Here's a great method I recently found on a different stack overflow post regarding multi-dimensional arrays, but the answer works beautifully for single dimensional arrays as well:
# Create an 8 x 5 matrix of 0's:
w, h = 8, 5;
MyMatrix = [ [0 for x in range( w )] for y in range( h ) ]
# Create an array of objects:
MyList = [ {} for x in range( n ) ]
I love this because you can specify the contents and size dynamically, in one line!
One more for the road:
# Dynamic content initialization:
MyFunkyArray = [ x * a + b for x in range ( n ) ]