I suggest color reducing some images of clouds and seeing the shapes that are created. It may give you a
Better idea of how to design more natural, form provoking shapes.
I haven't considered doing something like this before, but it really seems to be a good way to study how to represent more complex forms in pixel art. Nice to hear a technique like this suggested by a skilled pixel artist -- I'm sure many folks might feel like such a thing is 'cheating' in a sense, but really, studying how pixels actually cluster from natural subjects sounds like a great technique.
