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[SoulSharer]

I want to learn to draw characters and environment for games, but I'm completely new to this.
I mean I can draw really basic and crappy stuff, and thats pretty much all, lol.

I think it might take a while to get some decent drawing skills and I'm not afraid of this, still want to draw. But I don't know where to start.

Can anyone give some good resources like books (what books you think are the best for learning how to draw), articles or something else that might help me.
Thanks!

[louisdeb]

Check out the tutorials section. There's some good stuff there

[clockwrk_routine]

just draw

the hardest part is generating ideas
I take the approach of just putting my pencil to the paper and drawing a silhouette until I see something in a form.  usually the form brings ideas as to where I can take the drawing.

I also find collage to be great for spurring ideas, and if I don't have magazines lying around I just try to include whatever comes to mind in the character or in the environment.

There are all kinds of things you can think about and involve into your process to generate ideas, such as thinking about the ecosystem and how things function and support eachother within an ecosystem.  Listening to music and grabbing snippets of images that it provokes.  You use whatever is at your disposal, maybe past, present, or what you think of in future experiences.

but it comes down to you taking your pencil to the paper
thats where you start
just draw a ton
you start at one point and you slowly start including more, expanding more into your process, until you see the totality of it.  it just gets easier, set goals, say by next month you want to be able to doodle fantasy environments and see what needs to happen to reach that goal, lets say 5 sketches a day - easily doable.

[Aquanoctis]

I think it might take a while to get some decent drawing skills and I'm not afraid of this, still want to draw.

This is great. It shows that if you stick to it, you'll get where you want to go eventually. There was some quote someone said once, somewhere (Yay! Specific!) But it basically said that you don't get great by aiming for greatness, but instead you do something you love so much that you end up getting great in the process. So yeah, it's a good attitude to have.

Anyway!

I found a great starting point to be art magazines. My go-to was, and still is occasionally, Imaginefx, which is a really nice magazine that covers a lot of digital art basics, covering environments and characters, and any genre you can think of, usually with tutorials from high profile artists in the industry.
If you want to get good at characters then of course life drawing will be an essential part. In the book department, Bridgemans guide to Life Drawing (you can find it on amazon) is a very useful one. It not only talks of the anatomy and the specifics thereof, but also goes into detail about line of action, energy, postures etc

The same goes for environments. Drawing and painting from life is, again, essential, as it will help your understanding of colour and composition.

If you want to generate ideas for drawings, building on what minnow said about collage, there is an excellent little program out there on the internet called Alchemy, which is great for spontaneously generating shapes, silhouettes and ideas for paintings.

Hope that helps a little. Good luck!

[ink.inc]

"Talent is applied interest. Anything you are willing to pursue, you can do." - Bob Ross

Work smart, work hard, be humble, take criticism, don't hate yourself too much, learn anatomy.

[mrj1nx]

One good thing when drawing an environment is to look for what components it has. Like a factory environment might have a lot of pipes, fences, ladders, large tanks etc.. Look at some irl photos and try to find what those components are for the environment youre trying to make.

Most of all put in the time and you will get better.

[SoulSharer]

Thanks for advices and motivation I really appreciate it. I think I have a more clear idea now.

[jupitermoon]

My suggestion would be first to look around and find concept artists that you admire. Once you find a few art heroes, it may help guide you.  Often these artists will suggest resources or they may have some video classes or tutorials available.

[Demon Lizardman]

I'm glad you want to get into drawing characters and environments for games. It's going to be a long road but I wil tell you where to start.

First, just start drawing live objects and people while sitting in a coffee shop or bar. Get a sketchbook and some pencils and just start drawing what you see. Going to life drawing classes helps as well since you will be able to see the human figure. I will also suggest you go to the nearest library and rent some anatomy books and look at those.
 Vilppu, Bridgman and Loomis are great to look for beginners like you. Post your progress on here or on ConceptArt so I can see you improve. Good luck!

[SoulSharer]

Thanks for the ideas guys, I think I should try them out.
I started learning to draw cartoons, cause ultimately it is easier than real life drawing for me now. But I'm a little afraid to show that to the public. (even though I posted on deviantart for progress history)

I'm learning with a book currently, whenever I'll finish I will go for anatomy I guess.

==Update
Well I gave it a thought and hell, I want any feedback, even though my works might be bad.

http://soulsharer.deviantart.com (there are some characters from the book (but they are not identical), except cat, bird, "Another girl" and a "Cartoonish boy")

[Demon Lizardman]

Gazed at your DA gallery, looks like a promising start so far. You'll get better with characters when you do more life drawing with anatomy. What book are you looking at anyway?

[antoniodamala]

Try to draw from life, I improved a lot as soon as i started doing it. Read books of constructive drawing like from Andrew Loomis and Burne Hogarth. Try to draw at least 15 minutes a day. Always draw with no eraser (or ctrl+z), eraser is something you use in the end of the process. And most of all try to have fun drawing, no pressure.