This one requires reading. Do I know this person? No. They're someone one of my friends follows on Tumblr. But I'm better at writing out responses here because I feel like more than two people will read them. :P
If anybody ever got crap for drawing anime, it was me, and it was during high school in an angsty post I've made time and time again. Guys, it is not fun to be mocked just for the way you draw. This goes doubly so for when you are a teacher and tell your students that what they're doing is "wrong". This does not motivate them to re-learn how to draw. It makes them just plain stop trying to show what they do because they are ashamed.
One should never be ashamed of what and how they draw. Humble? Yeah. And forever will artists get cold feet when presenting a picture, even if it is to close friends. But one should never be so bothered by what they have created that they'll never present it, ever.
When people say things like "what you're drawing is crap", it is synonymous to "you're a bad person and you should feel bad" even if the speaker doesn't think that's what they mean. They don't motivate, they deter. It is only through the artist can they decide where to take their art. Is this influenced by others? Yes. But it, by and large, a personal decision that is typically reached subconsciously.
Evolution takes time, and it happens over time. Yes, one can make huge leaps and bounds through study (I've noticed such from being in art school), but it still takes time. A snap of the fingers won't make you better.
If you want to end up drawing anatomically correct humans, anime is actually one of the better mediums to start in. You know why? It is user-friendly. It is an eye-catching, entertaining, inviting medium that gives you characters who look more human than most animated fare. Yes, they are still wrong, but it's plausible to envision these characters in real-life, at least easier than seeing, say, the Fairly Oddparents crew.
You know, mostly. I have allergic reactions to screencaps from Precure and all.
Drawing realism won't make you a special starwhale either. Rather, you want to move to a style that is you. Styles are influenced by multiple sources, even if they are subtle. You want to make something that makes you happy but also recognizable.
My advice? Ditch the books. Ditch the "how to draw" tutorials. Use them to learn techniques, but not how to draw. Once you start staring at a page with a figure on it, that becomes what you draw. It doesn't become you. Look at the world around you and see how your hand renders it. Even when I do mirror portraits, I notice my style bleeding in. That's what my brain decides to do, and I'm not going to fight it.
