There is a wonderful tutorial on Digital Tutors (hope that's okay to post Mods) that you should check out. Low poly character that can then be imported to Mudbox for final uv detailing. It's the tut I've been following for a few weeks and its simply how to model a female character for animation. The reference drawing is not the greatest, but the end result is quite good even for a beginner's go at the process.

The other posters here are correct. You need to really take your time. I'm a professional artist (2d) just learning soft modelling, and I went in and, before I even began the 3d attempt or tutorial, studied up on my female anatomy for 6 weeks, then spent another 4 weeks rendering out my reference image.

It's not everybody's approach, but I wanted my end result to be as close to perfect as will be possible. Even there I'm taking my own sweet time with the tutorial and have gone through three start to finish attempts before I finally started getting the knack of it...and still have a long way to go as I'm on my fourth base mesh build at this point.

Keep at it. It's not a piece of cake.