I need to work on my gesture drawing skills, so that I can get the idea of a model/pose on paper enough within a set time that I can finish the work after the model exits the pose. I can't be expecting a leaping dancer to remain midair long enough for me to get to that point at my current skill and speed. So far, I have been working from photographs, just getting the idea of what gesture drawing even is, but I do need to start doing timed practices pretty soon.

In the meantime, here's a leaping dancer I drew from a photo, untimed (although I didn't spend a very very long time - maybe 10 minutes? too long for timed gesture practice, but not nearly long enough for a polished drawing), today:

I think it came out pretty well, but I think there's a foreshortening or perspective error making his arms and legs look like they are the same length. I am pretty pleased with his right calf - is that weird?

And here is one from a couple months ago, which was timed, although I gave myself an outrageous time limit, like 5 minutes? Way too long to expect the dancer to remain airborne, haha.

In this one, I think if I'd had more time I would have

• adjusted the shape of his ribcage and waist inward on the left side,
• made his thighs more consistent (the one on the left is super muscular, and the one on the right looks way slack - that can't be right; but I would need to look at the model again to get the right thigh the way I feel like it ought to be, and of course, the leaping dancer has long since landed),
• added a lot of shading and contrast (so you can tell where his shorts end and his legs begin, for example, and so the shorts look less like I just scribbled out his dick)

I think I am getting better, but obviously still plenty to learn. 

One thing I just learned now: I need to use JPG rather than PNG images, if I want them to actually insert into the post.

Happy Monday!