Peri: Yeah they wanted something more simplistic. As for getting better. I used to start off by studying my favorite artist. For a while there I was ripping off Hikaru No Go, Inuyasha, and Shaman King my freshman year of high school trying to create comics.
Eventually I broke away from anime and started doing portraits which I guess kinda helped me in learning things. I've never traced anything though. And now I'm back into more comic stuff. The best way I would say to improve is to draw what interests you. And be VERY jealous of other artists that are better than you.
[bad advice I know.] but it works! (sometimes) Somehow I always see other artist that are better than me and while it discourages me, it also motivates me to become better myself! It might not work for everyone but I'm self taught completely. I was never really good with taking directions from instructors and my senior year of high school me and the art teacher basically fought all the way until I graduated to get me to conform. Never did though.
Eventually though I think you just do it for the fun of if. Because I'm certainly not getting famous (I have no fame at all. :/) from the average person who's getting somewhere drawing random lines and 3 colors. Art is a very biased thing. Because I have some friends (not to put down another artist of course) who are making a living selling something that looks like my little sister can draw, while artist such as us are really struggling and not getting much of anything.
Its all about the love of the game I guess. If you go in expecting to get famous you're not going to be. But if you do it for the love of it then by all means go for it.
But I now study a bunch of art books. I'll have to take a picture of how many things I study nowadays (still can't draw elbows or knees to save my life.)
Since I've written my life story here: the moral is, just draw. Doodle here and there, and work from that. Don't be in a rush to create something because art takes time. Plus don't be afraid to erase something that's already been drawn! When I was younger I used to scrap a piece of paper the second I had to erase. And now I erase basically everything if need be.
I think everyone in here is incredibly talented because it takes balls to show off anything artistically related. So that just goes to show you that you're going to improve. Even though you're already pretty darn good if I say so myself!
ALSO: DO NOT BE AFRAID TO EXPERIMENT!!! that's the most important thing. You don't want to fall into a comfort zone of doing the same thing because while you'll notice things eventually you'll stop improving if you're just drawing the same thing over and over again. Its good for learning how things go but not for moving forward.
in reality I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to art. I just start scribbling away and eventually something comes out.