Tag: Blog Graphics

How to Easily Create Watercolor Graphics with Photoshop

How to Easily Create Watercolor Graphics with Photoshop

Hey, funky bunch! What are you guys doing? 😀

(I’m giving a cookie to anyone who gets the reference)

Lame greetings aside, I’ve recently been experimenting with Photoshop. You probably noticed the change of quality of the graphics recently. Or probably not.

Don’t get me wrong, I freaking love Phonto. But the difference in image quality you get from editing with Photoshop is huge. So I decided to enhance the watercolor graphics you see in the sidebar over there >>>

Handmade graphics can be a pretty addition in your overall blog design. As this is a creative blog, I feel like they add to what this blog is all about.

Also, I just love watercolors so much.

watercolor

I plan on using my own made-from-scratch graphics on all aspects of my blog someday. But for now, since the Free Plan has limited customization features, these graphics made in 7 easy steps will do.

So let’s get to it, yeah?

Step 1: Open the image you want to edit

This could be anything handdrawn, not just watercolors. You can either scan it or take a picture. If you do go with the latter, you want to make sure your camera has a good enough quality. I used an 8 MP phone camera for this one and manipulated with the sharpness, the brightness and the color using a combination of Snapseed, VSCO and MS Paint. And it looked alright. If you want a tutorial for this one, let me know. 🙂

1-open-brush-image

Step 2: Unlock background

I find it’s better that the handdrawn graphics have a transparent background. That way, you won’t have to worry about how unclean it will look in your blog’s background. But that’s me talking about my own preferences.

So you simply double-click the Background layer in the Layer Panel and this will pop out.

2-unlock-background

Then click OK. You’ll see that the Background changed into a Layer 0.

Step 3: Add a new layer

I think this is what makes the editing of the graphics as neat and sharp as it could be. You just want to click that…dog-eared paper? And a new layer, default name Layer 1, will pop above Layer 0.

3a-add-new-layer

This will be your temporary background until you’ll have a transparent one and it will help you see that your handdrawn image is neatly edited. Next, drag that new layer down so it will be below Layer 0.

3b-drag-new-layer-below-background

Step 4: Fill the background

Now still selecting Layer 1, click on the Paint Bucket Tool on the left or click G. Make sure that your current color is in contrast with whatever color your handdrawn image is. You can see that I used a pink that contrasts well with the blue watercolor brush stroke. After that, click on any part of the image.

4-background-filled

You wouldn’t see any changes in the image itself but you’ll notice in the Layers Panel that the rectangle beside Layer 0 has changed to color pink.

Step 5: Erase the white background

Now I want you to select on Layer 0 so that only the items in that layer (the image itself) will be affected by whatever change you do. Click the drop down arrow beside the Eraser Tool and click on Magic Eraser Tool.

5-magic-eraser

This is kinda like the opposite of the Paint Bucket Tool. Once you do that, you’ll be able to see the pink underneath.

Step 6: Polish

At this point, you just need to use the Eraser Tool (not the Magic one) to polish the edges. I wanted a faded effect around the edges so I increased the size of the eraser and simply grazed the circle cursor over the edges. For that neat stroke-y look on the right end, I decreased the size so it will only erase the part in between and also decreased the opacity.

6-fully-erased

And voila! A neat watercolor brush stroke graphics! But are you done?

Step 7: Delete Layer 1

Of course not yet! I did say 7 easy steps earlier. Here’s the last one. Right click on Layer 1 and click on Delete Layer. You’ll see the image now has tat checkered background which indicates that your background is transparent.

7-delete-added-layer

And voila fo’ reals! You’re done!

I hope this helped you a bit. Let me know if you want to see any specific tutorials and I’ll see what I can do to help. 🙂 But until then,

Happy editing, awesome peeps! 💻

Where Do You Find Free Graphics or Fonts? | The Monthly Catalog

Happy August, everyone! How was your first week of the month? I hope good.

Now I don’t know what you plan to do for your August (you can share them below, of course!) but I also plan on helping you as much as I can. Remember my monthly catalog? Well…TADA!

Here’s the first ever monthly catalog in my blog which I consider calling KATE-alog! Genius, right? No? Okay…let’s move on.

The Monthly Catalog banner

So I hear you asking, what is the monthly catalog?

The Monthly Catalog is going to be a monthly feature here in my blog. Basically, I will scour the Internet to find and share to you a list of resources that I think may help you guys. So let’s get to it!

For the first ever Monthly Catalog (or KATE-alog! Still no? Okay.) I have come up with an amazing topic to make a list of (which you all know from the title): Where to find free graphics or fonts.

Before I was still ignorant of online copyrights and I have this notion that everything you see in the Internet is free. Now, I’m a nervous wreck when using graphics that aren’t mine. You just never know when the Internet police will knock on your door with a warrant, you know?

where to find free graphics and fonts

Back when I was starting the Blog Revamp project, I was really thinking about my blog’s aesthetics. I know I need to come up with my own blog graphics, one way or another. However, I was facing some problems.

+ I’m no graphic expert who can conjure pretty graphics from scratch.

+ I can’t afford a graphic designer to do it for me.

+ Microsoft cliparts and Comic Sans are not even options but…

+ Being the jobless student-on-vacation that I currently am, I can’t afford the pretty fonts some shops have for sale.

Or don’t I?

If you can’t afford the premium themes and glitteringly sophisticated graphics, worry not. I found a solution for me that I hope may be a solution for you too! So let me be clear: these aren’t The Ultimate Resources out there but these are what worked for me in the past couple of months that I’ve been using them.

Here are some websites I found that offer free graphics or fonts:

Behance. The creatives’ hub in the Internet. I usually use Behance for inspiration and free fonts. But they also have great graphics there. Type in ‘free’ in the search bar et voila!

Freepik. When it comes to graphic websites that offer freebies, this one is my first love. It’s my go-to for watercolor illustrations because they have fabulous ones and all for free! Those social icons on the right are downloaded from Freepik.

Design Cuts. I love how this site has “Freebies” as one of their main item in the navigation bar. And their freebies could go free for a very long time, which is great. Because I can’t download anything more than 20 MB with my crappy data connection. So I’m hoping to splurge-download when I go back to school.

Font Bundles. Oh my Clark Gable, this site is THE ULTIMATE FONT HEAVEN! Ahem. Pardon my sudden fangirling for fonts. Anyway, they have new free fonts every week. And just last week, they started giving away two free fonts every Wednesday too! And they’re nothing like the Chiller fonts, believe me.

Creative Market. I saw a lot of amazing deals in this site but that doesn’t change my uber-frugal mode at the moment since I’m still a jobless student. So I have to settle for freebies and they do have new ones every week. And the freebies are always fab. Who am I kidding, everything in the Creative Market are fab!

Creative Booster. Like the previous three mentioned above, this site usually sells graphics or fonts but I see the site as a Freebies Lounge. I discovered Design Cuts and Font Bundles because of Creative Booster.

So those are the sites I get free graphics and fonts that I use in my blog. One additional tip: Look at the licenses and terms of the freebies. Usually they are good for personal use, which is what I’m doing. But if you plan on using the freebies for commercial use, you really do want to look at the license and terms.

And remember: MS Clipart and Chiller are fun and all but don’t let them be your only options. There is a humongous amount of resources out there and some of them are free.

I really do hope this first Monthly Catalog (or—alright, alright. I’ll drop it already) was helpful to you guys.

Happy blogging, awesome peeps! 💃

Kate signature