Printable Watercolor Botanical Prints - Free

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Today's free designs are a bit different than usual...they are watercolor botanical prints (free ones) that I created from a small plant vignette in our sunroom. This is sort of a trial run to see how this type of printable goes over. I'm really excited about it, but certainly welcome your feedback. 

I've been thinking about creating watercolor printables of vignettes in my sunroom for a bit. Actually, this idea took shape last summer when my flower garden was in full bloom. I started toying with these types of designs using images taken of the flowers I had grown. I would like to do a series of these this summer since my garden should be about 80% flowers this year (15% herbs and 5% green beans...ha!). But, today's trial run is a small vignette that I put together in my sunroom. I hope you enjoy this.

Watercolor Botanical Prints - Free

I love impressionist artists. And while most use oil, this is sort of my spin on that same look with a nod to watercolor. I worked on several vignettes in my sunroom before being happy with this one. I wanted a scene that reminded me of the painting, "Girl Watering Her Plants" from Homer Winslow. I also really enjoy artists Richard Edward Miller and Berthe Morisot and was trying to lean towards their styles, as well.

Also, these prints are available in LOTS of sizes! From 4x6" all the way to 11x14". 

How I Created this Print

As many of you know, I've been a graphic designer for over 20 years now. In the past 10 years, I've branched off a bit and learned to create art pieces within the programs I use (not just logos and websites like I did years ago). 

Whether it's painting watercolor stripes, blossoms or leaves on a page, scanning them, and then manipulating in Photoshop, or learning to create smaller items of a design and then piecing them together for a bigger picture, this is my medium. I'm not an actual painter, but a lot of my pieces are created from a simple stroke of paint that I've both created and changed 100 times on the computer after scanning in. And, to be totally transparent, I've purchased smaller commercial pieces (brush strokes, petals, pieces of grass, etc.) from artists that specialize in creating these things...then I am able to make my own flowers and patterns from them. It's a really fun process, and I'm blessed to have stumbled into it so many years ago.

Today's piece is a bit different. 

• I started this by creating a vignette with plants and objects in my sunroom (and a couple of branches from my neighbor's beautifully blooming hawthorn bush). And I must add that the antique wash basin and pitcher belonged to my mother and has always been a favorite of mine.
• I took several photos of this vignette.
• Using both Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom, I combined two images into one, worked out a lot of shadows, saturated color, and touched up patterns.
• Then I used a watercolor application on my computer to make the images into one art piece.
• I then took that image back into Photoshop and used a variety of watercolor brushes (graphically speaking) to add small details here and there.
• Below, you can see one of my original photos on the left, compared to the finished product on the right.

Printing Your Watercolor Botanical Prints:

• All of these watercolor botanical prints are for personal use. However, if you have a small business and would like to utilize the physical, printed products in your business, please purchase a commercial license here. 
• The standard-sized PDF prints (8x10", 5x7", and 4x6") can print at home on your own printer. All of these sizes (the PDF formats) are created to print onto white, letter-sized cardstock. 
• Purchase a pack of that here on Amazon.
• The JPEG versions of the standard-sized prints (8x10", 5x7", and 4x6") can be uploaded to your local printing place or printed at home like a photo or image. 
• For details on uploading your JPEG prints to a local printer, you can use the same process that I use below for printing oversized prints.
• The larger printable sizes can be printed at any professional printing place. Personally, I use Walgreens for this kind of printing. You can upload on their website, then have shipped to your store or home. Walgreens is my preference, but there are lots of options out there.
• Head to their website and hover your mouse over the 'Photo' option until the drop down menu populates on its own. Click the 'Posters' option. 
• Once you're on the 'Posters' page, scroll down and select the plain 'Posters' option (just FYI, they ALWAYS do half off sales and this makes the posters really budget-friendly...I tend to stock up when they do this). 
• Select your size option and click the 'Create now' button. 
• Then click 'Upload photos' and upload the botanical printable design that correlates with the size you selected on their site (you'll need to download your printable to your computer, first...download links are located further down in this post). Please note that their posters only work with JPEG designs, so be sure to download that version from me, below.
• These watercolor botanical prints are vertical designs, but the Walgreens site doesn't always import them that way (I'm not sure why on this one). You'll need to click the rotate button . You'll also need to scale the print a bit smaller using the sliding scale.
• Then click "Review Order"  and select how you want to receive your print (by mail or in their store). Make sure to use your code if they're having the half off sale.
• The other place I recommend for larger-scale printing is FedEx Office. They are actually a bit pricier than Walgreens, but their turnaround is often faster, plus, they seem to have more locations (we have one in our local Walmart). Just head to the FedEx site and click 'Design and Print' and then upload your print-ready file (from below). I like the fact that you can use PDF or JPEG formats on their site. Their site is a little more user-friendly, too, so I won't walk you through the whole process...it's self-explanatory.

Download Your Watercolor Prints:

I added in the example image above to show how your prints look when downloaded. The image (above right) is how the 4x6" and 5x7" PDF formatted prints come. I do two per page to avoid paper waste.

• Download the 11x14" PDF
• Download the 11x14" JPEG
• Download the 8x10" PDF
• Download the 8x10" JPEG
• Download the 5x7" PDF (two prints per page)
• Download the 5x7" JPEG
• Download the 4x6" PDF (two prints per page)
• Download the 4x6" JPEG
• These prints are also available here on Dropbox.
• These prints are also available here on Google Drive.

Again, I would love to know your thoughts on this style of printable. Would you like to see more of these? Let me know in the comments.

More Watercolor Printables

• This Free Spring Horizontal Printable (with the French wording: le marché aux fleurs) is a lovely design filled with terra cotta pots and florals. It has a faint, striped background, as well.
• Over on Print Pretty Cards, I have this set of Free Floral Card Printables that have been super popular with my readers. There are two different design options.
• And my six French Country Garden printables are made up of sweet floral vignettes in a variety of unique containers.
• These Spring Watercolor Printables from My Wee Abode are so pretty! I really like all the blue colors in these.
• I love this sweet Watercolor Easter Printable (with Bunny!) from the fabulous ladies at 2 Bees in a Pod.
• And this Spring Watercolor Nest Printable from Jenn over at Clean and Scentsible is the sweetest. She always has such pretty watercolor designs.