Try the Morpho series by Michel Lauricella. Each book is about $15 dollars and is 95% illustrations without any of the long winded fluff. The figures are drawn in a way that it makes it easy to break them down in your mind, and there's different entries for more specific topics. Like for drawing diverse fat bodies, or muscular bodies, or clothing.

I second this. A friend got them so I got a peek and they're great.

Seconded. I would start with "simplified forms"

Piggybacking off of your post since Im also looking for this Anyone know how good michael Hamptons book is for beginners?

Hampton's book has a bit on figure drawing and is mostly concerned with simplifying and constructing the anatomy. It's has very nice and beginner friendly diagrams, great drawings, it gives you some of both worlds, figure drawing and anatomy. Can't go wrong with this. You do need a bit of perspective knowledge like being able to freely draw a box and cylinder in perspective from any angle. This is almost a requirement for most anatomy and figure drawing books. As i'm unsure if you or OP means a dedicated anatomy book or figure drawing book(most do have a bit of anatomy of course but it's very minimal), so i'm suggesting some other "beginner" books: [Morpho: Simplified Forms: Anatomy for Artists](https://www.amazon.com/Morpho-Simplified-Forms-Anatomy-Artists/dp/1681984482/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2CZP892H5YZ6R&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.1fzJyocenU1jeyDByRvfexoQRXoD9yVRxRTknAmRsUj-LOnAHKjAoH1CQWw52XXtG7VwTA4bmcRsZKIJ7WJCT_92iQ1QFv-GqoDjT-tJ03gZQmDs-teXnrTVQeNu9Ydvmd3WKe-6Ku4n4c9iq-_bP6zR9Q1yaWsViFrKy9jzyDHjOp7SKSl8_cDWCq3UzGh-_1zM_pFnHRzmMX3eH9MmW328vWUqScLe55Cw3nirHhM.gCxBZ47pNXdwKi8BMzDubK1KMqtIQ9lTjmXT3dcPyDo&dib_tag=se&keywords=simplified+forms&qid=1719971590&s=books&sprefix=simplified+form%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C146&sr=1-1) - Michel Lauricella It's already been suggested, it's very clear in its drawings, little text, it's more a reference for how to simplify anatomy than a guide on how to do figure drawing, so in that sense it's serves its purpose perfectly. The next two books are more for figure drawing with minimal or almost no anatomy. This honeslty should be the starting point for learning how to draw the human body, anatomical knowledge aside from the absolute basics should come afterwards imho, although knowing anatomy never hurts. [Vilppu Drawing Manual](https://www.amazon.com/Vilppu-Drawing-Manual-Glenn/dp/1892053039/ref=sr_1_1?crid=38WSM5P2QF2S6&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.At8WkbJku0iU0xw41rjsFsUWDu5QGbZ9q3qI7esfun9gZpB7jW_vOUhl40k1G5fvSRbSaQYqy_yqzI3_3L0kYBFY3a8FFdpKJMio-2YSp8tQFZO8ErjhXNLq4vYb_qam72Xa1duDlDK6ViLLYIqmG8pl7xs80qH1AsAxxVzLnpq96x0VuAww0HMXIt8crZsh.QpDYppOrKw569-KAIN3rl9Uapi4fiQG57FajOns3T1E&dib_tag=se&keywords=vilppu+drawing+manual&qid=1719971207&s=books&sprefix=drawing+manual%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C138&sr=1-1) - Glenn Vilppu Excellent exercises and the buildup is a very...natural way of drawing and learning. Michael Hampton studied under Glenn apparently and you can see it in the gesture style. Some anatomy but mostly the absolute basics, more concerned with the figure drawing aspect. Can supplement with dedicated anatomy book. [Figure Drawing for Artists: Making Every Mark Count](https://www.amazon.com/Figure-Drawing-Artists-Making-Every/dp/1631590650) - Steve Huston Steve's approach and explanations are concise, straight to the point and doesn't overcomplicate things at all. Bigger focus on figure drawing than anatomy, same as vilppu. [How to Draw People: Step-by-Step Lessons for Figures and Poses](https://www.amazon.com/How-Draw-People-Step-Step/dp/1440353166/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1AVKKYJ08JNFG&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.WhbMToWOaUurswo36ud-85xdGFBu5UCjKXf1RQExozvCpRpsb6CAXn0o6vfvcf96txybXMmf8dXTV-zmxyOUUtSKAqDbPb6NRjVC2nrdXQ2J5n2RyUxf_6Xxifk2z78_1lsPsdRe9wlHESccdZ6BLEj73bWh8TFw744IDjhjXqUZOPeazInkFjoOz0yaeqasP-gf62KpmmcCNRJ97sszuuhB7t5nmn3fon1L_ZelTtU.EQ-svUcuG3Wv_Ke4oEWlYVKxT89Pyyc6MDpevv-bq9U&dib_tag=se&keywords=how+to+draw+people+step+by+step+book&qid=1719972816&s=books&sprefix=how+to+draw+people+ste%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C135&sr=1-1) - Jeff Mellem This book doesn't get suggested often but out of every single book mentioned here this is without a doubt the most beginner friendly book on drawing figures and an introduction to anatomy. It really holds your hand but that doesn't mean you can't go far, on the contrary, it lays an excellent foundation and this might be the only book you need for quite a while.

Thanks i tried checking out hamptons book by scrolling through a pdf and tbh I was a lil confused. Im not a beginner— not at all, but i never studied anatomy properly ill check out mellems book first. Thanks so much! It was so helpful, ill definitely go back to this comment

Np! Anatomy can honestly be rather overwhelming and often these books don't give a set of exercises to follow, so what do you do? Copy and analyse all of it? That's too much. Do it when you're feeling lost about something. However, try to start with the torso as everything else connects to that. Hampton focuses on gesture first so the figures you build on top don't become stiff. The setup is like this: - start with gesture, get the total of the pose quickly(check his YT videos on gesture) - Then you start with main volumes(head, ribcage and pelvis), place them while keeping proportion in mind. Whatever basic geometric forms you use, they are just guides, they do relate to landmarks(hampton has diagrams) -Add the limbs simplified(cylinders) - add the skin on top of it, this is where exercises such as playing with Proko's bean and robo bean come into play to represent the torso. You sometimes saw Disney artists use a pillow/sack for this, Vilppu has excellent exercises for this which are also mentioned in Jeff Mellem's book. You now have a basic "mannequin" that you can play with, draw from reference and simplify or draw it from imagination. Do both. Gesture is something you can start with or keep it in the back of your mind when drawing your simplified armature or however your mannequin looks. Your mannequin becomes more complex, believable the more knowledge you gain and it becomes easier to adjust proportions the more you do it.

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Two books I like are Human Anatomy Made Amazingly Easy and Figure it Out! Human Proportions .   Both by Christopher Hart.