Drawing in Illustrator

i originally planned to live trace my scan but the scan didnt come out as clearly as i would have like so i decided that i would draw the design in illustrator using the pen tool. this was actually really useful since i now have a better understanding of the software and drawing within it.

these are some printscreens of the drawing process which i began by mapping out all the block shapes ( starting with the ones that were already in the tool box circles rectangles etc) before i began using the pen tool to intergrate the curved lines of the man. the man was by far the most complicated part of my design so i left him till last which gave me time to fully establish my background. the white arrow tool was a lifesaver when drawing the curves since it allowed me to adjust the anchor points which helped to generate some clean lines. so far it looks good but i havent started on the hard part: colouring in!

 

final basic outline below.