While a lot of time and attention are focused on Photoshop as a tool to create wonderful pieces of art, I think that a program that is often overlooked is Adobe Illustrator. Illustrator is often seen as a program that is used to create logos and designs that are of the vector persuasion, but when you learn to manipulate the gradient mesh, you can create some amazing pieces.

One of the biggest pioneers in this industry is our own Bert Monroy. For years he has made the art industry scratch their collective head with his ability to push the limits of Photoshop and Illustrator for creating amazing pieces of art. One of the great things about Bert’s website is that he has a vault of lessons, tutorials, and recipes for creating a lot of his works. His gallery serves as a constant source of inspiration for what you can do to push the limits of design.

Basang Panaginip also has an amazing website profiling some incredible artists pushing the Illustrator envelope, and is definitely worth a look at.

If you would like to work with some of these features, there are a couple of great tutorials on the site to get you on your way:

Chad Neuman – Using Public Domain Images for Web Art
Corey Barker – Create Raster Looking Logos
Rick Sammon – Sketchin

Have a great Monday everyone!