How To Digitize Watercolor Artwork

[@linneakarlssoncreates]

This is by far the best tutorial on how to digitize your watercolor artwork! Thank you Nikki!

[@NikkiHess]

Linnea thank you so much for watching and letting me know that. It makes my day to be able to help a fellow Artist!

[@dancingirldesignswatercolour]

Perfect explanation. Thanks so much Nikki. : )

[@NikkiHess]

You're welcome! Glad it was helpful!

[@eleagraphy]

Thank you for sharing such simple way of digitizing

[@NikkiHess]

You're welcome! I'm so glad it could help you :)

[@MariaM-er6ge]

Really good tutorial. I learned so much...Thank you!

[@NikkiHess]

Thank you! I'm so glad it was helpful!

[@myhoneybird]

Hi Nikki, I just watched your awesome tutorial; such great tips! I have a question about saving the work as well. I saw Kim's question and that did help me some. However, I am wanting to know if I scan my painting in and save that file as a Tiff, JPEG or whichever, do I have to save it the same way after editing in PS? Or does it matter. I've been scanning in CMYK but why save as RGB. I'm still learning! I am wanting to upload some of my artwork onto Redbubble and I want to do it correctly; they talk about having the correct Image Size as well. Do you have any thoughts on this Thank you so much! :)

[@NikkiHess]

Hi Lana, Thanks so much for watching my tutorial! You can totally scan your work in as a TIFF. TIFFs are great files as they do not compress your artwork - however they are BIG files, sometimes they aren't the best if you don't have a ton of space. Personally, I use JPGs -as I can barely see the difference in quality in my own artwork and I scan in at a very higher DPI so I don't find it necessary to keep the files as TIFFs. You can save the image in any format you want after editing, however if you are removing the background the smartest choice is as a PNG so you don't have a background on your artwork :) (unless you want a background!). I'm not sure what Redbubble's requirements are for images but I'm sure you can find those via google or somewhere on their site :)

[@myhoneybird]

@@NikkiHess thank you so much Nikki! So even if the background is removed in the editing it still needs to be saved as a PNG? Thanks!! Trying to learn all this! 🤦‍♀️

[@NikkiHess]

@@myhoneybird Yes you still need to save as a PNG because if you save as a JPG it will add in a white background

[@myhoneybird]

@@NikkiHess thanks Nikki, you've been so helpful! It's so nice to find other creatives so willing to share and help others! I so appreciate it! :)

[@NikkiHess]

@@myhoneybird I'm happy to help! Good luck in your endeavors :)

[@HopeIsRestored1]

Hi Nikki, I've only just discovered this great tutorial. Can I just ask how you save your work. When I try to save mine as a png it drops the dpi to 72. How to you get around this? Also wanted to know if you always save it in CMYK? Thanks

[@NikkiHess]

Hi Kim, that's so strange that it is dropping it to 72 - If you are in photoshop go to Image>Image Size - does it say your DPI is 300 here? If not that could be the problem. What are you scanning in your image as DPI wise? I don't save as CMYK anymore I actually save as RGB :)

[@HopeIsRestored1]

@@NikkiHess Hi Nikki, thanks for such a prompt reply and for taking the time. I do check on image size before I save to make sure it is 300dpi. But when you export as a png it changes the resolution. I saw another video on steps to follow to save it as a png 300dpi but it was a very round about complicated way. Apparently this is a problem in photoshop. I am wondering whether it has something to do with saving it in CMYK. In photoshop I go to export, quick png. Is there a reason you save it in RGB?

[@NikkiHess]

@@HopeIsRestored1 Hmmmm I'm a little stumped. So when I go to export, I select EXPORT>Then I select PNG - if you see on the left hand side that the file size is small, try increasing the size on the right hand side (under image size) where it says height and width (make sure Bicubic automatic is selected) - this seems to the job for me to increase the file size and the DPI. Otherwise I'm not quite sure what may be going on with your file - I'm sorry!

[@HopeIsRestored1]

@@NikkiHess Thanks so much for all the advice Nikki.

[@eddiejohn2060]

Nikki try this . In photoshop open your image . Duplicate the layer ( Control and J is the shortcut in windows. ) On the top tool bar go to Select and scroll down to colour range. Up pops the colour range window. The mouse pointer changes to an eye dropper. Select the colour you want to delete , in this case white , with the eye dropper. In the colour range box window you will see all the bits that are white selected . on the keyboard press deelete , all the white is gone

[@NikkiHess]

Sorry I just saw this! Thank you so much, I will give this a try :)

[@Janeindia]

thank you!

[@NikkiHess]

You are very welcome! Thanks for watching!