I'm no digital artist but one thing I can say is you aren't cheating when learning, and some say there is no cheating in art at all. Using the eyedropper you can teach yourself to see the colors, how light affects color and whatnot. Just use what tools you want and need, it's your own journey.

I'd say that's quite nice abstraction. I've never really tried drawing any elaborate vegetation in my art, because I often find the tiny details hard to come by, or if I do it in a more blocky way, they don't blend in with the rest of the scene well enough. So it has been a struggle for me :P