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.

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.