Gradient Mesh

An apple and a rose gradient mesh created in Illustrator. 

I vectored to my greatest ability, but I've never been good in Illustrator. 

The gradient apple was created after I watch a tutorial online, I tried from a book but that doesn't work very well and can be confusing. It's best to watch from a video so you can follow an example. When choosing to vector something that you know that you'll have to color, try something simple first, something that doesn't have that much bends and shadows to. Trying to add a gradient mesh to something like an apple is rather difficult and I don't recommend doing. Its harder than what needs to be. Secondly, make sure you know what you're doing. Read ahead or watch the video ahead before you go in, and make sure you know your keyboard short cuts cause that will help a lot. Ask for help, I mainly asked people I knew sort of what they were doing, this was a really challenging project for something we've never done before. I tried this project to my best ability but this doesn't come naturally to me at all, especially trying to add a nice highlight. 

  The next project worked better. Something that was flat but still looked nice. The rose was a bit hard to vector but I simplified the petals to what you see below. 

       

I spelt my name out in a font I've seen that i really like. Actually, instead of just typing the words out I created them. I replaced the 'i' in my name with the rose itself. It gives the whole thing a more dramatic flare. To convert text to outlines, simply select your text and go to FILE-CHOOSE TYPE-CREATE OUTLINES expand the group and then you're free to play. I added extra anchor points with the pen tool and shaped them however i liked. 

I don't really know why I chose a rose, I just thought that i would try a different style as I usually do and simplified the lines. I've always liked the quote "Every rose has her thorns" and I guess thats how I ended up creating this. The font I wanted to model my text after was from a show called RWBY. I trie to make the flower look like some areas are glowing too.