Dear me, touch a nerve did I Billy?

"if we stumble we pick ouselves up or if offered accept a helping hand. if we continue to stumble without  addressing why we stumble we only do those who offer their help a diservice." ~Billy

We do a greater diservice to those who are stumbling if we cannot see their pain and make allowance for it.

"that hurt and anger causes us to express ourselves in ways that may be deemed discourtious by our peers doesn't mean we should take compassion from others for granted. that we do so sometimes shows a lack of compassion in ourselves." ~ Billy

Not neccessarilly.  It can simply speak to temporary clouded judgement.  If one were to judge the sole worth of a person based on seening them at their worst, one often can miss out those moments when they are at their best.  Some people have a tendancy to lash out in hurt or anger.  It is often at those moments that they are in most need of compassion.

"you've obviously never been badly beaten by someone you let up out of compassion and fair play. i recommend at least one or two good kicks to let them know that life is rarely fair in general or not so general terms." ~ Billy

While the end result of a fight may at times be changed by one's humanity for someone who is an opponent is ultamitly not only weather the fight is won or lost but how a person chooses to fight that can have a more lasting effect on one's life.  It's not a question of fairness but of personal responsablity for one's own actions.  Some things we do to live and some things we do to be able to live with ourselves.

"as for constructive crit. i agree whole heartedly but constructive crit often carries negativity within. i was pointing out that good positive things can be gained (sometimes the best things) from negative crit (note the word crit). i don't associate simply being spitefull or hurtful as any kind of  crit. often using a polite manner to crit which i try and do makes little difference to those of thin skin. sadly they just go somewhere else and ask others for crit whilst complaining about a crit they recieved off someone else. some of them don't want or can't handle good honest crit given in a polite and kind manner. some have their heads stuck so far up their arse that the only thing which they allow to enter their ears is shit. i can accept that but what i can't accept is when time after time they pull their shit covered head out of their arse and ask....can you comment on this please then cry when you do cos instead of going wow you give an actual crit." ~ Billy

Truelly you have a intresting sense of metaphor.  Sometimes criticism, even politily put can be hard to hear or except.  And sometimes a person is going to want to hear more then one opinion on the matter.  It may also take a little while for what you are telling them to sink in, particullarly if they feel hurt by what was said, however well intended it might have been.  That does not mean they don't ultimatly here what you are saying though.  As for someone continuing to ask for critical evaluations of their work even after becoming upset, I can only conjecture on the whys of that.  There are many possible reasons but I would hope that if someone continously asked for critical evaluations that they would thank the person for their honest opinion on the matter.

"back to the understanding and compassion. yes they are important. very important.  thats i won't waste them on silly trivial posts or the people who post them. what i saw was a self centered child displaying petulance cos someone didn't stroke his ego. this is not an attack of someone but an opinion of a post and what i garnered rightly or wrongly from it. now you can spank my bum and call me cynical if you feel like but it won't change my opinion" ~ Billy

You are certianly intitled to that opinion Billy and I have no desire to spank your bottem or any other part of you for that matter.  I don't think that 3_Bad_Mice was being particularly self-centered or petulant.  She was asking for some answers to questions and explaining some of the reasons for asking and her style actually struck me as fairly light hearted and self-decrimating.  But each person is of course going to have their own perceptions on things.  That is part of what makes the world so intresting and also why tolerance and understanding are important to work for.

"show me someone who warrants understanding and compassion and i'll give it by the bucketful. show me someone who genuinely stumbles instead of falling down on their own pitard and ill be the first to offer a helping hand" ~ Billy

I'm glad to hear it.  There are certianly no shortage of people in the world who need understanding and compassion, in fact I believe just about everyone does.   I can only hope that those who stumble live up to your standards of what is and what is not worthy.

"yeah, billy, but basically, they wrote poser so anybody could produce renders of humans
on the first day of use. so anybody can do renders in poser. what separates the pros
from the masses is the ability to read the manual, to do proper lighting, proper shadows,
use the right scene and props, pose the figure correctly, do facial expressions, use hair
correctly, use clothing correctly, use the correct render settings, etc. ad infinitum.
anybody can do it, but it takes quite a bit of patience and experience to do it right
(see poser gallery here)." ~ Miss Nancy

I know you addressed your post primarilly to Billy, Miss Nancy, but I couldn't resist a brief comment.  I think that in addition to the technical skills you mentioned there are also some other important personal traits.  Artistic vision, perserverance in the face of artistic adversity (which can take many forms), and inovation are a few.  What makes viewing different images both here and at other sites so enjoyable for me is that I'm constantly watching artist's change, evolve, and inovate their styles and subjects, and certianly it's very inspiring and exciting to see.