So here's my 1st Gesture study. You'll notice that you'll see technically 2 different ones. Well the 1st one I did I really PACKED ON the weight. So much that it couldn't stand. My suspicion was the feet or that it was too heavy for the skeleton as the wire frame couldn't even hold it up. So I took out another wire armature and did it again. Except this time I did pencil gesture studies of the ref. I'm a line guy so I figured it would help me to translate into doing more gesture than structure. I also paid very close attention to balance. Every so often I would have the model stand to make sure I was having a balanced sculpture. Unfortunately, while I succeeded in a standing model, the upper body is too flat. I guess you can blame that on being a little too LINEar with applying the gesture drawings...get it?...Cause it's kind of...flat...

The three that are together are 6" tall. While the others are 11.5" tall. I've realized that I've run into the issue with my pliers. They are too thick so when I go to go back up the leg to tie the wire around it I can't grip the foot with the pliers. So the wire ends up slipping upwards and decreasing the size of the foot and ruining its shape. I think they are serviceable but I'll have to get new pliers.

So the second I got done with it I realized I had no gesture. I really like the shapes that the chest make in this pose and the concave parts of the armpits and i think it's clear that I focused mostly on that.

Gesture Study #3. I focused on the mass and weight of this pose because there's a lot of interesting things going on in the back and left art/shoulder area. I made a mistake in the armature construction, so the spine was 1/4" too short. Due to that, the rib cage and pelvis are closer together than what the model's proportions are, making the sculpture a little more squat. That said, since he's a bodybuilder, it kinda works and doesn't ruin the work. Any other notes are welcome.

First time putting pencil to paper in my life! Feel a little self-conscious about this but I already think I see improvement which is motivating. Please help me out! Should I start somewhere else? With more basic concepts? Thank you!