Vector Art made a breakthrough with the distinctive cell-filled designs hitting the design community. What was a primitive style in the realm of cartooning became a mainstream, attractive, and desirable trend for pieces of artwork. Now history is repeating itself in the realm of Vector Art, shifting towards realism, through use of the almighty Gradient Mesh tool. However, will everyone jump onto the boat of progress, or settle in with nostalgia?

Cell-shaded, solid-shaped designs made a surprising push through the design community due to one reason: ease. Of course, it’s undoubtedly easy to make an appealing, stylistic design merely by bringing a photograph into your copy of Illustrator and tracing it over with the pen tool. Much easier than say having a photo reference and allowing the personal creativity of the human hand create a unique piece of art. This is why many have flocked to Vector Art as opposed to Digital Painting, or even Traditional Art. It’s an accessible style. Why don’t we see millions of Picasso-esque pieces of artwork sprouting up in the design communities? Is creativity getting hurt at the hands of Vector Art? In my opinion: No, it isn’t. The reason being because in every community there are pioneers, who push the art to the limit, who inspire their peers to move forward. Cristiano Siqueira and John Schwegel are excellent examples, using the Solid Cell Form with their own creative flare to produce true, cutting-edge art.

In the digital world there’s always a push to get as close to realism as feasibly possible. This is particularly true in Vector Art with the Gradient Mesh tool. It makes Illustrator superior to Photoshop in wanting to achieve a desired effect. In Photoshop it’s up to the hand of the artist to replicate, for example, the contours of a human face. However, in Illustrator, the artist has much more manipulative power over the art. It’s power is similar to that of the programs which deal with art on a higher dimension. Then again, there is personal prefernce, it’s a battle of style vs. realism.

In the end it’s art, it’s subjective and free to interpretation. What I would like to see in the near future is progress towards higher creativity; I’d like to see art that provokes more than just aesthetic pleasure. Art is a powerful tool.

- James Cabrera