Hi imaginear! For now, don't worry about doing anatomical studies. Of course, you can try to copy from some photographs if you like, but otherwise be patient and follow the lesson plan in order. Later on there will be lessons on how to schematise shapes and on proportions, all very thorough and full of examples and exercises. For now, concentrate mainly on gestures and pencil control so that you will be able to make quick sketches of a human figure with a few clean lines. I know there's a desire to draw finished figures straight away but I assure you it's worth taking the time to practise each step. At the end of the course, if you are patient and take the time to do the exercises, you will realise that you have made enormous progress, so don't be in a hurry :)

I think you should focus on gesture and proportion before adding muscular details

a soft/ passive aggressive voice can be heard on the wind ** 'NOO REFFERANCE NOOO LEEAARRNNIINNGG' the ability of drawing from imagination is located on the other side of a fence called drawing from reference for long time.

If you're trying to construct the figure, try to focus on Gesture first then try to do the shorthand shapes (or Basic primitive shapes). don't get caught on Aesthetics yet..

Hi Imaginear. Try to keep your sketches simpler and cleaner and draw following precise steps, you'll see that you'll immediately encounter less difficulties. You did well to post the references, now let's see how you should proceed when drawing. Take a good look at your photos and try to identify the lines that run through them, not the contours. If you look at the line of the back and follow it downwards, you'll see that it virtually continues down the leg, all the way to the foot, a nice flowing S. Draw this line to begin with. Now look at the pelvis, just above the buttocks you can imagine a line going from one vertex of the pelvis to the other, sloping upwards.  Mark this line and use it to build a perspective box that will be a schematic pelvis. Connect the leg that is not included in the main movement to this box. What you should now have is a kind of very schematic skeleton, which you can use to construct very simple shapes for the legs, the pelvis (which you already have more or less) and the ribcage. Once you have these shapes you can start drawing the muscles. Only after that can you start applying some shadows, but don't worry about that for now. For now concentrate on the gesture and don't worry too much about the rest. Learn this step, slowly, until you feel you have understood it and can easily spot it by looking at a reference, after which you will be ready to move on to the next lesson. And keep it simple! There's no rush, it doesn't matter if you do it in a day, a week or a year, it's not a competition, you're here to learn :)

Oh, I used to use CC to practice too (Figuary is practically the only contest I enter!). Now I've bought a little program called Quickpose that allows me to use my own photos for practice and, since I have so many, I prefer it that way. Anyway, when you're practicing the gesture don't worry too much about the contours of the figure, just focus on the movement for now. In one-minute poses it's more than enough if you just identify the main line of action, the position of the shoulders and pelvis and the position of the arms: use simple C, S, I lines and don't worry about defining shapes. The gesture is the foundation on which you will build. If it's not solid and balanced, neither will the finished work. In two-minute poses, after you have determined the gesture, you can start defining the shapes on it, with simple geometries, never mind contours or details. For the pelvis and the ribcage you can use box shapes (or even an ovoid shape for the ribcage), the shoulders can be represented with an elongated box with a square base (a bit like a juice carton or a french fry). Arms and legs are not rigid but organic structures. If you hold your arm out in front of you, you can imagine a curved, serpentine line from your fingers to your shoulder, even if your arm is straight, but if you bend it you can see that this line becomes a kind of U. I know our brains are used to thinking in terms of straight lines, but in nature they practically don't exist. At school we are taught a very schematic geometry, made up of angles and straight lines but, although geometric patterns such as Fibonacci's can be observed in nature, we have a prevalence of curves, ellipses and spirals. I hope I have been helpful, keep practising, don't be in a hurry and don't worry about always having a finished draw that looks good on display. I know that Youtube is full of people showing beautiful sketchbooks but, believe me, most sketchbooks are made of messy drawings, mistakes, remakes, etc.. That goes for everyone. :) (Except for some people who are definitely not human!!! XD )

Hears voice from distance **noooo reefferance nooo leeerrnnniing** the wind carries this frail sound across the land <3 refs --> https://twitter.com/JookPub

Hi imaginear1984, I think using reference to draw gesture would really help you capture the figures motion. Right now the drawing seems unnatural and stiff. Try to rewatch Stan's gesture drawing video and try to understand the concept his teaching and not just draw contours. We are simply trying to capture an objects motion, story, when we are drawing gesture. Hopefully that helps.

Hello, I feel like the drawings could use some references, and maybe revisiting some Proko videos surrounding on how the spine, and ribcage sort of look and work, I don't really mean the detail, mostly overall shape, it's most visible with the characters laying down, I think examining the neck, spine and ribcage could improve these a lot, I think it's very good to practice various poses, and I hope my feedback helps!