I'm not sure if you're looking for more concrete suggestions. If you are, this is what I do. Again, I'm NOT an expert. If someone disagrees with me, by all means they probably know more than I do:
1. Look at the model to get the general shape. S, C, twisted, so combination?
2. Draw an oval for the head. Put on the ceter lines so that you visualize if the face is straight on, profile, 3/4 or somewhere in between
3. One flowing line from the base of the skull following the path of the spine. It is almost never straight. Even if it is, try not to do it. Maybe a soldier standing at attention
4. 2 more lines dictating the thickness of the chest, torso and abd. You'll eventually move on to making another oval for this. Egg shaped for men. More hourglass shaped for women. This FOLLOWS the curves of first line that you made. That's why the first line is so important.
5. Draw an inverted triangle for the pelvis. Try not to make the top of the body (shoulder line) parallel with the hips (pelvic line). E.g. Right shoulder down means right hip up.
6. Circles for shoulders and hips.
7. One long CURVED line or two shorter CURVED lines (with circles for elbows/knees) for the arms and legs. These are not straight. Straight (and parallel and symetric) equals robot.
8. The arms and legs should not be mirrors of each other.
9. Just like the body, add rounded cyliders to show thickness of the extremities. Make sure they taper. I.e. Wide at the shoulder/hip narrowing down toward elbow/knee. THEN AGAIN, wider at the elbow/knee and narrowing toward hand/foot.
10. VERY basic hand/foot shapes.
That should get you to the 2 min mark. Remember, even if you can't see the body under the clothes, draw it anyway. That is the underpinnig to keep things from being stiff and fake looking.
Hopefully, I didn't just tell you stuff you alread knew. If so, my apologies and I hope it helps someone else.
Hello! Welcome! I think the best advice to give is "practice". Ha! That's always the answer! I am not a professional drawer/artist. I just like to draw and doodle. You're right, though. Making things less stiff is hard. It's even harder when you want to draw from your imagination not just draw what you see. Again, i'm by no means an expert, but here is what has helped me (in life in general! Not just in drawing!) Copy how to do it. Copy until you get it down good. Then put your imagination on top of the copied thing. Then, change it a little. Repeat.
Do the timed drawings. Set it short so you only have time to get the flow of the model's pose. If you start drawing details, shorten the time. 2 mins max. Go back and put your character ideas on top of the poses. Get comfortable with that. Then, after a while, move the arm a little or the head tilt. Once you can move things and it still looks good, come up with some poses yourself for your characters based on what you've sketched from previous practice. Finally, after practice, you will be able to come up with poses that don't look so stiff.
Like legos. Follow the instructions. Build the car. Change a color brick here or there. Then maybe extend the body. Next build a car with the same underpinnings as the instructions. Finally, build a car that you designed with the knowledge of what needs to be underneath to make it "a car".
Hope that helps. I'm still in the "copy it down until I get it good" stage.
Just started drawing 2 weeks ago. No joke! 40 years old. Always trying to challenge myself. I'm currently using a book by Mark Kistler and some YouTube videos. One of my goals is to be able to draw figures in dynamic poses. Since none of my lesson have gotten to figure drawing, are there any examples of a 30 second sketch? My attempts so far are rather horrid...
