So...here is one version of what I tell people who are ready to take it to the next level -

When you can draw well you can choose 2 basic roads - illustration/copying, and art. If you copy well you will always have an audience who is looking only at the craft - but it isn't very high up on the design and art critical food chain - and that's not important to some artists -
When you do more than copy, but still only tell someone else’s story - you become a good illustrator -
To make art - well, it can be a number of things - but usually there is a twist - or intent -

So check out Chuck Close's work from the 60s on...he did big copies of portraits and purposely copied the camera distortion - he also did BIG paintings

Philip Pearlstein is another realist - I guess you could call him - but as far as I know he paints and draws from life and not from photos -

Also - of course - Andrew Wyeth

Check out Mike Kelly and Raymond Pettibon for alternatives to realism -

These are all found (except Close - but you can image google all of them including him) on my site at http://www.jeffprentice.net/teachf/artists/painting2.htm and http://www.jeffprentice.net/teachf/artists/painting.htm

Finally - one guy I really respect is Calle, who wrote "the pencil"...B and N has it - he was the official NASA artist and also did some stamps for the USA -

u gotta look thru his book -