Here's a WIP of my second entry for the contest.
>>1389550It really depends on the image and the techniques used. More complex images with alot of gradients, gradient meshes, blurs etc. can take months to complete. More simpler ones won't take longer than a few hours, in the hands of an experienced vectorer. And as you said, things will get alot faster and easier after you learn the tools'n'tricks.
