Can I apply your construction method to the alternative shape method?

Damn, this is very illuminating. Thanks!

Useless detail: Drawing the y to start a box, the "Y" method if you will, is where I took my IG handle from.

Do people really say you're just drawing contours? Makes me think two things: 1) we see how we think, so if they think it's a contour, when they look at the model, that's what they see, and so that's what they draw. 2) they didn't hear much of what you said. I see the places where what the lines you draw seem to match the edge of a form's silhouette or "contour", but those usually have to do with landmarks, like at the knees or elbows or when the ribcage lines up with the stretch or pinch lines you use. It feels hard to avoid in specific cases. Contrast with FORCE and there are lots of places where the leading edge of a pose or body part is a contour of the form, whether it's exterior or interior like in Mike's rhythmic templates and his shape templates for anatomy. But these are two VERY different methods to seeing. And great reference. That contra posto with pushed out pelvis and the squished oblique, not to mention the graceful way she's holding her hands and head, and overall sense of motion and rhythm. So much rhythm and balance.

Great stuff! I saw your new gesture book online yesterday. Gonna pick it up and continue the journey!

Thank you for this overview of the next steps in correctly constructing a whole figure. We often neglect the parts of our drawings that won't be seen by anyone, which can lead to a lot of frustration and sometimes even make us want to give up when we get to the level of light and shadow, where our drawing appears bumpy and deformed. I find your step-by-step explanations very helpful, and after years of struggling, I finally understood how to draw gestures. I will then resume the figure construction course, which I had already started but was unable to progress with because I lacked the fundamentals of gesture drawing. @Michael Hampton, will you also be teaching an anatomy course on Proko.com? That would be fantastic!

Really appreciated this lesson as someone who often needs to understand the end of a process in order to really feel comfortable with the beginning. Isolating gesture practice is obviously crucial, but for me at least, I can lose sight of the ball without some top-down sense of how each step should be compartmentalized, what I'm really trying to pass on to the next stage, and which thoughts/observations/peeves are irrelevant or premature. This+the construction course are really helping me intuit that better. Overall, really appreciate your analytical clarity. Thanks again, Michael!!