How can I apply watercolour swatches to a gradient?

Question

I'm trying to figure out how to fade multiple watercolour effects on an object. I've tried dragging my watercolour swatches into gradient stops, but my gradient reverts to white each time. I'm trying to create an effect similar to this: [Design cred: Nicky Laatz on Creative Market]

I assumed gradients would be the best way to achieve this, but it's not working for me so far. My watercolour swatches work fine when applied to objects without the gradient. What am I missing?

Here is what the gradient looks like when I apply the swatch to the gradient stop:

Answer 1

I'm assuming your watercolor swatch is a pattern swatch. If so, you can't add a pattern to a gradient, but you can layer your pattern on top of your gradient.

1. Set up your gradient as you want it without the watercolor pattern:

2. Using the Appearance panel (Window → Appearance) add another fill above your gradient fill. Set this fill to your pattern swatch and use blending modes (click "Opacity" to bring up the transparency options) to layer this with the gradient below.

   I used the "Luminosity" blending mode as I don't want any color information from my watercolor swatch, only its luminance, but you may want to experiment with other blending modes depending on the pattern/texture you're using:

Answer 2

Do you mean this effect?

This is achieved by gradient fill. Just a rough outline for reference. you can choose several color as you want.