Mustang Gradient Mesh

PLEASE SEE REVISED MUSTANG HERE: [link]

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View Outlines: [link]

Finally finished! I turned it in yesterday (Feb 1st), but I'm presenting tomorrow.
The project's objective was to find a photograph that could be rendered
using the gradient mesh tool and do our best. There were other small
requirements, but doing our best with the mesh was the main goal.

I really love how it came out, even though I see a lot of flaws...
but this is only my second mesh, so I have to remember I'm still learning.
Simple background is simple, lol. I didn't want to do anything too extreme
with the background since the foreground subject is so complicated, so I
took a horse I drew back in June and made a silhouette of him. He supposed
to be a mustang, but he's more of a draft type. I tried to hide his feathering. XD

So yeah. This project ate me alive, but I loved every minute of it.
In total, I spent approximately 20 hours on the final product. Although,
I think the background took two hours of that, so really it's more like
18 hours. The tools I used are as follows: pen, gradient mesh, gradient,
transparency, blend, blend modes, clipping masks, and a custom-made
circle brush. The only font in there is Lithos Pro, and I used it for my name.
I pen-tooled the GT logo on the side. My all-time favorite part of the car is
the front bumper. I think the mesh came out really nice there. My other
favorite part is the tire and rim. God, I love black rims, they're so badass.
The original photo didn't have those, so I took the liberty of adding them
myself. The window isn't transparent 'cause I'm lazy, lol. I might go back
and do that later on, but I'd have to add a headrest and such.

Thanks for your input and praise during the WIPs! Your comments
really encouraged me. I'm so glad it all worked out in the end.

<sub>Created in Illustrator CS4 January 2010 (finished February 01, 2010).

Reference Photo: [link]
Horse Silhouette: [link]</sub>