From Sketch to Vector: a Step-by-Step Guide

Have some ideas in your head that you want to create? This step-by-step guide will tell you everything you need to know about creating sketches and vectorizing them!

Step 1: Brainstorming

Step 1 is the hardest of them all, but don’t get discouraged! You’ll want to start brainstorming some ideas and sketch them out. This goes for anything, whether you want to make some illustrated characters, you’re designing a logo, or anything else you may want to vectorize. Keep the sketches simple for now, and avoid adding too much detail or colour, as it can lead to distractions and can cloud your judgement in the next step.

Step 2: Narrow down your ideas

Now that you’ve come up with some cool ideas, you’ll need to start narrowing them down. If you can’t decide which one(s) you like the best, consider asking a friend or relative for their opinion.

Step 3: Adding detail

Now that you’ve chosen a final concept, you can start to add some detail to the sketch. This might include texture, shading, or other features that you’ll want to include in your final vector. You can add colour at this stage if you want, but I personally don’t like to add colour until I’ve started the vector copy.

Step 4: Beginning the vectorization

Now that you’ve completed your sketch, it’s time to begin vectorizing it! To begin, simply take a picture of your sketch with your phone and upload it to your Illustrator artboard. From there, you can start to trace the outline with your tool of choice (I prefer to use the Pen tool or Pencil tool).

Step 5: Adding detail

With the outline out of the way, you can now start to add the details of your vector. This part comes down to your technique and how well you can use Illustrator. Make use of blending modes to add depth to your vector.

Step 6: Adding colour

Finally, you can begin adding colour to your vector! If you haven’t already found a colour palette you like, you can find colour palette generators online, or you can manually extract colours from existing images using the eyedropper tool. Be careful in this step! If you’re planning to print your vector, make sure your file is set to CMYK colour mode, otherwise your vector might print with different colours than what appears on your screen.

Step 7: Final touch-ups

With that, your vector is finished! All that’s left to do is finalize the small details and shading to match the new colours you’ve chosen, and your vector will be finalized! You can then go ahead and export it to be used how you see fit.

If this tutorial was helpful, be sure to leave a comment and let me know! I’d love to see how your vectors turned out!