Vectorize Artwork with Adobe Illustrator: From Raster to Vector

1. Introduction: Vctorizing or converting a raster image into a vector graphic empowers the artwork significantly. Vctor gives you a level of versatility that pixels simply can't match. When you draw in a pixel based program like Procreate, Adobe Photoshop or Fresco, your artwork is resolution dependent on a scalable and quite challenging to edit. Vctorizing eliminates those limits. Not only does it allow you to enlarge the dimension infinitely without any quality reduction, but it also considerably accelerates your editing, organizing and enhancement process. This flexibility make it effortless to create multiple variations or entire collection from one single design. That's why many art directors and clients specifically request an AIFle for licensing and professional projects. I'm Sahar Himeser. I'm a graphic designer and a design instructor based in Vienna, Austria. Alongside creating my own artwork, I teach graphic design topics and digital illustration covering both vector and raster based workflows. In today's class, we will cover the image tracing panel and learn the function of each setting and option. We will then refine, organize and recolor the artwork and learn how to add texture overlays using opacity and blending mode. By the end of this class, you can confidently transform any raster illustration into a vector version of it. I can't wait to get started, seeing the class fits in 2. About The Class, Resources & Project: Welcome to my Skillshare class, Vctorize artwork with Adobe Illustrator from raster to vector. Thank you for joining me here. This course has two main parts. In the first part, we will explore the basics and go over the concept and all the key terms to make sure you have a solid foundation before moving on. In the second part, we will focus on hands on vectorizing using Adobe Illustrator and work on your class project step by step together. Your assignment for this class is to vectorize a raster drawing. Enhance the colors and share your vector artwork here on a Skillshare. As for software requirements, I will be demonstrating everything on the desktop version of Adobe Illustrator. To access your class resources, head over to the project and resource tab on Skillshare website. And during the lessons, whenever you have a question, head to the discussion tab here, start a conversation, and post your questions. I will be more than happy to answer all of your questions along the way. Okay, we are all set. Let's get started. 3. Vector Vs Raster: In this video, we will learn about the differences between a raster image and a vector graphic. What is a raster image? In computer graphics and digital photography, raster is a mechanism that represents a two dimensional image as a grid of squares that are called pixels. Pixel is the unit of measurement for digital raster images. They actually are the smallest building blocks of raster. You zoom into any raster image in your screen, you will get to the point where all you see is colored squares. These squares are pixels. Common raster image types are JPEG, TIF, gif, PNG, PNP, raw, and PSD. A raster image could be scanned or fully digitized image of a physical artwork or a photo taken by a digital camera or an image that was created using a raster drawing software such as Procreate or Adobe Photoshop. We learn what is a raster image. Now let's learn what is a vector graphic. Vctor is the mathematical calculation that keeps track of anchor points and the equation for the lines that connect those anchor points together to determine how any path will appear. And that is why regardless of how much you zoom into your vector artwork or how much you scale it up, the resolution, AKA, the image quality remains the same. That's because the machine is constantly recalculating for the new dimension or viewpoint. Common vector file types are EPS, SVG, and AI. That was vector versus raster and I see in the next video. 4. Difference Between Digitizing & Vectorizing: In this video, we will learn the differences between the process of digitizing and vectorizing an artwork. Digitizing is the course of actions that we take to convert a physical artwork into a digital version of it. The first and the most important step of digitizing an artwork is to properly scan it into a raster image. When we digitize an artboard, we normally would do more than just scanning and making a raster file. In most cases, digitizing includes some enhancing and editing as well. Apart from having extra adjustment or not, digitizing an artboard will give you a raster image. How about vectorizing? Vctorizing is the process of converting a raster image into a vector graphic. So in order to digitize, you need a non digital artwork, a physical hand drawn art on paper. But in order to vectorize, you need a raster image. Now, let's get into the work and learn more about how to vectorize. 