Hey, @Crystal Blue (she/her)! Great work looking for long flowing lines in your gesture sketches! I really like how simplified they look and how you were able to abstract details and focus mostly on the motion rhythms. One thing I’d recommend would be to look out for areas where you could use more S-curves. I’m attaching a little draw-over on two of the poses where I find this can be more easily noticeable. Sometimes, you may find an S-shaped rhythm fitting nicely as the main line of action (as in number 6); other times, you might try to break it down into various C-curves that flow through one another in an S-like type of movement (number 2). In the case of number 2, since it’s a standing pose, finding curvy motions can be a little trickier than with more dynamic poses, so, in order not to make the gesture straight and stiff, we can look at the natural curves of the anatomy for visual flow: the curvatures of the spine, neck and buttocks; the muscle volumes of the thigh versus the ones of the lower leg and how their curves oppose to one another. Stan mentions a long “wavy” flow from top to bottom of the body in How to Draw Gesture, so perhaps taking a few moments to review that lesson might help. Two little extras: remember to consider the areas of more relaxed flow on the body (where the curves will certainly fit) versus areas of tension (where you can use more straight lines and sharp angles); and, whenever possible, remember to try and push the exaggeration! Hope this helps. Keep up the good work!

Gesture (figure drawing) is something I need more time with. I don't feel very confident with my lines. I feel that "getting" a good gesture drawing has something to do with seeing/sketching like an animator would. I wish I could critique your work because I want to help but I'm not there yet. I encourage you to keep doing it even if you feel frustrated. It will come to you eventually. In my studies (reading) of drawing It seems there really is no "right" way to do gesture drawing. For example those sweeping lines, In gesture drawing the artist "in the first five seconds you should put something down that indicates every part of the body in the pose." and "draw not what the thing looks like, not even what it is, but what it is doing." It doesn't matter where you begin to draw, with what part of the figure, because immediately you are drawing the whole thing, and during the minute that you draw you will be constantly passing from one end of the body to the other and one part to another." These quotes come from a book titled 'The natural way to draw - A working plan for art study' by Kimon Nicolaides. Going back to those sweeping lines, this is a great way to "indicate every part of the body in the pose" and it is very quickly done. But it's not a required technique for gesture drawings. I suggest looking at many artists gesture drawings not to copy techniques but to free you up in your work. There seems to be one things guesture drawing does not do and that is straight lines. You can load the drawing with squiggles if it helps give you the feeling of "doing." All of your images here work. The first one is a good form but not a gesture drawing. #'s 2, 3, 4, 7, 9 are good gesture drawings. 6 and 8 could use some work, I don't have suggestions on how, just looking at it I could tell it would be a struggle for me. If it were me I would guess it would take an approach I haven't tried. lots of experimentation and having fun.

Hey Crystal, Nice job practicing your gesture and proportions, it's the only way to get better. The first gesture drawing is your best, you created a nice "s" curve from the face to the bottom of the right leg. The other ones have too many straight lines, which causes them to get stiff. I did a couple of quick sketches to show you how you can carry "s" and "c" curves through out the whole pose. The proportions on the image of the girl with the hat are not bad. I did a sketch to show you how you can line up body parts using the head as a measuring devise ( I know you don't like this method, but it works). I hope these help you and that you continue working on these exercises :)