Learning to draw the human figure with gesture

I recently had the pleasure of facilitating and teaching some figure drawing sessions on gesture. This for me was a hugely valuable experience, and I really enjoyed sharing my knowledge and process and helping people build a foundation for figure drawing. In my opinion gesture is the foundation for all good figure drawing, creating movement through gesture will make a human figure look believable.

Attending a single session on learning gesture drawing is hopefully a good start for getting familiar with this skill and developing your figure drawing, however learning a skill isn't something that can be done in a single lesson. It requires constant practice. I also believe it's worth taking knowledge from multiple teachers and sources to really understand something.

Below are some of the online resources that have been helpful for me to develop my gesture drawing over time. I recommend working through these at your own pace, and continuously practicing what you learn. If the video says draw 3 figures, I recommend drawing 30 over a period of weeks, while watching the other videos.

Also use cheap materials to draw a lot, and I really do mean do hundreds of drawings. Getting good at drawing is all about practice, and repetition is key. It's like going to the gym to get fit, or learning a new language. Do the reps.

Resources for Learning Gesture

Proko (Stan Prokopenko) is probably the best online resource I've found for learning to draw the human figure. The free lessons on YouTube are what I used to learn and gain confidence with drawing. They're entertaining and easy to follow. Highly recommended.

Gesture Drawing - Stan Prokopenko - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtG4P3lq8RHEQ1kiN_Nub1vXR8fQQLjDF
Figure Drawing with Stan Prokopenko - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74HR59yFZ7Y&list=PLtG4P3lq8RHGuMuprDarMz_Y9Fbw_d2ws

Force Drawing by Michael Matessi is also a great resource for developing understanding of gesture and movement in the human body through drawing. He has a website and some books, and the youtube channel is also a very useful resource.
https://www.drawingforce.com/
Force Drawing with Michael Matessi - https://www.youtube.com/@drawingforce

Online figure reference and tools for practicing figure drawing.

There are loads of tools and websites online which offer paid and free figure references to draw from. I use the following websites, and I draw with a timer (typically set to 2 minutes for my warm up drawings).

I recommend using the timer and sticking to it, don't pause it. Start with 5 minutes if you're not confident.

Life drawing sessions and classes

Drawing from reference is no substitute for going to life drawing, as it's much better to draw from a real model in real life than a static photo.
Drawing a real person will give you a better sense of the three dimensional forms, proportions, and movement. It's the best way to train your observation skills and build your visual library. Photos are very static and two dimensional, and proportions and perspective are often distorted due to the focal length of the lens.

In a life drawing session you can't pause the timer, so you're commiting to drawing with gesture and being expressive. Life drawing is also an incredible way of meeting other artists and connecting to a community. Personally I also enjoy seeing other peoples work, and how they approach drawing. This really helped me develop and grow as an artist.
Please respect the models boundaries and the studio space, and other artists you draw with.

Tips and advice.

Learning to draw takes time and patience. I don't believe in natural talent, what we call a talent is just a skill that can be learned. The only difference between a beginner and a skilled artist is the amount of time they've spent drawing.

You don't need expensive materials to draw, you just need to draw a lot. Allow yourself to make mistakes and do bad drawings, as this is how you will grow and improve as artist. Buying a nice expensive sketchbook can be intimidating, as you end up not wanting to ruin the sketchbook. This is a fear I had for a long time. Start practicing your drawing on cheap materials. For me I went to a storage facility in the UK and bought piles of the cheap wrapping paper they use for wrapping boxes to draw on. This cost less than a dollar for 10 sheets (about a penny a sheet in the UK). I then bought a cheap pen, and because the materials were so cheap I didn't care about how my drawings looked. I just drew a lot. Gradually I improved. Right now I'm using printer paper for my warm up drawings. The key is to remove any barriers you may have to drawing a lot.

Try to draw every day if you can, but don't feel bad if you can't draw every day (it's ok to take a rest). If you're struggling for time and energy, just commit to drawing one or two lines, those one or two lines will soon turn into a drawing. I try to draw for at least an hour each day, try to find something that's comfortable for you.