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Draw by hand, scan and bring into Illustrator

1. Create a black and white illustration being careful to close objects completely as you draw.

vector artwork

2. Scan the artwork as a high resolution file (I prefer tiff images)

3. Open in Adobe Illustrator or other vector software.

4. Use the trace command to create the vector artwork and then use the expand command to break the image into sections.

5. Select the image and ungroup.

6. Using the paint tool – click on an individual area to fill with chosen color.

final colored vector art

7. Continue and save as a vector file.

Becky Bayne

Becky Bayne is an award-winning author, book designer, and Self-Publishing Production Director. As founder of Becky’s Graphic Design, she leads a structured production studio managing 25–30 professional book releases annually for nonfiction authors and select children’s book projects. Her award-winning guide, "How to Format a Children’s Book for Self-Publishing," received First Place for Artistic & Technical Book Design from The BookFest and was named a Finalist by American Book Fest. Through the studio’s educational YouTube platform—serving 10,000+ self-publishing students and designers—technical InDesign instruction is led by Lead Formatting Specialist Kayla Snyder under Becky’s production oversight.

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