5. File Prepration Manual Artist: In this video, I'll share some tips on how to prepare your artwork for vectorizing. I've divided these file prep tips into two sections for manual artists and for digital artists. Let's start with tips for manual artists. If you draw with traditional mediums like watercolor, gouache, pencil, et cetera, proper scanning is the main key to preparing your artwork. Here are a few tips to ensure an excellent artwork scanning. You want to first clean the scanner to avoid scanning any unwanted dust particles. Then flatten the paper by putting an additional piece of thick paper on top of your artwork, making sure that the paper lays flat inside the scanner, and then hit a scan. Doesn't matter which scanner software you're using as long as it allows you to choose these two options, file type and resolution. For art vectorizing, we only care for these two. The rest will be done in Adobe Illustrator. Choose the file type as TIF, short for tag image file format to keep the details of the original image intact. Set your resolution on 300 PPI or more. Don't mess with the rest of the setting here. And remember, this is the scanning software, not a professional editing tool. If you wish to learn more about how to scan an artwork like a pro, how to use a camera as a scanner, and how to scan big image in small portions and photo merge it back together. And a lot more in depth tips about scanning an artwork, please check my YouTube video and blog post on this topic. The link is below. Great job, everyone. That was the file prep for vectorizing for manual artists and I see in the next video. 6. File Prepration Digital Artist: Vectorizing file prep tips for digital artists. If you draw digitally in raster based softwares like Procreate Adobe Photoshop or Fresco, the file preparation process and steps are very similar across all of these platforms. The first step is to duplicate your drawing file to avoid damaging the original. We want to merge layers. Since we have to vectorize each layer separately, we will be merging them to minimize the total number of layers for the sake of saving time and effort later. Next step is to activate the Alpha lock. We will activate this transparency lock for each layer, and then next step is to recolor each layer in black to simplify the vectorizing process in Adobe Illustrator. A last step is to export it as a PSD file format. Now to teach you how it works and make it easier for you to learn, I will demonstrate these preparation steps in three popular raster drawing software Procreate, Adobe Photoshop and Fresco. There is time guide under this video, so you can jump to your preferred software section if you wish. However, I recommend watching all three. You will find the similarity between them quite fascinating. Okay, let's get started. I start with Procreate since it's the most popular raster drawing software. Inside Procreate, hit, import the file, navigate to the file that I shared with you, then duplicate the drawing so we do not damage the original file, and then hit open. First, the step is to merge down the layers into minimum possible. See what we are doing, we can first turn all these layers except the background one off and turn them back on one by one. Let's check the shadow group. We have hello and we have the winter. They are not overlapping nor touching, so there is no need to keep them both and vectorizing them separately. Tap on the layer group, and from the menu, choose merge done, or you could pinch the two layers together to merge them. Awesome. Now, let's turn this off and do the same for the hand lettering layer and merge them. Next, we want to activate Alpha lock for each layer and recolor it. You can either tap on the layer and select Alpha lock or swipe right with two fingers on the layer, two fingers and swipe to the right. If you can see a checkered background on the layer thumbnail, that means the Alpha lock is activated. Next step is to recoloring this layer in black. I'm going to the colors, and from the classic tab, I'm going to select the black color, then go back to the layer that had Alpha lock on and tap on it, and from the menu choose fill layer and Evo. It's all black. This only works because the Alpha lock was activated on this layer. We want to do this for every single layers, so turn this off, turn the next layer on, two finger and swape right to activate the Alpha lock, then tap on the layer, and from the menu, choose fill layer. Again, two finger, swap right, and fill layer. Okay, great. Now, let's get rid of the solid background layer and make sure all of the layers are on and they are unlocked. Perfect. Now, we want to share this file as PSD file format and save it somewhere that you can open it with Adobe Illustrator on your desktop. Now, let's say you draw your artwork with Adobe Photoshop. Inside the Photoshop, open to navigate to the file that I shared with you and duplicate this drawing so we don't damage the original file. First step is to merge on the unnecessary layers. To see what we are doing, I'm going to turn all the layers off and turn them back on one by one. Let's check the shadow group. We have hello and we have the winter. They are not overlapping, nor touching, so there is no need to keep them both and then vectorizing them separately. So click on one of them, hold the Shift key on keyboard, select the next one, and then right click careful. Do not right click under layer Tmnail but instead, right click on the name of the layer, and from here, select merge layers. You could also use the keyboard shortcut of Command E on Mac or Control E on PC. Need the folder anymore, so let's delete it. Now they are both one layer. Turn it off and turn the next layer on. This time, I'm going to select the group itself and then use the keyboard shortcar to merge it. This will get rid of the folder as well. Next step is to recoloring each layer in black. The most efficient way to do this is using the Alpha lock. Activate