| When I draw I like to listen to music. I find that music helps stir my imagination. My favorites right now are Bjork, Sarah McLachlan and Indigo Girls.
I'm going to assume you've never had an art class. I've had one when I was in junior high (a looonnngggg time ago). Although I have many sketch books from the past years, I purchased a stack of new ones. The kind I have am attached to right now are the plain hard-bound sketchbooks you can by at Borders Books. They are usually in with the sale books and cost about $6.00. An equivalent sketchbooks at Michaels cost about $12.00. What a bargain! If this still doesn't fit into your budget then you can use any paper you can find.
When I first started to draw I was very particular about using the right pencils and erasers. Until you draw alot don't go out and buy fancy pencils. They cost more money and don't do much better than any pencils you can find around your house. Now I use one of those 'clicker' pencils so I don't have to sharpen. They cost about $3-6. I've been known to use ball point pens as well but you can't erase those. Another type of pencil that is great for sketching is a non-photo blue type. This let's you draw loose sketches and then go over them later with pen or pencil.
I started with one general sketchbook and dedicated it to drawing anime style. To learn this style I collected anime collectors books of my favorite characters. You can get some off the web and print them out as well. Art teachers hate it when you trace but remember this. It's OK as long as you move away from tracing soon. Tracing makes you focus on the curves and subtleties of drawing . It's like having the artist guide your hand as you draw.
Now after about 10 or 20 pages in your sketch book (I use both sides of each page) you can start free-hand drawing the images. Look at the image you are drawing and slowly draw what you see. If it doesn't look very good don't worry. Skill comes from doing it over a thousand times. OK. Now thumb through the sketch book and see you're progressing. Looks pretty good huh? Here's the scary part. If you haven't taken a class on drawing the human figure then your characters will always look wrong. I'm not trying to discourage you here but if you want people to take your work seriously then you need to learn the human figure. My secret is that I'm still learning this. That's right. I've never had a drawing class but... I have one of the best books and it costs very little. Its called "Drawing the Head and Figure" by Jack Hamm. Mr. Hamm has also written a few great books on Cartooning . Spend some time going through this book and learn the basic proportions for the human form. Once you have this down you can apply the anime style to these techniques and look like a pro. Fill up the rest of the notebook with drawings. Now remember your drawings don't ALL have to be perfect. If you make some major mistake while drawing, go to the next page and start again. Don't cross out or erase them! You need a few reminders of how you can mess up. Learn from your mistakes. Here are some more books you might find helpful.
So your notebook is full of sketches, some good, some bad and some look awesome. Now go and buy another sketch book. Fill this one up too. Just draw for about 30 minutes a day. Do it whenever you can. Your brain needs to train itself to become better. Over time you will find that you can whip out a sketch in no time, and it looks pretty good. One thing you will notice as time goes on is that some of your characters start to take on a personality. You start thinking about their emotions and motivations. Before you know it you have the beginning of a character. Keep thinking about your character each time you draw them. What do they like to eat? Is he or she timid or adventurous? What makes them cry? You'll find that each character is a part of you in some way.
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