Paint to Print: Digitize a Gouache Floral Design for a Greeting Card.

In this class we will be focusing on hand painting a design in gouache, scanning it and opening it in Photoshop where I show you the process for turning it into a digital file ready for printing.

Being able to turn your own paintings into digital files that are ready for printing onto a product like a greeting card or tea towel is a fabulous thing.

Maybe you have a pile of designs already painted sitting there doing nothing as your unsure of that next step to make them into a printable file. Or maybe you have some brilliant designs in your head that you’d like to have printed on a product.

I’ll show you how to start at the beginning of a design, create a colour scheme, look for inspiration, practice some element ideas, collect them all into one lovely composition, scan and open the design in Photoshop, clean up it up, resize it and turn it into a file ready to send to a printer.

The class will cover
What materials you need
How to make a colour plan and mix your paint
Where to look for inspiration
How to use your sketchbook to practice and collect elements for your design
Creating and painting the design
Scanning and opening the painting in Photoshop
Using some Photoshop tools to clean up, resize and produce the design in a digital format

Through out the class I’ll share with you my tips and techniques for working with gouache to produce a bold graphic design that’s easy to turn into a print.

The class is for you if you:

Have a beginners knowledge of painting with gouache
Love the idea of creating a design from your own artwork
Want to understand the process of turning a painting into a digital file
Just want to explore painting with gouache more
Want to learn some useful techniques in Photoshop for cleaning up and resizing your artwork.

So join me as I take you on a journey through my process of paint to print, by the end of the class you will have:

An understanding of how to mix a colour scheme in advance
Look for the perfect inspiration for your design
Plan and practice the elements of the design
Create your artwork in gouache
Scan the artwork into your computer, open it in Photoshop and go through the process of turning it into a digital file ready for printing.

See you in the class- happy painting!

You can check out my other Skillshare classes here:

Adventures in Gouache: Painting and Pattern Making Techniques

Gouache 101: How to Produce a Bold and Decorative Design

Expressive Gouache Landscapes: Exploring a Limited Color Palette

There are lots of brilliant painting classes on Skillshare, check out the Fine Art pages here for more inspiration. You can also follow me on:

Suzanne Heitz

Artist, Illustrator, Surface Designer

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