I agree, though it is often looked down upon, TRACE!!!
try this first... It still depends a little bit on your actual artistic
skill, but w/ all things, practice makes perfect...

this note was added after writng this=================after I wrote this
I noticed it to be very boring, but I'm not gonna let all this typing go
to waste, if you wanna read it, fine, if not then promptly pass over this
section of my post ================

	I base the difficulty on the style. Por ejemplo, when I 1st
started drawing anime, I copied (not traced) DragonBall. After a month or
so of doing this continuously I was able to draw it very easily, but
Dragonball isn't really that hard anyways, the faces are very uniform and
angular, and very easy to draw once you get the proportions right.
	Then I tried Ah! Megami-sama... This was a change for me, esp. if
you compare the two styles.  The easiest and quickest for me to draw was
always Urd - very easy to draw eyes (on that note: does anyone know who
it was who said, "the eyes are the windows to the soul"?)
	Now I've been drawing Ranma a lot, because, I'M AN OBSESSED
LITTLE OTAKU FOOL AND PROUD OF IT!!!!  I hope I'm on the right track
-I've been trying for a year now- I'd show it to you all, but you all are
probably better judges of the art than most of my friends and would
probably say, "Look at that! He does Ranma injustice!  What shall we do?
CRUCIFY HIM! CRUCIFY HIM!"
	
( : RyogaHibiki@juno.com : )
-new quote-
She'll never make it if I wait for us to land!... AKANE!!!
= I know it's not Ryouga, but I don't care! =