
Initial exercises: Try to re-create a page from a book or a magazine in Quark; try to re-create a logo or illustration in Illustrator; and try editing some photos in Photoshop.
There is no shortcut: all of this is hard work and will take years to learn.
If you want ONE book that has the absolute highest ratio of useful information to page length, the book you need is "Logo, Font, and Lettering Bible" by Leslie Cabarga. If you get that book, you will also want a copy of Fontographer.