How do you use an anatomy manual? (another stupid question)

[John]

Hi Koguma! First off, your inquiry isn't stupid. I'm also kinda interested on how other people use these things.

I will reference two books: Figure Drawing for all it's Worth and Dynamic Figure Drawing. For the sake of shortening the names, let's call them Loomis and Hogarth respectively.

How I used Loomis: I started out with reading everything from cover to cover. And then, put it on standby. Literally right next to me. I visit the book if I'm having trouble with, say, drawing legs, because I never quite got the muscle construction committed to memory. I look at the pretty Loomis drawings, and probably do a very quick study (like drawing the same leg but in a different angle) if I'm not lazy. I mainly use it to remind me how anatomy works.

How I used Hogarth: I never read Hogarth. But I tend to look at the pictures a lot. I tried to read the whole thing, but the drawings speak for themselves. I go to it whenever I need to answer the question: "how do I make this character I'm drawing more interesting?". Hogarth to me reminds me how to exaggerate the anatomy but at the same time, stay grounded on the level of realism (or what I think is realism). I also whip that book out to copy the figures, out of pure fandom. And because Marko said so.

I would like to know how do you guys learned to draw anatomy (Also please notice that I'm not asking for a "3-steps tutorial" or anything like that :V I'm more interested in knowing your methods)

To tell you honestly, I am still learning anatomy. And probably still would be learning anatomy until someone stabs me in the head and die. There's too much to learn in the subject, (e.g. muscle construction, bone placements, drawing it in an awkward perspective, how to depict broken bones or muscle tears, animal anatomy, made up sci fi anatomy), that'll last a lifetime. Or probably even more.

Hope this helps!