Recolour your watercolour in photoshop for surface pattern designers
Do you know how to recolour your watercolour motifs in Photoshop?
This is a really handy skill when it comes to leveraging your designs across many colour palettes!
You can use this for all kinds of painting, not just watercolour! This also works with digital art for example art you’ve created in procreate.
Here is an example of one collection in three colour ways using my recolouring method
A quick and easy way to make multiple colourways for your pattern designs
If you’ve ever finished a design and thought, “I love this... but I wish I had it in a few more colour options”—you’re not alone! Creating multiple colourways is one of the best ways to build out a cohesive collection and offer more variety, especially on platforms like Spoonflower.
In this post, I’ll show you my go-to method for recolouring watercolour artwork in Photoshop, even if it wasn’t painted in layers originally.
Why Recolour Your Designs?
✨ Spoonflower customers love options
✨ Art directors want to see how flexible your work is
✨ It helps you build stronger, more versatile collections
Plus, recolouring saves time—you don’t have to repaint anything from scratch!
Step 1: Open Your Artwork in Photoshop
Whether you created your design in Procreate, scanned a painting, or exported a PNG from Illustrator, the key is to start with a clean, high-resolution file.
If needed, use Select → Color Range or masking to isolate your painted areas from the background.
Step 2: Use Adjustment Layers for Recolouring
This is my favourite non-destructive method.
Add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer
Clip it to your artwork layer (so it only affects the motif)
Adjust the sliders to try different colours in real time
For more control, use Selective Color or Solid Color layers with masks to target specific parts of the design
This method keeps the natural texture and transparency of your watercolour while letting you explore lots of combinations.
Step 3: Save Your Colourways
Once you’ve created a few colour options, save each one as a new file:
Great for building out a collection
Helps you prep Spoonflower listings
Makes your work more versatile when pitching to licensing partners
Tip: Save PSDs with adjustment layers intact so you can easily tweak them later.
Why This Method Works for Surface Designers
💡 It’s quick and non-destructive
🎨 You keep your original watercolour texture
📁 Great for Spoonflower, POD platforms, and your licensing portfolio
This simple recolouring workflow is a great way to get more out of each design without starting over.
Ready to Try It?
Give it a go and tag me with your colourway experiments—I love seeing how everyone personalises their palettes! And if you want more Photoshop tips for surface designers, make sure you’re on my email list.
I would love to know of you find this tutorial helpful and what other topics you would like me to cover in upcoming free tutorials.
You can join my free facebook group here where you can check out my other free tutorials and meet a supportive artist community.
