Well, I am going on the road to sell my artwork. I don't necessarily want to do portraits of people's animals or family members because the art world generally sneers upon that kind of thing, but I do like giving people something they can cherish whether the art world calls it art or not.
I wonder why a single dot on a canvas is considered to be art and not the perfect replication of something ordinary and real. Not to say that I can perfectly replicate anything, but I am insulted for the sake of all the talented people whose work is considered cheap just because it isn't metropolitan. A painting of landscape isn't usually considered as good as a surrealist or expressionist painting, unless it has some looming or beautiful human figure in the frame. What about Nature's beauty? I can't paint well, at all, but I do love to see a painting that has every minute character of reality dabbed in. That's talent. Why isn't that considered talent? To have the vision to see each shadow under each pebble is something of a talent in my consideration.
Yes, Michaelangelo and Da Vinci were great, personally I love Michaelangelo's work, but I also love Norman Rockwell's work. That was commercialized art, but it was also fine. He captured the humor and awkwardness of the true human, and that is just as worthy of merit as capturing the beauty and power of the human figure. Most people aren't muscular writhing balls of grace and strength mixed with dark looming emotion, and I respect the fact that Rockwell could capture regular people doing regular things.
I, myself, would love to sketch the most perfect figures with the deepest eyes and most powerful presence. But, I also like sketching people just being people; my best photography is done with a pencil. Of course, I don't really know what to say for myself, since I am such an eclectic artist, but I never questioned calling myself an artist. I don't writhe with agony before a piece of paper and most of my work has meaning that I did not set out to express, but I am an artist. I mostly just sketch random things at random times on random paper, but I am an artist. I don't boast about my art because I know that I'm not the best there is or even close, but I know that I am an artist.