Chuck I too thought I would never get any better, but I like to think that now I have produced a couple of halfway decent images.Took me ages to get there. Trouble is now, how to follow them up. I love doing the quick comical stuff, like the bees, but is it art? who knows........ its fun. There are all sorts of way you can participate and give back. Good comments are giving back. Encouragement is really nice, but constructive criticism is also good. Also one of my friends here (also a lurker like Xenophonz) gives me web pages on his site to host some of my freebie textures, plus 2 other people host stuff for me. This is a wonderful place and people are so friendly, its good to talk, sometimes just being a good shoulder to cry on, a receptive ear to listen is as good as active participation. I know, I have had some lovely people encourage me when I felt like giving up.

The greatest part of wisdom is learning to develop  the ineffable genius of extracting the "neither here nor there" out of any situation...."