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1) Choose any good pens and pencils

This is practically vital for artwork. I use just two thicknesses of pencil (HB for construction shapes and B for sketching) as I only use them for building the 'construction shapes' of a character (basically plotting where everything goes - more on that later) and for pens I use 4 thicknesses (.05, .1, .5 and brush:
- .05 is used for the tiniest of details like shading, tinting and hatching
- .1 is used for slightly larger details that don't involve shading or tinting in any way (e.g petals, leaves and irises)
- .5 is used for general drawing
- Brush is used for applying heavy amounts of black onto a drawing - this is usually the thickest pen you get in a pack and looks a bit like a fine paintbrush)


2) Start with the head and work the way down to the feet

I use a HB pencil to draw construction shapes in, starting with the head. The head can be any oval shape, complete with two bezier (curved) lines (one horizontally and one vertically across the diameter of the oval) to plot where the eyes, nose and mouth will go. After that I draw in the neck as another longer but shorter oval, the torso as two squashed curved trapezoids and the arms and legs as a variety of ovals. As for feet, these are usually stretched curved trapezoids and the hands are usually circles.


3) Sketch over the proportions in another pencil thickness, mapping roughly where everything goes

For this, I draw everything in exactly where it goes, aside from shading. I also consider the layering of many parts of the character.


4) Draw over the sketch in pen

This is the point where art becomes either great or shit, so I'm very careful at drawing here.


5) Erase the pencil lines

It makes the drawing look finished, self-explanatory really.


6) Add in details

These can be petals on a flower, leaves on a tree, fingernails etc. (Though I don't tend to follow this step unless I'm drawing something realistic)


7) Add shading and texture

Again an optional stage, I don't tend to follow this step unless I'm doing anything at a manga-style level or above.


Then I add color and I'm done! :3 (most drawings take me anywhere between 15 minutes and an hour but I always follow this algorithm)


EDIT TRES: However the most important thing for drawing is obviously confidence, you don't even need skill