@pixelb I'm not talking about PBR! Strictly Diffuse-only, no PBR, PBR sucks! That was just a stupid experiment for some reason, don't think about it! Sorry for the confusion. Striiiictly handpainted stuff.
So much of this hinges on whether we’re talking about texturing for a diffuse-only engine, or for PBR. For PBR all that evidence suggests that you paint in any highlights or form shading very weakly (if at all) and let the engine do its thing to generate reflections. All the cool extra detailing comes from the normal map…
that wood cube is really good, the stone one feels like its missing something, but overall really stellar work. as for the overall concept of cubes, I think its a solid idea, a lot of 2D concept artists do similar stuff with cubes and spheres, so why not? as for material tips n tricks, try make some more realistic PBR…