Hi! So sorry I always forget that asks are a thing. I'm afraid that the boring but true answer is a lot of practice. I know. Almost all the answers to any broad "how do you do/get better at?" questions are either "practice" or "look at more art". With regard to faces in particular, remember that our eyes/nose/lips are not more important to likeness than everything in between them. The shape that the shadow on a cheek or on the upper lip makes is just as important.
References: You should absolutely use references if you want to develop a realistic or semi realistic style. The only time you should not use a reference is if you have drawn that thing so many thousands of times that it is burned into your brain. One of the easiest ways to get a reference for figures is frankly to take a selfie lol. But there are also a lot of awesome people who create stock figure photos with both free options and very inexpensive options.
Composition: there's too much to be said about composition to put here, but I'm sure there are a lot of education materials about building a composition online. Broadly, I can say that I try to compose to keep the eye moving around the "page", and for the negative space to not be too static, though with fanart I'm less worried about that than my original art. Personally, I am working on getting my bodies more dynamic and less static.
Methods: I'm guessing you are referring to mediums? I work both traditionally and digitally, though almost all my fanart is digital and almost all my original is traditional.
How did I learn: Tons of practice. And looking at lots of art. I went to a liberal arts college and graduated with a BFA in painting. Honestly, the art education was not amazing there, but I got so much practice that I learned a ton anyway. (Side note. I don't really recommend art school for the vast majority of artists. It's not a necessary step for learning and it's expensive).
I have a list of painters I deeply admire whose work I return to regularly for inspiration and to ask myself "How did they do that? Why does this work? What about this makes me love it? How did they arrive at that seemingly bizarre but ultimately perfect color choice?!"
I'll say that mastering traditional mediums made me a better digital artist. i don't know if that's true for everyone, but it absolutely is in my case. I can definitely say that looking at art from all mediums makes me a better artist in all *my* mediums. Drawing from life does too.
Finally, thank you so much!!! I love talking about art even if the broad advice I can give will never be that satisfying ๐คฃ
