I had originally created this illustration in Procreate for a different class, which gave me a chance to prepare several layers in advance for the vectorization in Ai. It was fascinating to compare the end results of grungy vectorized layers to transparency masking layers. The dusty pink version that I created for this project turned out to be the clear winner (for my purposes), while the vectorized orange version was included as a point of comparison (although I did make some slight changes to the texture in the middle, to make the comparison fair).

Using this technique for creating textured illustrations has given me so much more flexibility in my designs, and I'm excited to use it in future projects. Having a range of tools at my disposal is extremely helpful, thank you so much!