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How to Create Watercolor Character Art for Storyboards

Storyboard artists need character references that communicate gesture, motion, and personality — not polished illustrations. A watercolor rendering style gives your pre-viz characters the loose, expressive quality that sells a scene's emotional tone without getting bogged down in detail. Traditional watercolor character sheets take hours to paint by hand, and you need one per character per project. Answer: Upload your character concept to the multi-angle generator set to watercolor style, generate an 8-angle reference sheet with loose, gestural rendering, and export each angle as an individual transparent watercolor swatch. Import these swatches as custom brush stamps in Storyboard Pro or Photoshop so you can stamp characters at the right angle directly into storyboard frames — cutting character setup from hours to minutes.

Last updated By the EZ Character team

Try it now Upload your character and get 8 turnaround angles in seconds
Step-by-step
  1. 01

    Upload character concept for watercolor rendering

    Provide a rough sketch, mood board reference, or text description of your character. Focus on the character's silhouette, key costume elements, and the emotional range they need to express in the storyboard. The watercolor preset emphasizes loose brushwork and color bleeds over precise linework — perfect for pre-viz.

  2. 02

    Generate watercolor-style 8-angle sheet with loose rendering

    Run the multi-angle generation with the watercolor style preset. Set detail level to low or medium — you want gestural readability, not fine detail. The output gives you front, front-right, right, back-right, back, back-left, left, and front-left views rendered with watercolor washes, soft edges, and slight pigment-bleed effects that mimic traditional watercolor.

  3. 03

    Export angles as individual transparent watercolor swatches

    Export each of the 8 angles as a separate PNG with transparent background. Keep the watercolor edge bleed intact — the soft, irregular edges are what sell the traditional-media look when stamped onto storyboard frames. Do not crop too tightly; leave breathing room around the character.

  4. 04

    Import into Storyboard Pro or Photoshop as custom brush stamps

    In Storyboard Pro, add each angle PNG to your brush library as a stamp brush. In Photoshop, define each as a custom brush preset (Edit > Define Brush Preset). Organize stamps by character name and angle so you can select the right pose with a single click while thumbnailing.

  5. 05

    Stamp characters at correct angle per storyboard frame

    As you rough out storyboard panels, select the character stamp that matches the camera angle for that shot. Scale and rotate the stamp to fit perspective, then sketch over it loosely to integrate the character into the scene. The watercolor texture blends naturally with rough storyboard linework.

Pro tips
  • Apply a slight rotation (2-5 degrees) to each stamp placement — perfectly level stamps look mechanical and ruin the hand-drawn feel.
  • Use the Multiply blend mode when stamping watercolor characters over background sketches — it preserves the watercolor transparency effect.
  • Create a "silhouette only" stamp from the back view for deep-background shots where detail isn't needed.
  • Keep a second set of stamps at 50% opacity for background characters — this creates natural depth in crowd or group shots.
  • Name stamps with angle shorthand: `CHAR_F`, `CHAR_FR`, `CHAR_R`, `CHAR_BR`, `CHAR_B`, `CHAR_BL`, `CHAR_L`, `CHAR_FL` for fast selection.
  • Export a bonus "action pose" stamp from the three-quarter view with slightly exaggerated gesture for dynamic action sequences.
  • Pair each watercolor character with a small swatch of their signature color in the stamp preview — helps identify characters when you have 6+ in a project.
  • Run a batch generation for all characters in a single session so the watercolor rendering style stays consistent across the entire cast.

Frequently asked questions

What file format should I use for storyboard character stamps?
Export as PNG with transparent background at 2000-3000px on the longest side. PNG preserves the soft watercolor edges and transparency needed for stamping over background sketches. Avoid JPEG — the compression artifacts ruin watercolor edges and JPEG doesn't support transparency. For Storyboard Pro specifically, PNG is the native supported format for custom brush stamps.

Can I use the free tier for storyboard character generation?
Yes — the free tier includes 3 multi-angle generations per month. Each generation produces a full 8-angle watercolor turnaround, which gives you one complete storyboard character reference sheet and stamps. For a short film or commercial with 3-4 characters, you can generate the full cast within a month on the free tier. Feature-length projects with larger casts will need a paid plan.

How detailed should my storyboard character references be?
For storyboard use, aim for "gestural readability" — the character should be instantly recognizable but not finely detailed. The watercolor style preset is designed specifically for this: it captures silhouette, key costume shapes, and color palette while keeping the rendering loose. Too much detail slows down your thumbnailing process and distracts from composition and camera work.

Can I use these stamps in other software besides Storyboard Pro?
Absolutely. The exported PNG stamps work in any storyboard or illustration software: Photoshop (custom brush presets), Procreate (stamp brushes), Clip Studio Paint (image materials), Toon Boom Harmony, or even presentation tools like Figma and Miro for rough pre-viz. The stamps are standard transparent PNGs — no proprietary format lock-in.

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