Photoshop experts... Question ?

I would make a very long, thin ellipse, feather the edge and fill with the color you want. Duplicate it for as many points of the crown you want, rotate them on the center axis at the angles you want. Probably setting the layers to multiply will prevent the overlapping feather edges from looking, well, overlapping. I can't try it myself, don't have access to Photoshop.

Just thought of another way that might work better for the look of the first picture. Create the long thin ellipse, but don't feather the edges, just fill it with a solid white. Again, duplicate and rotate the ellipse for as many points in the crown you want. Merge the layers. In a new layer, create a circle that is larger then the crow you made. Fill it with a colored gradient that fades into a transparency. Take the magic wand tool, click on the crown shape to make an outline of it. Feather the edges of the outline, and delete the "outside" portions from the circle gradient. Kind of like a cookie cutter.

I think it all depends on the type of stuff you're looking at. A lot of animators and illustrators use photoshop to create their works. If you go onto websites like Deviant Art you can see artists that actually do "Digital Painting", and while they aren't using a real paintbrush and canvas, the concept is still the same, it's just a different of medium. Graphic design has been accepted as a legitimate form of art, and there are courses that you can take to specialize in it. In order to be a real graphic artist, one should have a decent concept on the principals and elements of design. I guess this all rolls down to what we think 'real art' is, if there's really such a thing. If a twelve year old draws you a picture and sticks it on the fridge, it's tehcnically art. There might not be any deep conceptual meaning behind it, but it's a piece meant to be looked at, thus makes it art. Just like how that same twelve year old kid could be making banners and layouts for websites. They may not be appealing, and that kid may not be putting any artistic thought into it, but it's still graphic design. I have noticed the sudden increase in the use of Adobe Photoshop, but why shouldn't they be a bit excited? If they're good at photo manipulation, then all the power to them and let them get a job in video editing or something. I don't think there's anything wrong with having fun in playing with photoshop. I went to a college-level art course and we were encouraged to do photo manipulation as part of an assignment.