Watercolor backgrounds and textures are a great way to elevate the artistic look of any design, from logos, business cards and packaging to social media graphics, illustrations and web design. With colors that beautifully blend together to create fascinating dreamy textures, these graphics allow you to achieve the aesthetic of traditional watercolor art with ease in digital design work.
In this post, we bring to you a collection of watercolor backgrounds, textures and seamless patterns that you can download and use in your own designs. You can use them for creating a statement background for your design, or for adding a splash of color for a beautiful effect.
When it comes to web design, you can feature watercolor style backgrounds in website headers or combine these textures with other elements in the composition such as text, buttons and images for a subtle effect. Watercolor design works especially well for portfolio sites of artists and designers, female bloggers, and wedding websites.
Typography ties together the overall design. Watercolor backgrounds provide the perfect canvas for getting creative with fonts and typography. You can pair them with sans serifs for a modern look or with brush fonts and handwritten fonts to give your site a distinct look.
Free Watercolor Backgrounds, Textures & Patterns
We will start our round-up with free to download backgrounds, textures and patterns in watercolor style which collectively offer over hundreds of free resources. All of these are available for free personal and/or commercial usage. Towards the end you’ll also find some premium background packs. Have a look!
4 Free Hi-Res Watercolor Texture Backgrounds
This freebie includes 4 backgrounds, each with distinct textures and color blends. These backgrounds come in JPG formats and at a high resolution of 4000×2666 px at 300 dpi and can be used in commercial work in exchange of attribution.
16 Free Watercolor Backgrounds Set
A set of 16 watercolor texture backgrounds for artistic designs. Free download in high resolution JPG formats.
10 Free PSD Watercolor Backgrounds
A set of 10 free for commercial use backgrounds. On downloading, you will get 10 layered PSD files that you can customize to modify colors and textures.
8 Free Abstract Watercolor Textures
These unique textures combine the style of watercolor painting with bold inking technique. The downloadable zip archive contains 8 backgrounds in JPG and transparent PNG formats at 300 dpi and can be used for free in commercial projects such as websites, apps and templates.
8 Free Watercolor Ombre Textures
A beautiful pack of 8 free hand painted watercolor ombre texture backgrounds available in JPG format. It is also a part of premium bundle on Creative Market that has over 15 such watercolor texture bundles with hundreds of backgrounds.
15 Free Gold & Silver Color Watercolor Textures
This freebie offers 15 watercolor textures in gold and silver colors that would be perfect for use in websites, banners and posters. The backgrounds can be downloaded as 5000×5000 px JPG images. Free for personal and commercial use.
Related: 4 Free Gold Foil Textures
5 Free Grungy Watercolor Abstract Backgrounds
These abstract backgrounds have a grungy look to them with different colored drips, splashes and splatters spread all over the image. Downloadable as 5000×5000 px JPG formats and available for personal and non-profitable use.
12 Free Watercolor Paper Textures
These beautifully and richly textured watercolor papers will add a pleasant handicraft feeling to all your graphic design projects. Each of the 12 JPG paper textures comes with a gold accented version as well. Ideal for both print and screen projects such as scrapbooking, branding, advertisement, stationery ideas, and background.
Related: High Quality Paper Textures
6 Free Watercolor Paint Textures
This freebie offers 6 watercolor paint textures in vivid hues. These high-resolution images come in PNG formats with transparent backgrounds and can be used as-is in backgrounds or layered behind shapes or text for adding a handcrafted feel to your designs.
4 Free Seamless Watercolor Patterns
A free pack of 4 seamless watercolor background patterns. Available for free download as 3600×3600 px transparent PNG files which lets you adjust the background colors according to your needs. Free for both personal and commercial use.
25 Free Watercolor Circle Textures
These circle shaped washes have been hand painted and scanned at high resolution. On downloading, you’ll get a pack of 25 watercolor circle textures, complete in high res 300dpi format for print and PNG versions with alpha transparency. A popular use for this style of texture is to create cool watercolor style brands and logos, where the vibrant watercolor image is used as a background for your logo text.
10 Free Watercolor Smudges Textures
This resource includes 10 textures for grungy watercolor smudges and drips, each created by hand. The download includes JPG textures along with vectors and Photoshop brushes.
Bonus: Premium Watercolor Backgrounds
Below you will find our handpicked selection of premium watercolor backgrounds and textures that are sure to wow anyone. Please note that some of the links to premium items may contain our affiliate partner ids.
Glittery Watercolor Backgrounds
These backgrounds bring together the handcrafted feel of watercolor art and the glittering gold texture. Included are 7 high resolution JPG backgrounds with scattered gold glitter and gold dusting across their surface. Available at at a size of 2000×2000 px at 300 PPI. Perfect for adding a sophisticated, luxurious effect to your online store graphics, website backgrounds, eBooks, social media and blog images and much more.
Heartful Watercolor Textures
Heartfelt watercolor textures are made for elegant, trendy and feminine designs. A soft color palette with bits of shine and glitter make them great for adding a delicate touch to wedding websites, personal blogs, logos and social media banners. The downloadable zip archive includes 40 artistic shapes and 49 strokes made out of watercolor in PNG formats.
Vibrant Watercolor Texture Backgrounds
This is a premium set of watercolor backgrounds designed by our team. Included are 7 backgrounds with vibrant color combinations in JPG format at a size of 2000×2000 px. You can use them in both personal and commercial projects including websites, apps, social media banners and poster designs.
30 Watercolor Gradient Backgrounds
This set of 30 watercolor gradient backgrounds with colorful linear gradients are fitting for when you want to combine watercolor look with the current trend of using gradients in web design. On purchasing this set, you’ll get 30 JPG images at 6000×4000 px size.
Space Watercolor Backgrounds
A set of 10 watercolor style space and nebula backgrounds stippled with stars. Ideal for when you want a watercolor look for your space themed app or website. On purchasing, you’ll get the backgrounds as high-res JPG images and layered PSD files.
Ombre Watercolor Backgrounds Bundle
A huge bundle of 78 ombre watercolor backgrounds in shades of green, orange, pink, grey, purple, periwinkle blue, sky blue, navy blue, burgundy, smoke grey, dusty rose and turquoise. With soft color transitions, these backgrounds can be effectively used for a natural and subtle gradient effect in websites and graphic design.
Watercolor Backgrounds and Textures
A premium set of watercolor backgrounds and texture images in bold, saturated colors. On purchasing this item from Creative Market, you’ll get 23 heavy textured backgrounds in 3000×2000 px JPG formats.
Artistic Backgrounds
This is a premium set of 23 watercolor textured backgrounds available 3000×2000 px JPG images.
60 Watercolor Backgrounds
This premium item includes 60 whimsical watercolor backgrounds with varying patterns and color combinations – light blue, spring green, ice blue, light pink, peach and red. On purchasing, you’ll get JPG images in sizes >5000×5000 px
Watercolor Hi-Res Papers
A set of 10 seamless watercolor paper textures in light color palettes of mint, rose, blush, lilac, yellow, grass and blue. Perfect to add a bit of sophistication to your website, blog or graphics.
More Watercolor Resources
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You might also be interested in these articles covering more of such useful watercolor style graphics and resources:
