Help needed with 30 second gesture drawings

For starters, here are some 30 second gesture drawings I’ve done using class mode: https://imgur.com/a/jvdGj3u

They are very bad. They don’t look in the shape of a human, and there’s no confidence in any lines. Nor do any lines properly imitate the models. I just feel unable to do that. I can’t figure out how to look at a reference and have my sketch match up in any sort of way. I’m told it doesn’t matter because I’m just training my brain to see the shapes, but I can’t imagine that’s going on when I’m not really learning these shapes since I can’t even imitate them. I cant get any lengths right or where I’m supposed to connect parts or how big something should be. 

I’m feeling like I should give up now since it might be a lost cause. These have worse anatomy than a preschoolers drawings.

My usual sketches take hours, an embarrassing amount of hours, because I don’t know what I’m doing. 

Any help at all is very much appreciated, advice at all on how to be able to draw these shapes or how I’m supposed to go about using these gesture classes. Anything works. Thank you.

I think you're harsh on yourself, because they do look very much like human bodies. 30 seconds isn't an amount of time that's going to let you fix a lot of (or any) mistakes, so when it's wonky it stays wonky. (maybe it's simply a timer that doesn't work for you, like are your 60 second sketches more comfortable for you?)

Personally I try not to put any value in what my 30 second sketches look like, because they're just warm ups. They're generally not great, but when I'm done with them it's a lot easier to work on something that's going to have more polish, as I've already made a ton of mistakes (like misjudging the size of the canvas etc, shoddy proportions, etc). Doing that doesn't prevent making more mistakes, but it makes them easier to spot and fix when I'm working on a more serious piece. 

Also: I don't think you should give up based on your work!
Hmmm... How to say this. Do you have a reason to stick to this, that is unrelated to how good or bad you are at it? I think it's good to pick up these type of studies when they serve a purpose, instead of just doing it because of the abstract goal of wanting to learn how to draw. It doesn't have to be anything deep or anything, just something that keeps you afloat when your sketches suck. (And I mean that in a "when the artist thinks their sketches suck" kinda way, because I feel like we all have days where we just don't like the thing we made.) 
If you have a goal that brings you joy, it's worth sitting through a ton of bad sketches for. For me at least.

ETA: What I mean to say with all that is: if gesture drawing is something that is not-fun for you in a way that it sucks all the joy/feeling of accomplishment/whatever-you-gain-from-creating right out of doing art, then it's def something you can consider giving up on. But it shouldn't be based on your skills, bc improvement is gradual and not always visible. (And even if you don't improve at all, that's fine too.)

However if you DO give up on it for this reason, please don't think you have failed. There's never one right way to do art, and figuring out what you like or don't like doing is succeeding at it actually.

Thank you for the help! I might need to start with giving myself more time. Maybe I am comparing myself to others too strongly, because I just feel like there is some simple thing I am misunderstanding when it comes to these warm-ups. Like how I can’t get the proportions right just by eye. 

I am very much passionate about getting better at art, which might be why I am so hard on myself and feel like I cannot do it when I feel I “fail” at things like these gesture drawings. I struggle with being a perfectionist when it comes to my art, so I’ve been doing these timed gestures to try and get better at just drawing without spending hours on every small line and detail.

Thanks very much for your words, I guess I will have to keep doing these until I feel I’m improving. I was just hoping there were some tips or information on how I could properly use these references to create something more accurate, or how I could get these outlines and shapes to make sense in my mind in a way that I can get back down on the paper.

Traditionally, instead of trying to get them right by eye, you'd measure with a pencil. So it being hard for you to do that only makes sense - the main technique used in live drawing literally exists because we cannot observe objectively. It may be a bit too much work to really apply when doing these warmups, but it could certainly help you use references more efficiently. 
(Like you can use it on warmups but you won't end up with a lot on the page, which is also fine bc you're still training your brain to observe)

The reason I don't instantly recommend it, is because it can be kinda hard to pull off when drawing from a screen. I personally don't use this when using this website, but I do use it when drawing from a live subject. 

Here's a vid by Proko on how it works: 
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/sdnvjyVOP4k

Though... Keep in mind, this is also something that takes practice to really be able to use efficiently! So no worries if it doesn't work for you straight away.

I think youre being very harsh on yourself, 30 seconds isnt a lot, i feel like youre trying to do the whole drawing in 30 seconds when you dont have a clear grasp of how the human body is generally constructed. 30 second sketches are very much for capturing the bare essence of a pose rather than the musculature (especially if you arent very experienced), if you want to capture more i reccomend increasing the time to 60 seconds for your "quick drawings" and also doing longer drawings to try to get the details right. Drawing individual body parts outside of practice (you can go find images on medical diagrams and sites like Pexels or youtube videos), learning certain rule of thumbs when it comes to the overall body proportions and measuring with a pencil on your longer drawings can go a long way! Just keep at it!
Another piece of advice, completely optional but it might be worth trying to draw with pencil on paper, it might give you more fluidity and confidence compared to the digital medium, especially since the undo button isnt available. Also it is easier to get into the workflow since you dont have to paste the image to your program and then start drawing, personally this helped me a lot to draw and to stay consistent!

Hey!

As others have mentioned I think perhaps you're being a bit too self critical! These aren't nearly as bad as you may think!

Moreover, I think perhaps you're drawing on too large of a canvas for each pose, try drawing on a smaller scale to create shorter strokes. Sometimes it's hard to continue to be motivated when you try your hardest and do all the things everyone else says to do and yet you still feel as though it's doing nothing for you and your learning process! I love 30 second figure drawings (if you can believe it) but I'm terrible at 1 minute figure drawings! The issue here isn't a lack of skill, but a lack of time management and order of operations! You have to get better at adjusting your priority of drawing to the time you have and to abandon traditional drawing habits that don't serve you in this exercise.

Figure drawing requires a lot of passive thinking but an active effort to swat away at habit. I can only use myself as an example but hopefully it'll help you think of yourself and the way you think! I used to be worse at figure drawing, and as I mentioned especially 1 minute and higher. It's because I think too much because I have so much time...But with 30 seconds I'm forced to not think too hard. I'd say if you're struggling with proportions (though judging by your drawings I don't think your proportions are that bad at all!) Really hone in on practicing proportion, don't think of volume or shapes, just do the stick figures to get that down and don't do it in figure drawings. Really study it to get a better understanding. And once you have that in your memory bank DONT THINK ABOUT IT AT ALL while you're doing your figure drawings. Just look and draw. Which sounds easier than it is. But when you don't think of the images as HUMAN SHAPES. Look at each individual part of the figure as isolated shapes and hopefully your muscle memory/unconscious brain fills in the gaps of proportion with your prior study. A lot of this is built up habit.

Think about why you're doing figure drawings and what purpose they serve you! For me I never do figure drawings to 'loosen up' my drawings, or to fix a stiffness in my art. I use it to practice my anatomical skills and be able to better understand how muscles and limbs connect.

Consider: why am I doing figure drawings? Is this the best way for me to practice? and Can I be doing this in a way that doesn't hurt my brain?

hope this was helpful