Figure drawing - how?

[Vildvittra]

I have just started to learn figure drawing "for real".
I am reasonably good at drawing from life, things I see, but I want to learn how to _construct_ the human figure.
I have some books on this (loomis, bridgman, vanderpoel and louise gordons book), and my main question is; do you think it best to stick with one "teacher" and sort of work through the book of choice, or is it best to use some other approach?
I really need some advice about this since it feels overwhelming, and I don't know where to start!

[MadSamoan]

Whatever keeps you motivated will work. If you prefer to bounce around or if you focus one book at a time is up to you. It's possible you might get a little confused because of different techniques, but for the most part, good drawing is good drawing.

[ChyChsco]

Experiment with different techniques until you find what produces the most realistic and expressive results.

[Darkstrider]

Well, I don't know where you are in terms of skills, so this might bee off target, but I think it's helpful to start with some very simple books, like cartooning ones. Jack Hamm did some great cartooning books that do an excellent job of showing how to get the relationships between the various forms of the body, the flow. Having seen these, and drawn from them for a while, you'll be more prepared for the other books.

Sorry if you're already past that stage.

Also, I had to look for a long time, but I finally found some more advanced anatomy/figure drawing books by an incredible teacher named Robert Beverly Hale, who lectured on the subject for many years at the New York Art Student's League. He uses examples by great artists throughout history, and really goes into detail about what's going on, how the drawings reveal the thinking processes of the artists. The books mostly have the term "great masters" in the title... "drawing lessons from..." "anatomy lessons from..." etc, and then he has one called Master Class in Figure Drawing.