Elevation(A Young Artist's Problem)

[Simply.Complex]

I've been drawing for a few years & thought I was an alright artist. Than I come here and see everybody elses sketches and it seems so advanced even though its a sketch.

Like this:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y128/kross29/hawkman.jpg

and this:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/oldstudent/avengersnew.jpg

The first one was done in minutes and it would take me like 8-10 minutes just to draw that.

What I wanted to know is how do I get better because it seems like i've been stuck on the same level for the years i've been drawing. Any tips or techniques? like how you hold the pencil, hand movements, arm movements , etc..,.

[~Faust~]

I'm a noob myself but my advice would be to start a scetchbook here and post your scetches, so that the people here can give you advice on how to get better, based on how you are doing now.

[ExilE]

There aren't any movements that are going to improve your drawing speed. The key is understanding the main principles of drawing, ex. perspective, anatomy, gesture, planes, etc. Someone who has been drawing people for years is going to be able to do it faster than someone who has to guess their way through it. If you feel that you aren't improving, then you aren't challenging yourself enough. The key is practice, practice, practice and when you think you've done enough, go further. Make a point to draw on a daily basis, and draw straight from life as much as you possibly can (no photos!). Keep working, and pushing yourself and you will be suprised how much you improve.

[Sems]

draw what you find most difficult really push your self with me its usually people in weird perspectives like looking up at them things like this, push your self as much as you can draw everyday, and not what with you feel comfortable drawing (that is good and all) but do atleast one pressuring picture a day, and if not read betty edwards drawing on the right side of the brain, if you wish to quicken things up, her students drew like 9 year olds at the begining of the course that went for about a month and at the end their work was amazingly flawless, really good book and results and easy to do, check that out but just keep drawing or start a sketchbook

[HunterKiller_]

Personally i think aiming to speed up your drawing process too much isn't a very good target as it can dimenish the quality of your work.
What you have now is quite good. The first sketch done in 8 - 10 minutes as you say is quite quick, you obviously have a good idea of the human anatomy (although his torso is much too small in proportion to the rest of his body, unless that's exactly how you want it).
In the second picture i can see a hell of a lot of erased lines, what's up with that? Pressing too hard?

[CreationEdge]

I don't think he drew those. They're examples of what he means.

If you look at the urls, the photos come from 2 different photobucket users.