Wire Mesh

[handrawn]

Also one other thing I have seen very cool recently in a tool called Paint SAI that I mentioned here is that when editing vectors outlines, you can select a tool which allows you to drag on a node and it thins or thickens the line at that point. Very cool idea!!

Yes that would be great - now if you could convert a line to shape, reshape it and then convert it back to line [so you can manipulate it as a line] - you could do this in xara - 'non' destuctive lines' - but better if you didn't have to and could thicken a line on the hoof from the word go.

What if there were a tool in the tool pallete that actually was a smooth pixel based airbrush and if you had a shape selected you could select the airbrush tool and paint smooth gradients or shading right inside the shape. The shape would act as a mask automatically and clip the painted area. This way you could control exactly your blends and shading and do it very quickly.

You can do this now with vector - in theory, its tiresome in practice because the brushes are so cumbersome - better to overhaul those and keep it vector?

I know for a fact that the XARA team could make a much more innovative and easier to use mesh tool than what Illustrator has.

you have studied the code then? I hope it is that simple but I have my doubts because of the way xara fills actually work.