Illustrator is great for creating sharp flawless lines and elements, but sometimes you want to create an illustration with some texture and depth. Watercolor paintings have great textures and depth, but when coupled with Illustrator it seems counterproductive to what the program was built for. You might think "Why not just do this in Photoshop?" Then you will miss out on all the wonderful things vectors have to offer, like scalability.
Final Image Preview
Before we get started, let's take a look at the image we'll be creating. The source file for this tutorial is not currently available, though we are planning on releasing this in the future. Below is the completed illustration to see what you are working toward.
Step 1
Start by finding a picture of a flower. The picture doesn't have to be a masterpiece. I just took a quick photo of a flower that I found laying around.
Step 2
To start, create a new 8.5 inches by 11 inches document. Then go to File > Place, and find your flower pic on your computer. Roughly size the photo to your document the way you would like. Then choose Template from the pop-up menu of the Layers Panel. If the image becomes too transparent, double click on the layer to bring up the Layer Options Dialog. Here, you can change the Dim Images setting to whatever percentage you like.
Step 3
Press the Create New Layer button on the bottom of the Layers Panel to create a new layer. Double click on the new layer and call it "Flower Outline." Using layers and labeling are great ways to stay organized!
Step 4
In the new layer use the Ellipse Tool. Click on the artboard to bring up the Ellipse Dialog. Change the Width to 2 inches and the Height to .05 inches, creating a narrow ellipse. Make the fill of the circle 100% black with no stroke.
Step 5
Next, drag the ellipse into the Brush Panel with the Selection Tool. Once you drag the ellipse in, it will bring up the New Brush dialog. Check the New Art Brush option to bring up the Art Brush Options dialog. Name it "Flower Outline." Then go down to the bottom of the dialog to the Method and choose Tints from the drop down list. This will let you change the color of the brush without creating a new brush.
Step 6
Select the Brush Tool from the Tools Panel. Then make sure you have the newly created brush selected from the Brush Panel. Then start tracing one of the petals of the flower. If you feel the lines are thicker than you would like them, change the Stroke Weight in the Stoke Panel. Some of you might be more comfortable drawing with the pen tool, but you will soon see that you can go pretty fast with the Brush Tool.
Step 7
Continue to trace the most predominate lines from the picture until you have traced the flower and stem. When tracing the image, you don't have to worry about closing the brush paths. Next, select all the strokes and change the color to violet. After, press the Visibility Icon on your Flower Pic Template Layer to hide it.
Step 8
Create a new layer called "Background Watercolor." Then drag the layer under the "Flower Outline" layer. Then lock the "Flower Outline" layer by pressing the Lock Icon next to the Visibility Icon.
Step 9
For this step, you will use the Pencil Tool, but first you need to change some of the Pencil Tool's options. Double-click on the Pencil Tool in the Tool Panel to bring up the Pen Tool Preferences dialog. In this dialog, you want the Fidelity to be .5 pixels. This creates a path with many points, helping create the watercolor effect.
Step 10
With the Pencil Tool selected, start drawing a path around the flower outline. When you draw this path, do it very roughly and add some jagged edges. Make sure to close the path. An easily way to close the path is to hold down Option / Alt right before you are done drawing.
Fill the shape with white and give it no stroke. Then draw a path surrounding the first one. Again, do it rough and add some jagged edges. Fill the second path with 18% Cyan. Then send it behind the first object.
Step 11
Select both shapes and go Object > Blend > Make to create a blend. This will create a smooth blending effect. If you are not getting this effect (the shapes are stepped and not blending), make sure that your shapes are closed and not overlapping each other. You can also check your Blend Options by going Object > Blend > Blend Options. Make sure it is set to Smooth Color.
Step 12
Next, create two more paths with the Pencil Tool that are a good deal larger than the previous two. Make sure to really make some jagged jetting edges. The smaller path needs to be filled with the 18% Cyan, and the largest shapes need to be filled with white. Then go Object > Blend > Make to make a blend. Then Send Behind the first Blend.
Step 13
Lock the "Background Watercolor Layer." Then create a new layer labeled "Water Color Textures," and drag it below the "Flower Outline" layer.
