Having gone the route of learning to pixel before I could draw normally, I highly recommend not doing that.
Start with normal art then scale down, it'll be a much easier transition.
There's a bunch of tips I can give you on that, like some resources for figure drawing and some general techniques, but it'd probably be best to start with one of the many resource-rich artist help tumblrs floating around in the blue debacle.
http://artists-help.tumblr.com/
There's a lot of resources on how to get drawing, but some of the most important methods I think are how to work with silhouettes, how to break things down into shapes, and the process of studying every aspect of something to draw it (for example, with humans it's recommended to draw a bunch of skeletons and muscle groupings so you can better replicate those areas of the anatomy)
Good luck, my friend!
Thanks man! You guys have been pretty awesome here so far. I might just be starting out in art, but having perused creativity for most of my life, I can appreciate the helpful, humble attitudes that seem to permeate this place.
Since my final goal is to be a pixel artist, and I do enjoy making pixel art, I still mix it in with my more traditional practice
(Which I've been at for a month or so.)
I have found some really good channels on you tube, and will be ordering some books fairly soon.
Thanks for the link and good advice!