How to use Watercolor Styles

I have had a few people on the message boards ask for some tips on how to use the ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Watercolor 4901. I thought I would throw together a mini tutorial about a few techniques that will make these styles work easier for you.


This tutorial was created using CS2 on a PC / Windows XP.

These styles were created as a complimentary tool to the ScrapSimple Paper Templates: Artsy - Watercolors 1. They both create completely different looks, and are used in completely different ways. You will not get the look with the styles as you will with the templates. Each is a seperate tool which works the best for specific techniques.

The styles were created mainly for Lettering and Embellishments to accent or coordinate with anything created with the Watercolor paper set. They do not give you very many options and will create only one various look. You can create more looks with the paper templates because you have the control of the settings and blending modes, and overlaying various templates on top of each other.

I'm going to show you how to use them with lettering and also one trick for using them on a photo.


1. Create some type in a new document which is fairly large. I created two versions of my type. One with solid color and one with a gradient on top of the lettering. If you use gradients you will get the more realistic blended look of watercolors. Or if you use a grunge brush and brush various colors onto one layer that will also create a more realistic watercolor effect.

2. Apply the style to your lettering. Here I applied the same style to both so you could see the difference of using a gradient or solid color. These styles are created with the blending mode on color burn. If you use PSE you can not change this option. If you have PS, you could go in and change the overlay of the pattern to another setting to create even more effects.

Since it is on color burn, your style will always make your picture, embellishment or lettering look darker and brighter. If you do not like how dark it is or how bright it is, you can make some adjustments.

3. Select the layer you would like to lighten up. You are now going to adjust the levels of the lettering. For PS users. Go to Image > Adjustments> Levels. For PSE users go to Enhance> Adjust Lighting> Levels. (PSE 3.0). This will bring up the levels box. You can then slide the black, grey or white slider back and forth to lighten or darken your image. First grab the top middle grey slider and slide it over to the left side towards the black slider. You will begin to see your lettering lighten up. You can then slide the black slider over to the right and brighten the word up just a touch.
4. Do the same thing to the top lettering. They are both now lighter and bit brighter than they were when you first applied to the style.
5. You can then add additional styles to create chipboard lettering or to give it depth and dimension.

Now on to Photos.

This seems to be the thing that most people try to apply the style to and do not get results they like. The paper templates work the best for photos, because you have a lot more control on the settings with the photos. There are a few basic tricks though that you can use to get a pretty decent result using the styles.

When the style is created it is created from a 3 in x 3 in pattern. It works bests on embellishments, photos and word art that are no larger than 6 inches. It can be used, but you will begin to see more of a repeating pattern and it will look less realistic. If you have PS you can adjust the size of the pattern overlay, but you do not have this option in PSE.

1. Here is an example were I just opened up a picture that was left in the dimensions I downloaded it in. It is right now 26 inches wide at 72 dpi. See how you see the repeating pattern over and over on the photo. It looks terrible.

2. For the best result on a photo re-adjust your photo to 300 dpi, and around 4 x 6 in size. This size seems to work the best with styles.

3. Now when you apply the watercolor effect it looks a lot more random and realistic. Now since it will make your photo darker and brighter you will need to make some adjustments. If your photo is a really dark photo, it most likely will not work the best. The best photos are ones that are in a medium range of lighting, or are a bit lighter.

4. Once again open the levels box, as we did in step 3 of our lettering. Adjust the grey slider to the left towards the black slider. You will begin to see photo lightening up. Adjust the sliders until you get the look you would like.

5. Another fun thing is to add 2 or three different watercolor styles to the same photo. Once I applied my first style and adjusted the lightness, I created a new layer and merged it with the photo layer. This makes the style permanent.

6. I then apply a new and different style than the one that I applied first.

7. Once again I adjusted the levels until I got the look I wanted.
Here is my finished watercolor photo. Here are also two other examples using these exact same steps. If you do have PS, experiment with adjusting the blending mode of the pattern overlay in your styles option bar. This will give you a lot more variation in the looks you can create with the styles.

If the photo colors seem too bright for you, you can always lower the saturation when your finished so it's not quite as bold. Go experiment and have some fun playing!

This photo was a blurry photo and I would never have used it by itself on a layout, but blurry photos work great for watercolor pictures because it can give it a softer artsy feel.