Recently an art student asked me a question on how to get better as an an artist. I thought it would be good to share our exchange and please forgive his English. It's not good but I think he gets his point across.

He wrote:
(and I edited it down a bit)

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"Hi Master
I Not Professional . I Sketching Anatomy And Digital Paint For 5 Mounts
I wan'na You To Advice Me to Jump to a better place and develop my work
now at this time for my home work i use the sketch of artists for a
better work but i think this work is not ideal
whats your opinion about it ? are you believe that this work is wrong? if so could you please advice me.
also this work that is on my deviantart are not copy from an other
artist and they are my work
i use copy for my home work . im from iran !!"

Now I hardly think of myself as a master but I have picked up a few things in my time so I thought I'd write back with some advice. Nothing real specific but some advice I think is sound for any new comer or student.
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I wrote:
(also edited for this journal)

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This may seem obvious but it is the strongest advice I know. The best thing at an early stage especially is always to just keep drawing! Draw your friends, draw your family, draw from the television and photos. Go to the park and draw what you see.

Draw from your imagination and most of all draw for fun. The best thing you can do is enjoy what you are drawing. This keeps you going. Your talent through out your life will be like hills and valleys. It will go up and down and unless you really love what you do you will not have any reason to climb out of those valley's.

I do NOT recommend copying other artist for homework. It is not a good way for your teachers to get valid understanding of your strengths and weaknesses. You will often copy other artists bad habits and only compound them with your own turning yourself into a bad copy of a copy. And in the end you do yourself a great disservice. Having said that I do recommend studying other artists you love! I do this constantly to this day. Other artists inspire me. That's why we all come to the DA in the first place. I study how they solved problems in a way that may not have come to me. So by all means study the artist you love but NO copying.

Keep drawing, drawing, drawing. and more drawing! And when you take a break from drawing go draw something else. It's really the only way to get better.
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I hope this helps anyone else out there who might read this. Reading it back now it seems a bit obvious advice but sometimes the obvious needs to be stated.

thanks for reading,
Anthony Diecidue