The way I went about learning constellations is learning the easier ones first with brighter stars. Then I filled in the dark gaps in between by saying "oh, that's cancer right there" or something like that. Dimmer constellations tend to not resemble anything so they're difficult to start remembering on their own without other stars as guides.
After many a star-filled night, however, of getting lost in the sky looking for something I learned the dimmer ones based on what random things they look like to me and what deep sky objects lie within.
If you are interested in mythology and such knowing that helps too. For example, Pegasus, Perseus, Andromeda, Cetus, Cepheus, and Cassiopeia are all part of a story and are hence next to each other. The same applies to Hercules, Leo, Cancer, and Hydra.
Ophiuchus- has an odd-looking y shape of dimmer stars near Bootes, also contains a few nice globulars and currently the planet Pluto.
Perseus- right next to Andromeda and Pegasus, looks like half a tree (aka the trunk and two branches). Contains the double cluster and Algol, which is one of the coolest stars you'll come accross with your naked eye.
Aquarius- between Capricorn and Aries, there's a sort of boxy-looking asterisk. Nice globular cluster hereabouts.
Aries- Three relatively bright stars, that's it, that look like a hockey stick. One of the three is a nice looking double star.
Capricornus- a huge smile for a celestial smilie face, the upper right corner of the smile looks like a double star but the two stars are merely line of sight. Uranus and Neptune currently lurk here.
Libra- a box before Scorpius, pure and simple. Nothing very exciting here but the star names are good tongue twisters.
Pisces- a little circlet under Pegasus. Home to a few deep sky objects but it's too low to my horizon to fully examine.

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