How to Vectorize Watercolors in Adobe Illustrator / PT 1 Scan & Clean Prep to Vectorize PHOTOSHOP

In this video series, you’ll be learning how to vectorize watercolors in Adobe Illustrator! We’ll be going through how to vectorize a watercolor floral! In this Part 1 video we’ll go through the prep work that we have to do before we convert the watercolor raster image to a vector- Scanning and Cleaning the image in Adobe Photoshop!
Scanning and cleaning is a crucial step that has to be performed neatly in order to ensure that your raster watercolor image converts nicely to a vector in the end. I’ll teach you the correct scan settings to use, and several professional methods of cleaning up your raster watercolor image in Photoshop.
We’ll be exploring the Magic Wand Tool, the Eraser Tool, the Polygonal Lasso Tool, and I’ll show you how and when to use these tools to clean up your image. We’ll make sure to get a really cleaned up image so that our vector will turn out nearly perfect every time!
In this tutorial I’ll be demonstrating the prep work that you need to do in order to vectorize watercolor artwork. These methods will work not only on watercolors, but also on any other type of artwork that you scanned in, fabric that you scanned in, or images from online or from your computer.
Vectorizing watercolors is a great way to learn how to convert a raster image to vector. Watercolors can be very varied in color, tone, and level of contrast. So we’ll learn what areas are easy to clean up, what areas are more difficult, and how to handle them.
I’ll also show you how to separate different parts of your image in case that you might want to play around with your elements to create a new artwork arrangement or a repeat!
Then in the next video Part 2, we’ll be bringing our cleaned up image into Adobe Illustrator for the actual vectorization!!!
I know you may want to get to that part quickly. But make sure you watch Part 1 all the way through first! Knowing how to scan and clean your artwork properly is the foundation for successfully converting a raster image to vector and getting a great result later. Trust me- you won’t regret it!
**Go ahead and pause the video at any time if it's going too fast for you, or if you want to have more time to read the captions.**
*******Free Download!*******
As promised in the video, here’s the link to your free download! This download is a bit lengthy but I think you’ll find it useful. It’s a summary of the key points of the video, and there’s a little extra information in there as well. Enjoy!:
drive.google.com/file/d/1DJ2k...
Part 2 Raster to Vector Watercolor in Illustrator video link: • How to Vectorize Water...
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Rebecca Artistry Fashion Design
Here you will find highly instructional Adobe Illustrator tutorials for fashion design drawing, and Photoshop tutorials that will teach you how to create the flat sketches, cads, print patterns, and fashion presentations that are a MUST in today’s industry!
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[@rebeccaartistryfashiondesign]

**********ANNOUNCEMENT: ONE-ON-ONE Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop CLASSES are now AVAILABLE!!! Do you need specialized help with fashion sketching or print/ pattern design??? ***Need help with a project or assignment that has you stuck? I can work with you ON-ON-ONE online to help you with: - Fashion Sketching - Print/Pattern Design - Tech Packs & Specs - And more! Don't sit around being confused anymore. For more info follow this link: rebeccaartistrydesign.com/adobe-illustrator-and-photoshop-classes/ You also can find this link on my About page on KZbin. I hope you check it out!- I'd love to work with you!!!********** Did you find the video useful? Do you have any questions? Which method do you prefer for cleaning up your artwork? Let me know in the comments below! Remember to get your free download- it’s a good summary of the lesson if you need one, and it has some extra info that you might want to know about!: drive.google.com/file/d/1DJ2k-614giQJUZDvF2sk9L21WGCgLU8n/view?usp=share_link And make sure to tune in for the PART 2 video where I’ll be bringing the watercolor floral into Adobe Illustrator for the actual vectorization! The link will be in the description above when it comes out. Make sure to subscribe and hit the notification bell so you can be alerted any time a new video comes out! Thanks for watching!!!

[@aine4400]

Hi Rebecca - this is great ! how large do your file sizes get ? ie I know with watercolor - between all the shades - you can end up with a ton of colors and I heard ten file sizes get huge (if you want to preserve the watercolor look) - how do you manage to keep file size manageable and still make it look like real watercolor - thank you

[@rebeccaartistryfashiondesign]

Hi! Thanks!!! Sorry I wasn’t able to answer sooner. Yes the file sizes can get huge sometimes with this kind of artwork. The file at the end of this Part 1 video is around 30MB- which is big but not terribly large. Here’s how to manage your file sizes: 1. First, make sure your computer meets at least all the recommended system requirements for Photoshop and Illustrator- as detailed on Adobe’s website. And especially make sure you have enough memory (RAM). Better to have much more than the system requirement on this. 16GB or more is recommended. This is very important for anyone using Photoshop and Illustrator. 2. Next, you don’t have to worry too much about files being huge when you work in Photoshop. Photoshop can handle this pretty well. The maximum file size for a PSD file is 2 gigabytes which is really big! I don’t usually get close to this on my print artwork. Only once in a while. Like I mentioned, the file in this video turned out to be about 30MB- this is way smaller than the limit and it did not slow down my computer. ***But if you’re reaching that limit or you see Photoshop is taking too long to respond or save, then: A. Get rid of unnecessary elements and layers in your file. Move them to another file if you want to save them and only keep absolutely necessary parts of your artwork for that pattern on your current file. This helps me a lot. B. Close out of any other files and also other programs that you’re not using at the moment. These take up memory so closing them helps. Even internet windows that you have open should be closed. This is only necessary when working with super large files. C. Instead of saving as a PSD file, you can save as a TIF which has a higher limit (4 gigabytes). But ***MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE*** that you check “Save with Layers” when you save this format. Otherwise you will lose your layers. 3. If you’re moving to Illustrator to vectorize and continuing your work in there, that’s when you’ll need to worry more because Illustrator crashes more easily. It can crash at even midsize files so this is where you’ll really want to make sure there are no unnecessary elements, swatches, or brushes in your file. So on one file, only have the elements that you really need. And take the elements that you’re not using, save those on a separate file and close out of that. ***You can watch my Illustrator Crash video for some more info on preventing this. Although I’m mostly showing the tips on a fashion presentation, some of the tips apply to pattern artwork too and any artwork in general*** Here is the link: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bqHcXmOMqtWLq7M 4. If you need to send these large files to someone- like a client, etc. they will probably be too large to email. But you can send them through WeTransfer for free.