Gesture Drawing!

One of my favorite classes by far every semester is figure drawing. When I first came to college I remember my first figure class and how much I struggled with my drawing skills. Most people don't believe me but one of these days I'm going to dig up some of those first drawings I saved and post them up. Ever since I was in high school when I ran across figurative work for the first time I fell in love and knew that one day I wanted to capture the beauty of the human figure like all the masters who have inspired me. One of my most inspirational art teachers in high school Mrs. Sanchez-St. Andre turned me on to an artist by the name of Richard Mcdonald who is one of the most incredible contemporary sculptors. If you've never seen any of his work please stop right now and look it up here http://www.richardmacdonald.com/. After begging my teacher to let us start drawing the figure she set up a few weeks where we got the chance to study the gesture and sustained poses but it wasn't until the past year and a half that I really got the chance to discover the true beauty of the figure, the epitome of design. Enough said, here are some gesture studies from the past few months I compiled, enjoy.