practice practice practice...and.....wait for it.......practice
that its...thats the key. if you can free hand an image though just by looking at it, I would say you definately have a good headstart versus starting from scratch. now you have to just trick yourself into copying that same image frm your brain directly versus looking at a reference piece...
that said...reference piece are still good to use. I would hazard to guess most of the artists here use them every so often...or at the very least for them tricky poses...
either way...just start drawing, with time...it'll come. 
~
...the sword is truth...
~whiteperegrine~
Practice, which I don't do and thusly am not increasing my ability beyond where it is at currently. >.> I really should.
I could reccomend a book that /did/ increase my skill in drawing until I got lazy and stopped. Thats Drawing on the Right side of the Brain. Great book, I reccomend it for anyone who wants to increase their proficiency.
Though you should upload those, so people can se. What I found myself is that when I freehand a copy or freehand a original, even if their of the same quality to everyone else, I always feel the original is sub-par. I think the reason is that you have no peice to compare it to, thusly you don't feel its as much of an accomplishment. Thats how it is for me, or at least how I think it is. We are our own worst critics after all.
start out with a stick figure to get the pose u want and then give it shape so it looks somthing like this
http://s78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/ti...mgAnch=imgAnch5
or
http://s78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/ti...mgAnch=imgAnch6
use light lines for that and then give it life with whatever its wearing and facial detail and hair and such.
u can use my photobucket gallery for reference theres some facial screenshots from TES 4 oblivion and some screenies from coh and stuff ive drawn since i was 12, im only 13 so thats not saying much, you have a great start, keep it up.
http://s78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/tiltedhead/
and heres a great list of tutorials from elfwood =) cheers
http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/farp/art.html
good luck with your wondreful art! 
dit that help
Seeing some more examples of the stick figures and light details did, yes. Haven't had a chance to run through the tutorials though. As soon as I beat my scanner into submission, I'll upload the other pics that I did without reference. *grabs hammer*
Arc ID: 475246, "Bringing a Lord to Power"
"I'm only a simple man trying to cling to my tomorrow. Every day. By any means necessary."
-Caldwell B. Cladwell
good luck
Ok, I finally got around to it.
Here is a drawing of my main char that I did without a screeny to reference to.
While I'm at it, here is something I did a while back. >.>
Arc ID: 475246, "Bringing a Lord to Power"
"I'm only a simple man trying to cling to my tomorrow. Every day. By any means necessary."
-Caldwell B. Cladwell
I second Torchians stick figure approach. Also, grab a drawing book (Example: How to Draw More Superheroes) and draw some of the people in there. It will take you step by step, starting with simple lines, then muscles, then main details, and finally finishing touches. These helped me a lot when I try and draw someone with a pose and such. On the first Burning Brawler, his arms are kind of wobbly, with no pronounced elbow. Starting with a stick figure will help fix that.
And most importantly: [u]Practice! [u]
Scarf_Girl�s Official Kid Brother!
that looks pretty darn good for a first time w/out a reference
kudos
I've been wanting to draw since third grade when I saw a kid in my class draw Green Lantern (as far as I could see) perfectly.
A good way to describe my stuff is 'stylized'.
I do awesome when copying a picture freehand. You can see those two on my DevArt page.
However, any time I try to do it without a reference of what I want to draw, even my main hero (and especially villain) character, who I stare at for hours a week, it always looks... 'meh'.
If you want, I can upload one of the pics I drew of my main hero to DevArt, if that would help, but does anyone have some drawing tips they're willing to share?
Arc ID: 475246, "Bringing a Lord to Power"
"I'm only a simple man trying to cling to my tomorrow. Every day. By any means necessary."
-Caldwell B. Cladwell