Not hardly, it takes many many years. You might not know that I work for a client's who's entire estate is a about a 20 acre Japanese garden, the tank and lakes etc, I address. We have tops folks doing the work, I know and see it. Floral designers(4-6 at any one time also work there), architectsm, I work with many folks in design and art, not just aquascapes.
Yes I can see where Amano took the foundation of his intuition. But then, we all come from somewhere.
No, I cannot call the author of the Nature Aquarium World series a simple copy-cat of Japanese gardening. He's tried a lot harder than that. Yes, some are purely Japanese gardening, but some are not. Maybe you haven't flipped through his older work recently to refresh your memory that he's not always put out just the same type of scapes as in the newer ADA publications.
Perhaps you misinterpted what I meant, the design is not new, I did not say the execution is not effective. I made no comments to the past work the person has done, I'm looking for originality. Red, yes. The groupings? The rock work? Nothing the other folks in the contest had not done really.
You focused my comments too narrowly on this one scape, compare them the other scapes and think about the originality, the work the other folks have done as well.
I know how much work goes into it, copying ADA is not an easy thing in and of itself. But I think originality and different types of layouts really should be weighted very heavily. Dutch scapes also require many weeks of preparation and similar skill sets.
Another thing, is actually thinking about these tanks in person, not a mere photo(which can be enhanced to create an effect or it can ruin a look as well, the photography art is a skill set as well).
Regards,
Tom Barr