Realistic Vector Art

Vectors vs Rasters is an argument that is most often quickly solved. Are you designing with photos or simple graphics? Are you creating a poster or a business card? Do you like using Photoshop or Illustrator?
All of these questions are related to the Vector vs Raster debate, and deal primarily with style preferences. If you're designing a logo, business card, or clean edged graphic, then most likely, you'll want to use vector based software like Adobe Illustrator. If you want to use photo-realistic images or need advanced layering and filters, most like you'll used raster/pixel based software like Adobe Photoshop. But... what if you want to photo-realistic quality you get from Photoshop, with the scalability and clean lines of vector art? This is where realistic vector art can help.
Using the Gradient Mesh tool in Illustrator, you can assign colors to points on an object that will automatically blend together, creating a customized and detailed gradient. The more time spent color each individual point on your object, the more realistic the final outcome will look. Results have the potential to trick viewers into believing they are looking at a photograph rather than a vector image, and the image can be scaled as large as desired without losing any quality like a rasterized image would.

Description: Vector graphic containing a highly detailed gradient mesh that resembles a photograph
Advantages: Vector graphics will never look pixelated, can be scaled infinitely larger, and will preserve a clean, crisp feel

The link below shows a variety of samples of realistic vector art. Click on the "Outline" option to see the mesh.

Realistic Vector Art Samples

Sample Art above by Adalynn Martinez, a Multi-media student in my Digital Illustration class