Homework

This is a spilled nail polish bottle that I am rendering from scratch for my computer illustration class. I haven't been showing anything from this class because I haven't done anything worth showing. This isn't very exciting either, but I thought it would be fun to show a rendering in process.
I am using Adobe Illustrator CS2, and it is a vector based program. A vector program is unlike a pixel program (Photoshop,) because it makes paths instead of pixels. I am fairly ignorant of what that really means, but I do know that vector art can be enlarged or reduced without losing clarity. Pixel art has constant resolution problems. What you see here has been pixelated to be seen on the web. I have saved the original in vector form so I can keep working on it.
The entire illustration is made up of rectangles and elipses, except for the spill, which is just drawn by hand. I start with the big shapes first, and create a stacking order of details on top. You can see the gradient used in the top really starts to make it come alive. Let's see if I can keep it up with the bottle and the spill. of course, there is also going to be a double shadow being caste and lots of glistening highlights. You would not believe the time this takes.