some excellent points you brought up.

IMFFHO, art "talent" is a combination of Nature and nurture. To be really adept at art, there needs to be some genetic disposition toward art "feelings" plus a solid, positive upbringing in the disciplines of art.

sure, you can overcome a deficit in one or the other in the recipe. In fact, it's my belief that a PC can be a prosthetic for those who cannot visualize holding a real brush or pencil.

In a way, I'm sorry I dumped the word "cheating" inot this thread. Make the word "stealing", 'cos that's what it is when you peddle someone else's word as your own, regardless of how you filter or reinterpret the artistic idea using programs. Shakespeare is probably the best known their in Artistic history. Yup, he reworked other talented peoples' plays, but in the process, he invented something better written. What's the way to look at him then? IMO, he was a brilliant, occasional art thief. And history sez that there's nothing terribly wrong with that.

I encourage originality, but I do not see whay you can't practice with existing art until you get more of your own talent out there for others to see.

Just don't go crossing the artist's name off the lower right on the painting and writing your own! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

My two cents,
Gary David Bouton