Don't give up. I started out doing images with Bryce and was doing the spheres over water/terrains untill i had a good understanding of the program. I found out about Daz Studio a couple of months after using bryce, ok i'm not a great artist but we all started out like you did.
I got heaps of poser/D|S freebies from the net and works with them..if you can't afford to buy to manything from here or daz3d just get enough to use...

I have opinions of my own -- strong opinions -- but I don't always agree with them.