Create a Stylized Gradient Mesh Soccer Ball Illustration

Open a new document. I picked a soccer ball image from Stock.xchng. Feel free to pick your own soccer ball image.

Place the image into your document. Double-click the layer with the image, set the Dim Images To to 35% and select it. Now we have set up our source image. Lock the layer with the image. Then create a new layer above and name it "Background."

Drag a horizontal and a vertical Guide onto the Artboard, and align them to the soccer ball. Select the Ellipse Tool (L) and click on the point where the two guides meet. Then hold down the Shift Key and drag outwards until it matches the size of the ball. Fill it with black, leave the Stroke set to None. Then Hide and lock the layer, so we can see the photo again.

Step 2

Create a new layer and name it "Shapes." We'll now create our mesh objects. First, trace each pentagon on the soccer ball (once filled with meshes this will be very effective). Trace each pentagon and fill it with the appropriate color (either black or white). Leave the stroke set to None. You don't have to create the pentagons perfectly. Leave some small gaps between the shapes. This slightly imperfect look helps to make it more realistic.

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