31 Best Watercolor Photoshop Actions (2024)

Want your Photoshop images to look like professional watercolor paintings, but don’t want to spend hours editing? In this post, we’ll be sharing the best watercolor Photoshop Actions that can completely transform your images in just a few minutes. 

All the Actions listed below are high-quality, easy to use, and made by professional graphic designers. 

If you see one you like, all you have to do is click the link to download it to your device, then load it in the Actions panel in Photoshop, and run it on the photo you want to edit. Easy!

What is a Watercolor Photoshop Action?

Photoshop actions are pre-recorded tasks or ‘commands’ that can be used to automate the process of editing images in Photoshop.

When you ‘Play’ an action, it executes recorded commands sequentially in order to edit the image and achieve the desired look. 

In the case of watercolor Photoshop Actions case, the desired look is a realistic watercolor paint effect.

While it’s possible to record and save your own Photoshop Actions, it can be very time-consuming to do so. And you probably won’t achieve as good a finish as you could using pre-made Actions from professional graphic designers.

With that in mind, let’s jump into the list.

The Best Watercolor Photoshop Actions

01. UnicDesign Watercolor Photoshop Action – Our Top Pick

First up, we have this fantastic watercolor Photoshop Action by UnicDesign. All you have to do is brush over your image and then play the action to transform it into a stunning watercolor masterpiece. 

It creates 30 different colorways for you to choose from, and delivers unique results each time you run it.

Why it’s our top pick

This is my favorite watercolor Action to use on portrait photography. Of all the Actions I’ve tried, it delivers the best results. I like that it’s fully layered to make it easier to customize your results too, and beginners will appreciate the easy-to-follow video tutorial.

02. Sevenstyles Watercolor Photoshop Action

The Sevenstyles watercolor action is a great choice if you want to create watercolor images that have a more traditional and retro feel. I’ve found that it works particularly well on landscape photos.

It’s super simple to use: Just brush onto the areas that you want to edit, play the Action, and wait a minute or so for it to finish. But if you need extra help, there’s a video tutorial that shows you how to set it up and outlines some techniques you can use to customize the layers.

Keep in mind that this one is only compatible with the English version of Photoshop. There’s also a motion kit available for download that can help you to animate the watercolor images you create.

03. Soft Watercolor Photoshop Action

I really like the aesthetic this soft watercolor Photoshop Action creates. It has that dramatic, vintage look that makes your photos look timeless. The download includes the ATN file, a JPG image preview, and a user guide.

04. Watercolor Action by Volusthemes

Here’s another stunning watercolor Photoshop Action pack available on Envato. It’s perfect for photographers and graphic artists who want to create striking portrait art and take their photos to the next level. The download pack includes the Action file as well as a pattern file and a brief how-to guide.

05. Vintage Watercolor Photoshop Action

This Photoshop action creates a vintage-inspired watercolor aesthetic with highly detailed results. You can run the action in one click, and then customize the results as needed. There are 20 color presets to choose from. It works best on images from 2500-3500 px, with a resolution between 240-300 dpi.

06. Faded Watercolor Photoshop Action

This dreamy Photoshop action gives your images that fluid, translucent look to make them seem like they’ve been brushed on with watercolor paint. It’s easy to use, fully editable, and comes with lots of color presets and customization options, so there’s no limit to your creativity. Works best on high-res photos from 2000 px – 4500 px.

07. Paint Splashes Photoshop Action

Here’s another Action capable of producing that realistic watercolor painting effect in seconds. It layers up splashes of paint textured to look as if they’ve been brushed onto paper. Each layer can be edited individually, allowing you to endlessly customize your results. 

There are 9 color options to choose from including purple, light blue, red, gray, etc. And what’s especially cool is that every time you run the action, you get unique results. So if you’re not happy the first time, just play it again.

08. Watercolor Painting Effect

This watercolor PSD Action is more detailed than most, if a little unrealistic. It works best on photos around 3500 px in size, but you should be fine anywhere from 1500 to 4000 px. It’s on Creative Market, so you can purchase a personal or commercial license individually without getting locked into a monthly subscription.

09. Pencil and Watercolor Photoshop Action

This is one of the most interesting Actions in this list, as it combines a watercolor effect with pencil outlines for truly unique results. To use it, open your photo in Photoshop and flatten it to one layer, then run the Action. 

Within a few minutes, your photos will be magically transformed to look as if they’ve been hand-sketched in pencil and then colored in with watercolors soaked on paper. It works on images of all sizes, but high-resolution photos (1500-3500px) tend to achieve better results and clearer finishes.

10. Real Watercolor Action by AB-TheDesigner

This is one of my personal favorite watercolor Actions. It comes with a bunch of nice brushes that you can use to get those abstract splashes around the subject. 

Before you run the action, you’ll need to add the brushes and splashes yourself—this ensures that you get a different result each time you run it. It’s 100% non-destructive and applies masks so you can edit sections individually.

11. Watercolor Action for Portraits

This is another great watercolor Action for portrait photos. I like that it gives you a choice of two modes: Basic and Light. The Basic mode is more vivid, with more splashes of paint and less white space. The Light mode creates a more minimalist watercolor effect. 

You can also choose between 10 pre-made color options/effects, and results are well-organized with layers and folders for easy customization.

12. Smoky Watercolor Photoshop Action

Here’s a great watercolor Photoshop action for designers hoping to achieve that ‘smoky’ effect. The download includes the Action file, as well as a Brush file, Pattern file, and help document with a link to a video tutorial to help you get started.

13. Sensation Watercolor Action

Sensation is a tasteful Action that gives your edits a more sophisticated, artistic watercolor effect. It comes with some really nice brushes and patterns, and always delivers outstanding results.

