If you didn't mention this was digitally made, I would have sworn you must have had so much time on your hand to paint such an amazing pic I didn't think drawing programs were capable of making drawings look like it was painted by hand.

Thought about this a good bit over the past few days, even though I'd considered it well before. Having learned some skills when it comes to traditional drawing and painting, as well as digital drawing and painting, I do note that 3D art still isn't as popular as hand-drawn art. And I don't know entirely why, other than the possibility of an attachment to the unique styles that you'll find in hand-drawn art versus 3D art (which can often be perceived as feeling "less personal" than hand-drawn lines and painting).

One of the thoughts I had was posting these as paintings, and not mentioning the digital component at all, because I'd be interested in seeing whether they received more attention/views/likes, etcetera. It would help in learning more about the community culture for sure!

But, I'd rather be honest, and I don't want to receive complements on things I didn't earnestly achieve. But all the same, I do appreciate the comment, and will say if I ever get into oil paints in my life time, it'll be my sole objective to replicate this digital work, to complete my little social experiment...!

Also, this painting (and the other recent one with Rogan) only came about because I finally upgraded from Adobe Photoshop 7.0 to the latest version of CC or whatever, lol. Suddenly I have access to modern photoshop tools, omg.

I agree, there is definitely a difference between hand drawn pics and ones digitally made, but if both are drawn with heart, then each will always have a certain flair others may end up liking. I hope this makes sense :P But that aside, you did an amazing job and I hope that you get a chance to try traditional painting soon and that you continue to improve your skill