Beautiful colors.

 This is my favorite picture yet 

Reminds me of tower from Warcraft III ,it looks really well ,instant fave ... woops ,I already faved it >.>

 Fantastic!

 That's a... PERFECT CRYSTAL BALL

loving it.. looks totally fantastic

 That looks amazing, I'm in love with such bright palette!

This is more awesome now, top 10 material for sure. Strangely the lack of AA on the orb doesn't disturb at 1x zoom. Maybe just the line between the purple and white colors in the rainbow-looking-thingie might like to have some AA.

 My only critique is that the orb's highlight is a bit too linear. Maybe have it be less at the edge, and less centered relative to the rest of the color changes?
Okay, I lied. I have some more criticism... The break between the grass and rocks looks a bit cutoff, like you sliced some of a layer off.  How about a bit more patchy transition?

Thanks for the comments guys, really nice to read'em.

Manupix, dark blue from top is the next dark color to be used not to add more. Adding it ruins it all. Probably I should add another color and see if it works. I agree with you about the sizes of the speculars but the inside one is wider. Decreasing the size of the outside specular isnt a good option while increasing the size of the inside one makes it flatter, so I'm not sure what to do here.

big brother, yeah, it screams for that reflection and I was trying to make it but failed at getting it look good. Probably I'm not good enough at understanding the shape and color of that reflection, need a visual reference or something. Actually surprised none has mentioned it before. Also thanks for the tip.

Love the grass and the cheery colors! It might be cool if the tips of the "boards" cast reflections onto the orb. Nitpick: the rocks on the dangling base break the iso angle a bit. They look like they're being viewed front-on.

 I really love this peice. The way the orb looks is just intoxicating. I think you did a great job with this!

sweet ^^

So good, in so many ways :D
Lol @ mailbox!

I think a way to make the orb look more present would be to have deep shadows in it, especially in a crescent along the upper border. Also the inside specular (at the bottom) should be wider / brighter than the outside, top reflection. At least that's how a glass ball behaves with light. Try it!

What I like the least is the rainbow-like, smooth curving feature in the sky. How about just filling with that plain, nice azure blue instead?

Wow this is really nice :D

 Nice perspective.

Quite an interesting piece to look at. Has a nice refreshing feeling to it.

Thank you for the crits, guys! They are very useful as there were a lot of experiments for me here.

I fixed several mentioned things skipping others because of the amount of time they may take. Still I'll keep them in mind for my future work, thanks a lot, I mean it.

iLKke, I tried with sharp specular and ended up with this one. If you see a way to do it could you please make a edit. I just can't make it work with sharp specular. Also while I understand your point of bringing focus to the orb it doesnt seem outline helps. As for the rocks, I make them non-sperical, compare to the current result and undo :) Can we concede there's a special layer of sphericla rocks there? :)

CELS, cure, yeah, right, my problem was in having separate palletes for rocks and wood. And when I unified them I got overlighted rocks. I tried to darken by replacing colors to darker ones now and the result is not impressive, so I'll keep it as is (added more darker colors under the grass though). Thanks for noting it anyway!

 I loved, favorite

Nice piece, although it does have a few things that could be better...

The orb is a bit dull compared to the rest, especially since it's the focal point of interest. Perhaps try giving it an outline or at least a very sharp specular/reflection.

Also, apart form the weird light on the bottom ground making it look closer, the rocks on the footpaths are shaded as if spherical rather than flat.

Gotta love the grass, clouds and that woodwork, tho!

I agree with CELS comment, the rock below the grass doesn't look 'below' the grass, it looks like it's on the same plane. maybe it's because the rocks at the top are the same size as the rocks at the bottom, despite the extreme perspective of the piece. maybe it's the way it's lit.

cool piece either way, nice reflection on the orb

Gotta agree the bark texture is awesome and second only to the cloud reflection.

 Ahhh, the reflections. <3

Piece perfect

 Very, very nice!

that bark texture is just so cool!

Love that colors and contrast.

I kind of wish there was no dithering. Love the palette.

I'm very aroused.

The only thing that bothers me is the perspective on the rock / dirt below the grass.I can't get a good sense of the shape, the way it's shaded.

 That might actually be a good idea, although, there is such thing as too many colors, so that's why I doubt you might want to do it.

Probably I should add some more colors instead...

Only the dithering on the orb disturbs me, rest is awesome.

 I like the overall concept. Althought I would say that the clouds and orb need more shading.