im working on vectoring a praying mantis (from a photo) and i came across a problem in the vectoring. on the mantis, the mantis has all sorts of colors and textures for his skin, plus there's all sorts of really detailed parts to the face. all sorts of unique and interesting shapes. there no way to create all that detailled shapes by just using fills, and transparency effects (as if you were trying to draw a wheel with spokes) so my question is, how does vector art come together? i tried to emulate the textures and colors with the blend tool but it seems you really have to get your hands dirty with vector art)

i think i realized something. i need to actually take each shape on the face, and each color and layer them in a massive amount of layers. does that sound right? for example, if i was creating an eye, i would need to take each color/shape i see and keep layering them to i have emulated the entire eye.i would need to lock each layer in place after drawing it so it would stay in order. seems, (if im understanding this right) vector art is alot of work. or is there an eaisier way? also im drawing the photo by look at it it (with the photo in the background) and then drawing what i see. i heard some people actually draw right on top of the photo? please explain this vector art stuff to me in layman's terms.