Quote - SARCASM ALERT:

Painters who don't weave their own canvas, or don't make their own paint from dirt and acetone like Da Vinci did, but shudder BUY paint in a fricking store, are not artists.

 
Well, Da Vinci's assistants made the paint. I paint gaming miniatures -- mostly for gaming purposes (I used to be big into Ancients), but a lot of times just cause they are cool figures. (Which is how I justify the non-fantasy figures, usually). I'm probably in the low 90% percentile of figure painters, and can approach 95% on a figure I really like. (This is not a great accomplishment, there are a lot of crappy painters out there. I am miles behind someone as good as paintrix http://www.wegotgame.net/jen/main.html, but I sometimes have won a 2nd or 3rd place at a gaming convention. I don't make my own figures (although I sometimes modify them.) As a matter of fact, some of the best sculptors of figures are no better painters than me, one of them is actually a pretty bad painter and has other people paint figures for his web-page.