I'm going to pick up on two things said so far;

it's a challenge. My earlier comment on fairies was that is 'easier for me'. Poser realism is my present challenge.

 

BB's comment that it is craft, not art. True to a point. Craft is the knowledge base needed to create art. The more you understand your medium, the less you are constrained by it, and the more you can realise your visions. Back to the challenge... I have so much more to learn in this medium. I know paint pretty well.

 

The art/craft debate is a pretty endless one, but the example I use is to look at the early modernist/abstract painters' work books. They all had good drafting skills, good compositional skills. They could do 'lifelike'. So when they did abstract, it was because they CHOSE to use that approach, rather than because it was all they could do. They knew their craft, and applied it to create their own visions.