A Really Useful Artistic Anatomy Exercise!

For artists looking to improve their anatomy knowledge, I really recommend this exercise. Find a good quality photo of a specific area of the body (it needs to be relatively high resolution and well-lit), and do a detailed drawing that emphasises sculptural form, so that you can see all the bumps and crevices. Then, using a light box or tracing paper, or layers if you're working digitally, draw the muscles on one layer, and the skeleton on another, so that they correctly overlap.
Doing this exercise really helped me understand how the head and shoulders are constructed - so much more than just watching videos which tended to go in one ear and out the other.
For images, a good place to start is Croquis Cafe onairvideo.com, and for art anatomy books I recommend Classic Human Anatomy by Valerie Winslow.
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