Mabelma's Thread of Stuff (Art)

[Chutzpar]

You are not doing gestures right.

You don't do structure for gestures, you just lay out the basic form. This does not mean the wireframing that you would do for a finished drawing.


here is a good gesture drawing.
It's more about getting the 'feel' of the pose and an idea of the weight.


Also by "Shadow practices" do you mean negative space? Or silhouette? Or shading? You are VAGUE.

I'm... skeptical about using a lot of How to Draw books. Most, if they're actually any use, aren't going to tell you anything that Loomis doesn't. They can be simpler though so it might be an idea to work from both, now I think of it.
A book you should look into is Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.