So Many Thanks
@Watercolour Thank you! Thank you! I saw your portrait and I think your break must have must have been good for you because you knocked that piece of the park.
@mitsuki-youko I really appreciate the time and effort you put into the forums and popping into peoples threads for the encouragement. That takes dedication and you brighten a lot of peoples day.
@Ginungar So glad to have a new poster in the forums. Cant wait to see more of those medieval persons!
I Forgor!
I made one of the most comprehensive and in depth critiques I have ever done this summer. It took me a week to produce and was really fun. I hope you all can stop by and give it a read or share it with friends. Thanks.
Foreshortened Gesture Method
Part 2
By Request of @uraniumpuppy
Disclaimer - I know you are excited to get some answers. But I need you to read this first.
So I want to tell you that what you are considering "my method" is just a hybrid of things I have learned before. And what I am teaching here is a dumbed down version to demonstrate an idea in this medium (an internet forum). It is also a window in time -- a view as to where where my brain is now -- as I cannot say this is the end all be all method to solve your problems (but it might help) .
And Although I had a short professional illustration career - my education trajectory was cut off by me getting that full time job (and my subsequent jobs) and there was still so much more for me to learn. Ce'st la vie.
I have had some amazing teachers. And thankfully some of them still teach and contribute to various places.
Some of them studied at the same place that Proko studied.
(proko--the source of your reference).
Another one of them has a podcast with Proko and might be an alien.
And another created great breakthroughs for me.
So what you get from a Proko is a hybridization of a method that was taught to him. As are my teachings are a similar hybridization of all of the above linked persons. In a desperate attempt to make clear that cloudy area of drawing and composition.
Because the format for the education I received was shorter and not as intense as the atelier -- and thus was built around the smooshing of ideas into student's minds as fast and bluntly as possible and moving on -- sometimes that student missed something by daydreaming.
I am going to rely heavily on the books for this one to get my points across. Lets get started
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You need to know the landmarks of the top and bottom, front and back of the torso masses. When you have a reference that you are doing gestures from, or quick sketches, you have to rely on this anatomical knowledge to inform areas that lack information hidden by overlapping forms 
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- Second
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You have to look for these extra spots that reinforce the direction of the big landmarks. 
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Final Summary.
Landmarks, Landmarks, Landmarks..Find them, Hit them, Move on.
Having elements of the body overlap will trump some of the principles taught in the rhythm abstraction method that I use. But the Gesture abstraction that you can do in thirty seconds, which represents the motion between the parts, cannot be lost while you continue finalizing your drawing. In fact it is often encouraged so push the gesture in the beginning as a drawing will become more stiff over time.
It's a gentle mixture of rhythm, gesture, and form that are used to create something that you can build off of to create a twisting form. Most of the videos I recommend you -- will say what each of these things are -- but not show you how or why they are used in a 2 hour study session of quick sketches. So you have to do that on our own.
Rhythm abstraction will solve most of your problems as it uses gesture and some contour to form an interesting figure. I use it the most. This teaches some hard overlap. Landmarks and overlapping construction methods which rely on an armature like a pillow or a tube will help you solve different problems. This free book has more examples.
Doing quick sketches from 2-10 minutes can allow you to use a variety of the methods for figure drawing. All of the methods I use are taught by Proko and Ron Lemen. Ron more sparingly since he runs his own studio he is not regular in video production. Proko's business is video production so there is naturally more information there.
I recommend some of Ron Lemen's videos (posted in the link above.) They are very informative.
I recommend Proko's free videos all in one place on his site regarding gesture. Some of his old intros are cringe but you can watch most of this stuff in a couple hours and give them some attempts while you are at it.
Next time you want to post some art and get my advice I recommend the critique section. I try to contribute to that all the time so that I can keep learning myself. I think from here out I would like to keep this blog to just my artwork, and link to any critiques like I have before. I dont mind doing these two demo's but I dont want to set a precedent for people to stop by and ask anything. Dump it in the critique section.
Finally...an art
Just to post art to this blog and make it about that, here's another drawing like the fantasy elf above. Might keep doing some more like this.
