first of all, your skill comes whit experience. I am best on MS Paint and Icon Lover, since I have been using those two programs for over 2 years. I could recommend you Icon Lover, but the problem is its a demo. http://www.aha-soft.com For 3D things, I recommend Truespace 3.1 its free, google it. or maybe its 3.2? dunno, just check for them both.
You should try using anim8or! Its a free 3d animation software - the easiest 3d software and cheapest you can find. And the quality is not bad either. Here is some of my work: