I really feel welcome in the Steem community already! I was surprised by how many people up-voted my first post. Thanks so much!
I teach figure drawing part-time so I'll probably be sharing a lot of figure drawings on here. I wanted to share some insight into one of my favorite ways to improve my figure drawing and that is...... gesture drawing! (I often also call gestures Quickstudies)
I draw on loose paper but I spiral bind my favorite drawings together when I have enough.
What I consider gesture drawing to be is any drawing that is 3 minutes or less. Other people have different ideas about the length of a 'quick' drawing but the purpose is to give yourself a severely limited amount of time.
It's important to study anatomy and the body but I think that gesture drawing is one of the most important things to do if you want to improve your figure drawings quickly.
One of the most common mistakes that I see beginners make with gesture drawing is to have a completely different way of drawing gestures vs. drawing longer poses. My goal is actually to get as complete of a drawing as possible within the time limit.
Although it may be impossible to have a super detailed and fully rendered drawing at the end I learn a ton about how to edit drawings effectively when trying to accomplish the goal. By learning to use lines and shapes more economically I can take that knowledge and apply it to longer work as well.
I have a lot more to say about gestures but I'll save it for a future post. Hope you like the drawings! :)
