I must be doing the whole thing entirely wrong then, because I can't get past the basic forms long enough to get into details without running off the page
have you looked at this before? might be helpful if not
:origin()/pre08/9b8d/th/pre/f/2011/036/a/a/learning_to_see___a_tutorial_by_senshistock-d38veai.png)
I'll have to give it another try, all other gesture drawings I've done recently I didn't have this much trouble, they went pretty well for the time I gave them. Something about this particular pose has boggled me.
keep at it!