Inkscape Watercolor Tutorial: How to Make Watercolor Skyline Cityscape Art

[@MarniD9esigns]

Must add, I have a BA Hons Design U. of Wales and I've learned more on this channel in 6 months than I did at university!

[@IronEchoDesign]

Just saw this. Thank you so much! If Inkscape becomes more mainstream, maybe universities would consider including it in classes.

[@VincentGohStudio]

My jaw is literally dropped. Who can imagine the watercolor effect can be created in such a simple beautiful way in a free vector program.

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks! I felt the same way when I realized what the effect could do.

[@Mitth-raw-nuruodo]

ho-lee freaking crap this is one of the coolest things I've seen inkscape do. I'm really loving these videos you're cranking out, this is amazing!

[@IronEchoDesign]

Haha- thanks so much!! I love cranking these out.

[@elaineyoung1931]

Brilliant tutorials, thank you very much for them all. I have them all saved to practice with you are the best instructor with clear and working instruction.

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thank you so much!! I'm humbled, and it means a lot.

[@AquaticFeather]

Wow! I never knew Inkscape could do these!! That's awesome, thank you!

[@dangtu-work]

This channel is so underrated -_-

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thank you so much! I’m hoping it gets more exposure. Love making these either way.

[@cherrythomas2939]

I already love Inkscape..but now I started lovin it even more..Thanks Rick for your wonderful tutorial videos..looking for more!!! Cheers from India❤

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thank you so much! Inkscape really is wonderful and I’ll keep making these!

[@MarniD9esigns]

Absolutely LOVE your videos, so easy to follow plus entertainment value (at 7.37 - "Don't touch ANY of that!") Rare to find a talented teacher who also makes you laugh. Thank you so much, happy new year and look forward to upping my design skills further with your channel! Best wishes, Marni

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thank you so much, Marni!! This makes my day and I can’t wait to get back in front of the camera to make some more.

[@litacoldfield6412]

This is exactly what I was looking for, thanks!

[@IronEchoDesign]

Anytime! Let me know if there are any extra details needed about the settings.

[@haresheranga]

Wow! I didn't know inkscape is capable of doing this

[@IronEchoDesign]

I'm still exploring new features. Watercolor effect is one of my favorites. Thanks.

[@lxic-bz8hf]

absolutely great tutorial, thank you 🙏🏻

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thank you so much!!

[@Pascie]

This is brilliant, what a channel this is.

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks so much! I really appreciate it!

[@mariaazul5176]

Awesome 👌 keep doing it we learn so much from you ❤

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks!! Will do!

[@ThorneIdentity]

this is AWEOME!

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks so much!!

[@cheez982]

Bro thank you so much i realy love tutorials like that gg 👏👏

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks!! I'll try to more of these.

[@jamesmccleese4342]

That's amazing!!

[@IronEchoDesign]

I love doing this stuff. Thanks!

[@muhammadmushlihalaadil2085]

Thank you very much, helps me a lot as a newbie in design.

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thank you!! So glad it helped.

[@AidanJuly]

Amazing, thank you ❤

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thank you so much!!

[@travelwithudeshi]

Super...💖💖 great content ..wish you all the best..waiting for your new video...

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thank you!! Working on it...

[@AiSakurai]

I learn a lot here! I'm searching if inkscape can do watercolor since it was one of the reason why illustrator popular (i guess) and it looks it easier to do in Inkscape than the other!

[@IronEchoDesign]

Nice! Thank you! I made a few more watercolor videos over the last couple weeks that go into even more detail if you want to explore more settings. The video on my channel with the colorful egg in the thumbnail has the breakdown.

[@AiSakurai]

@@IronEchoDesign I'll definitely look into that. Thanks!

[@katemccarthy2463]

Fab U Lous. Love it

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thank you!!!

[@alicecoelho5589]

That’s awesome

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks!!

[@AQCattle]

Great vedio

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thank you very much!

[@christineattia806]

Amazing tutorial!! Thank you very much❤️❤️

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks so much!!

[@skoobang]

This is such an amazing tutorial. Thanks so much for this.

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thank you! I appreciate it!

[@ankekellerman611]

absolutely amazing! love it

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thank you so much!!