the Alpha lock, you can tap on the log here. Careful we don't need the main lock, but we need the Alpha lock here. You see a light icon appears to show your Alpha lock is activated. Now, let's go to the color tool and click here to reset the swatch to black and white and make sure that the top one, the fill color is black. Now, grab the paint packet tool and make sure the contiguous option is unchecked. Click somewhere on that layer and a Walla. Now let's turn this layer off and go for the next one. Select the layer, activate the Alpha lock and grab the paint packet tool and paint and do the same for all the other layers. Now let's get rid of the solid background layer and make sure all of the layers are turned on and they are unlocked. Perfect. The final step is to save this as a Photoshop file format as a PSD file. Now, let's say you draw your artwork with Adobe Fresco. We are in Adobe Fresco. Let's go to import the file and navigate to the file that I shared with you. The first step is to duplicate the drawing so we don't damage the original file and then open it. Next step is to merge down the layers into minimum possible. To see what we are doing, we can first turn all the layers except the background one off and turn them on back one by one when we need. Let's check the shadow group first. We have hello and we have the winter. They are not overlapping nor touching, so there is no need to keep them both and vectorize them separately. So let's exit, tap on the layer group, and then from the menu, choose merge layer in group. Awesome. Now let's turn this off and do the same for the hand lettering layer. So tap on the layer group and from the menu, choose merged layer in group. Okay, perfect. Next step is to lock the transparency for each layer and then recolor it. Tap on the layer and from the menu, choose transparency lock. If you see a small lock with checkered icon on the layer thumbnail, that means the transparency lock is activated. Next, we want to grab the paint Bucket tool and make sure the field color is set on black. You should open the paint pocket setting and make sure contagious is unchecked. Tap somewhere on the object and Eva. Now, let's turn this layer off and go for the next one. So select the layer, lock the transparency, grab the paint Bucket tool and paint. Let's do this for all the other layers as well. Okay, great. Let's get rid of the solid background layer and make sure all the layers are turned on and they are unlocked. Now, the last step is to share this file and export it as a PSD format and save it somewhere that you can open it with Adobe Illustrator. Great job, everyone. That was the file prep for vectorizing, and I see in the next video. 7. Basic Vector Facts: In this video, we are going to learn some basic facts about vector graphics. Let's go to Adobe Illustrator. Every object that you draw here is called a path. Regardless of which tool you use to draw it, you draw a path. Each path has three elements, feel, stroke, and anchor point. F is the color contained inside the path. Stroke is the outline of the path, and anchor points are the points where the path changes the direction. A path needs at least two anchor point, otherwise, it's just a dot. A path with two anchor points is called a line, and a path with three or more anchor points is a shape. Path can be open or close. A closed path is created when two endpoints merge. Whether a path is open or closed, it can have only a feel, only a stroke or both of them applied. Now let's have a quick review. What is a vector graphic? Vctors are mathematical calculations that define how a path appear. It works by keeping track of anchor points and the equations for any lines that connect those anchor points together. Common vector file types are EPS, SVG and AI. AI is the Adobe Illustrator file format. Adobe Illustrator is primarily designed as a vector based drawing software, but it also offers a powerful tool called image trace, which allows you to convert a raster image into a vector graphic. That's all the basics you need to know for now, and I see you in the next video. 8. Step by Step Vectorizing: In this video, we are going to learn all the steps of vectorizing in Adobe Illustrator. Let's first clear something up. The vectorizing tool in Adobe Illustrator is called Image Trace tool, but that doesn't mean you need to trace each path manually with the drawing tool. That is not vectorizing. That is just redrawing. What we actually want to do is learn how to use the image trace panel, so Adobe Illustrator can trace the image for us. I'll begin by opening the artwork that we prepared earlier. Right click on the PSD file or the T file from the scanning and choose open with Adobe Illustrator. In the pop up window, select convert layers to object and hit Ok. For digital artists, Adobe Illustrator will open the file with all the existing layers intact. For manual artist, if you scanned multiple layers, after opening the first layer, you should go up to the file menu, say, place, and bring in other layers and hit embed to break the link. It is very important to embed every image that you place in. Next is to setting up your workspace, to access all the panels I'm using, go to the windows in the top menu and activate them here. Just make sure the image trace panel is open. If you like to work with the exact same workspace setup as mine, open the Illustrator file provided in your class resources, and then inside