hey there, I don't think I've stumbled upon your journey before. I'm snakker, local noob here to give support as best I can as I also go through my journey
I see you feel you hit a wall with the gestures - I can understand you as I felt mine were bad at first but in truth, it's not the gesture that's good or bad really - it's more abstract and has to do with line quality and shape language - at least in order to get a result you may enjoy more or find more pleasing. There are some combinations of curves, tapered line segments, line weight combinations etc that will look more pleasing to your eyes than others, and nature would have it that poses typically show these combinations. That's why you will see artists recommend using tapered lines, C and S curves and straight lines.
Your gestures aren't bad, they convey poses as clear as gestures can, unless you add a little hint of construction such as contour lines, overlap etc that would convey more information than a strict gesture. I think what you don't like is the other aspect which I was exposing. Additionally, you might find difficulty in the proportions department, and that's ok, it's something to work on by drawing from reference and trying to really hit the spot on the proportions.
Now, one thing that can happen a lot in art practice is not practicing the right purpose. You might be doing gestures and end up shading and coloring them- could be a fun experiment sure, but maybe you lose sight of the purpose of the exercise. I recommend working on the mental attitude of having a clear purpose - not because I'm an expert at practice, but because I also have this issue a lot. Once you can focus on improving some fundamental aspect you improve much faster.
So for example, next time you do gestures, maybe give yourself some extra time at first, and work on really hitting that line quality. let it flow from the shoulder and make thoughtful decisions on the motion, the type of curve, try saying in your mind this is an S or a C or a strong line going down or whatnot and keep it simple, as few lines as possible for each gesture, like a puzzle. This will lead to working on pure line quality and pose thinking
Same thing when working on cylinders, think strictly on the 3-dimensionality and when working on proportions, just focus on the proportions and shapes (accuracy) and forget everything else - always focusing on the biggest things like the cylinders of the arms, the placement and size of the major masses etc
Focusing the practice is very effective, and allows you to manage energy and time better. Trust me, I took doing "extra" detail way overboard and in hind sight, I guess I'd do it again, but I think the focused approach is better.
Oh man, that was an essay I'm sorry about that. hopefully something useful came out of all of that
cheers!!
