I was referring to the process of capturing what we may think we see, in a way to show it in a way that others may see it too....ugh. If it is the sort of painting that say (enter more or less whoever from the middle ages here) then they would make sketches, etc, roughed it out, and so on. I think we tend to compare this as 'art', with what we hope we may achieve more quickly with a camera, at one sitting, so to speak. As in all these discussions, it is difficult to keep focussed. I have in mind, say 'landscape', whereas you may be thinking 'still life'.
Last night, I captured a few pixels of a fox. Is that a sketch? Can I do something that you may consider as being artistic, or are my foxes few pixels too few for you?
I could use it, make a great painting based on it, easier for me than any digital manipulation, possibly. But, given the time and possibly much mechanical skill, it could be taken to the same result as by some other means. So, take that picture, print it at A3, say, paint over it with acrylics, painting by numbers, but my numbers. Any one want to say 'that's cheating'? or paint half of it, the other end disappearing into some sort of argb colour chart whirlpool.
In 1996, M$ stopped using the 'where do you want to goto today' ad. It sucked. The only place you could rely on getting to was the frustration of the blue screen. However, these days, just a decade or so later, with the progress in the camera hardware (software not catching up, yet), 'where do you want to take me tomorrow' is pretty near possible.
But the interface may be interesting ;-)
Chemical based photography has a restricted application, but within that restricted area, it works surprisingly well. There are quite wide tolerances in the process, no pixels to peep at, etc. mainly analogue, it fails gracefully. Not every photographer did there own chemical processing. I think more folk now attempt digital processing. That is where the creativity will lie, if you wish to create a picture from the same starting point as the painter, wrt laying paint on canvas. It is such a pity that Adobe seem to have captured that area. In the same way it was a pity about the qwerty keyboard, and most every 'successful?' undertaking.
btw I am officially cynical.
Best wishes,
Ray