Welcome to Gaia! ::

It occurred to me recently that I need to get intimate with the skeletal structure in order to take my anatomy skills to the next level. What should I do to do this? I have an anatomy book for artists that I bought ages ago, and I'm going to dig it out tomorrow and see what I can learn from it.

But what kind of life drawing/ observational drawing exercises can help with this? Buy a skeletal model? Use anorexic models? XD

Draw the skeleton. You don't need a model. You can do so with proper photos that are taken for the purpose of learning skeletal anatomy.

Pelvis
Draw it so you understand the forms. I got the idea of depth and the bowl where your guts sit. I got the thickness of the bone, but it's not pretty and not really accurate.

Ribcage

We did draw skinny models, but there are bones that come to the surface. As long as you're not too fat, they will be seen.

Ribcage
Torso/pelvis

I tend to work quickly, but sometimes it's good to work slowly and really pay attention to the surface features that are coming from the skeleton. spine/back

I have that anatomy book as well. It's great to learn the bones, but not that great to learn the shapes. You want to be able to see them in more than a front/back/side view.