Step 1: Use the Shape Tools
See if you can trace over any part of your design using the shape tools. This example has irregular shapes, so the only part that can use a shape is the nose.
Select the Ellipse Tool.
Click and drag to add an ellipse. Resize and rotate it as needed.
Change the fill color as desired.
Step 2: Use the Pen Tool
Select the Pen Tool.
Change the Mode to Pen Mode.
Turn on Rubber Band Mode.
Turn off Snapping.
To lay down the first node, click and drag in the direction that you want the line to go.
To continue the line, click and drag new nodes, going in the same direction. Because Rubber Band Mode is turned on, there is a blue line that shows you a preview of what the line will look like.
Continue clicking and dragging to add nodes.
When you get to the end of the line, you can just click once.
To adjust the nodes that you laid down, you can select the Node Tool. Then, click and drag to adjust the nodes or the line in between the nodes.
To increase the thickness of the Stroke line, increase the Width in the Stroke panel or in the Context Toolbar.
To continue tracing new lines, select the Pen Tool. Press Escape on your keyboard to end your previous line.
When you get to a sharp corner or change in direction, click and drag to create a node. While clicking and dragging, hold down Alt (PC) or Option (Mac) to break the node.
Continue tracing. Remember that you can use the Node Tool at any time to adjust the nodes.
Trace the rest of the lines. With the short lines, press Escape to end the line before you move on to other lines.
Step 3: Clean Up the Pen Lines
Turn off the sketch layer.
With this clear view of the lines, feel free to adjust the lines with the Node Tool even more.
In some areas, the lines might overlap too far. You can click and drag to move nodes to fix that.
Once you’re finished moving nodes around, select all of the layers by clicking on the first one, then holding Shift and clicking on the last one.
Group the layers by pressing Control + G (PC) or Command + G (Mac).
Step 4: Add Color
Since the lines that were traced are not closed shapes, to add color, retrace the full outside edge.
With that traced, you can add a fill color to the design. Just make sure this color layer is beneath the lines group.
To add a secondary color, carefully trace the lines inside the shape. Feel free to trace the shape more messily on the outer edges.
Click and drag the secondary color layer until it overlaps with the main color layer.
Now the secondary color layer is a child layer, so the messy outer edges aren’t visible.
Add more shapes as child layers as desired.
To add a shadow under the main shape, trace a shape along the outer edge of the object. Give it a color, and place the shadow layer underneath the other color layers.
Lower the Opacity of the layer to blend the shadow with the background.
You can repeat this to add shadows on top of the other colors. Just make sure these shadow layers are on top of the other color layers so that they are visible.
And that’s it! Now you know how to turn any sketch into a vector design. 😊