something else to consider: even with total earnesty, someone could crush their own pigments with amazing chemical precision, sew their own canvas and gesso it into a weave as tight and smooth as silk, and paint their own painting with the finest homemade camelhair brushes to be found, taking six months to do the whole thing... but the result could well look like complete and utter dogshit. Or, it could force you to physically drop to your knees in the presence of such mastery and visual power. conversely, someone could buy a powerful computer, Vicky, a pose set, a light set, a character set, a sword (what?) some conforming clothes, enough p-shop actions to basically do all the postwork for you, a backdrop or two to stick Vicky in, and do the whole thing in less than 20 minutes, from power-on to the completion of final render. But their results could well come out with enough beauty to make a convicted wife-beater shed awestruck tears of rapture upon seeing it. Or, it could be utter dogshit too... That is a precise statement of how I feel towards art in general and the definition of what makes an artist. So if it obviously isn't the tools that make the artist, why the complaint about eowyn's product? /P