Some people have told me this was hard to believe, but I actually didn’t necessarily go to any special art school/take any special art classes. Or, maybe not so much, since I’m only a junior in high school. I’m pretty much self taught, though. :)

When it came to teaching myself about anatomy, expressions, exaggeration; all other things, I simply referenced off art of other artists, realistic, cartoon, or otherwise. 

This probably isn’t the best of ways for EVERYONE when you first start drawing (as knowing proper anatomy from more reliable sources like actual photos is VERY necessary to drawing professionally), but it seems like it worked out okay for me?

However, I’d say that if you have an actual art class in your school that centers around the kind of art/craft you’d want to study; take it! While my style is cartooney, the teacher I had in my previous art classes wanted our class to make our assignments center around realism, and it forced me to study anatomy with actual models (our classmates) at some points throughout the year! It’s really beneficial for you!

Heck, I still apply a lot of other things that I learned from those classes to my art today. :)