Persevere - Pillar

Just some background stuff. I had a lot of trouble making this.. Most environment/random assortment of background things are foreign to me buuuuttt I gotta get on the ball. 

The first one used heavy stippling (which I'm - personally - not a great fan of). I was having trouble coming up with details and creating a great illusion of depth in the pillar's main portion. The second was me trying to go at it more before finally I just scrapped the idea from my mind.
Niro gave me a suggestion - emphasizing more detail in the work so I don't have to worry so much about shading or summat. Whatever the case (or whatever I can remember him saying lol) I got to a more satisfying final version. Looking at it now, I can see some minor details that can be nicked but I'll keep the pillar as is so I can jam out on more things ~


I also figured that if I started doing stippling to shade objects then EVERY object would need stippling. For my current skillset - it's a lengthy process and I feel I can achieve better results minimizing that shading style (plus stippling is geared towards a more retro look).