I continue to be amazed (and thankful) at the quality training podcasts that are available for free.

A new one dedicated to Adobe Illustrator has surfaced called Gradient Mesh. As I write this, the podcast is only two issues old, so time will tell if this is a podcast that direct market designers will get some use out of that they can directly apply to their projects.

But as someone who has been having to spend more time in Illustrator recently, I welcome anything like this that’s going to make me more comfortable moving around in the program. (Side note: I’m seeing a Lynda.com subscription in my future very soon to get some extra training.)

Gradient Mesh is presented very professionally by Justin Seeley. It reminds me a lot of one of my favorite podcasts, The InDesigner which is a similar style in terms of solid information without what my kids call “silly business”. “Silly business” is what you see a lot of in Photoshop User TV, another great podcast, but one that I find myself fast-forwarding through a lot these days to get past the silliness and on to the tips. That type of silliness gets old quickly and, frankly, I don’t have time for it anymore. (Still, it’s free so I hate to complain too much about it.)

Justin also has a Photoshop podcast, but I have yet to check it out.

In my mind, this new Illustrator podcast fills an underserved arena. I just haven’t run across many Illustrator podcasts that are updated consistently. Of course, when people are doing these podcasts and offering them for free, you want to cut them some slack. But I’m hoping Justin steps into this void with lots of great tips and hints.