DataLife Engine - Softnews Media Group

REQUIRES VECTOR EDITING SOFTWARE, PREFERABLY ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR

Using vectors to create watercolor effects is all but an impossible proposition. Pure math, vectors are crisp, clean and clear, which are all wonderful features - until you want a more random, swirly, natural look to your graphics, while preserving vectors' unique scalability with no loss of quality. To create a vector watercolor effect in Illustrator you would either use an autotraced raster image, or go through a tedious process of creating multiple gradient mesh blotches with varying opacity. All painful and taking forever to execute.

Until now.

Vector Watercolor Kit is created entirely in Illustrator, using only vectors - no rasters whatsoever - to give you a 100% vector output. After banging my head against the wall for the longest time, I figured out the way to have fully scalable, resizible, re-colorable watercolor swatches in Illustrator that can be applied to any vector shape with a single click. And I'm very excited to share it with you!

The only thing to keep in mind is that these swatches contain transparencies. They can be expanded, just like any vector file with transparencies, but if you crop, merge or flatten them, the watercolor effect will be lost.

Also, I have included in the download package both the AI and EPS10 files of the watercolor swatches, to make sure you can get to them either way, but these EPS files are heavy, so downloading the kit may take a while. Please be patient.

The zipped package contains TONS of goodies bundled together:

Vector Watercolors folder with
Watercolor Brights - AI and EPS file with 40 watercolor bright swatches, plus a JPEG preview
Watercolor Multi - AI and EPS file with 11 multi-color swatches, and a JPEG preview
Splatter Greyscale, EPS file with JPEG preview and
Splatter Color in EPS format, with JPEG preview and a handy tip in the EPS file on how to easily recolor them - I have created, scanned, traced and colored these splatters in Illustrator to give you additional tools to add more natural feel to your vectors
Spills (watery drops) in EPS format, with JPEG preview and a tip on changing colors with ease

Bonus folder with
Banners and Frames EPS file with JPEG preview
Graphic Elements EPS file with JPEG preview
Monochrome Patterns EPS file, with 5 seamless vector patterns and a JPEG preview

Tips and Tricks PDF file showing the easiest way to combine your monochrome with watercolor patterns in Illustrator
Fonts Used PDF file, listing all the fonts I used in presenting the Vector Watercolor Kit

Tags: Vector, Watercolor, Kit