[@CrazyFuzz8]

Trace bitmap is cool 👍🏻

[@artistaleksva]

Cool. Thanks for this

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thank you!

[@stevo6572]

TY very much...am learning a lot...keep em coming!

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thank you, and you got it!

[@NicaSimon13]

could you do an update of this? the new version looks really different. thanks for your tutorials!

[@IronEchoDesign]

This is a great idea. Yes, I’ll work on an update. Thanks!

[@ullakristiansson7718]

Amazing tutorial. Thanks a lot.

[@evefavorse5939]

Amazing!

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thank you!!

[@emreerylmaz2922]

Woow great

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thank you!!

[@FASIGMAN]

Wow thanks

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thank you!!

[@jss3018]

I love it. Thanks.

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thank you!!

[@Dradient]

Great Tutorial!

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks so much!

[@MarkAnthonyHenderson]

This is very cool.

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks- watercolor effect is one of my favorite tools in Inkscape.

[@markferrick10]

very nice.

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks!!

[@Raya7766]

This looks awesome. Thank you. Do you know how these watercolors will come out in prints on paper, shirt etc?

[@IronEchoDesign]

Excellent question. From my experience the watercolor effect translates well onto paper and printed materials on a small to medium scale. I haven't tried a physical print on anything poster size yet. One key point is to save your project at 300dpi minimum. The professional printer will ususlly provide recommended file dimensions and size based on what you're looking to print. For apparel and POD, I've heard people say gradients and effects like watercolor do not print true. Others say it prints out decently. Probably best to ask for a sample to check the quality.

[@birdie399]

Almost magic. Fantastic fx on this image. Where did the frame come from? Thanks for a fantastic video.

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks! I believe I got the frame from the free stock footage site, pexels.com.

[@richard-8710]

Your tutorials are great! inkscape 1.1 ... I can't seem to edit the watercolor settings, the filter editor shows / does nothing

[@IronEchoDesign]

Let's fix this! Without seeing your screen, here is my go-to solution. Start with a new workspace and choose the A4 template. Make a very small circle, so small you could fit 10 across the bottom of the template boundary. Choose the Fill Color something in the dark blue range. Make sure Blur is off. Choose Textures- Watercolor. No matter what the effect looks like, the easiest way to correct it is through adjusting the Blur in the Fill and Stroke menu, and then on the Gaussian Blur tab in the Filter Editor, play with the Standard Deviation value slider. Can you let me know if this helps? This is my blind guess. If it doesn't work we can try more.

[@unclestuscience9503]

Good job, thank you for the video

[@IronEchoDesign]

Much appreciated!

[@gbrown999]

NICE!!!!!!

[@IronEchoDesign]

Why, thank you!!

[@cathp3260]

So cool! Thank you!

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks! I really appreciate it!

[@cristiane4903]

Uau ficou perfeito!! 👏👏

[@IronEchoDesign]

Obrigado!!

[@chrisikegwu2103]

Nice Inscape tutorials coming from you. but please can you do tutorials on how to create 3D houses and its plan with Inkscape. Thanks

[@fr000bify]

hi and thanks for the video, my problem is that my watercolor effect is grainy whereas yours is all kinda smokey and looking great, anyone know how to make the effect look more smooth

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks! Watercolor has a lot of settings, and I made a video that went into better detail on how to set up and troubleshoot. Hopefully it will link here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/poWYo52An9OUb9k

[@leeman2k]

@@IronEchoDesign thanks I shall check it out now, i enjoy your content. I’m very new to graphic design and your videos are great 👍

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks so much! Hope it helps!

[@aliyahcarlo1745]

Can you go into more detail about the watercolor settings? My setting look exactly like yours yet my watercolor looks formulaic and not at all like you showed in the video

[@IronEchoDesign]

Happy to help. In the "watercolor map" video on my channel the technique is explained a little better than in this tutorial. Have you tried making the initial shape much smaller? The effect looks less formulaic if you start really small, apply watercolor filter, and then click off of your object. Use selector tool to then scale it up to the size you want. Hope that helps!

[@Raya7766]

@@IronEchoDesign I had the same question. Thanks. When it is tiny it is more like yours but still much more grainy. When I make it bigger it again becomes a lot more grainy and not smooth like yours.