that file, open the workspace menu up in the top right corner. Save this workspace as a new one. Let's just name it vectorize, and then return to your artwork file. And over here, go back up here and switch to the workspace that we just named it Vctorize. Next, I want to create the background layer that I removed from the original artwork. So create a new layer, rename it to background, grab the rectangle tool and draw a rectangle, choose a color. Bring it all the way down and hit the lock icon to lock it so it is out of our way. And finally, let's go to Meno, file and save this. Okay, great. Now, let's start vectorizing. To see what we're doing here, I'm going to turn all the layers off except the background layer, of course, and then turn them back on one by one when I need them. Let's start with the shadow layer. When no image is selected, the image choice panel is not activated. With the selection tool, click directly on the object or click on the selection part of the layer to select that. Also, be careful not to move this accidentally, this could mess up its alignment with the other layers. Once the image is selected, the image trace panel gets activated. Without adjusting anything else, hit trace or check the preview box. They both work the same way and activate each other. This traces the image and gives you a preview of what has been done. Let me show you what would happen if we don't set things up here in this panel properly. So don't follow my steps yet. If you're wondering whether this is already a vector or not, it is not. At this point, what you see on your screen looks like a vector, but it isn't quite there yet. This is just a preview of the traced image based on the current setting. At this stage, we still can tweak these settings and have an update to this preview. To finalize the tracing process and turn this preview into editable path, you need to expand it first. Only after you hit the expand command, Illustrator will start to generate the vector graphics for you. Let's imagine we are happy with this setting and this preview, and we decide to finalize it by hitting the expand bottom. Okay, let's go to the layer panel and check it out. As you see, the image has been converted into multiple vector paths grouped together. Every time you expand, adobe Illustrator will automatically group the paths together. To edit individual path, right click on the image and select on group. Now you can work on each path separately and check this out. Even though the original image had no background, the tool trace an unnecessary backdrop for us. Let me change the generated backdrops color to show you what kind of monster we just created here. This is bad. To avoid ending up with such a mess, we need to learn how to have a proper setting in the Image trace panel before we hit Expand. Okay, we have learned the orders of the basic steps for image tracing. In the next video, we will dive into the function of each setting in this image tracing panel. Learning the setting of this panel is the core of this course, so get ready for it. I see you there. 9. Image Trace Panel Settings: In this video, we are going to learn about the different settings and options in the image raising panel of Adobe Illustrator. Understanding these settings is essential key for controlling how your raster artwork is converted into a vector path and how to keep the integrity of the original artwork. So let's open the Advanced dropdown menu and dive right in. Along the top of the image trace panel, there are six preset button. From right to left, we have outline that simplifies the image to black outlines with black and white that simplifies the image into black and white artwork, then gray scale that trace the artwork to gray shades, low color that creates a simplified artwork. High color that creates photorealistic artwork. And then we have auto coolor preset that creates posterized image, meaning a limited number of tones or colors that is appropriate for a poster. There are more than ten other specified types of tracing preset in this menu as well. You can simply choose one of the default presets as a starting point and then use these settings and fine tune to suit your needs. Next, we have the view that specifies how you see the tracing result. I always set this on the tracing result setting, so I can see the changes that I'm making. Then we have mode that specifies if the tracing result will be in color, gray scale, or black and white. Color mode retains the original colors of your image and works the best with flat, simple colored images rather than highly detailed or gradients. When we are in color mode, we have two extra setting palette and colors. Palette specifies the number of colors in the palette of the tracing results. In automatic option, the tool automatically switches between the limited palette and the full ton palette depending on the input image. So Adobe Illustrator will decide for you, which is a very good option. A document library uses an existing color group, allowing you to define the exact colors that you want. The colors slider lets you to put the exact number of the color that you want for your palette. The second mode, the grayscale mode that creates a number of shades of gray in tracing result, and it is perfect for sketches or for tonal artwork. The third mode is the black and white mode. In this mode, your image will be traced only using black and white. Black and white mode is the