In Ver. 5.1 and later, a new style has been added to Watercolor edge.

The new watercolor edge allows for more realistic traditional expressions.

The watercolor edge’s opacity changes according to the drawing’s opacity, and you can adjust the saturation of the edge to be brighter.

Difference between the new Vivid and Standard watercolor edges

From Ver. 5.1, Style has been added to watercolor edge, and you can choose between Standard or Vivid.

Standard is the same watercolor edge as in Ver. 5.0 and earlier. An edge is added along the outline of the stroke, and the saturation of the edge does not change.

Vivid is a watercolor edge that can be used in Ver. 5.1 and later. It varies the saturation, brightness, and hue to emphasize the outline. You can also adjust the Vividness setting to create bright, saturated outlines.

 

Standard / Vivid

 

Using Vivid

You can apply Vivid to brushes and layers.

 

Applying it to a brush

Select the brush you want to use, and from the Advanced Tool Settings, check off Watercolor edge to apply it to the brush. From Style, select Vivid.

 

When applied to a brush, a watercolor edge is applied to each stroke. This allows you to draw intuitively as if you were using traditional paints.

 

Note:

From the bottom of the Advanced Tool Settings, you can save the brush settings with Save all settings as default.

 

Watercolor edges cannot be applied when using a dual brush or when using a brush on a vector layer.

 

Applying it to a layer

Select the layer you want to apply watercolor edge to, then in the Layer Properties palette, select Border effect > Watercolor edge > Style > Vivid.

 

The Watercolor edge layer effect applies a uniform watercolor edge to the entire layer. This is useful when you want to add the effect later in the finishing stages or create a unified look in your drawing.

 

Advanced settings for Vivid

With Vivid, you can set the Strength and Vividness of the watercolor edge.

 

Strength

This sets the watercolor edge’s degree of impact. The larger the value, the greater the change.

When the Strength value is high, the edge is rendered clearly and prominently.

 

Left: Strength 10 / Right: Strength 80

 

Vividness

This sets the vibrancy of the edge color.

Decrease the value for a darker edge, or increase the value for a brighter edge.

 

Left: Vividness 50 / Right: Vividness 90

Using watercolor edge to draw an illustration

Let’s try drawing a watercolor illustration using the new Vivid watercolor edge.

Here are some tips for using watercolor edge in a step-by-step tutorial that you can try out now.

 

1. Draw the sketch

You can draw lines with a traditional touch by using Sketch > Pencil or Mechanical pencil.

In this example, we used Mechanical pencil to draw the sketch.

Since we won’t be using the Fill tool, there is no need to connect the lines perfectly.

 

2. Set the watercolor edge to the brush

In this example, we will paint using brushes from the Brush > Watercolor group.

From the Advanced Tool Settings palette > Watercolor edge, set the Style to Vivid. Since we want to paint while utilizing the watercolor edge, set the value of Strength higher.

 

Note:

If you do not want to apply the watercolor edge to the paper texture, go to Advanced Tool Settings palette > Texture, and uncheck Apply by each plot.

 

3. Painting with pen pressure

The opacity of watercolor brushes changes depending on pen pressure.

Painting with strong pen pressure creates a uniform color. Painting with light pen pressure creates a soft look, like watercolor paint dissolving in water.

 

4. Blending colors

To blend adjacent colors when layering multiple strokes, under the Blend tool, use Textured blender or Wet bleed blender to blend them while maintaining the paint’s texture.

 

5. Layering colors

When using multiple colors, adding a new layer before layering colors makes it easier to adjust later and creates a transparent look as the colors do not mix with the base color.

 

6. Blurring strokes

For areas where the stroke boundaries or color differences are noticeable, softly erase or blur them with a textured brush or eraser, such as a transparent watercolor brush or Kneaded eraser.

 

7. Emphasizing the watercolor edge

If you want to emphasize the watercolor edge for the entire layer, you can adjust the effect’s value of the layer. Select the layer you want to adjust and set Vivid from the Layer Properties palette.

 

To make the border line stand out more, try increasing the values of Area or Strength to make the width thicker, and lowering the Vividness.

 

Watercolor edge Off/On in Layer Properties

 

8. Adding a paper texture

By adding a paper texture, you can create the look of painting on watercolor paper.

Select the image material of the texture you want to use from the Material palette > Monochromatic pattern, and place it at the top of the Layer palette.

Here, we used Monochromatic pattern > Rough paper.

 

From the Layer Properties palette, select Overlay texture and lower the layer opacity.

Adjust the position and size of the image material to match the texture.

 

No paper texture / With Overlay texture on

 

Finally, add white highlights with Mechanical pencil to complete the vivid watercolor-style illustration!

Try creating your own artworks while making the most of the watercolor edge effect.