Step 14
The first set of textures are drops of color. Use the Ellipse Tool to draw a circle. It doesn't have to be a perfectly constrained circle. Fill it with a color of your choice, preferably a light pastel color. For the first dot, I used a 30% Cyan.
Next, use the Pencil Tool and draw jagged edges around the ellipse. Make sure you close the shape with Option / Alt. Then fill the shape with white and send it behind the circle. Select both the ellipse and jagged shape and create a Blend, like before. Set the blend to Multiply in the Transparency Panel. Also, change the Opacity to 50%.
Step 15
Repeat these steps to create more dots with different colors and shapes. For dots with a white fill, don't set the Transparency to Multiply, just make sure the fill of the larger shape (the jagged shape around the ellipse) matches the color it is overlapping.
Step 16
You can keep the Water Blob elements on the same "Water Color Textures" layer. Use the Pencil Tool to draw a blob. Try to make this shape more elliptical, rather than the jagged edges of the shapes you have already drawn. Fill it with 10% Cyan and take off any stroke. Then create another blob with the Pencil Tool that is slightly smaller than the first one. Also, fill it with white and give it no stroke. Then select both blobs and create a Blend.
Step 17
Place the blob anywhere you like. Also, create more blobs anywhere in the illustration, as your design eye dictates.
Step 18
Create a new layer called "Flower Color." Then drag it below the "Flower Outline" layer and lock all other layers.
Step 19
Apply the blending techniques you have already used to color the flower and stem. When creating the shapes to blend, make the outside shape color white, so it will blend in with the colors it is layered upon. You don't want any hard edges that take away from the watercolor effect.
Step 20
When the illustration is all done, it nice to crop it with Clipping Masks. Create the shape you want the illustration to be clipped within the "Flower Outline" layer, and Copy it. I am using a rectangle that is the size of my document.
Once you have the shape in the correct positioning, select the shape, and choose Clipping Mask from the drop-down menu in the Layer Panel. Then select the next Layer that needs to be cropped. Then go to Edit > Paste In Front (pasting the clipping object you copied at the beginning of this step). Then repeat the steps the for creating the Clipping Mask. Do this to all the layers that need to be cropped.
Final Image
Dress the illustration up as you like, and you're done!
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User Comments
( ADD YOURS )Ben Griffiths June 17th
Cool tutorial, and very detailed as well, thanks!
K3v June 17th
Great result! Learned something new today!
MVTgUn June 17th
great!
Jonas June 17th
Wonderfully executed.
How would you add “texture?”
Callum Martin June 17th
This has taught me some really useful techniques with illustrator. Thanks for the awesome tutorial!
Constantin Potorac June 17th
very interesting.
MD June 17th
It was really helpuf to me!
Thanx 
Ralph June 17th
Awwww soooo freaking beautiful i´m going to try this one to make a gift to my girlfriend. Thanks you soo much for this tut.
By:Ralph’008 =)
Ralph June 17th
Awwww soooo freaking beautiful i´m going to try this one to make a gift to my girlfriend. Thanks you soo much for this tut.
By:Ralph’008 =)
P.S Sorry for repost i wrote the wrong mail for my gravatar.
Grafiko June 17th
very nice tutorial
LaurenMarie - Creative Curio June 17th
Excellent tutorial, Ryan. I love tutorials that show me more than just how to create a pretty picture; you’ve demonstrated many skills that are transferable to other, unrelated projects. Thank you!
Gilberto Saraiva June 17th
A very fine art! but with a complex freehand drawing
Amy June 17th
Great tutorial! I am so glad that you guys decided to make a vector tutorial site… it goes hand in hand with PS.
Here is my result from this tutorial: http://www.creativestable.com/files/watercolor_flower.jpg
Andrew June 17th
Awesome, I love that you guys have vector tutorials now!
Danny June 17th
nice design!! i like it!
Andrew D June 17th
Nice tutorial!
Adam Jackett June 17th
This is a great tutorial. I never thought of handling line drawings that way. It will surely come in handy for many things I do.
Tim June 17th
Nicely done!
Zach LeBar June 17th
incredible tut. great detail, and a great use of the blend tool. i cant wait to use this again for some of my projects.
Viz June 17th
VERY nice
thank you, I love this vector site already
Brad June 17th
Holy cow, I never would have thought of doing that in Illustrator, and the outcome is super un-vector like. Awesome.
