I Finally Like Something! Easily Influenced by Jeannie Dickson Book & Maimeri Collab 

Gotta be self aware :P

THIS! You hit the nail on the head! I have to admit, it can be difficult to know WHERE to cite these sources- on the video itself? in the description? And if you're using a diff social media site, do you do it in the thread? Do you send a reply comment? BUT! Even if you make a mistake and do it slightly wrong, doing it at ALL is a much better faith effort than just pretending that you made it all up yourself! People forget sometimes all the things they've read and the places they've read it, and that's fine, but a good faith attempt goes a long way IMO.

An excellent idea- great minds think alike! I used to do a glazing portion during color mixing, but I found that in general the results from that test weren't really indicative of how they'd handle in an illustration that uses glazing, so at this point, I just field test watercolors that seem promising.

Yeah, "self-taught" is an industry expression for "did not study specific X skill at university". Though I think Becca understands that and what I think she's arguing for is for this phrase to be dropped in favour of more helpful ones - I really liked "self-motivated artist"! I think some of us feel awkward/vulnerable as artists going into fields we were not specifically trained for, so I understand wanting to explain - I don't think it is necessarily a desire to obfuscate. E.g. my academic background is in sound art and I studied it at a time when it wasn't as well know as it is now (which is not a lot either, haha!). I had no training at university in visual arts whatsoever, but after university I gradually moved form sound art into multidisciplinary stuff (including visual work) and I always feel a bit apologetic about my lack of more advanced skill in drawing, colour theory etc despite my age and having two art degrees, compared to someone who studied visual arts specifically. Though I personally have never called myself "self-taught". Parenthetically I think I relate a lot to Becca feeling a bit like an outsider within the art field, as a lot of people just don't understand where I am coming from and just want to pigeonhole me as this or that, or at times won't even think of me as an artist at all! I also make a lot of work that could fall under contemporary art, as well as stuff that might be considered craft or music (in fact while I make it I like to think of all my art, even visual work, as "music", because music is much freer than contemporary art is in many ways) and regularly perform as a musician, as I don't really like to pretend that I am only about one thing just so I can "market" myself better. As a result, I am not very successful, haha, but dangit, I AM an artist!

I think this whole battle against terminology that has been around for literally decades ("self taught") is somewhat of a waste of energy, to be honest. I understand where Becca is coming from 100% because it can be confuing, but only to those VERY new to the art world, and it's a term that someone interested in the arts will pick up literally immediately when they expose themselves to art and artists. It's a term that is understand both in industry and household to mean not professionally trained in a formal setting. It's not just in art- the culinary world use it as well, as do craftspeople and the services industry.