Haven't talked about Blender in a little bit. A new version was just released, and it's got a few new features that are great additions.

While Grease Pencil is awesome, and the new sun and better AO lighting are great, and the new vector-level snapping is a very welcome (FINALLY!) addition, what I've been digging on the most is the new Deform Modifier. In combo with the Array modifier and some more complex textures, you can produce some really fun forms and renderings quickly. Here's a little 'study' I did on taking one form and 'processing' it into more and more abstracted, organic shapes. Enjoy!