ZaFaR June 17th
NICE TUTS!
Lamin Barrow June 17th
Cool. now it’s time to make use of Adobe Illustrator. Thx
Zhang June 17th
Wicked, this is awesome! Learned a lot, thanks.
Ali June 17th
Nice tutorial, hope to see more soon.
IVANge June 17th
cool web site, congratulations vectors & psd´s are the best tuts, “sigan adlante, son muy buenos, proximamente les enviare unos ios espero les gusten jeje exito!!!”
Qvectors June 17th
great tutorial! many new things learnt from this
crazyhunk June 17th
thts a really good tut… thanx for this…
D. Carreira June 18th
Cool! Thanks for sharing us this tutorial.
David Carreira
Joefrey Mahusay June 18th
Wow Cool Tutorial!
Shane June 18th
very nice result and lots of things for me to learn!
thanks a lot.
puffgirl June 18th
cool, very nice.
Thanks
fedegrafo June 18th
Nice tut!
Thanks for sharing and for this new project
Tl7 June 18th
It is a great tutorial but i think that the colors could have been better , never the less the water color effect is really nice.
Gary Horsman June 18th
It’s incredible how versatile a tool Illustrator is. More designers ought to take the time to let go of their dependence on Photoshop an really explore this app.
Kevin June 18th
How do i get the background to blend the way in the tutorial? It doesn’t look faded at all.
I made the white background and behind that the 18% cyan one, then i blended them both but i just get a distorted path instead of a nice fade.
travis June 18th
is this why vectips can been a little quiet lately? good job rype.
Zaira June 18th
Thanks!!! all the tips are really great! but this specially….i love it! great!
Rype June 18th
Kevin,
It might be that the paths are overlapping (if you haven’t checked already) or that the paths are not closed. Let me know if that helps.
iStockdiary June 18th
Mmm… Very interesting effect. I like it.
Aman June 18th
I am learning a lot from these two websites. thanks a tonn
Jyar June 19th
Awesome effect!
Thanks for sharing, these effects will be very useful to me!
Aman June 19th
very nice! Thanks a tonn
bjornredemption June 19th
wow - the final effect is lovely - especially liked the use of different techniques in one tutorial.
I’d love more tutorials esp. in depth uses of the brushes panel.
Rype June 19th
I’m gad everyone likes the Tut! I just created some watercolor brushes for Illustrator that you can download over at Vectips!
http://tinyurl.com/5fs6qs
Horus DB June 19th
really nice ^^
Braden Keith June 20th
I got to get a Waccom tablet!
ABHI SAHADEV June 21st
REALY NICE……………..
Kevin June 22nd
thanks for the reaction,
I made sure to draw the paths like i was told so they closed and i’m pretty sure their not overlapping.
Just to get things straight, you should get a nice fade from white to the cyan right?
NourShow June 23rd
I didn’t think that would be easy with Illustrator, but now it’s possible to believe that can be done easy with Illustrator.
Thanks alot for this tutorial.
Keep doing
Arun June 24th
Never realized this is possible in vector! The water color effect looks totally real.
IsaacS June 24th
That background looks like its been done with some watercolour brushes in Ps!!! Loving this!!
Isaac
Daniel June 28th
Very interesting effect.
I like it very much!
Thanks!
Delene Kleyn July 2nd
Great tutorial… Vector art becomes very attractive with tutorials like this!
Thanks for sharing your expetise
Abdullah July 6th
Great Tutorial Dear…
Thanks you…..
REHMAN July 9th
I WANT TO LEARN THIS
CAN U TEACH ME GET BACK TO ME ON MY EMAIL PLEASE IF ANY ONE IS READY TO TEACH ME
Josh July 19th
great tutorial. But the clipping masks in step 20 seems unnecessarily complex… an easier way to do it, is to make a new top layer and drag all the other layers into it as sub-layers (you do all this in the layers palette). Then just apply a clipping mask to the top layer. easy-peasy.
serpentemx August 20th
Great job, you really recalled on the blending technique I think that’s a great pointer.
Vector Graphics August 26th
I really like it, but is not perfect! Anyway the water color effect is really nice. Thanks
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