[Objectives]  Traditional color scientific illustrations are difficult to produce, requiring both a high level of artistic skill and specialist drawing media such as pigments and paper. Digital drawings have the advantages of being both easier to produce and correct. This paper gives step by step instructions on how to use digital drawing techniques to make a color scientific illustration of Nemoraea pellucida (Diptera: Tachinidae), which could help entomologists produce high-quality illustrations to describe, or redescribe, other insect species. [Methods]  A pen tablet and Easy Paint Tool SAI software were used to post-process a line sketch of N. pellucida. The latter has many digital drawing tools, including pencil, sprayer, and a newly modified “impasto brush”, “charcoal brush” and “microtomentum brush”, which allows precise rendition of coloration and texture for different parts of insects. Refinement of the original drawing, the addition of ground color, shadow, highlights and image reversal, are all easily achieved. [Results]  Using digital techniques, a high resolution, 7 000 by 5 000 pixel (35 M) illustration of N. pellucida was created. [Conclusion]  Using digital techniques to illustrate insects has the advantages of allowing non-artists to achieve precise rendition of color and detail, ease of correction and modification, portability, and significant savings of both time and storage space. In addition, the resultant images do not deteriorate over time.