Hi Dwight:
Well all started when I tried to mix my personal touch in some photos i've made (recently I bought a camera and i fall in love with panoramic views). When I started to use more Photoshop more often I really liked the result of overlaying textures with the original picture, adding some watercolor, etc. This started with some pictures of myself (as you can see on my pictures in Twitpic, the one with the oval frame it's me) and after a little time I've decided that a single render can be worked in a way that makes it more like an illustration than a render, I think that a client likes more oftenly an "artistic" work that a single render, this has worked out for me. I'm really thankful specially for U, because your book is amazing it has helped me a lot and I'm still reading and re-reading it to improve my skills. Hope this answer is what U was asking for
