Cartoon Drawing

Part One: Import

Step One

First, import your drawing: scan your character sketch and open it in Illustrator (you can do this easily by dragging the image file onto the Ai icon—an artboard with your sketch will open).

Step Two

Now it’s time to prepare your workspace: Size the artboard to fit your sketch. You can also crop the image file if needed, using the Crop Image button at the top of the work area. Set the layer’s opacity to about 25 percent. Give the layer a descriptive name (such as “Sketch”) and lock it. Then create a new layer and give it a descriptive name.

Part Two: Pen Tool

On your new layer, using a black stroke (and no fill), begin to draw a clean line with the Pen tool. Use your locked sketch layer as reference. The curvature tool can be really helpful here. (Learn more about using the Pen tool and the Curvature tool.)

Part Three: Paint

To add color to your character, select all and activate Live Paint (command-option-K).

Fill each space with color. Once your character is colored in, expand the Live Paint function (Object > Live Paint > Expand).