...and frustrating. I've said before that I'm writing a story and I kinda sorta hit a block. Then I thought that "hey, I should draw these characters to get inspiration!"

Sounded like a good plan. I got myself one of those drawing tablet things, Wacom Intuos to be exact and tested my current skills. They are not good.

I used to be rather good at drawing, but that was like 16 years ago...

Anyway, here's a couple of sketches I made, if you're interested. Two of them are characters from my story and one is a sketch of a character from a video game.

Also, can you draw?

I recall having a lot more skill drawing when i was in kindergarden... then the teachers were pulling me aside and calling my parents because of the pictures... apparently forked tongues were a big warning sign when in fact i thought it looked cool...

They're not that bad, better than anything I can draw anyway.
The dude is very generic though.

I'm in the process-ish of trying to learn figure/gesture drawing for animation (via books and photos and internet info), and it is a pain and I'm skeptical it will pay off BUT I'll be dead in 60 years or less so why not try.

Yop

I can do pretty well when I'm just copying something, like this one. On my own, I'm no good at all... doesn't stop me though. I don't draw often, but sometimes when I feel like it I draw quite a lot. Enough to even make a 15 pages long comic. It's not any good, but it was just for me, it felt really good to work on it.

You suck. You should draw something pornographic, to work on your concentration skills.

Fun fact: The woman's breasts were too big in the original sketch, I had to reduce their size...

haha. :)

You're not as bad as you think you are. Chloe's my favorite.

Unless you plan on making money from your art, just have fun with it.

Blimey! Must have a few quid spare to ba an intuos. I'd love one.

And yes, I can draw - BUT - I had a long break from it before getting myself a wacom, and actually found painting to be easier with it than linework, so you may want to give that a go - maybe buy a few issues of imagineFX magazine as well (generally handy for art / painting - but more especially for going digital).

You might also have some fun / productivity with this: http://pixologic.com/sculptris/

Use references. Either find existing suitably-posed photos or take your own. It will help tremendously.

Also, hands are tricky. The ones you've drawn are quite good. that is, they certainly demonstrate that you've paid attention to how hands look in the past. A decent reference would improve them further still.

I used to be pretty active in the excellent Draw and Guess the Game thread. Been sadly slack of late, though!

http://static04.gog.com/upload/forum/2013/06/bd6d00236d90ee34667b0dcdec2a3054ce1dc360.jpg
http://static02.gog.com/upload/forum/2013/08/8ac41d28cd4f1ca686ff86cfb0f4b87c571abe31.jpg
http://static01.gog.com/upload/forum/2014/05/3947051d905e0d8cbdb014dc269f06d487b998c8.jpg
http://static04.gog.com/upload/forum/2013/11/607a773be47e95e597ce14b5e8775d422f224b9f.jpg

References are a must, yes. At least for me :D

Also, very nice drawings you linked!

Ya draw better than me, dude!

But I'm not sure her cans are big enough. She's only a 34 FF. That's unrealistically small.

checkout a guy called MJRanum on deviantart - has a brilliant royalty free stock photography profile I'll often use myself - for referential or transformative use.

I used to draw a lot and was reasonably ok, but nothing brilliant. As others have mentioned I can copy other work quite well but struggle more to create something original. I wasn't bad at life drawings either, but as drawing fantasy stuff was my interest and that's what I struggled with most I never pursued it too much and don't draw regularly any more...

As for your stuff, it's not bad at all. Just keep drawing and you'll keep getting better, at least that's what I found when I did draw regularly.