I found that doing still life drawing at first and trying to copy the shading and what-not in person helped me out a lot when I started to take drawing seriously. For drawing things like people it's not a bad idea to trace over a picture you have of family or friends a few times to learn proportions well enough to be able to freehand your own
It's really cliche to say, but it honestly just takes a little bit of time and experience to improve
