How can I become a better artist?

Whether you are just starting out as an artist or you feel like your progress has stalled, these tips and suggestions from various DA members may help you to continue moving forward. I've paraphrased and edited in some cases to showcase the tips that I found particularly insightful.

For inspiration, check out Mindcandyman on conceptart. Look at the first couple of pages of his sketchbook (2002) and then jump to about page 40 (2004) to see how far someone can progress in about 2 years (and beyond): www.conceptart.org/forums/show…

Studying realism would be a good first step. Even if you want to work in, say, a comic book style, you need to have a handle on realistic drawing. Knowing realism will help you improve your drawings a lot. Let's say you want to get better at dragons, you could study lizards and snakes for the body structure and birds and bats for wing structure. Dinosaurs as well, but those are a little hard to find nowadays.
=Katara-Alchemist

Try to practice drawing from life...objects, people and animals... learn anatomy for humans or animals depending on what you like. That will make your art more convincing and realistic. Use reference images for your drawings. Just keep at it. Its something you can learn, you just need to put the time in. You can also try to take some art classes at your local college but don't worry about enrolling into an art college for an art major, that's pricey. I'm sure you can take some painting or art classes at your community college to get your feet wet. Try to get into traditional painting classes or life drawing classes those are the best.
~MattCombsArt

The key is also to learn in different ways. Don't just spend all your time 'drawing stuff', but try and think how you can improve your work, watch the work of others, join up and draw together with others so you can learn from each other. Experiment with new approaches, even if they don't make any sense at first. After a while you'll see the change or growth of your work.
~marginal0

Draw every single day of your life and don't make excuses not to
*Malignant-Librarian

Step out of your comfort zone! Try something new! Work for it, hard! Have fun while doing it!
*QueenShell

Drawing from life. Take life drawing classes whenever you can. Carry a sketchbook with you and doodle people you see when you're out and about. ^_^
~Slave2Karma

Draw for at least 1/2 an hour a day. And at the beginning your drawings are going to be crap. The only way to get past crappy drawings, to good drawings is to keep doing it. Make sure you are looking at WHY your drawings are crap, be it making heads too big, or arms of different lengths. Try to correct that next time you draw. Part of practice is developing the brain to see what is in front of you, not what you think is in front of you. If you practice lots of different things, you will get better across the board. Also, it is easier to draw a teacup than a person. Starting with people is like deciding you are going to run a 5k marathon, and jumping up and running 5k, you probably will not make it to the finish line if you start with the tough stuff right off the bat.
~Glori305

Take time out of your day (a few hours) to just sit down and draw without distractions. Start off by doing warm-up sketches, then move on to your personal paintings/more detailed drawings. Make a personal project, set yourself a goal that motivates you to keep going. Draw things with traditional media. Remember that you do this to enjoy yourself.
~gene-technology

Take your sketchbook everywhere and draw stuff from observation - people, landscapes, architecture, statues, animals, your food, your drink, your feet, your left hand... and all the ideas you get. Don't let a single day pass without at least one page filled in. Of course it's difficult! If it were easier, everyone would be a great artist, and few people are persistent enough to become one.
=nelchee

Draw. Not the same thing all the time, and not in the same way all the time. Then think about what you drew and how to make it better. Read everything you can about drawing including advice given to other people. Analyze the artists you like, and also the artists you don't like. Try to figure out what you like and what you hate. Enjoy yourself. Don't have stupid unreasonable expectations like "I'm going to draw this thing perfectly". Don't be afraid of doing things wrong or inefficiently. It's like being in an RPG dungeon. If you try to run straight from the entrance to the exit you miss all the goodies. It's not a waste of time to explore the side passage. All the little side explorations and mistakes are also potentially accidental discoveries that will make your art interesting and unique. But don't be lazy and settle for calling every mistake "your style". That's where looking at a lot of art comes in, so you can tell what to keep and what to throw away.
~Vineris

There are a lot of things you can have or learn that can make you better, and there are just as many things that will sit as road blocks. For example, I'm very observant, like learning, and am driven by an endless need for streamlining and perfectionism, but am impatient, procrastinate constantly, and have the cruddiest hands imaginable.

What I want to say is that if you have the means and the will to get better at it, you will, but its more than that. Its a basic interest and understanding of the community associated with your art-niche. Its knowing what you're good at and using it to your advantage. Its accepting what you're bad at and effectively planning how to get better. Its a willingness to put up with the work conditions you find yourself in. Its knowing who you're talking to with your art and not alienating them. Its channeling an idea or an emotion so well that it doesn't need an explanation. Its doing all these things and succeeding while remaining reasonably sane and healthy. Its learning how to differentiate needless worrying from legitimate concern, and smooth-sailing from the eye of the storm.

It could be any of these or none of them that eventually tips you over into greatness, and you really aren't in a good position to figure it out early on. Or ever. Heck, its very likely that it will take a few years before you even really grasp most of those, and that's honestly normal and in all likelihood healthy. If its doubt you need assuaging, that's one thing, but an actual, effective answer isn't something I think anyone can give you. Creative success is just too friggin' convoluted to distill down into a forum post."
~SBDec

A new artist shows potential not in raw talent, but in sheer goddamn tenacity. Creativity also helps, but most of all your ability to push through yourself and get something done. If you can fill a bunch of sketchbooks with material that shows consistent improvement, if you have the capacity to understand your mistakes and listen to grounded criticism, if you have the gut to defend a piece you made because you value it for its meaning and not because of foolish pride, you show me that you are capable of learning. If you are capable of learning and growing as a human being in meaningful ways and are willing to see everything from a different angle than the rest of the world without pretension, you are an artist. And that's just getting started."
~EldrinOS

Avoid drawing cartoons, fan-art, or anything but real subject matter, until after you master the fundamentals of understanding line, form, shape and perspective. When you draw, don't draw passively. Keep your mind always focused on the present; on your subject. 100% of your attention on the model/subject as long as you're drawing.

