Can you be more specific with how much time you are putting into practicing this? You say this is where you're at after practicing on and off for a year but it's hard to gauge progress without a better understanding of what that means. Are you putting in a few hours a week? A few hours a month? Getting really good at…
So there are a bunch of people here that can run circles around me in painting... But, I'm going try to lend a hand because I understand that learning a skill can be rough -- and I can see that you're really frustrated! First, here's a very rough paint over and a half: You have the opposite problem that I do. I'm gun-shy…
Agreed with @Dethling. Don't rush the journey man. Don't focus on the finish line. Focus on the training that gets you there. Enjoy that process :) ;) Lots of fantastic tuts out there to follow and play around with. All hard work pays off, soo keep it up man! ;)