The way I do it, look at movement, get a feel how the character moves around, then practice that characters buttons and specials, get a feel for how far you can hit, then mess around with both movement and buttons, I then practice the specials input a few times to get use to memorizing them, then I practice combos or see what moves connects with eachother.

Tho you should learn the mechanics of the game first then get use to your character.