There are paint-by-number programs and then there is Paint-By-Number with real paint. There are software engineers and programmers and there are people who just

There are paint-by-number programs and then there is Paint-By-Number with real paint. There are software engineers and programmers and there are people who just type in code while following a tutorial (or even just download the sample code and hit build). Everything beyond this from-zero point is extraordinarily complex. Does a painting composed of a single stroke lack something to be art? What if that painting was done and redone a hundred times? What if the artist's assistant did it at their direction? Does it matter if the artist crafted the brush themselves by carving a fine branch, procuring their own glue and sable, and putting the thing together? Or if instead they bought 10 brushes and 10 sketchbooks in pursuit of an idea? Is the "end product" more or less legitimate because the artist had a clear vision of what they wanted at the start versus having only a vague direction and experimenting until they were satisfied?