Gradients and Mesh Tool

So, since I've been using Illustrator (about one and half years), I have never been a huge fan of the gradient tools, I think mainly because it always seemed so complex and difficult to tackle. Currently, in my digital illustration course, we have been required to illustrate one apple a week, each week with a different theme. The previous week I was very inspired by another student's use of the mesh tool and they were kind enough to send me their native file so that I could dissect it to see what exactly what was going on.

Well, this week I decided to attempt to finally tackle the mesh tool, which really isn't as hard as I though...it can just be annoying. The above image was an image on Fotolia.com. The entire apple, including the stem and leaf, are all made up of the mesh tool. When I started looking into preset gradients in Illustrator, there were a ton of metal gradients that seemed to really compliment the green apple on the white background. So, for the arrow, I simply used preset white gold, tin, and silver presets.

The more i use illustrator, the more i begin that realize that there really aren't many limits to what you can accomplish with this program. For those of you who aren't familiar or comfortable with using gradients, i strongly suggest checking out some videos on youtube...there are some great ones out there that can really show you a lot. The rest is up to your own curiousity and experimentation using the resources in front of you.