When was the Gradient Mesh tool added to Adobe Illustrator, would you guess? Are you thinking with CS (version 11)? Nope. Version 10? Still way off! The Gradient Mesh tool was introduced with Illustrator EIGHT (when was that, back in 1964?) along with the new-fangled Bounding Box and the "enhanced pencil tool"!

Yet for all its longevity, I've yet to meet a person face-to-face who knows how to use the feature. Illustrator is one of those programs that everyone's been using for years, but basically stopped learning after they got through the essentials (Pen tool, Type tool, Fill and Stroke) regardless how many new gewgaws Adobe added over the years. Oh you might have a couple office geeks around who know how to do a Warp or release a compound path, but a gradient mesh that actually looks good? Those people are in a rarified strata.

I'm like most of you, I've tried the Gradient Mesh but the grid and points and stretchiness of it all scared me off. I know it just enough to teach it "in theory" during Illustrator training, but as my students can attest, "You, sir, are no Kevin Hulsey."
http://www.khulsey.com/

Whenever I see some of the photo-realistic drawings that can be accomplished by talented people who've mastered the Mesh, such as Mr. Hulsey, I'm chartreuse with envy.

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Oh Let's Just Learn the Thing
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Are you ready to join me in mastering the Gradient Mesh tool? Here are some wonderful, free on-line tutorials I've found.

Creative Bush
http://www.creativebush.com/gmeshtutorial/
I love this one, the writer speaks just like any other hard-working designer whose boss isn't in the room. The tutorial is all on one page and covers how to use the Gradient Mesh tool starting with a scanned head shot as the base.

Magical Butterfly
http://www.magicalbutterfly.com/tutorials/meshtutorial/meshtutmain.htm
Okay, the author won't win any awards for web site design, but the tutorial is well-done. I like it because it starts out with a simple illustration you draw with the Pen tool, and after you go at it with the Gradient Mesh tool, you end up with three-dimensional curtains. Cool.

Kevin Hulsey
http://www.khulsey.com/adobe_illustrator_gradient_mesh.html
Yes, the master himself has a number of great Illustrator tutorials on his site, and here's the one he wrote on the Gradient Mesh tool. Kevin's not a bad Photoshop user either, have you seen his cruise ship? Be sure you're sitting down before you go to http://www.khulsey.com/empress_main.html.

Brooke Nunez
http://www.lifeinvector.com/downloads.html
Brooke is a Chicago-based freelance designer who has written up an excellent 12-page PDF tutorial on the Gradient Mesh tool. I only learned about it because so many other Mesh-wannabes gush about it and link to it on many of the designer forums and listservs. Go to that URL and click the picture of the red bell pepper to download the tutorial. Not only do you get the PDF in the .zip file, but Brooke thoughtfully included the photograph of the pepper and the final meshed illustration of it as an .ai file.