most precise mode for vectorizing, and that is why we prepared our artwork and recolored each layer in black. Okay, let's go back to our artwork and try it out. I like to remind you that this was an image with the transparent background. So now I'm in the black and white mod, and if I go ahead and trace this, suddenly, we don't see the pink background that we made anymore. What happened? This generated a white backdrop area because we didn't have any. How do I fix this? Down here, there is a checkbox called Ignore Color and by default is said to ignore white. I check this box, this specifies that the white field area should be ignored, meaning to be replaced with no fills. See? It's gone. If your artwork had actual colorful background, then you could grab the eyedropper tool here and select the color, and then that would be the color that the tool will be ignoring. Next, we have the threshold slider that is the first major control for you. This is available only when the mode is set to black and white because it is the value for generating a black and white tracing result. Determines how much of the image is treated as black and how much is treated as white. So a lower threshold picks up the darkest part of your image very poorly and gets you lighter stroke with less details. A higher threshold picks up the darker part of your image generously, making more of the image black and get you a darker stroke with more details. So low threshold and high one, low and high. Okay, I'm okay, B 150, UTU. Next, we have the path slider that sets the number of paths in your traced result. A higher value creates more detailed accurate path, good for rough edges and texture stuff. A lower value simplifies the path and gives you smoother result, useful for cleaner designs. I would say 20% is fine for this. Next, we have the corners slider that controls the sharpness of the corners in your design. A higher value preserves sharper corners in curved areas and is great for geometric designs. A lower value rounds out the corners for smoother look. I would stay at 50% to have a smooth hello and not lose the thorn part of the winter letters here. Okay, great. Next, we have the noise slider. Noise actually is the noise removal setting. It filters out small unwanted details like specs or grainy textures. This slider can be a bit confusing because the name is not noise removal, is noise. A higher noise value removes more small details and simplifies your path, and a lower value retains every tiny details, every tiny noise. So you go higher to remove more noise, and you go lower to remove less noise. I would say 25 pixel of noise reduction is fine for this. Next, we have the methods. The methods toggle button lets you switch between two tracing methods, Abting and overlapping. In most cases, I go with the abutting method. Next, we have the create section with some options. The fill and stroke checkbox determines whether the trace path will include fields, stroke, or both. By default, the trace only fill, which means the interior color of the shape. If you enable a stroke, it will create path for outline instead. We have the gradient slider that controls the number of steps that Adobe Illustrator uses to simplify color transition when tracing gradients. Next, we have the shapes checkbox. This can be particularly helpful if your artwork contains geometric elements, and you want to maintain their structure appearance in the vector version. Next, we have three important informations. Number of the traced path, number of anchor point that we created, and the number of colors detected. The final option in this panel, which is also very important function is the auto grouping checkbox. Let's see how this looks already. We have quite a number of path all mixed up in one layer. When auto grouping option is enabled, paths that are close together or share similar attributes will be automatically grouped. Okay, now, I have a tip for you. If you find a combination of setting that works well for your artwork, you can save it as a preset. Open the preset dropdown, select save as new preset and give it a name. Let's name this hand lettering. So I'm ready to hit Expand. We learned that Expand turns this preview of the traced image into a group of vector path. Let's turn this layer off and go for the next one. For this hand lettering layer, I'm going to select it to activate the image tracing panel. And right away, I'm going to my presets and I'm going to bring in the setting that we just saved before. Then I'm going to hit Expand and Evola. Next, we have the ornament group with three layers inside. I'm going to let you vectorize this three layer on your own time. This would be a great exercise for you to practice what we've learned so far. So skipping this and going to the last layer. The last layer is the texture overlay, and here we have a quite different situation. I'm going to hit the preview and start setting up the tracing orders. The mode is in black and white, of course. I'm going to increase the threshold up to 250. Oh, that's way too much. Let's go down to 220. Okay, this is fine for now. Before touching the path, I want to bring down the noise removal slider to ten pixel and save as many paths as I can. I will keep the corner at 50%, and now I'm going back to path and lower the value to 20% to get a cleaner trace. Check the info. You see the number of path and anchor points that we created is insane. So mind that as well. I'm going back to threshold, lowering this down to 160%. The numbers get better, but I lost too much of my texture. So let's try 190, and that's my sweetest spot. Perfect. Let's ignore white and hit Expand. Okay, great. Have in mind that several options determines the result of your image trace. There is no one size fits all. You always always need to find out what's suitable best for the type of image that you're working on. That was the image trace panel setting, and I see you in the next video. 