I did a study to test the ambient occlusion painting method. Since it is very different from how I usually handle rendering and I felt it was quite slow and tedious, to me at least. Anyway I am sure that through enough practice it can become very effective, and the amount of control over the lighting allows for a lot of experimentation later in the process, so it is fare to say it is worth it, if you are going for the realistic look, rather than a painterly look.
I feel that this work needs a lot more refinement, especially concerning edge control, but since it took me so much time to go through the process, I didn't have the patience to stick through.
