realistic look to life drawings

[sanity]

Hey there everyone ok i'm new in this forum, ive been studying life drawing for 6 months now, and started drawing when i was a kid, i have a few books on drawing comics the marvel way, leanring anatomy, how to draw from imagination etc, but i cant seem to get my life drawings more realistc i'm not sure if its the meduim i'm using cus i'm using alot of charcoal and sometimes ink were not allowed pencils but i find that i tend to draw better with pencils! i want to learn in my own time in drawing with pencils and trying to get the more realistc look to either my charcter or even my sceneary, could anyone direct me in the right direction for:

1) inspiration
2) books on leanring to draw realistically

and also if i wanted to get into airbrushing can you still get a realistic look that your after with that meduim. please please someone help me cus my brains all worked out tryin to think of so many ideas lol, hence the name "sanity" hehehhehe,, i would much appreciate some kind of help, also i will upload some drawings ive done once i get my scanner fixed!!! thanks.......

[TPhilipT]

Search for hillberry on google

[nafa]

Are you good with shading? Thats most important in making drawings realistic. Take a look at this web page:

http://www.teachartathome.com/NewFreeLessons.html

Many more of these available within an easy search.

[critchelow]

There are no tricks. You have to teach your eye to see subtle value changes. Then you have to be able to translate those changes to paper. The "realistic look" your referring to is nothing more than an adherence to value and line that matches what you see. Keep working on your drawing and begin doing exercises with value. If your wanting realism try Douglas Grave's Life Drawing in Charcoal. If your more into illustration try Burne Hogarth's Dynamic Light and Shade or Dynamic Figure Drawing.