Don't let skills die trying to be unique.
The other day I was listening to this episode of Decoder Ring where they talk about how bad modern sculptures tend to be because we no longer have the educational pipeline and infrastructure to produce professional level sculptors.
We do have sculptors. We have a chunk of famous artists who work in 3D space. If you listen to the podcast they talk about how hard it is to find artists who can still create the classical marble and bronze statues that one would expect to see in public spaces to commemorate a person who we have all seen images and video of. One of the guests went to art school and explained how it works these days in the US.
The process was exactly what I went through in college as well. I can't call it "art school" because the college wasn't just for art, but I have the BFA, etc. This is just to point out that the process is the same for most creative education. (And mine was 20 years ago.)
When you show up for Art 1, Photography 1, 3D 1, Jewelry 1, Printmaking 1, etc, the very very first class starts with exactly the same pitch: "What is art?" The professor has everyone go around the room and say something and every answer is correct because anything you create is legally art even if it's low effort/low skill. It's an ice breaker first day thing to calm everyones nerves about being technically graded on something that is 89% subjective.
Your early level classes do sit you down and show you what paint is and how it works. They will show you how to stretch canvas and build frames. How to do underpaintings, how to mix colors, how to wrangle perspective and shadows and all that. But somewhere around the lvl 3 classes you are just kind of left to your own devices. You have photographers teaching the entry level painting they were taught in school. Most of my teachers were printmakers, which has a lot of technical things to learn but still at some point you are given the keys to the car and left to drive around on your own.
The reason for this is that in the art world you are expected to find and cultivate your own personal style. That style can be whatever you feel like doing, but you need to stick with it. Why? Because of marketing. (Similar to writing and genres but with less structure.) Your work should stand out from the others. If you told Khalo, de Kooning, and Warhol in a room and told them to all the same paints, the same canvas and the same topic: "Paint a picture of a cat." You would end up with three violently different paintings. They would all legally be paintings, and at least two will have two eyes and pointy ears mixed in there. But that's the point.
If you picked up an pencil and started drawing stuff that looked like Pendleton Ward's cartoons people would say you were a copycat. That you weren't being authentic, creative, or unique. You didn't come up with the style, therefore you are a thief and a fraud and should stop forever.
Which is bonkers. Go open Webtoon and look at like, a dozen random issues. They all look the same. The characters have individual traits and outfits but the style is nearly copy/paste. Why? Typically a genre of manga will have a similar style to let the reader know what to expect but overall it's "That's what manga looks like." And that's what it needs to look like.
If you wanted to be a professional animator you need to be able to copy the artwork of the main artist. They can't be expected to try and manually animate the entire movie alone, not everyone is Miyazaki. Professional artists need to be able to create work that matches the style they were asked to create in. This goes for animation, comics, and even sculpture.
You want individual experimental stuff in galleries, but a large scale professional setting being able to be a "copycat" is a good thing.
If I go to buy an animation cel from an old movie, am I going to buy the wonky shot where the character is turned around or making a strange gesture? No. I want one where I recognize the scene and whats going on. But I wouldn't care about the scene if it weren't for that in between frame done by the entry level animator. We need that entry level animator so they can improve and get promoted and create their own stuff later.
Computer aided design obviously eats up a bunch of those entry level artists. You could draw up a few panels and tell chatgpt to create the rest of the story based on a scripted prompt. You could start running a race, get in your car, and drive to the finish line too. Even easier to have the computer just write the story for you, or tell you where to find the last golden Wonka bar ticket.
We need people with technical skills in the creative world. It's ok to be at a high technical level without having to invent a new style or format. We need artists who can apprentice for others so certain crafts and styles don't become lost. Being unique for the sake of being unique does not equate value. What else? Insert generic "don't let skills die" argument. Go draw the stuff you like while they are still selling pencils and paper at the store.