[@IronEchoDesign]

I just tested out your scenario and I see what you're saying. The way I've worked around this is I create a very small scale version of the desired watercolor shape first. Use the blur slider to get the smooth look wanted. Then with the selector tool resize it, and it should scale up while retaining the good watercolor look. Let me know if this helps at all.

[@Raya7766]

@@IronEchoDesign Thank you. I will try it.

[@LifeofTy-ql5lb]

This is great man - question, the skyline I used has a lot of colors and contrast - and it makes getting a black silhouette impossible with Trace Bitmap. Do I need to find a more monotone skyline image or is there a way to get a clean silhouette from a high color/contrast image

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks! Great question. One approach is to to create a clipping shape of the skyline. It takes time to drag the Bezier pen over the whole perimeter, but it allows you to “stamp out the silhouette. Another method would be to adjust the image to grayscale and pump up the contrast before bringing in to Inkscape. That’s the why I have preferred to do it.

[@baslielalene4702]

Thanks.

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thank you!

[@vitaleestream]

really cool!! thank you! how would you export clipped object as svg?

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks! To keep it as an SVG, choose File- Save As and it gives you several SVG options. Exporting as a PNG will work with the clipped object too but then it won't allow edits elsewhere. Hope this helps!

[@lxic-bz8hf]

how did you add the frame ?

[@IronEchoDesign]

I think I got the frame from Pexels. It's a site with free stock photos. Clipped out the frame from the image and brought it into Inkscape.

[@iliyanivanov7337]

The pure laugh of gratification 1:37 EPIC !!!! what Inkscape does...!???? pretty much anything ;) and just sometimes :P crashes and One more think - Do want to point here The laugh of fulfillment or gratification Yo Rick yUo Rock man ink Bless You

[@IronEchoDesign]

Haha. I can't help it sometimes!

[@seemasharma1492]

Hi, I actually learned everything about inkscape from you. I've been doing simple projects and thought about trying watercolor. So I downloaded a silhouette of a butterfly on top of a flower. I clipped the image and managed to seperate both the butterfly and the flower. I water colored them separately and when I was arranging them back in position, the watercolor messed up. I don't know what happened but somehow the flower became white and no matter what I do, the color didn't appear. I'm not sure what to do anymore. I hope you can help me

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks for sharing, and let's see if we can figure this out. Good job getting your subject downloaded and cropped. Watercolor has been a tricky tool in Inkscape. Did everything look good before you arranged them back into position? If so, if you can get back to that point, try resizing your watercolor object before moving it. It will lock in the shape without rendering the watercolor effect again which changes the look. Does this help?

[@seemasharma1492]

@@IronEchoDesign yeah I tried resizing and it worked. Thank you 😊

[@IronEchoDesign]

Nice!

[@crossbones1249]

When I choose the filter watercolor, I just gives a bubbly effect to the object. Made the filter editor changes but it's the same. I doesn't give the effect like yours Can you tell why this is happening?

[@IronEchoDesign]

Let's fix this! Without seeing your screen, here is my go-to solution. Start with a new workspace and choose the A4 template. Make a very small circle, so small you could fit 10 across the bottom of the template boundary. Choose the Fill Color something in the dark blue range. Make sure Blur is off. Choose Textures- Watercolor. No matter what the effect looks like, the easiest way to correct it is through adjusting the Blur in the Fill and Stroke menu, and then on the Gaussian Blur tab in the Filter Editor, play with the Standard Deviation value slider. Can you let me know if this helps? This is my blind guess. If it doesn't work we can try more.

[@crossbones1249]

@@IronEchoDesign Very much thanks bruh. Did it the way you said and it's done. Looks amazing 🔥👍🏻

[@IronEchoDesign]

Nice!!!

[@andyswiferox5453]

This was a great tutorial! I do have a question. When I clip-set an image from water color it cuts part of the image. Do you know what causes this?

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks! Let's see if we can solve this. Is the overall image grouped? Sometimes the watercolor object has a very large selection box- well outside the rest of the project. If Clip-Set happens without the watercolor object, or if the watercolor object is object is ungrouped, the clipping will only take part of desired project. Does this help?

