Hi there! May I get some critique on my gesture drawings please? I am struggling to "use less lines to capture the essence of poses".

I also "suck at drawing", so when I tried in the past, I did nothing but "paintings". I also happen to be really slow at gesture drawings, partially because I can't always find those big nice lines of action and also because I get stuck trying to get a line or curve or circle to be "right enough to not break the damned pose". Does anyone have any advice for that please?

Squished together, not in chronological order below, are the last few pages of gestures I did(New users can only post 5 pictures or something). These are usually between 1 - 2mins. I'd set 45s for my timer and end up having to give myself a time extension :<

do you think it's a lack of knowledge in anatomy? i look around at others' examples of gesture drawings, like this one i saw from deviant art(credits to Dedasaur). such effective use of very little lines to capture the essence of poses, unlike what im doing where i like.. essentially draw out simplified versions of all the limbs and ribs and what-not.

2 months later

Your lines are strong, and confident in their strokes and not sketchy which is great. I don't see anything wrong with these as gestures. They are using what looks like the Reilly method for a manikin build up so that might add to your work load for a 45 second pose.

Try just three lines and the head. Head, center rhythm, and both outside rhythms and that might help if you are trying to simplify more, if I'm understanding you correctly. You'll find that good dynamic poses have a simple side and a complex side.

The bottom row on the second picture is the closest to what I'm describing for simplicity and you already know how to do it. Get to where those take you 20 or 30 seconds and your fine.