Man , ART is HARD !
Not literally, it doesn't get a boner/wood.

What I meant to say is general people along with myself included, from the surface do not realize the effort that goes in to making even a simple sketch. Much worse to the fact that Artists are generally taken to be an extra curricular activity of society. Expression comes in many forms, an architect designing with his intrinsic design skills would conjure up a great looking shopping mall, museum etc. His profession is taken seriously and his art is gives the person the power of self expression. Yet he is not an artist. He attained those skills from his university like a set of tools in his bag. Taught under many professors and as the student progressed along, his thoughts and designs changed according to the requirements of his professors. To attain a good grade, the skills evolved. Not justifiably to the better end. Yes now he may have a masters degree. But is he truly an artist?
Just because he can argue and defend his art?

Generally everything seem to have an element of artistic approach, let it be engineering, architecture, programming, web designing etc. But these are professions active throughout the community which spread to the general population. The population as a result assume that artistic skill has to LATCH on to something. A man with a paper and pencil with great imagination is thought to be literally USELESS without the additional degree of a certain skill. When you tell your girlfriend's parents that you are an Artist, you can see that look in their eyes. Same look from an employer, unless they can benefit from you that is. Now that is another AREA. Sometimes artist become Fashion Designers for a company. I have seen many good artists shelling out pieces of art to local galleries which simply become an OBJECT in a new couples house. That artist soon learns to focus on what would SELL rather than what I want to portray. If the world is all about different opinions, then artists in this world are full of conflicting opinions. Look at Leonardo and then look at Picasso. One is reffed to as a master draftsman more than an artist while the other is sought to be a legend, mind you Picasso had all the right things in order, even had a professor of art as his father.

So for the fortunate ones who actually have the skill sets to render what they want, no matter how they attained it, I truly admire them. Mostly because, learning art itself is a rigorous process, there are no defined boundaries, no yardstick. And with modern world's pressure toppling on them, perusing art itself is a challenge. Everyone is looking for a quick fix, jumping in to 3D without having even the ability to draw a proper box on paper (much like myself). Computers have made things much more simple and given people the ability to "fake and pose" much more effectively, for the glory. The ones who are truly artists are overshadowed by others technological prowess.

And here my friends ART is truly lost.