'I'm a little surprised that the majority of replies come from people who have had some formal art training'

I was a bit surprised too actually. I'm doing it bass - ackwards :) I've spent years learning to use many cgi applications and have only just begun to do a self-study of formal art. Never too old to learn :) The only related theory outside of computer graphics that I studied was photography because I can't help but think that is very well related to 3D graphics in most aspects.

Like many people here everything I know about computer graphics is self-taught - there is such a lack of professional training facilities even today that this almost goes without saying.

When you consider all that's involved in obtaining a comprehensive knowledge in several graphics applications it's a wonder how we trudge through it - it's only because it's a labor of love I guess :)