Introduction: Turn Yourself Into a Cartoon

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You can turn yourself into a cartoon in just a few simple steps. If you cannot draw not to worry, with Illustrator you can use the auto trace tool and it will capture the necessary lines for you. You can also use Photoshop if you don't have Illustrator.

Step 1: Get an Image of Yourself

Find an image of yourself (or someone else) that is at least 300 dpi. The smaller the image the harder it will be to outline or auto trace it.

Step 2: Outline Your Picture

Place your .jpg, .tiff, .giff, .bmp, or any other image format that is compatible with Illustrator or Photoshop into the program. Please create a separate layer for your image and lock it down so you can trace without the image moving around. Now if you are using Illustrator you can either use the pen or pencil tool to outline the important parts of your image(see example). The areas that define you best are the ones you should choose. If you are not so good with tracing or don't have a steady hand, you can use the auto trace tool from Illustrator. It will do all the tracing for you. You may have to go back and clean the lines up a bit after wards when using that tool.

Note: Photoshop will work for this project too!

Step 3: Now Add Color

Now you can add color to your creation. You can do that in several ways. Using illustrator you can either re-outline certain areas and do a color fill OR just choose areas that are already outlined and color fill them. In Photoshop you will use the magic wand tool to select your areas and color fill them in the same way. It is suggested that if you want to give yourself some depth, you use gradients or several layers of color.

Step 4: Make It Pretty and You're Done

Last and final step......make it pretty and put the finishing touches on it. You can add background colors and even a border. There are lots of different swatch and border tools in either program. Have fun.