;)


  39. Hideki May 27th

    Awwwwwesome !


  40. goldenthunder May 27th

    AHHH Fabio! Great Job! I love it!


  41. nico May 27th

    very nice effect thx


  42. Drupal Museum May 27th

    Cool effect.


  43. Maurits May 27th

    WOW Nice effect!!!!


  44. misterbremer May 27th

    I tried something like this a ways back, but instead of using the watercolor filter I hand painted in areas of the face using custom brushes.
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/misterbremer/2426663596/

    Your method for the background was very similar to mine.


  45. c'firat gocmen May 27th

    i can do better, how can i a author in PSDTUTS?


  46. Daniel May 28th

    Nice one…

    Daniel


  47. T9 David May 28th

    That is a really beautiful brush pack. Thanks for sharing mate!


  48. Chris May 28th

    Abduzeedo’s inspiration: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24902970@N08/2518458287/in/pool-psdtuts


  49. Muffenz May 28th

    How do you get these ideas man! AMAZING!


  50. VINAY May 28th

    very nice tutorial and i can make it as well.. very nice tutorial


  51. frank vasquez May 28th

    Great Job Fabio!! Thank you for sharing.


  52. Ankit Mahanot May 28th

    Amazing tut !!! The colors are so rich n bold that they make your whole photograph look like anything ……. amazing work … keep it up !!!


  53. Mark Abucayon May 28th

    very impressive two thumbs up, great job.


  54. Constantin Potorac May 28th

    Great one Fabio. I love it. Also by including some other effects to this tutorial you guys can get some really great effects done.

    Keep experimenting ;)


  55. Constantin Potorac May 28th

    Keep them coming pal


  56. rybaxs May 29th

    YEah! so cool.. i like the color combination..


  57. MD May 29th

    Thanks for sharing this awesome and useful tut!!! I love it! thnx!! :D


  58. LOSWL May 29th

    Great tutorial, although some have seen this technique done before in different ways, I have never seen it, what is old to some is new to others, thanks for sharing this, I will try it out :o)


  59. Filipe M May 29th

    was new to me therefore thank you =)


  60. pHeR-d May 29th

    Awesome idea and technique! Thanks.


  61. sam May 30th

    nice tut, great gfx


  62. eslam May 30th

    niceeee


  63. PUthy LENG May 30th

    Very nice effect


  64. DeadPresidentDesigns May 31st

    Great tutorial… the water color brushes from bittbox are amazing by themselves … but the information here gives more ideas…


  65. David May 31st

    i love watercolors, it looks great!


  66. devx June 1st

    Nice one Fabio ;)


  67. Qbrushes June 1st

    something different… i like it.

    great brush set btw.


  68. Nona June 1st

    Great tutorials you have here, but you need to work a little on the explanation…


  69. ferdinand June 2nd

    This is a great tutorial. If you need other Watercolour brushes check out my post. I’ve got over 50 individual high resolution photoshop brushes.


  70. Faisal June 2nd

    Thanks For A Wonderful Tutorial Bro……:)


  71. Donni June 2nd

    hell yeah! nice TUT! thanks from uzbekistan!


  72. cv vandari June 3rd

    nice and keep it forever.


  73. fraggie June 4th

    thanks for the tutorial! it helped me alot! =)


  74. Office Rat :) June 4th

    I cant do the same… tried few time, same way, but the results ugly :(


  75. Kirit Vora June 9th

    Great Tutorial.
    As much as I know Photoshop, I still learned a lot.
    What fonts did you use to sign your name?
    You can email me at
    kiritvora@gmail.com

    Thanks
    Kirit


  76. Shobhit June 11th

    Awesome Work Man…

    Keeps inspiring me ….


  77. g June 13th

    i thought maybe it was going to show how to make the watercolors instead of just using brushes… i was wrong.


  78. Delene Kleyn June 14th

    Great technique and very effective …..


  79. virua June 15th

    Very nice! Thanks.


