I'm trying to find the fastest way, to draw on a high-end level. I am decent in Photoshop, but find myself using a lot of time with details and cleaning up my drawing.
So I started to research and I found Illustrator... learned the basics, and encountered the problem that every vector should be closed. And that's a problem for me, because it means I might as well draw in Photoshop, because I still need to draw an extra line and add an unknown number of layers to the drawing in order to reach a complex goal in Illustrator.
THEN I FOUND LIVE PAINT AND MAKE LIVE! Such wonderful idea, but sadly it doesn't give my Photoshop skills the tools they need (since it seems that only a weak base color and some gradient can be used).
Long story longer... I wonder if it's possible to draw for example a complex AND realistic face with gradients in Illustrator? I found some guides and found them very realistic (mostly flames).
Link to the tutorial: http://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/create-a-burning-vector-match-using-gradient-meshes--vector-4349
But can those techniques be placed on a face, to reassemble a realistic color scheme? Can gradients be used together with live paint, on the same level as the guide, or should I only focus on the gradients? (it seems to be a thing to learn for itself).
If so: Do I then have like 1000 weird shadows, due to the edges of the strokes, i'm using? and do I need strokes upon strokes?
In the end my simple question is... Can I ever reach the skills required to draw realistic monsters like the ALIEN? or should I just go back to Photoshop and its layer system.
I can't seem to find my way, all I know is, that if this does work, I could save 3–5 hours next time I need to draw something, while still being satisfied with the result.
Please guide me.