Follow this Adobe Illustrator tutorial if you want to learn how to draw a realistic mango. Everything here is made using the Mesh Tool therefore if you want to master this tool better, this is your chance. Let’s get started!

Draw the Shape of the Mango

1. Open a new document. First, take the Pen Tool (P) and draw a mango-shape like in the image below. If you believe that it is easier, you can search for a photo with a mango fruit and use it to trace the outline. Before you continue, make a copy of the shape because you will need it later. Now, take the Mesh Tool (U) and click somewhere in the middle of the shape. As a result you will obtain the first vertical mesh line and the first horizontal mesh line.

Next, focus on the vertical mesh line and using the Mesh Tool (U) click on it in the spots indicated to add three more horizontal mesh lines on the top half. Do the same thing at the bottom and add other four lines.

1. Now, let’s add more lines on the left side of the first vertical mesh line. Click on the mango-path in the three spots indicated to add the vertical lines then zoom in on the area shown in the close-up. Add 5 mesh points very close to each other as indicated and you will obtain 5 more vertical lines.

1. In the right side of the first vertical mesh line, click in the four spots indicated to get the last 4 vertical lines. At this point, you are done with the Mesh Tool (U) and all that is left to do is to adjust some of the handles in the areas where it is necessary.

1. In the image below you can see the main areas on the surface of the mango based on the color shades that I’ve used.

1. Taking into account the areas shown above, I chose the most important color shades used in order to exemplify. If you need all the colors, please check the Ai. file for reference because it would have been kinda difficult to indicate every color that I’ve used for all these points and also quite tedious.

Create the Texture

1. To make the Mango fruit look not artificial, we need to create a texture. Open the Symbol Libraries menu and under Artistic Textures find Charcoal. Drag it into your working area and press the Break Link to Symbol button. Having the resulting texture selected, from the fly-out menu of the Transform Panel choose Flip Vertical then scale it about 130%.

1. Put this texture over the mango (black) then make another copy (blue) and arrange it above the first one as in the next image. Now, select one of the textures, go to Effect menu > Warp and apply the Arc effect. The settings that I’ve used for the black and blue textures are shown below. At the end, select Expand Appearance from the Object menu for both.

1. At this step, you need the copy of the mango-shape drawn at the first step. Bring it in front then make another copy. Now, select one of them and also one of the textures and click Crop from the Pathfinder Panel. Do the same thing for the other texture using the second copy of the mango-shape.

1. Fill the two texture groups with a linear gradient from white to black. Set the texture from the top to Soft Light and lower the Opacity to 50% then set the other one from the bottom to Lighten and reduce the Opacity to 13%. You are done with the mango for the time being.

Source: http://www.vectordiary.com/illustrator/draw-a-realistic-mango-with-the-mesh-tool-tutorial/