Hey there Skearney,

Auto-tracing refers to a available command under Adobe Illustrator, where the program will automatically convert a raster image into vectors with little to no participation on the artist's part. While it sounds like quite the dream come true for traditional artists, its limitations makes it useful for simple images, such as those with 3-4 colours max. For full detailed colour images and photos, it renders an artwork with very blotchy and messy shapes, often with lines that are excessively complex and poorly formed and with none of the shapes or layers grouped in a logical manner. Agencies tend to prefer clean and neat files, with compositions that can easily be manipulated.

Your illustrations look great, at least at a smaller size. They certainly don't look auto-traced. I think you should be just fine. The process of what you're doing sounds like the exact reverse of auto-tracing, where you are manually digitizing your artworks to vector.

Hope this helps!

The fact that you do clean-up and add colour from that point is more than good enough. It's usually stuff that are hastily auto-traced and then quickly uploaded that get rejected. I think you should be fine.

OK. Thanks for the clarification. I'm fairly confident now that my process is fine.
I did have SS ask me to resubmit with original scans as proof on 6 pieces. This I can do and will let you know how it pans out.
Shawn