Photorealistic Vector Adidas Watch

My goal for this project was to improve my skills in Illustrator by creating a photorealistic rendering of an Adidas Santiago Watch with vector graphics.

It was incredibly time consuming! It's made out of 10 layers and 435 objects! From sketching on paper to finishing it in Illustrator, I think that I put in around 100 hours on it.

The hardest part for me was learning how to effectively use shadows and highlights to add depth and realism. The best way I found to do that was to use gradients and blending modes. I also struggled to make the silver knob on the right look realistic. I'm still not 100% happy with it but it's hard to be happy with your work when you're a perfectionist! I broke it down into little pieces and just focused on making the colors match the way that my reference image looked.