Coloring Brushes With Watercolors Tutorial

Coloring Brushes With Watercolors

Note: Tutorial created using Adobe Photoshop CS2 with Windows XP.

Brushes are so versatile, with endless ways to use them. One simple technique is to use the ScrapSimple Tool - Styles: Watercolors 4901 Biggie to create the effect of using watercolor paints to color them.

For this example, I am using a brush from Thao's Brush Set: Sketchbook - Flowers Biggie. You can use any type of brush or ScrapSimple embellishment template that looks like a drawing.

Stamp your brush on its own layer so that it remains transparent. I like to keep a white background showing so that I can see the image easier.

Add a new blank layer above your drawing. You are going to add your coloring to this layer. Make sure the layer is selected on the Layers Palette.

Using the Marquee Tool, outline and create a selection around part of the image you want to color a single color. For this example, I am selecting one individual petal. Even though I want this whole flower one color, it will look more realistic if I select individual parts rather than selecting all of the petals at the same time. The red line shows where my selection area is with the marching ants.

You are now going to fill the selection in with color. You can do this by either dumping color with the Paint Bucket Tool or using the Gradient Tool. For my example, I use the Gradient Tool.

You will repeat these last two steps for every part of the drawing. Make sure each section is on its own layer.

Once your entire picture has been colored, move your drawing layer to the top of the Layers Palette. You can now see if everything looks correct or if there are areas that need additional coloring.

Once everything looks OK, go through each layer and apply the ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Watercolor 4901 Biggie. Each style has a different watercolor texture, pattern and feel. Pick the one that goes with the style and feel of your brush. The petals in this example each have a different style applied to it to create a more realistic watercolor feel.

Once you have applied the styles, you can then merge layers. Finally, adjust the lighting and colors if they appear too bright and saturated or too dark.

You have now colored your brush so that it looks like it was colored in with watercolors.

Commercial license versions of ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Transparency 4901, ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Watercolor 4901 Biggie and Brush Set: Sketchbook Flowers Biggie are also available.

Tutorial written by Shalae Tippetts