Quote - I learned it from lurking too long around here....and don't get me started on the bad lighting/shadows...funny, I used to surf the galleries seeing inspiration all over...now i surf and think I really don't want anything I make to look like most of what's there...is that disinspiration?

No, it's learning to see what is instead of what you want to see.  While there's nothing "morally" wrong with having things like blatantly incorrect shadows or nonsense reflections or other inconsistent junk baked into a texture, these are just flaws of technique when you look at them objectively and without bias.  Perhaps these flaws can be ignored or even forgiven when noticed, but they are still flaws.  Not everyone has a goal of perfection (I certainly don't) but if your goal is any form of "realism" then having a bunch of white spots and shadows that don't follow your lighting is probably something you'll want to fix.

ps: don't look in the Realism gallery if you're all spergy like I am

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