| Topic | Author | Replies | Last Post |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drawing a bell curve? |
 MissAnn
|
6 | January 2, 2009 |
| UPGRADING TO ILL CS3 ! |
jü@n
|
3 | October 18, 2008 |
| Illustrator Pop Quiz |
James
|
5 | September 11, 2008 |
| my profile image... |
star.11
|
0 | August 12, 2008 |
| Congress is considering the Orphan Works act again! |
James
|
2 | June 12, 2008 |
Big Guns
To be honest, I'm not a big fan of the gradient mesh tool in Illustrator. For starters, you can't really use it for complex shapes (and the human form is a multitude of complex shapes). I find to create shadows and highlights, it is much better for me to use the gradient tool, blur effects and transparency to get the effect I want. I then layer them one on top of the other like paint. I guess I create 80% of my illustrations this way. Building transparent gradient effects on top of either flat color or more often other gradient effect. Until I get it to look like light moving in and out of the form.
That is not to say that the gradient mesh tool doesn't have it's place. To make the background for this piece, I simply created a square and coverted it into a gradient mesh. I then played around with different colors for the anchor points until I got the effect I wanted. It was much more easier and effective than my usual way of painting in illustrator.
That is not to say that the gradient mesh tool doesn't have it's place. To make the background for this piece, I simply created a square and coverted it into a gradient mesh. I then played around with different colors for the anchor points until I got the effect I wanted. It was much more easier and effective than my usual way of painting in illustrator.
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