Hi everybody,
I really suck at drawing...not just plain suck....simply suck suck suckity suck. But that is one of the reasons I created this thread. I want to draw better. I want to be able to create my own avatar every once in a while...or to make simple piece of art. Could you help me somehow? Do you know anyway to become good artist? How to learn methods or ways to draw good?

practice till perfect...

well this could be an interesting thread. Give this man some answers because I wanna know too.

But how to practice if I don't know any drawing methods and everything I try looks weird/bad?

eh i learned drawing in my childhood, basically the teacher makes you learn one technique per day according to the book. So if you could go and purchase some drawing guide from bookstore...Then you keeps improving till it becomes second nature to you

Draw ponies, everyone loves ponies and people who draw them no matter how bad.

I took an art class in college for a semester. I'm not an artist, and I can only draw something if I have it there to look at (not original). Some of it looks awful, but some of it turns out alright. Here's some lessons he taught me:

1. KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid.

2. One of the lessons in his class was to try to draw a picture with the hand you don't write with. When I tried it looked like crap, but it taught me to pay really close attention to detail and to draw lightly so that I can fix any mistakes and darken it later.

I have a couple of books on drawing. I'm no good, but what I remember from it and still use when I try to sketch is that everything's made out of simple shapes like cones and cylinders and cubes and spheres, so if you teach yourself to draw those you can sketch them lightly and use them as the rough sketch for what you're drawing.

Omigawd! The eyes! The eyes!

Those people who seem naturally good at drawing... yeah, they aren't, they just really like it so they do it a lot.

10,000 hour rule seems apropos to mention here. Tons of people have written about it. You'll have to decide if that's worth it to you, you only have so many hours in your life and 10,000 is a lot of them.

Wow nice!

Chocolates!

Honestly I think that is awesome :)
Not sure if its worth 10 000 hours for me but I am willing to put a lot of time into it. I would really like to learn how to draw nicely.

What style do you want to draw in? I usually would recommend 'The Natural Way to Draw' by Nicolaides, but this is not a style that readily lends itself to comic/manga. Also, to follow the book requires real commitment and dilligence.

EDIT: I do not like books by Betty Edwards. The approach is very different, as is the result. I find Nicolaides is about capturing movement, engery, weight, balance, form, all sort of abstract but all necessary. Edwards is just "draw what you see". Works, but I find the approach shallow, and I'm concerned it will yield shallow artwork. YMMV.

This is pretty layman advice, but I suggest you keep drawing and drawing and eventually you will get better at it, even if you don't necessarily notice it yourself (as you get better). I struggled with the same thing when it comes to music making; it's not always easy to progress if you don't have anyone to give you legit feedback (friends and family always tend to compliment even if there's room for improvement). That's why I created an "online art club" that gathers once every month, a little over a year ago. There's a new theme for every month, chosen by a participant from the previous round, and there's ~30 days time to create something for that theme. Then we listen/look/read/etc the entries one at a time and criticize it. I've found that not only does the whole thing make you push your limits and try something new all the time, but the feedback is often very helpful. I guess what I'm trying to say, is try and find someone who can give you some legitimate feedback on your works. There's always a chance of becoming blind of your own errors, that's why it's often needed that someone points them out for you. Criticism helps a lot when trying to improve as an artist of any sort. You should never be discouraged by negative feedback, even if it's harsh, because it will only help you in the long run.