Anatomy study was the part of my art education I avoided the longest because I found it joyless. I know I'm not alone in this. Here's what finally made it stick for me.

I stopped treating anatomy as memorization and started treating it as mechanical problem-solving. Muscles exist because the body needs to perform certain movements. The shape of a muscle tells you what it does. The attachment points tell you which direction it pulls. If you understand the function, you understand the form — and the form becomes memorable because it makes sense.

I used Bridgman's 'Constructive Anatomy' alongside a 3D anatomy app (Anatomy 360 on iPad) to cross-reference the 2D explanations with rotatable models. The combination was significantly more effective than either alone.

I also stopped trying to memorize everything at once. One muscle group per month. Shoulders and arms for January. Torso for February. I've been doing this for two years and the knowledge has accumulated into something usable.