Just the snail for now. I attempted to draw the boots but it's too overwhelming for me. Can someone suggest a subject that is easier than the boots but harder than the snail?

I think I'm getting a hang of this. Does this pass? What should aspect can use the most improvement?

For a single scene, is the size and shape of ambient occlusion constant regardless of ambient lighting color and intensity? The only thing that changes is value?

Where can I learn more about "the effect"?

Here's my attempt in Krita. The one thing I want to work on the most is producing clean and render-like tones. I have spent several hours experimenting with various brush sizes, opacities, and hardnesses in combination with layers and masks and identified that I struggle most with compressed gradients, when it's unclear where a gradient starts and ends, overlapping gradients, and non-linear gradients.

I was wondering how to use masks to create gradients while preserving form for awhile. Seeing it happen real time really helped me understand what it takes and how to do it.

After a quick search, I couldn't find a good resource that goes over technique and workflow. What I'm looking for is a table mapping effects to techniques/workflows and the reverse. I would like to know when and how to use every tool (Hard brushes, soft brushes, textured brushes, masks, blending, gradients, etc.) and some common combinations (masks+soft brushes seem like a pretty common way to achieve gradients while preserving edge). There are tons of ways to achieve effects, but they will all vary in terms of time and quality. I hope to see the course go into these tradeoffs, because sometimes we want or need to take those "shortcuts".

I saw the 21 Dec 2021 feedback for a digital submission. Dorian mentioned that using the gradient tool or large soft brushes would be a faster way of creating a gradient which I agree with. In the spirit of the exercise, is there any merit in using 1-3 different small brushes/erasers to create the gradient? My thought is that using small brushes/erasers would allow me to practice island hunting.

In the Common Mistakes notes, what does "Out of Balance" mean? Does it have something to do with being a non-linear gradient? Why is it bad to "make the gradient too dark or too light overall"? Is the example image one that is "too dark"?