Introduction.
In this lesson we were introduced to the gradient mesh tool in adobe illustrator. It is used to shade 2D shapes as though they were 3D.
Example:
To start, i created a circle which i coloured red. From there, i went to the object menu at the top of the screen and created a gradient mesh. This gave me a mesh around my circle, which i could select the nodes of (using the direct selection tool), and change the colours to create a shading effect as though my circle was a sphere.
This image shows the mesh around my circle.
this image shows my final shading effect.
Using the gradient mesh tool – as well as the pencil, paintbrush and eraser – i created a simple image of some balloons.
Creating an appple.
Following a demonstration from my tutor, I shaded an apple using the gradient mesh tool.
I started by placing an image of an apple onto my canvas and tracing around it with the pen tool to get the basic shape. I then selected a base colour using the eyedropper tool and then started creating my gradient mesh by right clicking on the gradient tool and selecting the ‘mesh’ tool. From there, i created horizontal and verticle lines by selecting various points around the edge of my shape. The points where these lines intersected were the nodes of the mesh, and i could move them around, and adjust their bezier handles to create the curvature of my apple. This is shown in the screenshot below.
Now, i could change the colour of the nodes by selecting them and using the eyedropper tool, trying to mirror the shading on the actual picture as accurately as possible.
below shows my final result, compared to the original image.
Conclusion