I find that doing studies of other artists' work can be very educational.

I'm very impressed with Blotch/BlackTeagan's approach to anatomy (and as far as I know, they are educated artists and have life drawing and anatomy as a main focus.)

 blotch

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So, I basically do the following to learn from other artists:

1) Copy. Find some of their art and draw over it, as if you made it in the first place. I start by trying to work out what the initial sketch may have looked like.

2) Deconstruct. Deconstruct and analyze some of their art. Find out what the artist does in certain situations, or to portray certain elements. For instance, Blotch makes a surface fluffy, by making it angled and adding strokes towards the crease (as can be seen on the shins/legs in this drawing).

3) Sketch! Make a sketch based on your understanding of how the artist does or would do it.

4) Evaluate. Compare your drawing with a drawing from the artist, give yourself redlines (or more importantly - ask other artists to help you out), assess what went right and wrong and repeat from step 1, 2 or 3, fixing some of what went wrong the last time. In the beginning, it's a good idea to start over from step 1 at least a couple of times, returning to what you're trying to learn.

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In this case, stupid_pony on reddit was so kind as to give me redlines and comments on my first sketch: http://imgur.com/a/VKeOX#SrHMqLA

So to challenge myself in what went wrong last time, I deliberately set up an even more awkward pose for this attempt. The excercise is never 'complete'. Because you'll never be the other artist. But be sure to steal all the parts of their skill that you like.

This was also how I learned my basics about dragons from the artist Neondragon (among others).

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I am always looking for constructive criticism on my work :3