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.

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.

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