[Chancellor Palpatine]

A big problem with canvas "art" today is that are too many illustrators posing as artists.

Thank you for saying that. There is a difference, and while I might not be able to describe it in words, my eyes can sure tell.

There are those that can capture the essence of a subject, whther that be by photography, oil, watercolor, charcoal or ink, and those are the artists.

There is another group, that can faithfully follow a mechanical process, and those are mere illustrators.

[wardaddy]

good description.

[demosthenes the elder]

all representational art is symbolic.
all symbols are abstractions of that which they represent.
The trick, that thing which separates art from illustration (even in photography), is knowing what to accentuate, what to understate, what to omit, how to compose for effect, etc.

Illustrators are like good copy editors - they know grammar and syntax and spelling and punctuation, and can crank out perfectly correct sentences.
Artists are like good writers - they know the rules, know when to follow them assiduously yet also know when to break them and how much to acheive a desired effect.

(see post#75 for more scattered thoughts on this subject, if you choose. I shall be hitting this subject again, more completely, later)