Watercolor effect in Illustrator

[Cwilk]

I'm trying to create a watercolor effect in Illustrator but I haven't been able to find anything online with information or plug-ins.

Anyone out there who can give me info?

Thanks in advance.

[rossable]

i would guess it would involve editing a pattern. and opacity... perhaps even going so far as to use a gradient mesh fill.

why not make it in photoshop and then port it over as a pattern or something.

the water blending and random edges will be the hard part i think. try using low opacity and layering thousands of objects... that should work well!

[James Random]

Why dont you get some watercolour paper, put a dab of paint on it (or whatever) and scan it in, make it into a pattern or brush in Photoshop and then port that over to Illustrator?

[Makapaka]

Considering the latitude is off balance this tutorial is quite ok. Ductile very sufficiently ambidextrous. Still Kakistocracy so welldone.

[rossable]

Originally Posted by Makapaka

Considering the latitude is off balance this tutorial is quite ok. Ductile very sufficiently ambidextrous. Still Kakistocracy so welldone.

i am suspicious that you are a bot...

[Makapaka]

A bot? Why would you say that :S wtheck?

[Cwilk]

Originally Posted by rossable

i would guess it would involve editing a pattern. and opacity... perhaps even going so far as to use a gradient mesh fill.

why not make it in photoshop and then port it over as a pattern or something.

the water blending and random edges will be the hard part i think. try using low opacity and layering thousands of objects... that should work well!

I've actually been experimenting with feathering edges and the gradient mesh fill. I don't want to do it in Photoshop because that would be cheating (I'd like it to be vector art). ....BTW, it's for a personal project.

I'll check out using random edges.

Thanks for the info.

[James Random]

I'd still recommend making the texture using paint and watercolour paper. You see a computer can only do so much, I always encourage my staff NOT to use the computer if they don't have to, but rather to MAKE whatever it is that they're setting out to do. Of course the computer is a very important step indeed these days, but there's still too much that you can ONLY achieve by making something "real life" than there is by sitting at a computer making decisions.

[onesummer]

this tutorial is technically for photoshop, but maybe it'll provide some insights on how to do something similar in illustrator:

Design Watercolor Effect Menu

[Cwilk]

Thanks everyone. : )