[@andyswiferox5453]

@@IronEchoDesign when I clip-set with a regular image it works great. I have tried image and text with the water color and it cuts off parts of the image and text. I have notice with Inkscape at times with text that it can look the same way when moving a text around and parts of the text disappear. It’s doing the same when clip-setting with the watercolor. I suppose it could just be a glitch 🤷🏻‍♀️

[@IronEchoDesign]

Got to love Inkscape's glitches. I've seen trouble with text too on projects.

[@avishaimoscovich453]

How did you add the virtual frame at the end?

[@IronEchoDesign]

I imported a stock image with the frame and altered it to fit. I believe it was from pexels.

[@avalokiteshvaraishaya5578]

Hi Rick, thanks for the great tutorials! I love that you are making this content available to all. It is has been smooth sailing so far, following along with you, but I got stuck on this one when adding the Watercolor filter. When applied, I seem to get a white box covering the city object. I've adjusted the filter settings to match yours, but no change. Any suggestions? Here's what I found: when initially applying the filter, the blur is maxed out at 100%. It doesn't look like anything is there, but the bounding box is larger than the starting shape. Turning the blur down to 74%, I can clearly see the effect, and the bounding box is closer to the starting size. Also coming to play is Displacement Map scale and Octave settings. It seems a finely choreographed dance between these. Still experimenting to mimic the effect you created. I see you have another video on the Watercolor filter, kzbin.info/www/bejne/poWYo52An9OUb9k, which I will watch shortly. Again, thank you so much for your help and generosity!

[@IronEchoDesign]

Were you able to get the watercolor effect to do what you wanted? If the second video didn't fix it, let me know and I can troubleshoot more.

[@avalokiteshvaraishaya5578]

@@IronEchoDesign The effect I'm looking for is that appendage of color that oozes out from the main color body. Sometimes it's there, other times it's not. Watching the second video did help; I changed the Seed settings to force the re-render, then moved the center X with the circle tool. I got closer to what I wanted and also realized it will be random, so getting familiar with the settings and their effects is important.

[@IronEchoDesign]

Got it. I'm playing around with a photo/image watercolor bleed project. I'll try to include this if I can get the steps down. Thanks.

[@Bianca0110]

I try to do all this steps at a write but for me didn't work.

[@IronEchoDesign]

Let's fix this! Without seeing your screen, here is my go-to solution. Start with a new workspace and choose the A4 template. Make a very small circle, so small you could fit 10 across the bottom of the template boundary. Choose the Fill Color something in the dark blue range. Make sure Blur is off. Choose Textures- Watercolor. No matter what the effect looks like, the easiest way to correct it is through adjusting the Blur in the Fill and Stroke menu, and then on the Gaussian Blur tab in the Filter Editor, play with the Standard Deviation value slider. Can you let me know if this helps?

[@sherpya]

nice but I suppose it's not like a vector anymore, even exporting to pdf it rasterizes to a bitmap 😅

[@IronEchoDesign]

Very true. Thanks.

[@autoauto2000]

thats my style of watercolor. but how can i get outlines

[@IronEchoDesign]

Do you mean outline of the city? Or line drawing with watercolor?

[@autoauto2000]

@@IronEchoDesign outline of the city as linedrawing plus watercolor

[@autoauto2000]

@@IronEchoDesign i am on instagram as „autoanke“ u can find lots of my work

[@IronEchoDesign]

If you have an image of a city skyline you like, you can use Trace Bitmap and create a vector profile to use. If you mean where to get the images, try pexels.com. Hope this helps!

[@IronEchoDesign]

Just checked it out. Cityscape building drawings look amazing! Nice work.

[@litacoldfield6412]

I wonder if it's possible to use noise/grain + gradient to achieve this kind of effect - kzbin.info/www/bejne/bJWlmqiiarihfbc

[@IronEchoDesign]

Really good question. You can use the Spray Can to do that. It's a little tricky because to create the masking on the mountain you'd have to right click on it and choose Create Clip Group. Then in Objects you you can draw inside the mountain only. The really tricky part is to make the noise/ grain effect with the Spray tool, you have to set up the "spray" inside the clipped group on the Objects tab. Then it works just like in the video link. I'll try to make a tutorial that includes this functionality because its difficult to illustrate the steps here in a comment. Sorry!

[@litacoldfield6412]

@@IronEchoDesign Thanks! That would be great :0)

[@cobaltbluewatercolors7552]

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