10. Refining Vector Graphics: In this video, we will learn how to refine, adjust and organize vector path to make them cleaner and easier to work with. We will cover cleaning up unnecessary shapes or unbonded noise, grouping, ungrouping, and regrouping the path, and creating compound path. Let's start with cleaning up the artwork. Sometimes victorizing process creates extra path or anchor points that aren't necessary. You can easily clean them up by selecting them and hit the delete key on your keyboard or grab the eraser tool and then go over them until they're gone. Okay, great. Now, let's talk about grouping and ungrouping your path. For example, here, all the stars are one group together, and I don't want that. With the selection tool activated, select your path and then write creek and choose ungroup. Okay, now I like to select all the smaller stars and then group them together. Since they are between other path, I cannot just drag over them, so I need to select one of the stars and then hold the shift key on my keyboard and then click on the next and next and next until all of the stars are selected. Then you can right click and choose group. Now they're grouped together and I can easily edit them as a group in one action. Great. Now repeat this process to organize your artwork into logical groups that are meaningful to your project. Creating proper groups simplifies your workflow, especially for complex design or designs with multiple motives. Now let's see what is a compound path and how to make it. Sometimes a motif like this overlay texture here is made of many tiny path, and we don't need to keep them separate. But instead, we want to merge them into one single shape. This makes the path easier to edit and also makes the file much lighter. This process is called creating a compound path. To do that, select all the path that you want to merge, and then go to the pathfinder panel here. If you don't have it, open it to the Windows menu. In the Path Oder panel, you need to go to the burger menu here and choose make compound path. At this stage, the compound path is still a live effect. To finalize it, we need to expand it. Now, check the layer panel and see what happens the moment that I hit the expand button. Ta all of those tiny dots are now one unified shape. This is perfect. Now repeat this process to organize the rest of your artwork into logical groups or compound path. If you're not sure when to make a compound path and when to make a group, here is a tip. Use compound path when you want to merge multiple paths that actually are different parts of one element, and you want to merge them together so they act as one element and make groups when you want to apply some commands on a selection of elements, but you also want to be able to edit those elements individually. This would be a good time to rename your layers and keep them organized and get ready for coloring. I see you in the next video. 11. Color Variation: In this video, we will learn how to use the swatch panel, how to apply colors, and how to recolor an artwork. Let's start with the swach panel. If you don't have it open, you can grab it from the window menu. Let's start with how to delete existing swatches. The first thing that I always like to do is to clean up the swatch panel and remove all the default colors that appear in Illustrator when opening a new document. In order to do that, you need to click on the first swatch and then hold down the Shift key on your keyboard, and then click on the last swatch to select them all and then hit the trash icon down here. Now, let's create some new swatches and set up custom made color palettes. Create a new swatch, double click on the field tool here on the swatch panel or on the tool bar. Over here, we can change the values using the sliders or even writing down exact heel saturation brightness, RGB or CMk value, or writing down the hex code of a specific color. You could also grab the eye dropper tool and get out of the window and select a color from an external object or image. Now, the plus button in the swatch panel is activated. Click the new swatch button and then hit ok. Okay, great. Now let's create some more swatches. Thank. Now that I have a bunch of swatches, I can hold on the Shift key, click and select them, and then click the folder icon down here to group these swatches as a palette. Perfect. Now, let's see how to extract colors from an image. If you have an image and you want to use its color, you can go to Menu file place and bring the image into your Illustrator document and then select the eyedropper tool and pick the color and then click on the new swatch button and then add it to your search panel. Now, let's see how to import colors from another Illustrator file. To bring the colors, copy and paste an object containing the desired colors into your current document with all the objects selected in the swatch panel, click the folder icon to save all of them