I'm a super newbie and found this really helpful. For gesture I have been struggling with how long the neck needs to be and so I thought maybe it's useful to gesture from mid-head even if it is a font-facing model. Also it feels good to address the proportions for the pinch and stretch of the torso to get a rough sense of the length of each gesture. Once I move past gestures and on to shapes, I wonder if it's useful to pretend that the thorax is simply a two head tall oval that directly connects from the bottom of the head to the top of the pelvis and then start shaving off pieces so that the empty space remaining is the neck and abdomen. It seems to help during this exercise. Hopefully in practice it proves to be as helpful.