I effectively "read" rule no. 7 just yesterday in the art gallery: Chinese artists and Arab calligraphers were big on copying the work of the masters first, so that when a new artist went off to make some work out of fresh inspiration, all that practice would, so to speak, guide his hand to make something sublime rather than a child's impassioned scribble.
It's nice to know I'm not alone in thinking it isn't old fashioned or restrictive of "self expression" in art, whatever that currently means. Note: "nice" means akin to the feeling of releasing your breath after a while swimming underwater:
whoosh! You can tell what kinds of circles I move in
Thank you Steve
