Gradient Meshes are one of my favorite things about Adobe Illustrator. When used right, they are capable of giving incredible results. When I first started learning about gradient meshes, the online resources for them were very skim (I actually only found one tutorial for them back then). In fact, I still feel they are very skim today. Most tutorials will tell you in text how they work, but if you're a visual learner like I am, you will find step by step processes with images much more useful. So this short tutorial is just a basic over view of how they work. In my next tutorial I will actually be putting them to use for a vector portrait.

Gradient Meshes are exactly what they sound like. Gradients. The big difference is that you can control exactly where and what the color will be anywhere in your object by setting up points. It works much in the same way that the pen tool does, except you can control the inside of an object.

Most important thing I would like to mention. Gradient Meshes are extremely tedious. And to make the very complex and beautiful images other artists make, it will require a lot of patience, and a lot of practice.

So lets start with a basic red square. If you use the direct selection tool, you will of course notice that this square has 4 tangent points which you can select and move around if you wish.

 

Once you start using gradient meshes, not only can you move each point, but you can also select the individual colors. So go ahead and select the gradient mesh tool (shortcut: U) and use it right in the middle of the square.

As you noticed there is now a selectable point right in the middle of the square, but also in the middle of each of the 4 corner points. These points also have their own little tangent hands which you can use to move the actual direction of the shape, or the color.

 

So lets go ahead and experiment. Select the point in the middle with your direct selection tool. and change it to a darker red (#A0000C). You will notice it just about makes the square have a radial gradient in it.

 

But we don't want a radial gradient, we want something a little crazier and a bit more precise. So lets go ahead and select some of those tangent handles and move our gradient around a bit. Lets move one handle up, and the other down so it makes a bit of an S line.

You can move these in a variety of ways. With the direct selection tool. With the gradient mesh tool. And one that I find myself using a lot mostly just out of force of habit, the Pen tool + Option or Alt I believe on windows.

Also another note about selecting particular points. You can select individual points, or if you just click the space between the points. It will select all of the surrounding points. This is extremely useful when you need to change a lot of colors at once.

Further more you can hold shift if you want to move or change the color of any number of points anywhere on the mesh. They can be on complete opposite sides.

Back to the mesh, you can see even though we changed the line in the middle, it still pretty much looks like a radial gradient. So this is where we will begin to add more mesh lines. Add a point using the Gradient Mesh tool right above and below the middle point.

Three important things to note here.

First. If you use the gradient mesh tool on top of an already existing line, it will obviously only produce new lines the other way. This is something to be careful about because if you are off even a little bit, a new line will be formed, and when things get really complex, it may be hard to see and you will not know why there is a random break in your color.

Second thing to note is that when you start moving the tangent lines around, all the new lines you make will always contour a bit to the shape you are making. These lines can get a little hard to control if you have a real complex shape to begin with.

Third. Typically when you make a new mesh line, it will keep the last color you had selected, and implement it immediately.

 

Now everything we have gone through is all the technicalities. This is how gradient meshes work. You can add as many or as little points as you want. The farther away points are, the smoother they will blend.

So in other words if you want a sudden change of color. Add a point directly below another one, and change the color drastically.

Here I added a line directly below the middle line. And changed the color to a real bright color. So this gives it the effect of a sudden change of color with no blend.

If you notice the ends though. The left and the right have a slight blend before they get to the edge of the square. This is because the points on those edges still have the original colors, not the new red.

So say we add another point towards the edge, and change the colors t o the brighter pink. We would then get this effect.

There is still a break at the very end because those last to points on the edge are still red. However it doesn't look as smooth as the other side. If we change that last point to the bright pink, the color will then go all the way to the edge like this.

This is the basic premise of how gradient meshes work. But now you're thinking, you want to actually see some practical uses for these instead of just a crappy square. ALl of that will come in my next tutorial. The uses for Gradient Meshes are endless. Steel, plastic. rubber, clothes. You can make just about anything look good with these. My favorite thing to use them on however, is skin.

Take this example of an image I made.

All of the skin was made with gradient meshes. Now think about what I talked about in this tutorial and look at all the different points and lines I used to create this.

As you can see it turns into a gigantic mess very quickly. Which is why at the beginning of this tutorial I mentioned, getting good at using Gradient meshes takes a lot of patience and practice.

The image above is also made out of a lot of different shapes with gradient meshes, not just one. I personally don't think I could have made the hand especially with only one shape. The trick is to get everything to blend together.

So in conclusion. While I work on the next tutorial. Take it upon yourself to work on these meshes. Make any shape you want. Try your hand at making certain shapes. Use some images for reference. Note where the color shades and highlights are. And use the meshes to mimic them.

Even thought my next tutorial will go over how to make some skin with gradient meshes. As I mentioned before. Gradient Meshes require a lot of practice. I know the first time I followed a tutorial it didn't come out anywhere as good as the authors.

Also take into consideration, that I run into other artists all the time who blow my work with gradient meshes out of the water.

So check out some other tutorials. And come back and check out my next one soon.