# Digitising Watercolors. Step-by-step Guide - review & insight | Gareth B. Davies Source: https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/digitising-watercolors-step-by-step-guide/ [← All courses](https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/) Illustration & Drawing · Quick win · Rated 6 /10 # Digitising Watercolors. Step-by-step Guide Updated August 2026 Olga Sh · food illustrator | graphic designer Beginner · 15 min A 15 minute walkthrough of one designer's own scan to Photoshop to Illustrator workflow, nothing more, nothing less. [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Fdigitising-watercolors-step-by-step-guide%2F1602223843) New to Skillshare? Your first month is free, enough to take this course at no cost. ## What the course actually covers This class runs fifteen minutes and does exactly what its title promises: it walks through one specific pipeline for turning a physical watercolor painting into a digital file, first as a raster image, then as an optional vector trace. The structure is linear and practical. A scanning lesson covers resolution choices and file formats. A Photoshop lesson covers layer duplication, tonal adjustment with Levels and Curves, and background removal using the magic wand tool, selection modifiers, and a layer mask. An Illustrator lesson covers building a custom Image Trace preset and cleaning up the resulting vector paths. A short closing lesson shows a few finished applications of the technique. The scanning advice is sensible and specific rather than generic. It recommends 300 to 600 DPI as a practical sweet spot, since higher resolutions balloon file size without meaningfully improving the result, and it notes that a clean scanner glass saves considerable retouching time later. This is the kind of small, hard-won detail that separates someone who has actually done the work from someone reciting best practices. ## Where the value concentrates The Photoshop segment is the heart of the class, and it earns that position. The sequence of duplicating the background layer, adjusting it with Levels and Curves, erasing excess scanner area, then using the magic wand with selection expand and feather to isolate the whitespace before applying it as a layer mask, is a legitimate, repeatable technique for cleanly separating watercolor artwork from its paper background. The distinction drawn between saving for web as a transparent PNG versus preparing a CMYK file for print is a useful, often-overlooked detail for anyone planning to sell or publish the result. The Illustrator segment is shorter and more limited in scope. It is honest about a real constraint: complex, highly detailed watercolor paintings do not trace well, and the technique is best suited to simple design elements like a single flower, ribbon, or lettering mark rather than a full illustration. The specific preset values given for the Image Trace panel are a genuinely useful starting point, though the lesson stops at ungrouping and deleting stray fragments without covering how to refine or simplify anchor points further. ## Limitations The course does not teach Photoshop or Illustrator fundamentals. Menu paths and shortcuts are named quickly, and anyone unfamiliar with layers, selections, or the adjustments panel will need to pause frequently or look elsewhere first. At fifteen minutes, the class also cannot go deep. There is no discussion of color correction for scans with color casts, no handling of shadows or uneven lighting from phone-photographed artwork, and no troubleshooting section for when the magic wand selection fails on drawings with muted or pale colors. What this class delivers well is a tight, personal workflow demonstration rather than a comprehensive digitization course. For someone who already knows their way around Adobe's tools and just wants to see how an experienced illustrator handles this specific problem, it is a fast, worthwhile watch. For anyone hoping to learn Photoshop or Illustrator alongside the technique, it will move too fast to be a real teaching tool. The standout The custom Image Trace preset for watercolors, with specific color, path, corner, and noise values, gives a concrete starting point Illustrator's built-in presets don't offer. ## What you will learn - · How to choose scanner settings (300 to 600 DPI, JPEG vs TIFF) for watercolor artwork - · How to duplicate and adjust a scanned layer in Photoshop using Levels and Curves - · How to remove paper texture and isolate artwork using the magic wand, selection expand, and feather - · How to apply a layer mask to strip white background for transparent PNG or CMYK print output - · How to build a custom Image Trace preset in Illustrator for tracing simple watercolor elements - · How to clean up a traced vector by expanding, ungrouping, and deleting stray fragments Best for: Illustrators and designers who already own Photoshop and Illustrator and just want a quick reference for turning a watercolor scan into a usable raster and vector asset. Skip it if: Complete beginners to Photoshop or Illustrator, since the class assumes fluency with layers, selections, and menus and explains none of the underlying tools. Clarity of Instruction Actionable Steps Helpful Examples Organization of Lessons [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Fdigitising-watercolors-step-by-step-guide%2F1602223843)