Do you think being able to copy a picture is a talent, or do you need to come up with a image yourself to be talented?

It’s a talent, but it’s not an artistic talent.

The purpose in copying images is to hone your skills.
Developing your skills will help you express your talent.

That being said it is not the only way to improve your skills. You could draw 100 pictures from imagination and each time you do so it will help you master it. Copy work can be a faster way to study how to handle a medium.

Such work for learning purposes is referred to as a “study” and if done in the work of a master artist is referred to “After (insert artist name)”

Talent is taking a vision- be it from your own reference image or imagination and creating it as your own.

accuracy is a talent, but it creativity is another shoe.

It really depends on what you want to do. Honestly, only being able to copy images will only land you a job doing something like a portrait artist.

However, it sounds like you’ve got a good start. Maybe check out a couple of books on anatomy and figure drawing, and apply that to what you know, and you’ll probably put together some well done original work.

It is talent, but as @pdworkin pointed out, not artistic talent. There is value in your skill. I am the same way. Sometimes people want to know exactly what something looks like, not an “artistic rendering” of how someone wants it to, or thinks it should, look. I am going out on a limb here, not knowing much about art, but I think there were famous artists that strongly exercised their creative license (e.g. Jackson Pollock) and those that were realists (e.g. Marie Rosalie Bonheur, Claude Monet). I happen to enjoy art that accurately depicts how a place looks, and not really “get” abstract art or appreciate it to the extent that others do. It even sometimes bothers me when artists embellish, much like fictional writers spin a yarn that is only partly true.

If you really like drawing in the way you describe, consider looking into industrial design or scientific drawing in biology. There was a girl in my high school biology class who was great at drawing/sketching and our teacher suggested she consider the latter. You could also consider engineering, as in certain fields of engineering you get to model objects in 3D on a computer using software like AutoCad, AutoDesk Inventor, SolidWorks, or Ansys.

And frankly, your dad isn’t very creative if he can’t imagine how your skill could be useful and marketable.

I’ll answer this the way I learned to be artistic in terms of music. I started out playing covers galore. Now, I just play covers as practice and my creativity is through the roof. I could create a whole piece in less than an hour and forget what I played a few minutes later, but that’s what I use my iPhone for to record for reference purposes. I used to draw and back in the day I did exactly what you’re doing now. I agree with @Dog, continue what you’re doing and eventually you’ll be able to use your finely honed talent to create. Godspeed and good luck. :)

Does it make a difference if you are copying a person who is sitting in front of you, or you copy a picture of that person? My brother makes his living as an “artist” and he copies from photos all the time. My son has been learning how to draw by copying photos of things that interest him, and watching internet videos about how to draw. He is better than most people I know, including some in the biz.

He’s been making some imaginary stuff—he always did, but now it’s so much more like it could be real. He’s into aliens at the moment. Big skulls and all. He keeps wanting to imagine a new kind of alien, which is fine, except I have to do the world building for him so we can figure out what the alien would look like. Last time he wanted a planet made entirely of some kind of crystal. The only form of like I could come up with would be some kind or organized electricity. That’s not very satisfying, artistically speaking. Maybe next time there will be a more interesting world.

Try to get past the put-down you got from your Dad that you’re not talented because… whatever. You’re talented. Now continue to practice and develop that, develop your talent for “seeing” and then “imagining”.

You’ve definitely got talent. But it’s your job to develop it now.

Oh yes! What @CyanoticWasp is important. I was constantly mentally abused by my step mother, “You’ll never go anywhere playing guitar” “can you stop making noise? it sounds like crap.” ect ect… Now I’m held in high regards by anyone who hears me play & I hope she rots in hell…. Ahem.. I mean don’t let things like that bother you. Let your passion flow freely!

It’s a skill for sure. There isn’t much in the world I would consider a genuine talent. I think people are too willing to attribute hard won skill to some sort of magically inborn ability. Most things can be learned if you put enough time and energy into them. Even creativity.

In terms of artistic development there is more value in drawing from models than from pictures. Pictures flatten everything out for you, but if you draw from a model you learn how to see things and how to interpret them. But honestly once you’ve got a good handle on art making pretty much anything goes. It’s just getting there that’s the trick. If you’re interested in pushing your art making I 100% recommend taking at least one life drawing class.

That’s how I started out. I could copy any picture but then I took some classes and learnt how to draw myself. But your already in an art classes? hmm…You’re more a technical artist like me, and the only Art im good at is Pencil drawings, so maybe you’re good at that too? Take some classes or try taking and Art &Design class, it’s more technical.

It takes a tremendous amount of talent, technical skill and ability to copy anything exactly. And there are many artists who make a living doing super realistic drawings and paintings. I don’t think it makes you any less an artist. It just makes you a different kind of artist. I also believe that in copying others work you eventually develop a style of your own, you add your own personal touches to everything you do. Keep on drawing anyway you like, in the end your work is yours and that is that!

I’ve seen splendid photorealistic art done by an artist working from a photograph. It is way beyond copying

I agree with @rooeytoo and @Dr_Lawrence. Talent is talent. I much prefer a ‘real’ looking painting. I don’t see much difference in looking at a bowl of fruit and drawing or looking at a picture of a bowl of fruit and drawing. You can add your own slant either way.

“art is what you can get away with.” -a.w.

Art is describing reality in a way that is relvealing something about reality that the viewer had not previously thought of. There are drawers who can paint a picture of a house or do an exhibition with wierd stuff on chairs, but unless the drawing says something (preferably non-trivial) about the reality of our lives, it’s really not art, but just craftsmanship.

That’s why artists are so often depressed, they are seeing a reality normal people try to ignore.

@nisse There are as many definitions of art as there are artists.

Depends on how good the copy is.