You definitely have the right idea. When you start drawing, you want to think as simple as possible. Just like with the pear exercise in the drawing basics course, you want to simplify the shapes into very basic forms and separate the areas of dark values from the areas of light values. As for the proportions, work those out in the initial layin before you start darkening your lines. It may just be a matter of diligent measuring until you develop your eye. Using guidelines like the center line and lines to place the eyes, mouth and nose can help. Once you have your basic forms and separation of light and dark, you can start rendering. Don't worry about making it look nice until you have a really solid foundation to work from.

Besides what Steve Lenze has mentioned, consider the lighting. You currently have 4 light sources: 2 equal sources of light from both left and right directions, 1 direct front facing light source, and one from top right of the image (left of character). While having many light sources is not incorrect, it is quite complex. If you decide to keep them, you have to make sure that the shadow shapes are designed as per the lighting conditions. An easy way to approach it is as follows: Set your first light source...outline the shadow parts of this light Set your second light source...outline the shadow parts of this light Repeat for other sources of light... Where these shadows intersect will be your darkest tones, and where they do not, become affected by the other light sources, hence making them brighter. Keep it up!

There's a lot of great advice in this thread. Experiment with the gesture lines that you draw for this pose. I think a zig zag shape could help you find that energy that you're looking for.

You need to try and find a gesture line that describes the pose from top to bottom, then find the gesture of each limb. I did a quick sketch to show you what I mean.

Find the gesture, then build the structure for your figure. Muscular figures can look kind of stiff if you don't create gesture first.

Hi Trisha. It looks to me like you were focused on details in your drawing, where a gesture drawing communicates the rhythms of a pose using simple flowing gestural lines. Have you watched Stan's gesture lessons in the Figure Drawing course? He does an excellent job breaking down the thought process in easy-to-understand language. If you don't have the course, you may be able to watch the first video for free. If not, they posted it on the Proko YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74HR59yFZ7Y Edit: To reply to your specific question, the lesson I mentioned goes into finding the rhythms that best communicate these kinds of energies in the body, like pinching or stretching.

Hmm…certain facial features help highlight the age, the expression on the face too. A young boy aged 10-15 may have a michevious or young refreshing look to him, or an apathetic glare common with teenagers. A lady in her early 20s may have some makeup on or hair style popular among the age group. Maybe facial features of maturity and a strong sense of self. I’m no professional, just my objective opinion on this. Hope this helps🤲

In drawing gestures what are some tips to help emphasize pressure (build up of static energy) and motion (outburst of kinetic energy) in certain parts of the body? Thank you