Been trying to learn to draw since I was 15 and still can't do the basics, can only copy
https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtFundamentals/comments/v7lzhs/been_trying_to_learn_to_draw_since_i_was_15_and/
2022-06-08 10:04
GreatGateway
After completing a small comic recently for the first time, I was feeling accomplished, until I realised how many references I'd used. Over 40! I tried to draw from the simple shapes method, but it simply isn't natural for me, I can't imagine anything from those shapes, and I can't see the details of the characters I want to draw in my mind.
So I copied little bits of each picture. The arms from one pic, how each hand looked in others, the face shape in another. I can't actually draw on my own at all, I literally can only copy.
I've been studying and tryint to learn for half of my life now. Drawing would open so many doors in life for me, especially now that my health keeps me from working, but I don't think I have the intelligence for it, as I still can't do the basics. Honestly I had a bit of a cry about it today, I've devoted so much time to it and still fail. Is it time to just accept defeat and give up?
Uncomfortable
2022-06-08 20:42
So to start, this is technically better suited to a more general community, such as /r/learnart, /r/learntodraw or even the more conversational ones like /r/artistlounge. This subreddit is reserved for those working through the lessons on drawabox.com, as explained here. Drawabox is a course that focuses on the core fundamentals of drawing, and focuses in training students to break objects down into primitive and simple forms, then build them back up on the page. This sort of thing is the bedrock of drawing from your imagination - that doesn't strictly mean working without references, but in being able to use those references as tools - altering them as needed (rotating things, changing the camera angle, etc) and generally employing them as a source of information to be applied according to your own intention and requirements, to your own drawing.
That brings me to the point you need to hear: if you've spent your life practicing copying things perfectly from reference images, then that's what you've spent your life training yourself to do. I imagine you'll have developed very strong observational skills (which is certainly valuable), but you may well be suffering from having underdeveloped spatial reasoning skills, which is a common reason for students to feel locked into only replicating the images they work from.
Drawing is not a single monolithic skill - it's a collection of many skills, and it is entirely possible to train one a ton, and end up neglecting the others. This does not mean that you're not suited to drawing in the way that you want, just that you've taken some turns that took you in a different direction.
Fortunately, the observational skills you will have built up already are going to be extremely useful in the long run, so it's not as though your time has been wasted. You do, however, have other areas that need to be developed, and they will require a considerable investment of time as well.