As others have said, find a great teacher. I thought I was completely unskilled at drawing. Heck, stick figures were beyond my grasp. And then, by chance, I ra

As others have said, find a great teacher. I thought I was completely unskilled at drawing. Heck, stick figures were beyond my grasp. And then, by chance, I ran into an awesome teacher at LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum Of Art). I went to his class to humor my partner - she's an artist and wanted me to learn more. In the first class, we started sketching the human figure (based on a statue) - and the guy was good enough to make me understand what to do and how to get a realistic depiction. Now, granted, that is still miles from what any decent artist could do, but he made things click for me. Reading a book won't do that for you. Find somebody who can teach you in person what drawing feels like. Who can, if necessary, take your hand and draw with you. Who can relate the ideas behind painting in a way that makes sense to you.