I think what you are seeing is also a by product of schools no longer teaching drawing and rendering techniques. i know graduating with an urban planning degree i had one class in 4 years where i had the chance to draw anything, and what we were told was “the computer will to everything” what they didnt tell us is that you have to understand the basics of hand drawing and graphics to apply them effectively in the computer.
with that said, there are a limited number of choices when it comes to learning sketching and rendering techniques after school. i took mike’s 2-day class and learned a lot, the style didnt stick i found myself leaning other directions, however with a limited number of teachers will get a limited number of styles.
