The goal now is to get the image(s) you want out of the full image so that it is easer to work with in InkScape. I just emailed this to myself in order to import on my computer (I don’t have an iPhone, but all my other devices are Apple products. If this was a more complicated image, or you have terrible lighting, scanning the image would work best. You can see that I doodled 4 watercolor images on some watercolor paper, held it up so the lighting wasn’t wonky, and snapped a photo with my smartphone. To get started, take a photo or scan of the image(s) you want to work with.

Mac computer (you can do all of this on a PC as well, but this tutorial is for a Mac).

XQuartz (if working on a Mac… InkScape download will instruct you to download this first).

Digital camera, smartphone camera, or scanner.Watercolor image (or any other type of image you wish to digitize).Here are the tools you will need to do this: Ok! So you have a sweet little watercolor image that you want to vectorize and manipulate in imaging software? But you don’t have Adobe Illustrator? No problem! Also, many of the features in Ai are also in Affinity Designer, so you can refer to Ai tutorials for guidance. I have the workbook, but I have yet to open it, so I don’t consider it a necessity for every task. Bam! There aren’t as many resources or tutorials out there for the tool like there are for Ai, but there is a workbook you can purchase (for another $50). This tool is available for $50 in the Apple App Store.

And while that doesn’t sound like a terribly large amount of money, I don’t need another monthly expense.Īn alternative (especially for those of us who don’t have a need for every Ai feature) is Affinity Designer. But for me, that is going to cost another 25-50 dollars a month. If you work for a company that is footing the monthly bill for Ai, high five, that is awesome. Adobe Illustrator appears to be the standard in almost any creative industry.

Inkscape for mac vs affinity designer