  80. zebra June 18th

    hi, ive got a bit of a problem. i hope some one answers this because i really like the TUT and want to try of out some stuff of my own.

    my problem is that when i use the brushes i always get the overlay colour that doesnt make it look like a painting. how can i get it to look like step 6

    thnaks in advance

    Zebra

    |. .|


  81. Bambam June 18th

    Awesome tut! I have a problem with the brushes though, how do you get it to flow like a real brush? I tried playing with the spacing settings of the brush but still get that jagged output, unlike the smooth, realistic brush effect like you have above. Any help would be great!


  82. Oxid June 21st

    Bambam and Zebra: I had the exact same problem with the brushes until I figured out that the author does not resize the brush dramatically — just a little bit. Practically he does not paint with the brush, just put a watercolor paint up with one single mouse click. This way the brush natural color and form is preserved. Hope it understandable.. :)

    Really lovely tutorial by the way, thanks Abduzeedo!


  83. erik June 21st

    i like this brush!


  84. nishant June 24th

    awesome tutorial.. nice effect.


  85. Rona June 27th

    this is SO cool! Thanks for sharing this tut!


  86. B!G July 1st

    man it’s awsome :X :X


  87. Bambam July 2nd

    @Oxid: Thanks man, finally figured it out after some experimentation. I guess you really have to use a humongous canvas for this to work, around the 3000+px resolution-sized document. For smaller output, no choice for a bloke but to look around other sites and get a smaller-resolution brush (or make one’s own)…but it’s all good, this tutorial rocks!


  88. Drew July 6th

    Great tutorial, many thanks.

    My attempt at using your tutorial: http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/1797/final1sizednn7.jpg


  89. krishna July 6th

    hai
    Thank u so so so so so much for every things…………………………..


  90. arda86™ July 10th

    cool effect, i love it :) thanks for the tut…


  91. Scott Wood July 15th

    Thanks for the tips! from all the manchester web designers at onlineworx.

    x


  92. Mansoor July 24th

    Great Tut.


  93. matt July 26th

    Great tutorial. Thanks very much for your insight. Greatly appreciated!


  94. risasa July 31st

    This is by far one of the best tutorials I have ever seen. The outcome is simply amazing and jaw dropping, I just love the vibrant feel you get from the variety of colors. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to create such an amazing tutorial. I know this will definitely help me in the near future. Thank you again!!


  95. Barış Aydın August 19th

    nice effect. thanks for sharing


  96. aso September 10th

    nice tutorial


  97. Leonardo September 12th

    I have seen the brushes that made this result possible.

    It’s really a very interesting “experiment”.

    To make procedural watercolor strokes one needs to deal with a lot of hard math models.

    You got a similar result just with bitmap operations by using a very huge (= absolutely detailed) brush.

    This very interesting “success case” give me new ideas for Computer Graphics development.

    Theory and practice walking together. :)


  98. melissa September 18th

    how do you keep the paint behind the girl?


  99. shashi singh thakur September 29th

    Thanks ! For teaching us such attractive effects on tutorial.

    Want to learn more!


  100. Zilla October 29th

    Cool tut! Here’s my try:
    http://94.100.114.37/394850001-394900000/394895501-394895600/394895511_6_WhjQ.jpeg


  101. Brow November 8th

    Very strange as I cannot get past the first step. :(

    I am using PS CS4 and it is not allowing to use the texture filter as you have described.


  102. ThaClown November 27th

    Love it


  103. Imran November 27th

    wow!! Great work..


  104. phillip Njovu December 1st

    good work


  105. tsauri28 December 1st

    simple but great…


  106. rasha December 6th

    thank you so much!!! i just followed it and the results look awesome!


  107. Kudeux December 28th

    thanks alot! great tutorial for a great effect!

    here’s what i came up with :
    http://photos-c.ll.facebook.com/photos-ll-snc1/v1680/204/72/765933941/n765933941_1743818_5855.jpg


  108. Prabhu B Doss December 30th

    stunning work !!
    thanks a ton for sharing the tutes !!


  109. Linda January 18th

    I really enjoyed this one, thanks.


  110. Zainab January 25th

    awesome


  111. jave January 26th

    Thanks for this great tutorial! Here is my try:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/janverhulst/3228680789/


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