as a group of swatches, which we call a palette. Now you can access them throughout your design. Okay, now let's see how to import swatches from an external file. Let's say you want to import the color palette that I shared with you, open the color palette file provided in your class material. And then inside that file in the swatch panel, hit the Swatch library menu down here and save this color to your Creative Cloud library, and then return to your file, open the Swatch library menu again and this time go to user Define and then choose what we just saved. Now, over here, you can click on the folder icon of any palette that you like to add them to your swatch panel. Now you have a collection of custom color palettes ready to use. Okay, now let's see how to apply colors on path. So to apply a color on a path, we need to first select the path. So grab the selection tool and then click on your path to select it, then go to your swatch panel and click on the color that you wish. Then repeat this for the next path. Select the path, select the color. Select the path, select the color. Repeat this process until every single piece of your artwork is colored. Now it's time to learn how to recolor. If you want to recolor a path, you can click it and choose another color from your swatch panel. And if you want to change the color of the swatch itself, you can double click on the swatch and then tweak the values. If you ever want to change the colors of the whole artwork, Illustrator offers a very cool tool called recoloring tool. Make sure none of the layers are locked. Select the whole artwork. Go to the menu, dit, dit color, and choose recolor artwork. You could also simply grab this wheel icon up here. Okay, now open the advanced option to see more setting. So here there are different ways of creating alternative color variation of your existing artwork. What I like to do is instead of randomly shuffling and changing the values to go to the preview of my own swatch panel and click on one of the color palettes that I defined myself. And then if I don't like the order of the colors that was assigned to each path, I can come here and say, Okay, randomly change the orders. This doesn't add any new colors. I use the existing colors of your palette and just change the order. It defines which color goes to which path. This is my workflow, but you feel free to play around with the different options and create as many alternatives as you wish. Okay, that was coloring the vector path, and I see you in the next video. 12. Texture | Transparency | Export: In this video, we will talk about some optional steps for adding extra texture and give our artwork more depth and a handcrafted feel. Then we will export our class project together. First thing first, go to Menu Windows and make sure your transparency panel is available. I don't want to accidentally move something here, so I'm going to all the layers except the texture overlay. Okay, then toggle the visibility of this texture overlay compound path layer. You can see this is a little bit harsh and it is covering too much of the artwork. To adjust the opacity of this texture OA, we need to first select it, then go to the transparency panel and lower the opacity. I'm going to set this on 70%. This is still too much for me. Again, we have to select it first and then go back to the opacity and bring it down to, let's say, 40%. Yeah, that looks better. Let's have a before and after, before and after. Yes, now it looks great. Now we can even take this further and add some paper texture. To do that, go to file, place, locate the paper texture that I provided for you in your class resources and place it. Position it over your artwork with the paper texture selected, go to the transparency panel. This time, I want to change the blend mode from normal to multiply. Let's have a before and after, before after. Yes. Now, it looks like it was drawn on an actual paper. Now my artwork is ready to export. To save it as an image, go to file and this time go to export as to upload it here on Skillshare, I'm going to save my project as a JPEG. But of course, if you're saving your own artwork for a client or art director, you need to save it as a file format that they require. Okay, great. We are almost done with this course, so I see you in the next video. 13. Final Thought Vectorize: Thank you so much for joining this course and making it all the way to the end. I truly appreciate your time and engagement, and I'd be more than happy to answer any question that you have about the lessons. Just head to the discussion tap here, start a conversation and post your questions. Don't forget to upload your class project here on Project and Resource tab. I can't wait to see what you've created. I will personally go through every single project and share my feedback. It would mean a lot if you could take a moment to visit the review tab and let me know what you think of this course. Before you go, if you enjoy this class and you want to learn more graphic design skills, check out my other Skillshare classes as well and follow me here on Skillshare. That way you will get notification as soon as I launch a new course. I also shared design tools, tips, tricks, and tutorials on my blog and YouTube channel. I hope you had fun watching this course and you have sharpened your skill or learned something new. Thank you again for joining this class, and I'll see you in the next one. I'll fit in.