I will be using for this tutorial, "Rockin Squirrel" by rancidpencil. Chances are, you've never heard of her. She's a very talented and interesting member of DeviantART, so be sure to stop by and check out her lovely squirrels among other fine pieces of cartoon fun.
figure 1: the original
compared to the finished product...
figure 2: the vector
Although you will notice that the actual colour I used was pretty much the same, you could use any colour that you wanted. So, without futher slow-down, here is how to make a vector from linework.
First, open the image and double the size of the base image. (Explained here) Then, make a new layer over the original image. Fill this with a colour that isn't hard on the eyes; i.e. light blue. Next, turn this layer off by clicking the eyeball button next to the layer in the in layers window. Since this artwork has black lines around the outside, I decided to keep them (although they're not needed if you don't want them). Make a new layer and select the pen tool. I suggest that you go into a zoom size of 200 - 400%. I usually work at 430% because things look better to me at that percent. Now, trace around the outside of our furry friend. You'll probably have to drag the opacity slider a bit down to see where you are clicking. (If you're lost, I bet you didn't read the original tutorial. Click here and skim.) Don't worry about that little white hole in the middle of the squirrel's head and tail. Just stick to the outsides. For the sake of saving time because I'm supposed to be doing math homework and I have a history test tommorrow, I just did the head.
figure 3: making the outline
You should see about the same thing, only double the size and completely black throughout the squirrel's form. Next, we need to be able to fill in the colours, so let's cut out the unneeded black parts. You can do this by using the Subtract feature of the pen tool. (Explained here) This will let you remove the excess parts of your vector that you do not need and leave the parts that you do need. Turn the opacity of the black outline to 0% and trace around this time, the insides of the squirrel's outline. Make sure to connect the end points of each shape so the mode stays in Subtract. It should look a bit like this when you're done:
figure 3: finishing the outline
You'll notice that on my squirrel head, I let the background colour we picked earlier show through. I did this so you could see what I was aiming for. I rushed this, but yours should be a lot smoother, and again, double the size as mine is. You'll also notice that the eyes are missing. Well, that just won't do. This time, select the black outline layer that we've been manipulating so far, and use the Add pen tool. (Explained here) Go ahead and make those two circles. Be sure that they are all on ONE layer. So far, you should only have three layers. The outline, the background colour, and the base image in that order from top to bottom. Next, we're heading off to add colour to this puppy.
To get colour on a vector with a black outline, you need the colouring layers to be below the main outline layer. Colouring is really simple because it doesn't require much precision. Behind the black background image, you can effectively make a new layer and select a colour for the part of the vector you want to be coloured in. Behind the outline layer, use this new colour layer with the normal pen tool (ie, not in add or subtract mode), click the basic outline of the object, without overflowing so you can see the colour on the wrong side. Here's an example:
figure 4: colouring
You will notice that I still haven't added the eyes back in, but you should have already. Just complete each shape this same way that I'm colouring. You should be able to use the add tool to group the same coloured shapes into one layer.
figure 5: finishing colouring
Chances are, yours will look like what mine is above, except with the whole body.
Next, shading. This is an easy piece to shade because some simple vector-like shading was already in the base image. To do shading, I put this group of layers above the colour, but below the outline. Simply click the eyeball button next to each colour layer that you want to shade so you can get an idea of how the author intended its shading to be, and then make a new, darker colour layer to do the shading. Alternative shading techniques are listed here. If you're having lots of trouble organizing your layers, I suggest you click here.
So there you have it, you have a finished picture. If you double-sized your picture, you can now half size it and get a smooth looking vector. Chances are, nobody will realize that you used Photoshop. Add some sprucing up and you get this:
figure 6: finished vector
Continue to "Additional Information"
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