I do two different kinds of art, and I generally switch back and forth between the two. I do what I call "doodles" where I am working out something, such as lighting, or a pose, or a certain combination of clothing, trying out a postwork technique, or beta testing. Those pictures are usually made up entirely of someone else's work. All I have done is compile elements together and postwork it. Those images satisfy me after I finish doing something long and involved. Nine times out of ten my "doodles" turn into something bigger. I just posted a "geisha" doodle to my gallery, and the process of making it gave me a ton of ideas for a full blown scene. In a week or two, I will probably re-visit my ideas when I am ready for a bigger project.

The long and involved images take a lot of work and thought for me, even if they are made up of elements by other people. My Bryce images are almost exclusively of the long and involved type. =) In those cases, there is a workflow involved that takes hours or sometimes days because I am a perfectionist. Scene composition, lighting, texturing, and rendering takes about half the time, and postwork takes the other half--or more. My most recent piece took 30 hours to complete, not counting 9 hours of render time. Then I did my fun little 45 minute geisha doodle as a cool-down. Are my doodles art? Not really.. but I learn something every time I do one.