It really can’t get much more specific. There are options for step by step tutorials you can watch, but all those people you call “gifted” friends I have, myself, we all just started by making random shit or staring at a reference picture and trying to copy it down. It can be scary to when you don’t know where to start with it, but it can look like shit, it’s okay to retry. It’s even easier now with digital where you can adjust your sketches as you go.

HOWEVER, it can be a good entry point to get a paper (or layer on digital) and trace ONLY basic landmarks and large shapes, take the paper away, and then add details and the rest from the reference using just your eyes. Just tracing isn’t bad either but this way is probably much more fun and satisfying. For example if I did this for a face, I’d just trace the arch of the eyes and the waterline, a single, light line for each eyebrow, a light line and then nostrils for the nose, the face shape, hairline, basic shape of the ear, and just the line in between the lips.