14. Watercolor Action by CreativeTacos 

This Action from Creativetacos is advertised as a watercolor Action, but it doesn’t follow the same traditional style as the other options we’ve looked at so far. The results don’t have the same realistic brush texture, but they still look super cool. It’s a good choice for designs where you really want to make the highlights pop.

15. WO Photoshop Action

WO Action is another unique Photoshop Action that converts your photos into watercolor paintings. Generous splashes of paint make it look super realistic. The pack comes with 50+ watercolor brushes and patterns, and there are over 10 color effects to choose from.

16. Artistic Watercolor Action 

Here’s another one of my favorites from designer IndWorks. It’s great for creating beautiful, contemporary watercolor artwork. I love the paint drip effect and those abstract splashes around the subject.

17. Aquarelle Watercolor PS Action

This Photoshop Action, based on traditional watercolor painting techniques, turns your images into beautiful Aquarelle artwork. It’s super straightforward to use: Just install it and run it on whatever image you want to edit. I particularly like using this one on nature scenes and architecture photography.

18. Vivid Watercolor Photoshop Action

Vivid Paint Watercolor Photoshop Action, by Ridvanpars, does exactly what it says on the tin: turns your photos into vivid watercolor paintings. It works well on all image types from portraits to landscapes and everything in between. And it’s non-destructive, which means the changes the Action makes won’t overwrite the original image data so you can easily revert back if you need to.

19. Colorful Watercolor Photoshop Actions

This professional watercolor PS Action from 2lagus couldn’t be easier to use. You just double-click the smart object layer and paste your image in to get that striking watercolor aesthetic you’ve been looking for. It comes with a help file to help you get started, and everything is easily customizable.

20. Stylish Art Photoshop Action

Stylish Art by Oxygen_Art is another watercolor Photoshop action that works really well on portraits. Just brush over your subject and run it to transform a boring photo into a striking watercolor art piece, complete with layers of translucent paint splashes and brush strokes.

21. Painting Photoshop Action

Painting is another Photoshop Action by UnicDesign, the same studio behind our number one pick. I like how detailed the results of this Action are, and the fact that it lets you choose between 25 different color looks. It’s also one of the only Actions I’ve tried that gives unique results each time you run it even if you use exactly the same brushed area.

22. Vibrant Effect Watercolor Action

Vibrant Watercolor Effect Action from designer ShinyPixel has one of the most realistic paper textures I’ve seen. It makes your photos look like they’ve been brushed onto paper in translucent layers of paint, but without that ‘washed out’ look that you get with other Actions. Colors remain super vibrant.

23. Realistic Watercolor Effect

Here’s another one of the best watercolor Photoshop Actions available on Creative Market. You don’t need a monthly subscription to download and use it—you can just purchase a personal or commercial license individually. I love how realistic this one is and it works best on high-rest photos with 2000-3000px resolutions.

24. Aquarelle Photoshop Action

Aquarelle is a fully-layered Photoshop action that turns any image into a watercolor work of art. It looks fantastic, but for it to work, you’ll need to make sure you’re using Photoshop CS6 or CC, and that your Photoshop contains the Oil Paint Filter. Then, open up your Photo and brush over the subject you want to add the watercolor effect to in a separate layer, and play the Action. The download contains a help file with more detailed instructions.

25. Premio Watercolor Action

Premio by Wallow is a versatile watercolor Photoshop Action that works well on all sorts of photos and digital images. It adds translucent paint strokes, drips, and splotches to create a realistic watercolor effect. To use it, download the file and install the Action, Brushes, and Patterns. Then, just open a photo in Photoshop, create a new layer, brush onto the area you want to edit, and hit Play.

26. Pet Watercolor Art

As the name suggests, this Action is designed specifically for pet photos. It’ll turn any portrait of your furry friend into a beautiful, artistic watercolor painting. You can choose your own license depending on whether you plan on using it in personal or commercial projects.

27. Watercolor and Acrylic Photoshop Action Pack

Next, we have a fantastic set of Photoshop Actions from SparkleStock. It includes 8 different Actions, each of which produces an entirely different watercolor or acrylic painting effect, including modern watercolor, neon watercolor, grunge acrylic, stencil acrylic, and more. Works best on high-res photos with dimensions of at least 2000 x 2000 px.

28. Magic Watercolor Photoshop Action

Magic Watercolor Photoshop Action transforms any photo into a work of art, but the watercolor effect it produces is more subtle than most of the other Actions we’ve looked at. I like how it keeps everything in well-organized layers for easier customization. To use it, just download and install the Action and Patterns file, then follow the instructions to run it. 

29. Wonder Watercolor Photoshop Action

Wonder Watercolor Photoshop Action is another great option if you’re looking to create a super-realistic watercolor effect. You can choose between 15 different color effects. The download comes with the Action file, plus 50+ Photoshop Brushes, Patterns, and a PDF help file.

30. Pen and Watercolor Photoshop Action 

This Action from Walllow combines an interesting watercolor effect with a pen sketch effect to turn your photos into unique, highly detailed paintings. It works well on all sorts of images and comes with over 10 different color effects.

31. Canvas Photo Watercolor Action

Last but not least, we have Canvas—another professionally-made Action for Photoshop that creates a rich, eye-catching watercolor effect. I like that you can choose from 4 different effects including white, visible background, and 2 textures. It comes with a pack of 12 brushes and is non-destructive.

Final Thoughts 

That concludes our roundup of the best watercolor Photoshop Actions—I hope you found something that fits your project in this list.

Want to learn more about Photoshop or graphic design? Be sure to check out some more of our articles including the 23 Best Mockup Templates (Free & Premium) and 24 Best Instagram Story Highlight Icons.