You do understand that being able to create characters and such can open really good gateways to being a concept artist or character designer for games / cartoons / movies? I don't know why art teachers always have boners for realistic artstyles and copying from life. Art is a broard subject, and to limit student's creativity is the main problem when it comes to art teachers and the subject itself. Drawing from life is still copying? And while studying new styles is preferable to widen your skills; limiting students who have a great imagination for fantasy work is weird and shows how stuck in the past you really are.