Convert a Hand Drawn Sketch to Vector using Live Trace

Illustrator’s Live Trace (now called Image Trace) feature is an extremely quick way to convert hand drawn fashion flats or artwork to vector with the click of a few buttons. This video will teach you how to use Live Trace and its settings.

This short Illustrator video tutorial will show you how to:

How to prepare your hand sketch for the best Live Trace results (0:21)
How to convert your hand sketch to vector (01:25)
How to trace your artwork with strokes (1:52)
How to edit (expand) a Live Trace Group (03:31)

Get the free live trace example file to follow along with the tutorial.

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While Live Trace is a great tool and allows you to quickly turn a sketch to vector, there are pros and cons to this versus tracing a sketch with the Pen Tool. And if you’re like most of us and fight with the pen tool, the reshape tool may be what you want to create nice curved lines in Illustrator.