Hey catlivesupstairs, Gesture drawing can be kind of hard because we don't always take time to "see" the pose. What I mean is that the gesture tells the story of the pose: how is the weight distributed, how are the limbs flowing from the body, etc. The best advise I can give you is to not use straight lines to describe any part of the body. You still want it to have structure and not look like it's made of noodles, but describe the pose with long sweeping lines that have an "s" curve or "c" curve. Your right, the drawing in the lower left describes the gesture pretty well. I did some quick sketches to show you what I mean, I hope they help :)