Learning to draw to become an illustrator

[Zearthus]

I hope I'll understand their purpose and how to use them better after spending more time drawing figures. Hampton is saying that without them figures turn out stiff, but I don't believe him - I don't see why that should happen.

It may just seems like an abstract idea now, but the more you get into anatomy, eventually you reach a point where your figures starts stiffening up/become too mechanic, hence why gesture drawing exist. If you do some search in regards to it, every artist tackle gesture drawing differently like Kevin Chen, Steve Huston, Karl Gnass, Proko. Its like the first layer when you draw anything, like rough/loose idea you do for buildings, illustration etc.

Hopefully that makes sense,  keep at it buddy!