Generally speaking your payouts have nothing to do with the quality of your art (I admit that is an over simplification) - making money on steemit is done by joining groups, creating relationships and finding dolphins and whales who are willing to consistently upvote you.
Trust me, you will get extremely discouraged if you start browsing "trending", see posts making $60+ when your art is head and shoulders better - but that is because it isn't about the quality per se, it is because that person has made connections (maybe they worked at it, maybe they were in the right place at the right time and a whale decided to start supporting them).
I know people join steemit to make money on their posts, but if you focus on that more than just posting and creating friendships you probably will give up on steemit as so many others do. These are things that I have learned after about a year on steemit (i'm posing with a new account I just created, but my other account is about a year old) So, forget about the $ attached to posts and just continue posting and conversing.

I think the huge advantages digital has over traditional is that you can instantly pick any color and adjust it however you want, whereas in traditional it can be quite difficult to get the right color/shade/etc. Plus, you can always go back to it anytime you want with digital; in traditional you can never get back to the same color you had before if you ran out of paint. The ability to have layers is certainly a huge benefit; not to mention the "undo" button really is quite a difference maker ;) You don't have to worry about actually putting down a "this just ruined my piece" stroke lol. But, I certainly don't think digital art isn't "real art" and I know it can be quite hard with just the little bit I have dabbled in it (I hope to move that way more in the future).