Fundamentals of Art Book Suggestions

There isn't much out there in terms of books that cover all of the fundamentals. Perhaps the closest you get is some publications like Loomis, but your mileage may vary. I feel Loomis and many of the other publications available expect that you are already capable of fundamental drawing requisites like drawing proportionately.

Most new artists lack an understanding most often in basic drawing and perspective. Learning perspective is easier when you an already draw proportionately, so for this reason I suggest you start with drawing/draftsmanship fundamentals.

Primarily focus on developing your observation skills and your ability to draw things proportionately. Exercises can be still life, landscapes, portraits, figure drawing, master copies, or even copying comic books (as long as you're not tracing or gridding things). I suggest you do a rotation of a few of these rather than sticking with a single one.

Whatever you choose to draw, focus on drawing with proportional correctness by continuously measuring lengths and widths, angles , etc. It will probably be a good idea to avoid trying to render things for awhile. You can keep your drawings as line-only. You may wish to get some sense of light/shadow into your drawing at some point. When you do, stick with a simple mid-dark shadow color and just try to separate the light areas from the shadow areas in whatever you're drawing. You can produce very dimensional results with just white and a medium grey. Deciding what should be grouped into the lights or grouped into the shadows is also a fundamental task.

Analyze each of your sketches and drawings. If your drawing feels off, try to understand what you missed or might have drawn with an incorrect proportion and then either correct your mistake or make a new drawing.

/r/learnart Thread