Adobe Illustrator CS5 One-on-One

21.

Save your changes. Choose File→Save As or press Ctrl+Shift+S

(-Shift-S). Name your fi nal fi le “Final clipped robot.ai,” and

click the Save button. For the sake of comparison, I’ve included

my fi nal fi le (shown in Figure 7-37) as Translucent robot.ai, as

ever inside the Lesson 07 folder.

CS5’s Draw Inside mode notwithstanding, blends and clipping

masks have changed little since they were introduced back in 1988.

And yet they continue to rank among Illustrator’s most powerful

capabilities. I for one can’t imagine drawing without them.

Creating and Editing a Gradient Mesh

Having spent four exercises on blends and masks and reserving just

one for gradient mesh, you might infer some preference on my part

for the former. Yes and no. However ancient they may be, blends

and masks offer a terrifi c bang for the buck. You can accomplish

an outstanding amount of work in a few minutes. In contrast,

Illustrator’s gradient mesh function is more powerful—dare I say,

Figure 7-37 .

226

Lesson 7: Blends, Masks, and Gradient Mesh

Figure 7-38 .

more nuanced—but it demands a higher degree of attention in re-

turn. This is no in-and-out feature. Fleshing out a single gradient

mesh may require a half hour of your time, oftentimes more. Suffi ce

it to say, once you begin, you’re in it for the long haul. ...