Gradient Mesh in Adobe Illustrator

Gradient Mesh Tool in Adobe Illustrator

You must have seen a Mesh Tool in the Tool Panel and even have tried to understand its use but would have failed to do so. The right guidance will help you in achieving perfection in the use of the illustrator mesh tool.

Gradient Mesh in Illustrator is the best illustrator tool for filling different shades of colors in an object and at the same time, it looks like the colors are blended together.

In today’s adobe illustrator tutorial, you will learn some basic use of the Gradient Mesh Tool.

We will draw cherry in this illustrator tutorial. For cherry drawing, we will use two illustrator tools; i.e., the Pen Tool, Shape Builder Tool & Ellipse Tool, and for filling colors in the cherry we will use the Gradient Mesh.

Launch Adobe Illustrator and create a new document of size 500 pt X 500 pt.

Now follow the below mention illustrator drawing steps:

Step 1

Select the Ellipse Tool and draw an oval shape of size 66 pt X 100 pt. Now rotate the oval shape at the angle of 15⁰.

Step 2

Now draw another oval shape of the same size and rotate it at an angle of 160⁰. Place this oval next to the oval shape draw in the above step. (See the image below)

Make sure both the ovals are properly aligned.

Step 3

Now draw a small horizontal oval and place it at the bottom of the two ovals. (See the image below)

Step 4

Press Ctrl + A to select all the oval shapes and then select the Shape Builder Tool from the Tool Panel. Move the cursor inside the shapes to merge them.

Step 5

We have not got the perfect shape yet. Let the shape be selected and click on the Direct Selection Tool in the Tool Panel. You will notice a small circle near the anchor point. Drag that small circle upwards to create a smooth curved shape.

Step 6

Now with the help of the Pen Tool, draw other parts of the cherry.

Step 7

Now we will fill color with the help of the Gradient Mesh Tool.

Select the cherry and click on Object in the Menu Bar. Now select Create Gradient Mesh and a dialogue box will appear on the artboard.

In the Create Gradient Mesh dialogue box, set the number of rows and columns, and then click OK.

Step 8

Now select the Direct Selection Tool from the Tool Panel. With the help of this tool, we will select the anchor point and then will fill color on that anchor point.

We will start filling color from the bottom. With the help of the Direct Selection Tool and the Shift key select anchor points from the bottom and fill them with #5f0f17.

Now select the anchor points placed just above the bottom line and fill them with # 8f1622.

Similarly, fill all the anchor points with color shade varying from dark to light.

You can also move the anchor points with the help of the Direct Selection Tool and if you want to add more anchor points or increase the rows and columns then you can use the Mesh Tool. Select the Mesh Tool from the Tool Panel and click on the mesh where you want to add more anchor points.

Step 9

Now select the stem of the cherry and fill it with color #f2f98b. Now create a gradient mesh of 5 rows and 1 column with the help of Create Gradient Mesh.

With the help of the Direct Selection Tool and Shift key, select the anchor points placed at the left side and fill them with color # 8dc63f.

In the above image, you can see that the stem is not blended with the cherry. So make it look more realistic and blended we will add more anchor points at the bottom side of the stem. Select the Mesh Tool from the Tool Panel and click on the bottom side to add more anchor points.

Now fill these new anchor points with a dark shade of the cherry color.

Step 10

Now fill the top part of the stem with yellow color and brown color by creating a gradient mesh.

Step 11

Now give a shadow effect on the cherry.

This is how you can use the Gradient Mesh Tool in Adobe Illustrator and give realistic color effects to your vector drawings.

In this adobe illustrator tutorial, you have learned the use of many illustrator tools and at the same time with the help of these illustrator tools, you have learned how to draw a cherry.

Practice this tutorial and write your views in the comment section. Also, share this Gradient Mesh Tool Tutorial with others.

To receive updates on the latest illustrator tutorials, you can subscribe to our website.