how do *you* do posemaniacs?

[poyo]

Some of you guys post posemaniacs exercises in your sketchbooks, I just started doing the 90 sec ones, how should I approach it?

I use a stick figure with a line of action, and indicators for direction of shoulder and hips, it helps me get everything connected to the right places. But I saw on youtube that people are just doing it freehand?
looks like no one uses guidelines on CD either.

Should I wean myself of this stick figure technique and just eyeball it?

[iggytek]

you should approche it from a gesture standpoint since your drawing time is limited you must capture as much of the figure as you can

like these http://www.artpad.org/picture/dsc_0498lr...Id=5733379
http://www.artpad.org/picture/dsc_0478lr...Id=5733375
http://www.artpad.org/picture/gestures%2...Id=5733381
by jamie jones
but keep to the time or your not learning

[poyo]

thanks dude, I'm doing it the new way now

[mactire]

I would avoid using posemaniacs to be honest, since it uses "posed" 3d models that have a musculature texture applied to them they can actually be mis-informing you. I realise that you are probably only going for gestures due to the time you're going for, but even at that the posemaniac models can't convey light, weight, balance and correct muscle movement that you would get from studying from a real model. Ideally the best results would probably come from attending a life drawing session but since that's not always possible due to financial or geographical reasons there are several good resources online that allow for timed poses like the system posemaniacs uses but with stock and pose reference photos of models.
Some include:
http://www.pixelovely.com/gesture/figuredrawing.php
http://www.artsyposes.com/ (look for the "Timed Drawing Tool")
http://www.lovecastle.org/draw/

Enjoy!

[poyo]

Thanks mactire! I like the one at pixelovely; I will use them from now on :D

I just used posemaniacs because it seemed so popular and starting from zero knowledge of the human body it helped me a bit by simplifying the shapes. Otherwise I'd probably still be @_@ after a month.