drawing pad work around.

so i don't have a drawing pad. now, I've thought up a little work around b/c I would like to color my art digitally. so so said work around is, drawing on paper, scanning, importing picture into illustrator, trace, and color. now, i was hoping there was a way to remove the "trace" step. i had hoped, that maybe if i turned it into a png, illustrator could be like "OMG THERE ARE LINES THERE!" but alas, no. is there a way to do what i'm trying to do?