Haha, I feel ya, it’s not easy. I reiterated quite a few times. One of the main things that had me doing that is how ugly I felt it came out. My recommendation is to do it just to get the basic basic proportions in your head, even if your mannequin is mot up to your standard. Think about it this way: it’s your first day of a long program in which you learn to draw the human figure and anatomy, and you expect to draw a perfect entire figure head to toe. More likely than not, it won’t happen. But as you iterate, once a day or a few times a week you will eventually know the basic proportions by heart
As for gestures, definitely experiment. It’s all about feeling the movement of the pose and the energy of the movement. Try different times for your gestures, get your head used to it, try drawing from the shoulder to get smooth curvy lines
Cheers
