Hey @artpunk! Only you can know what you need from your education, everyone learns differently. In-person instruction may be something that really helps you learn, and helps your art progress, so it might be worth looking into and saving up for a workshop or an in-person drawing class somewhere to get some variety in your education. That said, we have a large community of learning artists right here, all at various stages in the pursuit of mastery. If you post some of your work from the course projects you can ask for feedback, or just post some of your personal work in your album or community pages so we can get an idea of where you are in your learning and help point you in the right direction. Nothing we're here to learn can be mastered in a few months, and I'd argue gesture isn't really something to be "mastered" it's something that you will continue to learn and develop over time. The people who have seemingly "mastered" gesture have really just mastered fundamental drawing skills. Stan, and Michael Hampton are incredible draftsmen, and it took them years of intense training, and a lot drawing to develop their skill set, so give yourself some time to get comfortable with the fundamentals and your gestures will follow. Hope to see some of your work! Keep drawing and don't forget to have fun!

Can the overhand grip be used on a flat surface or is this technique more common/effective when using an easel? Wondering if I should be utilizing it or just stick with pencil grip for now as I’m drawing on a flat surface.

I also struggled with drawabox as it was too repetitive and dry for me. I found Proko to be an alternative! For perspective lessons I downloaded Marshall's video lessons (from 1994) and otherwise it might be worth buying a book or two on perspective (not bought any myself yet). Otherwise I think the content on here gives you what you need in my opinion. I went to art school and I have learned a lot more about drawing here on this platform than what I did there!

Hi I did the lessons up to lesson 6 with official critiques of draw a box. Btw I didn't go to art school so I can't really tell you if they go over such things or not. But well I do have my share of experience with draw a box. Right now I'm finding exercises and much more to help me studie, because I had the same problem with draw a box as you have. I don't recommend just to try to tough it out, but to take your time with it and maybe take breaks from it if you need it. I would recommend you to go on marshall vandruffs website and buy his old perspective course. It is old....really old and it shows in the video quality but still a treasure trove of knowlege. As for exercises well mashall once did a stream....you can find it also on his website and it's a free video. there were 3 exercises that I found really good. here is the link for his coure: https://marshallart.com/SHOP/all-products/all-videos/1994-perspective-drawing-series/ and here is the link for the exercises: https://marshallart.com/SHOP/all-products/all-videos/drawing-forum-and-qa-lessons-in-perspective-recorded-webinar/

Yes, there are alternatives, but draw a box really does make your path easier than if you had to read a book on the subject, for beginners on perspective I really don't see a better alternative, and it really helps if you want to start with more complicated books like "How to draw" by Scott Robertson.

In my opinion, drawabox is great for developing eye-hand coordination: I really wish I had known about this in animation school, where I realised my motor skills sucked big time, while my teachers kept repeating that I should draw more. However, after the first fistful of exercises, drawabox is less useful. The value of Drawabox is not in drawing boxes.

Unless I missed it, this seems to be the first lesson on a technique that doesn’t give any technical advice on how to actually make a tapered stroke. One observation from this video and the following videos is that Stan seems to be using a pencil with a more rounded tip than when doing final detail work. Is a not-so-sharp pencil ideal for tapered strokes? After some experimenting, it seems tapered strokes can be achieved with less pressure at the beginning of the line and more pressure in the middle than back to less pressure for the “taper” when using the tripod grip. When using overhand grip it seems that angle of pencil comes more into play in giving additional control. All of this seem right? Any technical tips from you taper stroke ninjas would be great!

In my experience, the overhand grip allows you to separate the location of your medium, using shoulder and elbow, from its orientation/character, using wrist and fingers. The latter is particularly relevant when using a softer medium, like charcoal or Conté, on an easel. In addition, I see it as a teaching tool, forcing students to separate the two mechanics. Once you get it, anything goes. I know people drawing really well from the dreaded monkey paw, which I do not recommend at all for beginners. And, of course, using a stylus on a tablet changes everything.