3D art consists of multiple facets. Modeling, texturing, composition, lighting, postwork - and I'm leaving out everything associated with animation. What part(s) of 3D art are you interested in? From my own experience, modeling can be very satisfying - and frustrating. Texturing is something I can't do. I cannot make my own texture maps, and UV mapping is a nightmare. So I almost always stick to procedurals for texturing. Composition and lighting of existing models/textures is what I like best (and probably what I do best). Postworking renders in Photoshop or something similar - many artists can enhance or even completely alter a 3D render. I can't. I might take a render into Photoshop to fix up some minor render glitches, but that's about all that I do. What difficulties? First and foremost, you have to have an idea of what your scene should "tell" the viewer. When you have an idea of what your scene should look like, you can start at compositing the scene. I often use primitives (boxes, cylinders) and premade models to "sketch out" the scene. If a premade model does what I want it to do, I don't waste my time modeling my own. But often there is no premade model that fits the scene, and then I model it myself, be it clothing, architecture, or a vehicle. Lighting is always a challenge. Requires lots and lots of test renders until the lighting is what I want it to be. Usually a project of mine takes about a week (if I don't have to make my own models, that is), more than half of that time goes into tweaking the lighting. Every 3D rendering app has its own peculiarities, and it takes lots and lots of renders to learn how to use a certain rendering engine to its maximum potential. Unlike MikeJ, I do not make sketches. But I'm not a professional and don't plan on becoming one. Last but not least: it's not the tools that make the artist! It's creativity and ideas that do.

The pen is mightier than the sword. But if you literally want to have some impact, use a typewriter

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