Hey Billy! These are really nice. I think your self crits are accurate, what I might say though is that you should focus on the simplification in general. Your drawings are accurate, but don't have much flow. I think if you were to focus more on the overall gesture of your drawings. When I was learning at the Watts Atelier, all of the teachers would enforce the idea of CSI. For these sorts of drawings, they would say that at this stage there should only be C S or I lines. You're definitely getting the idea of gesture, structure, and form but it feels like you're drawing more what you see versus interpreting it as something you want to see. I've attached some drawings by @Erik Gist that show what I'm talking about Good luck!

you can do gestures of just hands or feet to get you more comfortable with them. even just 30 second drawings so you can use them in your 5 minute gestures nice work!

The proportion, gesture and structure of these are really good. I also think your self critique is right on, keep up the good work :)

Hi @billy_x these are some great quick studies. I like how you've combined both gesture and landmark exercises for this session. Your drawings are quite clear and the gestures look really well designed so great job! For the pose that you specifically uploaded the refence for, I think you did a pretty solid job drawing through the form to figure out a reasonable placement for the hips to make the pose believable. Proportionally, it looks like you made the head and neck just slightly too long so just watch out for that. As the head tilts up or down, it becomes less of an 'oval' shape and the proportions are much closer to that of a circle. Additionally, like Gabi pointed out, your drawings feel too upright in comparison to the reference. If you wanted to tackle that specific image again, you probably want to lean her over just a bit to match the figure. There isn't really a perfect formula to understand foreshortening except for understanding a principle of perspective, which basically says that the form will appear shorter the more you turn it towards the viewer. If you ever want to make sure something feels foreshortened, you just have to make sure that it isn't as long as it would be if you were to just see it in an orthographic view. Finding opportunities to draw form lines to communicate that the form is coming towards you will definitely help as well. Otherwise, it really comes down to mileage to truly figure out what works best for each specific situation. I'm not entirely sure if some of the courses on this site have 3-D models of specific limbs, but if it does, you can definitely use that tool to simplify how certain forms will appear in certain perspectives. Other than that, these are overall great studies. Hope this helps, and feel free to let me know if there is anything that I can clear up for you

These are well done! For the drawing of the picture you attached, it doesn’t seem like you pushed the gesture enough. The figure looks more upright in your drawing. I like the design of your figures, they feel very Loomis-like. I totally get you for the foreshortening thing, definitely not easy. Maybe adding more forms could help you understand the foreshortening (it could help you learn the how shapes overlap)? Otherwise, these are very clean and they have lovely flow to them. Hope this will be of some help!

Hi @billy_x sounds like an ambicious warm up program! Have you already heard of the concept of negative space? It is just a method to see. Concentrate on seeing the shapes, that are around the figure. At least the concept can help you to judge your sketches by yourself. See the attached picture where I have drawn in two negative shapes (in red and yellow). I think you will easily see the differences of the shapes concerning your drawings an the reference...