Hello, I've been practising gesture drawing for a few weeks now, and am now trying to strengthen my anatomy, using a book by Roberto Osti. However I'm now confronted by a new concept called stereometric drawing, breaking the figure down into stiff block like shapes, completely opposite to gesture drawing. Now I'm confused about how to proceed. Is it best to do gesture drawing first, then break it up into block shapes like in the stereometric approach? Or do I now leave gesture aside and focus on basic shapes?
I would start with gesture lines that express the movement of the pose. Using these gesture lines as a guide, I would then build up the figure using shapes. Once you've worked out the whole pose and the proportions are correct, you can go in and refine the contours.
Thanks for your suggestions Annewalk, I'm trying not to overthink it.