Help with live paint? (making a logo)

[anewgenreitself]

Hello.

I am currently trying to create a logo and I am not good with drawing in Illustrator (AI). What I have always done in the past is sketched the object I needed by hand, scanned it into AI, and turning it into a vector drawing by using the live paint function. Then I use the pen tool to make any adjustments I need.

However, this time the live paint function, instead of creating an outline for the entire image, has turned it into at least 15 separate paths. I need the logo to be outlined by one complete path, but I can't seem to join the separate ones.

Can someone please tell me how to either make the object have a single, outlining path, or how to join the separate ones so I can make it myself?

Thanks!!

 

[eastbayrk]

Do this Tutorial in photoshop

http://www.images-magazine.com/imagesarticle08.php?article_id=78

Then knockout the background after creating a second layer, and hiding one of the layers. Double click the image in the Layers pallate and click Stroke in the pop up menu. Then save image as a JPeg and open in Illustrator and Live trace.

I know it seems like a long process but this technique has save me so much time in the screen printing industry.

Good Luck