So I Kinda Want to Learn How to Draw...

[juyunseen]

Buy a cheap, hundred page sketchbook, some mechanical pencils, and then sit down and draw.

Get some of the books the people earlier advised, but I'd also suggest that you just start drawing things you like. Spend time, keep it loose and just draw. You'll figure out some of the more important things on your own so long as you're willing to spend hours upon hours drawing. The 10,000 hour rule applies to being able to draw as it does to anything else.

Don't be discouraged by early attempts. I have a shelf filled with my old sketchbooks, and they are literally painful to look through these days, but you need to work past that early, crappy stage to get to the point where you can be proud of what you've drawn.

Good luck. Just take the plunge and have fun.

 

[Korak the Mad]

First thing you need: Lots of paper, I recommend getting a few different sized sketchbooks, because you may find out that you draw very large and you run out of room.

Next you need a few different pencils, I use 0.5 and 0.7 lead mechanical pencils, but using normal pencils is fine. Also get erasers, preferably art erasers, you are probably going to erase quite a bit and you will need them.

Now for inspiration, I recommend finding something that you like, like a videogame or comic book, and copy an image from it. Doing so can help you learn to draw with muscle memory. (Example: I copied an image off a video game concept image. The first time I drew it, it took me hours, like almost 10 hours. Afterwards, I could draw it in a fraction of that time, like 90 minutes to 2 hours.)

I also recommend while you are drawing, listen to music, have something playing that you can use to focus yourself.

One of the most important things I can say about learning to draw is: Take your time, don't focus too much on one certain spot, that can really trip you up, depending on what your drawing.
Also, don't judge yourself to harshly, you're a beginning artist, this takes time. The worst critic anyone can have, is themself.

 

[someonehairy-ish]

I used to draw a lot as a kid, and then kept it up until I was 16 or so. Since then I've not drawn much in spare time, but I do doodle a lot in lectures... Anyway, I went about it in pretty much the opposite way to how you're supposed to. I ignored using references completely and just drew whatever came into my head. That said, there's still a very clear path of progression that I followed and that anyone wanting to draw should probably follow.

Spoiler: Step by Step learning to draw. Keep trying to push to the next stage from whatever stage you're at, basically.

-you start off by drawing things on a 2D plane. Everything is either facing out of the page, or perpendicular to it, because those angles can be done without knowing anything about perspective.
-to progress, try adding markers of perspective. Add a horizon line. Foreground things by moving them in front of other things and making them slightly larger, or background things by putting them behind everything else and making them smaller.
-start working on learning to shade. I actually did this by painting Warhammer models and then transferring the skills I learned onto paper. I found that a useful trick is to put a dark line somewhere you want to be heavily shadowed, and then smudging it with a thumb to create a smooth gradient from dark to light. Once you get good at shading, you can start making things look 3d whilst still knowing very little about perspective.

-Another good trick to learn here is this: When drawing a dark object (lets say a dark-iron helmet), you should just draw an outline, but DON'T put any other lines within it like you usually would. Shade the whole thing in, and then use an eraser to create white lines where you'd usually put those black lines. This is useful for dark surfaces because it allows you to add details that would get lost if you used a black pencil over dark grey shading.

-Start detailing human faces and learning anatomy here. Start of with an oval, the eyes go halfway down, yadda yadda. Other people have said this. I learned all this from copying the art in Warhammer books (they have awesome artwork, but be wary that this route leads to you drawing everything as either monstrous or ridiculously muscly. Perhaps not the best route, so try some actual anatomical studies.)

-Now start learning to draw 3d proper. I think that when I got to this stage, I started out by shading a circle to make it look spherical. Then I finally started using references to be able to draw things at angles. I also took a hard look at perspective and figured out how to draw... IDK, a person who is reaching toward you OUT OF the page, that kinda thing. I had fun drawing friends as zombies and that kinda thing too.

Actually, I think that's the most important thing. I got good at drawing because I enjoyed it. I'd draw monsters and robots and swords and planes and loads of stupid crap. It doesn't have to be sunflowers and waterlilies (unless that's what you want to draw). As a kid I had a ridiculously active imagination, and drawing was a way for me to communicate what I was thinking, so in a way it was just as important for me as learning to write effectively.