Creating Vector Artwork from Paper Drawings in Adobe illustrator

When it comes to creating vector artwork from drawing that you have previously drawn by hand, there are a lot of benefits.  Once you have created vector drawing, they can be made as small or as large as you want without losing any quality, also you are able to apply colors and line weights that couldn't be achieved by hand.

The first step is to create a new file in Illustrator, and making the file the size you would like the document to be with an RGB color mode selected and at least 300 dpi.

Once you have your document set up, place the scanned hand drawing that you would like to convert into vector art on the first layer and lock that layer. Once that layer is locked you won't be able to edit the original drawing.

Create a second layer and place it on top of your template, click the blob brush tool and select the color black to begin tracing out your hand-drawn image.  Tracing the outlines of everything that is on the original image will result in the outlines in vector form.

Once the outlining has been finished, you want to select everything on layer two and copy-paste that into a separate layer (or more than one) that way if you need to make changes of the outline you have copies made.

Select one of the duplicate layers you have made of the tracing, and make sure all of the lines are selected. Go to Object/Live Paint/Make.  What live paint does, is it makes any lines that are touching, shapes, so that way you are able to add colors inside these shapes whenever you would like.

These shapes will highlight as you hover over them, showing you are able to color these shapes.  If there are areas which it won't let you color, this is where the duplicate layers you made previously come in handy. Use the pen tool or the direct selection tool to bring the lines closer together where they are touching the closest line to them, and repeat the steps of turning it into a live paint object until you get the shapes how you would like them.

After you have colored the drawing the way you see fit, you are able to group the drawing and then make it as small or as large as needed for whatever you have planned for the art.  This really comes in handy if you are designing a character for a company or for yourself, and you want to be able to use this art for shirts or business cards or whatever you need to design.  Because the drawing is now vector-based there is no need to worry about losing quality.

I even use this same style if I start drawing straight to the computer without having any hand-drawn objects.  This is a great way to get skilled with the pen tool and the freehand brush tools.  Every time I use them I find more tips and tricks just from trial and error.


Hopefully, this helped you clean up your sketchbook ideas that you didn't think you would ever be able to get any use out of.  Making quality tips and tricks is what I strive for and I have plenty of more where that came from!

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Website:Adobe.com
Keyword: vector artwork,  Adobe Illustrator