there's an amazing sensation of purity in drawing nudes:

http://www.kariyal.com/draw/nude1.jpg

I took up human anatomy to specialize in in my third and fourth year in Art school. It's difficult and it challenged me then and still does. The human body is by the best creation of all time, before and after sliced bread. The way a nude can express itself has to be why the Renaissance artists painted nudes so much.

It took another 5 years of practising anatomy with two reference books and human model drawing at the National Gallery of Modern Art on Sundays. This duration of practise after leaving art school was done in weekends and after work hours at home. Now, I can draw figures from imagination, which is a state of being at the doorstep of real control; drawing from what one knows and more importantly, understands.
My Heroes: Michaelangelo, Da Vinci and more recently, Frank Frazetta, whos fantasy art reflects technical expertise as well as a grand imagination.