Quick And Easy Method To Digitize Your Art

There are three main things I love sharing on this website and those are my passion for DIY art, crafts, and skin care products. Today I am excited to share a quick and easy way to digitize your own art so that you can use it in your own handmade products.

This post contains affiliate links which means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission at no cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn a commission on qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you. See full disclosure here.

I was so excited when I received a new watercolor paint set over the Christmas holiday and decided to just test it by making some simple watercolor flowers. I share the process below along with some best practices and tools to digitize your art or your kid’s art to make it into fun products such as shirts, stickers, and even fun and unique cards.

How to make and digitize your art using a simple watercolor flower

First, gather the materials to paint the watercolor flower.

All you’ll need are the watercolor paint set, a good watercolor paint brush, and a good heavy watercolor paper. Keep some water in a small cup to dilute the paint.

Lightly sketch a flower on the watercolor paper.

Paint the flower starting with the light layer of color and building up more color to create shadows.

Add the final details and allow the simple watercolor flower painting to fully dry.

How to scan your artwork

To scan your artwork make sure that your components fit inside the scanner flatbed or feeder. This Epson EcoTank scanner is a great option to use. It is easier to scan the art in a single image however if the artwork is larger than the flatbed of your scanner make sure to scan in sections following the steps below:

Place the artwork on the flatbed and make sure the cover closes completely. Add a small amount of pressure on the top or place a heavy object over the top of the scanner cover. This will minimize any shadows or wrinkles to show.
In your computer open the scanner app and select “new scan”. Make sure to set it to a minimum of 300 DPI which is best for printing. However, if your scanner allows it, I recommend scanning at higher resolutions of 600 DPI or even 1200 DPI if possible. This will give the flexibility to increase the size of the artwork a bit if needed.
Once the image is ready save it in your documents.

Once the artwork is scanned, edit and remove the background in a photo editing app.

I’ve used Adobe Photoshop for this project but there are other free apps available on the web that you can use. GIMP or Inkspace are free options you can explore.

Clean Up and Edit the Scanned Artwork

Open your scanned file in Photoshop or GIMP (or your favorite photo editing app) I am learning how to use Affinity Photo and I am looking forward to sharing some of my DIYs using the Affinity products as I continue to use them.
Remove the background. In Photoshop use the magic wand tool to select the background, inverse the selection, then copy it into a new layer.
Edit the artwork colors as needed. The artwork can lose some of its brightness and saturation during the scanning process. I like to edit the color a bit to add more contrast and increase the saturation. This way the scanned piece will look just like the original.
Export your art piece as a PNG to use in your products.

You can also vectorize the art piece if you want to further use it in larger sizes. That is a topic for another blog post. But now you have a digital version of your beautiful art to create unique and fun products.

A few ideas on how to use your digitized art

Create a unique card: Head over to Canva and select “Create a Design”. Select Card 7×5 and make a unique card with your artwork. You can also make posts cards. There is a lot of other design work that you can do in Canva and there is a free version available.
Make digital scrapbooking paper. Arrange your artwork in various ways and add a complementary color background and use it for digital scrapbooking.

I hope you now feel comfortable and are ready to digitize your art moving forward. I would love to see what you make. If you want, tag me on Instagram and I will make sure to like it.