Thanks, yeah I do need to work on that.

And yes... Illustrator works completely off vector... I'm not sure what you mean by realistic, any CG that comes close to looking realistic (Not by manual pixel painting means), is probably 3d. BUT, I have seen people do VERY amazing vector work illustrator, it was basically selecting different parts and doing paint buckets + gradients, since you could make a selection out of all your vector paths. And that's how he filled in his lights and darks and had all these contrasts that made them just look amazing. His work can be found on CGTalk... But I can't remember his username or the name of the thread.