Drawing should be a sort of intimate and personal experience. You're drawing to have an experience, so don't let anything else get in the way of that experience. Most often, fear and worry about the quality of the drawing gets in the way. Don't let it. Don't worry about the quality of your drawing while you're drawing. You're not drawing to draw perfectly, you're drawing to learn. Remember that.

Don't jump into tiny details until the end. Don't let any part of your drawing get too far ahead or more finished than any other part. Drawing is refining rough, light impressions into more and more real images through iteration. Don't measure distances mechanically. Measure with shape and relative sizes of shapes. Draw big to small. By thinking in these terms, it keeps complex subjects manageable as it organizes the scene in your mind, and keeps you from getting overwhelmed. See the biggest shapes, then see the shapes within those shapes. And so on and so forth. Break it down into basic components then work those components into smaller and smaller bits. Remember that shapes equal mass and have volume. You're drawing volumes, not weightless, flat things. Be aware of all kinds of shapes to gauge distance and measurement. Not just the ones the objects/people/subject makes (positive shapes), but of the empty space around it (negative shapes).

Draw lines with confidence. One idea for one line. Don't draw ten hairlike, tiny lines when you can cover the same space with one. When a curve changes direction, cut across the figure. Don't hug the outside contour. Let the pencil travel through and around the figure. Imagine your pencil touching the surfaces it's crossing to get from one side to the other. Marks on the inside of the figure should be drawn as if they're on the surface of the figure. See dynamic shapes in figures. Contrasting straight and curved lines that oppose each other creates these dynamic shapes. Avoid parallel lines, and opposing curves that pinch or bulge. Living creatures aren't built like balloon animals.

Even if you have trouble doing all this, you can still practice by drawing simple perspective volumes like cubes, cylinders, spheres, etc. in three dimensions. Cubes are especially good as they have edges that delineate between different surfaces, something that even organic structures have like people and animals, (though they're more subtle) so it's good training for the eye and mind to start seeing and drawing them on flat paper as much as possible. There are no shortage of books and tutorials related to the subject. This might be a good place to start if everything else feels too overwhelming, and it will help you anyway later on when you are ready to take on the more difficult stuff. If you get good at drawing a cube in perspective, try animating one by rotating it in space, flip-book style, keeping things like it's volume consistent between drawings. Great exercise to prepare a student for seeing the world as it is.
~jerseycajun

First and foremost: Practice. On top of that, some good education, whether it comes from a class, a book, youtube or just keen observation. But most important is practice. The more you keep at it, the better you will get. There's really no magic switch. The best advice i can give, is to not get discouraged. Every piece you do, whether its at the level where you want to be or not, is a step toward your future greatness.
~mattchee

Generally the way to get better is to A: Practice like mad, then B: Draw a whole range of things so that your brain continues to think. Do stuff in opposite order (color a section then draw the lines in after that) I mean, just basically screw with your brain to keep it thinking, and to keep developing your visual repertoire. Don't ever consider yourself the best at...anything (this comes up a lot so I apologize if you don't have this mindset, people generally do, that sort of "Well I can draw cats, so I don't need to work on drawing better cats" thing. Don't be afraid to tear your image down, and just work like a lunatic.
~FireFeathers

Get your 10,000 hours in, (that's how long it takes to master any given skill.) Keep working at polishing your skill. Network as much as you can. Making it in the industry is more networking and meeting the right people more than anything. and just "do it" jump in there and start commissions contract work and get your name out there.
*HolyMcshizlet

Take classes or self-study. Just practice every day. Study your favorite artists and see if you can replicate the way they paint.
~SnapSunny

Probably the best way to start and improve your skills is to draw things you see in real life. Start small and simple, to let your brain absorb the basics. Start with simple shapes that you can see around you like a bowl, a vase, apples ... Draw the same thing multiple times from multiple angles and try to make it look realistic.

Post some art in the deviation thumbshares section  or the monthly critique threads at the top of the general and digital art sections for feedback. Draw your hand, draw objects in your room, your shoes, your pet, draw people in public places... As you feel yourself progressing, seek information and tutorials about drawing topics (proportion, perspective, light, shading, anatomy, composition...) and try to incorporate these principles into your work. Get more feedback. Continue practicing.

Drawing from observation will help you train your mind to understand the way body parts are shaped, the way they connect, how the joints and muscles work under the skin. It will help you learn how objects interact and relate to each other in a composition. It will help you learn to translate 3 dimensional images into believable 2 dimensional representations.

Drawing only from your imagination can reinforce, and sometimes magnify through repetition, any mistakes you make or misconceptions you have about how things should look. You may develop the tendency to repeat one or several poses or body types That doesn't mean you should never draw from your imagination, it just means that drawing from observation is better for learning.

Artists spend thousands of hours drawing to go from "beginner" to a good level of skill. So be willing to work and work and work in order to see improvement.
-FriendlyHand