Your not the only person on this entire forum that has experience in art/design school. Honestly, your work its pretty good, some better than others, but your attitude ruins any chance I had of truly seeing your work purely as art. Instead of acting as if your better than everyone and constantly misdirecting ever ounce of criticism that comes your way, take it into consideration, who knows, you might find something useful or creative. You can downplay filters all you want, truth is, I rarely use them, but they are part of design, get use to it. As for illustrator "or (shock horror) a pencil!" I use both in most of my work, which is why I feel your underestimate the majority of people on this site.

As for your piece, I really think its good, and I love the simplicity. Its very well done.