[xiaoma]

For drawing, I strongly recommend Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. And you DO have all the skills you need to get started as long as you have remotely decent eye-sight and the ability to wield a pencil. The important thing is to force yourself to let go of iconic representations and look at the lines that are actually there. It will be uncomfortable, but once you do that, your progress will really begin.

[davesmylie]

I can second this. I'm your typical average terrible drawer.

Stepping through the first quarter of this book, following the exercises and going from being able to draw a barely recognisable stick figure to an actually respectable drawing within 50 pages was an amazing experience.