Gradient Mesh Tool Adobe Illustrator

A gradient mesh that I did a few years back in Adobe Illustrator. I've been considering visiting the tool  again, but the sheer amount of time it takes to create these is daunting. I spent well over 70 hours on this Coke bottle alone. Now if someone would just hire me at an hourly rate to produce a few of these, that would be just fine (hint-hint).

Gradient Mesh in Illustrator

The image below was created using the Gradient Mesh tool in Adobe Illustrator. It is not a photograph or for that matter an edited photograph. It is a purely vector illustration which I created by hand. Some may ask, "Why bother when you have the photograph?" The answer is simple, being a vector image this can be enlarged infinitely with no loss of quality. The photograph, on the other hand, will lose quality rather quickly when enlarging it. This is one of the advantages to working with vector graphics. 

Above: Vector Artwork created in Illustrator using the gradient mesh tool

Above: reference photo

Above: wire-frame of the gradient mesh, this one was  much simpler than I thought it would be.