weird conundrum =\

[loadedpencil]

ok so im finally ready to hit anatomy. skeleton. muscle. hard.


but i do this weird thing where i dont know how to learn? or if im doing it correctly i should say.

so do i just draw pages and pages and almost books full of human figure
and just keep checking my anatomy until ive done this so much i know by heart?

i pretty much self teach myself so ive never had any formal art lessons until this year.

[eskanto]

have you started a sketchbook? start one and start drawing from everything, books, photographs, life whatever you can get your hands on.
have you thought about looking into life drawing classes in your area? they are relatively cheap. i took a class twice a week for $90 a month.
have you also tried going to your local bookstore? there are a plethora of books on human (and animal for that matter) anatomy. most people here will suggest probably Bridgman's Complete Guide to Human Anatomy. (i believe that's the correct title.
or you could set aside time each day to copy human anatomy out of said book or books. like 1 hour studies maybe? sometimes it takes trial and error to find what works best for you.

[Hyskoa]

Most basic way to learn, is just to get bridgman/bammes/vilppu and add some loomis and hogarth for flavor and learn a specific body part every day.

But you say you're ready for anatomy studies, which means you're already quite good at gesture, proportion and estimating angles right?

If not, get back to those first until you're much better a 2D image to another 2D image. Anatomy, just helps you use what you already know to upgrade proportion to 3D, and that's quite a big step.

So make sure you're confident of your 2D before you attempt 3D.

[Maidith]

Copy body parts and all that stuff in the aforementioned anatomy books, and also draw them from your mind to see how much you really understood. Rinse, repeat.

[J Wilson]

Draw people. LOTS.

Here's an exercise I find useful and fun. Take a magazine with lots of good photos of people, or print out some photos from the internet. Now draw over them, but don't trace them. Instead draw the muscle or bones underneath. Strive for accuracey. Practice recognizing what is happening in the form. If you see a form and don't know what it is, or why it looks like it does, grab an anatomy book and try to figure out what it is you are seeing. You can do this of course by drawing from life, and you certainly should, but this is sort of a way to drill in the anatomy while you are learning it so that when you are in front of a model you know what you are seeing.

Do some studys like this drawing skeletons. Draw some doing muscles. Draw some breaking the form down into basic shapes, boxes, spheres, and cylinders. Do it over and over until it's second nature. Then do it all again not working over the original but in a sketchbook, starting with the basic shapes and not moving on until they look correct and the proportions are all right. Then draw what you see, but recognize the under laying anatomy.

[algenpfleger]

And make use of your own body! You only need one hand to draw, so get yourself a mirror and draw your feet, arms, hands, knees, everything! Like The Dweller said, if you see a form and can't figure out what it is, look into your book. You need to understand what's underneath. Also try to memorize the names of muscles and bones, it makes remembering them easier and usually tells something about their function. About muscles, the most important thing is in fact their function! So you wanna think like "Alright, when I'm lifting this bucket, why exactly is this muscle tense and this one not?" And then you'll notice that you understand things faster.

[loadedpencil]

i think ive spent to much time drawing what i wanted any not learning anatomy. its like ok i know the arm goes here and the lungs there and ect. but now that im studying it.

man
in a day ive seen outragiously amazing improvements.

not bad.