I keep on building my skill with gradient meshes in AI. It's a lot of fun, actually, and results are rewarding more often than not.
Why posting it here? Well, the day will come when Inkscape also is going to have gradient mesh tool.
It is a powerful, indispensable tool that can't be overrated.
And when the time comes I will be ready for it



Expand to actual size for details

P.S. After playing around with AI CS6 (I have 30-day trial), I still like Inkscape better
P.P.S. made with tutorial. It took me about 2.5 hours to draw this cherry, pro artist would probably do it in 30 minutes, but hey, I'm still learning.

It looks as real as a photograph

I used a real photograph as the reference image, as required by the tut. Here it is.

yours could easily pass as real...put your cherry in with the photo cherry, with a bit of color matching and lighting, no one would know !

k1tesseraena: wow, that's impressive! but has there been talk of gradient meshing in inkscape?

Yes, Anmal, and not just talks, some blueprints have been made by its developers.

aaah, that's great! i look forward to it .

That is beautiful. You've got some talent there.

Nay, it's not that much talent here, just set of certain mid-level skills (there is still too much room for improvement!)
But thank you for the compliment!