Exploring a variety of websites and works by renowned webmasters, we can find stunningly beautiful projects: each unique, some bold and minimalist, others cheerful and unusual. Among them, there are quite a few designs that use artistic watercolor effects and styles. Despite the abundance of trends and standards in web design, watercolor as a way of processing photos and elements is often used and adds uniqueness and beauty to a website. And that applies to projects of all kinds — from construction to healthcare or banking.

Watercolor style is applied in different ways, but always with the same purpose: to highlight the website’s content. If you'd like to experiment with web design styles or learn how to create watercolor effects, or maybe even expand your toolbox of resources for Photoshop and examples, we’ve got you covered. That’s exactly what we’ll discuss below.

Note that this article features only a small selection of watercolor-style web design examples. In our previous posts, we’ve already showcased hand-drawn and watercolor designs in particular.

Lightness and Airiness

One of the key features of the watercolor style is that both light and dark shades can be used on the canvas. But only a light background brings openness and airiness to the entire design. In pursuit of minimalism, you only need a few simple stylistic images on the canvas to soften and complement the surrounding severity.

Take a look at projects like Blocks App, Acreativemint Typepad, The Little Things Movie, Jacksonville Art Walk, Caava Design, Proud Punch. All of them incorporate watercolor backgrounds or elements. The overall perception remains cohesive, and these effects draw the visitor’s eye and attention.

One special mention goes to the HP Sound in Color project. It’s entirely created in the style of watercolor brush strokes and washes, enhanced with animation and gradients. It looks absolutely stunning—but don’t forget to turn on your microphone!

Artistic Watercolor

Often, web design is done in a highly artistic watercolor style, combined with traditional art — that is, pencil sketches with defined outlines. Examples include Ryan Scherf, Ernest & Celestine, Collette Dinnigan, Dom na Khlebnom, Lapierrequitourne, Doudou Blues. This style may not suit every website, but it adds elegance and originality. Whether selling apartments or cookies, a hand-drawn design allows the creator to reduce the emotional distance between user and brand, creating a more personal connection.

Moreover, these types of designs are usually enhanced with animation—subtle, but essential for breathing life into the visuals. Most importantly, artistic illustration doesn’t alienate adult users or imply that the site is just for children.

Typography as Decoration

Due to its light and fluid nature, the watercolor style is often paired with beautifully expressive fonts. It’s a bold move, because designers must ensure readability. If the font is too ornate or the brush weight too inconsistent, users might struggle to decipher the text or logo.

Let’s look at examples such as Bilan-trends, Proud and Punch, Keep Earthquakes Weird, Boat, Doudou Blues, and again the French company Lapierrequitourne, and even Reebok.

The watercolor background may be made of illustrations, brush strokes, or washes, while the typography ranges from calligraphic to clean-cut, always matching in tone and color. The font style is carefully chosen to match the visual style. For example, Boat is painted with strokes and smudges, and so is the font. Doudou Blues uses outlined graphics and pairs them with a serif font featuring decorative accents. In other words, for each watercolor implementation in web design, the font is matched accordingly.

Features of Using Watercolor

We’ve looked at a few examples of watercolor-style web design. Now let’s consider how watercolor can be applied in practice. It can be used in individual elements or as part of a combination. For instance, a photo with a background of watercolor splashes and smudges, or an illustrated background with minimalistic content blocks and icons. The trick is to ensure it aligns with the content — otherwise, the watercolor elements will overpower the entire layout, making it hard for users to process the information.

To start working with this style: choose a font, create a layout, design a watercolor background, and develop the dominant visual concept of your project — and paint it in watercolor too. Then evaluate how well it matches the theme.

If your background is photographic, you can refresh it with a watercolor overlay. You won’t need to redesign the whole site, but even one such change can dramatically transform its look and feel.

Photoshop Resources

Before working with digital watercolor (i.e., in Photoshop), you’ll need some beautiful fonts and brush sets. If you’re unsure how your photo or design element will look in watercolor, there are several great tools and collections available.

Watercolor Backgrounds

The Freepik library offers over 8,000 textures and backgrounds. Designers just need to choose the type — color can be adjusted later in Photoshop.

Pixabay also features a vast collection of watercolor-style textures, gradients, and even ready-made illustrations.

Watercolor Brushes

Since drawing is a creative process, brush strokes are never identical. That’s why it’s better to have multiple themed brush sets in Photoshop.

Of course, there are plenty of other brush sets online, but we’ll stick with those already mentioned. Why? Because the main challenge in creating watercolor web design often lies in generating a suitable background — not just using textures and strokes, but creating an actual watercolor composition.

Watercolor Painting in Photoshop

In fact, this is not difficult — you don’t even need to know how to sketch outlines by hand. You just need the right photo.

Method 1

Open Photoshop and create a new document (we’ll use 1280x720, white background). Go to Filter Gallery → Texture → Texturizer and adjust your canvas texture as desired.

Find an old paper texture online and place it on a separate layer with opacity set to around 50–70% (to taste).

On a new layer, add your image and group it (CTRL+G). Then go to Layer → Layer Mask → Hide All. You’ll see the mask, but the image will be hidden.

Now comes the fun part. Using different watercolor brushes with white color, start brushing to reveal the image where you want. Experiment with splashes, blur, pressure, opacity. Get creative — there’s no single recipe.

Add another layer below the group but above the background. Use colorful brush strokes with Blending Mode: Multiply. You can even create new splatters or drops here.

Select the photo layer and go to Filter Gallery → Artistic → Dry Brush with suggested settings: Brush size: 0, Detail: 9, Texture: 1.

Here's the result. You can tweak opacity and blend modes for added effect. Below are more examples.

Method 2

This alternative method takes more effort but gives a different result.

Create a new layer, fill it with a base color, and place a cut-out object on top.

Create a new layer “Watercolor 1” and paint with a brush. Set the blending mode to “Color Burn.”

On another layer “Watercolor 2,” add more strokes. Place it below the image layer and set to Multiply.

Then use Brush → Dry Brushes, set to Overlay, 30% opacity, and paint directly over the image with various colors.

Again select the image layer and go to Filter Gallery → Artistic → Dry Brush.

Finally, add a few finishing touches. Use quick selection to outline the subject, smooth the edges, add a new background layer with colorful splashes, and a canvas-texture layer above everything with a beige tone.

Conclusion

One of the most important things watercolor style gives to web designers is the ability to think creatively and artistically. If you see major web projects using this style and feel inspired, don’t wait — start experimenting with brushes, strokes, and color combos. On the other hand, if you lean toward strict or conservative styles, watercolor effects can help develop your creative thinking.

Either way, watercolor has been used in web design for years. The challenge isn’t using it, but finding the right way to do it. Unfortunately, there’s no universal solution — it all depends on your project.