1. Gesture drawing is not drawing the figure fast. I say this from experience. If you try to do a figure drawing in just a couple of minutes, you will end up with both a bad figure drawing and a bad gesture drawing. The point of gesture drawing is not to construct the figure, but to capture the movement and the energy of the pose. Focus on the line of action and the point of tension, not on the proportions or landmarks of the anatomy.
2. Think before you draw. Don’t rush through your drawings. I know we don’t have a lot of time in timed sessions, but worrying about racing against the clock will result in a scratchy, confused drawing. Focus on understanding the action of the pose and forget about the clock, when the time is up, it’s up. Some of the sketches will remain incomplete and that’s okay. You’ll get faster with practice.
3. Sketch lightly. Only press hard on points of tension or when you are sure you’re wanting a line to be prominent. It's okay to wander a bit around the paper lightly to “find the form” but doing so gently will allow you to still end up with a clean gesture once you’ve found exactly where you want to put the darker lines.
4. Look at the 3 main masses. Pay special attention to the head, rib cage and pelvis. Use them to find the line of action (your main gesture line). You can conceptualize these as circles or ovals, and can usually find the main line of action by connecting them. The limbs either split off from this main line or follow it.
5. Use curves. You can think of the figure as a stickman, but draw curves instead of straight lines. Curves have more fluidity and movement, straight lines are blunt and stationary and are more likely to make the gesture stiff.
6. Use overlaps. These creases or “T” shapes create a sense of depth, because they suggest an overlapping of forms. Pay attention to them, especially on longer timed poses. They will make your sketches more three-dimensional.
As you gain a greater understanding of the figure and its forms, anatomy, and landmarks, you can start to bring that knowledge into your gesture drawings, but for beginners, it’s best to focus on the movement and energy of the pose. I also find that gesture drawing is a lot more comfortable and loose when I draw on large sheets of paper because it's easier to use my whole arm to draw, unlike drawing digitally where I have a tendency to draw from my wrist which in turn causes me to draw shorter lines and miss the gesture. But that is a matter of personal preference.
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