I dream of gypsy

...

I'm not sure how to answer that, because everyone's take on art is different. Mine is simple- art tells a story, even if that story is only an emotion. For me, my art should tell you a bit about a character, and possibly what they're thinking at the time, and if you know the character, you'll see even more in the picture. Some draw what makes them happy- and that's cool. Some draw to flesh out a universe. Some draw to make something aesthetic. Everyone has different reasons to draw. One thing you shouldn't do when you draw though is not enjoy it. That's the only real rule.

May I ask why accuracy is so important to you? There are MUCH easier ways of gaining accuracy in your art than rulers and are much faster, like griding out the art so you only have to get the picture correct one box at a time http://www.artgraphica.net/images/pen-and-ink-church/using-a-grid.jpg like this. I don't like this method cause it doesn't actually teach you WHY you are drawing the lines where you are. It's better to learn how to draw from scratch and use this method to shave time off the final product than to use it as the main focus. What ends up happening is if you don't understand why you're drawing a line, it comes out looking forced and potentially wrong (cause all it takes is 1mm out to make a picture look odd). Don't take this as discouragement from this technique however though, as some people just wish to draw for fun, and that's cool too.

Art isn't about how long it takes to draw however, but the thought behind it. I know this sounds stupid, but I can tell if someone enjoyed drawing the picture they drew simply cause the final product feels more lively. A forced piece of art has edges and feels stiff. As long as you're enjoying drawing it over 4 days then who gives a flying toss how long it took? You're not a professional artist. They're not paying you by the hour. They can go take a hike :/

As for copying photos, essentially all photography is covered by the same rules hand drawn art is covered by- the creative commons. All art has a certain degree of ownership on it. Simply redrawing a photograph isn't enough to say it's yours. You have to change it to the point where you can't tell it was from the original photograph, BUT there are royalty free photographs out there that you can use without permission. This photography can be used for creative purposes only, and not sold, but if you're only drawing for fun, then you're free to use it. If it's not specifically labelled as royalty free however, you must ask permission.

... this is the general way it's done, but I'm asking BogusRed now if it's ok to copy from a photograph accurately for a non profit use if a link to the original photograph / reference is used. Like [thumb30258] was a pic I drew from a photograph http://dreager1.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/william-shatner.jpg but I only eye balled it so theoretically, for non profit use it's very grey area >.> I'm not sure if her rule of no copying covers this also. If it does, I'll just take it down.

Please specify drawing differently?

Well, I'm glad that art is helping you in that kind of way then I've heard that it helps people recover from injury, and can help with various disabilities.

I can try to help you, but the journey is something you need to make on your own steam so I can only guide you. http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Head-Figure-Perigee-Jack/dp/0399507914 This is the book I learnt to draw from, and I've found through looking at alot of how to book that it's the best that I've seen for tutorials. It's old school looking, but once you understand the techniques it uses, you'll figure out where you can also break them and explore other methods. This book gives concise measurements for proportion of the average white American in the 60s. This helps ALOT to ground your art.

Another book I recommend for an entirely different reason. http://www.amazon.com/New-Drawing-Right-Side-Brain/dp/0874774195/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305443165&sr=1-1 This book is one SPECIFICALLY for learning to switch on your creative side. This book will unlock your mind so all art becomes more simpler for you. I learnt most of it by mistake with persistent amounts of drawing, but it is something you can actually teach yourself full time in a week. The testimonials on this book are phenomenal.

If you get these two books- I don't believe that they're too expensive in America... I know that they're a dirt cheep price to me (I'm in New Zealand), but these two books are the ones I recommend that you study from. All the advice I'd give you right now would be straight from those two books. It think that they'd easily keep you occupied for some time before you'll need to move on to the next thing. Just remember to enjoy what your doing. If you're not, you're not accessing you creative side. You'll know when you access your creative side cause the world will honestly become a much nicer place to look at. It'll have interesting colours, shapes, textures, and it wont be boring. That... sounds all hippy, but it's true.

I hope that helps you out. Everything you need to know for now are in them

That's cool- don't worry about it for now. I'm still waiting to hear back about it.