My career involves making visual art (drawing painting, 3d art and more) there is a lot of great advice here, Kingkawn is absolutely right, familiarity with th

My career involves making visual art (drawing painting, 3d art and more) there is a lot of great advice here, Kingkawn is absolutely right, familiarity with the materials absolutely shortens the gap between desired results and actual results. billfruit mentioned what my favorite teacher always hammered at me "to learn to draw (/paint) you have to learn to see" learning to interpret what's in front of you as 2d forms, textures, lines, also helps in translating what you want to paint to what you will be painting. there's a lot more here but what I'll add is a very specific resource - https://www.alexhays.com/loomis/ https://www.alexhays.com/loomis/ Loomis books got me started in art. they were written 80 years ago and still are some of the most approachable books on how to draw and paint available. my own favorite traditional art is figure drawing / sculpting and it doesnt completely overlap your desires but for that I recommend a good anatomy book (my favorites are "Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist" by peck, and bridgeman's "constructive anatomy" which are at the photo-real and volumetric breakdown ends of the spectrum) really the main thing that helps learning art is to reduce your barrier to creating. join a regular life drawing or plein air painting group, start with a home studio you can relax at. something that can be regular and low pressure. hope this all helps.