A very strange feeling!

Having recently moved into a house for the first time in years, long-hidden things have started to emerge from boxes. One was Betty Edwards' book Drawing on the Right Side of The Brain, which made me resolve to have a New Year shot at improving my drawing (not too difficult!). Early in the book is an upside-down photo of "a famous American", designed to demonstrate the difficulty of facial recognition when the usual cues are removed or rotated. It is beside an exercise in copying a line-drawing, also upside-down. Being an awkward old so-and-so, I decided to ignore the line drawing exercise & have a go at a tonal copy of the photo. When I'd finished, my wife said something like "Wow, did you do that? It's easy to see who it's meant to be". But, of course, it wasn't "meant to be" anyone! Yes, I could see I was drawing a mouth, and eyes, and presumably the thing inbetween was a nose..... Worse, I had to tell her that there was no real skill involved - that the photographic process had performed (a) the rendition of a 3D object into 2 dimensions and (b) the interpretation of colours as B&W tones. Also, that there was no room for "artistic interpretation", as I had little idea what I was actually drawing! This made me think about my creation of landscapes from photos. It seems to me that many of the same "problems" must apply here also, although I do of course know what I'm painting, and I do alter the composition, colours etc to suit my feelings about the scene. But perhaps the only "real" way to draw or paint an object or scene is in front of the object itself(?) Still, it was a very strange feeling indeed to be complimented on a "portrait" that I knew little about as I drew it! Any thoughts or comments? (hopefully it is attached below)