This is not a "drawing" tutorial where I'll show you the finite, end all to How-To-Draw-Perfectly. I call it a "sketch" tutorial because that is the area most artists need help in.

The purpose of this tutorial is to get you sketching!

The most important thing to making art is the realization that a finished piece is the product of hundreds of studies, practices, or no-so-finished pieces. A major part of "learning to draw" is learning to sketch. If you go to a fine art school, you'll spend your first year "life drawing" (drawing from a model) or "still life" (drawing from a set up scene, like a fruit bowl. How droll.)
It's boring and it's tedious, but it has to be done. You can't do calculus without knowing algebra!

Let yourself go from the mindset that every time your pencil touches paper it must be better than the last time! It will only make you tense. Progress comes in small steps--it's not a smooth slope.

Anyone can tell you "build the figure using cubes, spheres, and cylinders," but building robots like that completely loose the feel of the "organic" creature--something made of fluid lines, curves, thicks and thins, and most important: movement. Movement becomes Story, and Story becomes a great work of art.

Gesture sketches are what art students learn to do to learn to create fluid characters. Its a sketch of a complicated pose done by a model, and the student has 10-25 seconds to capture that pose on paper. What you get when you start out is scribbles and the art equivalent of gibberish. After time, you develop an "economy of lines," the ability to capture movement, weight and physical feel in a few strokes. It takes time, but so does everything worth having.
Here's a few gesture sketches from others:

• A Hand
• Figures
• Figures
• More Figures
• MORE figures!
• Not just for humans!
• Donkey

Why do it?
It builds a foundation and natural understanding for form your subconscious remembers.
Driving a car becomes second nature, and so will the human (or animal) form if you practice enough.

Now! On to the Tutorial!
In this tutorial, you can see how I draw in the attached file. I never use "boxes" to "build" the form (nor ever have)--I scribble until I "find" the form. I've been doing it for years, so my hand is pretty practiced at picking out the right lines the first or second time. I once had the process of gesture sketching described to me as shaping a figure out of clay, but your hands are instead your pencil, and the clay is the paper. Silly, yes, but that sentiment provides for a much more organic, rounded and dynamic version of a figure versus a blocky cubes'n'spheres robot (no matter how you flesh that out, it will always have the roots of a robot.)

Normally, this tutorial sketch might have taken anywhere between 30-45 seconds (if you don't count all the time scanning.)

Supply Requirements for the Tutorial:

• 1 Beer
• 1 Pencil
• 1 Sheet of Paper
• Music You Like

#1 - I start with a quick circle just to start somewhere, then the line of the neck, and the broad line of the shoulders.

#2 - I flush out the feel of the torso, with the pectoral muscles and abdomen. I've draw the figure many many times, so it comes naturally where the muscles should be. Reference photos are a great thing to have when your learning. However, sketching from models is the best, as your eye perceive light and form different in 3D versus on a photograph or monitor screen. Everything is more tangible and "real." Even if you can just get a friend to do 10 minuets of 30-45 second poses a day where you can practice gesture sketches, you're on a good track to understanding form.

#3 - The back and the hips. Male hips are very square, where as female's are curvy. Also, spines are not straight! There is a natural, gentle S-curve to all standing figures. If your standing straight, your head balances on your spine directly in line with your pelvis/hips.

#4 - Sketch out the legs. I make "anthros" stockier than humans, because if they walk digitigrade (on their toes) like a dog, then their legs would naturally be bent more than a plantigrade (walking on your heel) creature such as an upright human. Hence, their thigh muscles would be stronger, to help bear their weight. Of course, anthros are a fantasy creature, but if your creating a believable beast, some rules like physics to apply.

#5 - Fill in the arms. A couple useful notes on arm proportion: The elbow rests against the middle of the abdomen, and the hand rests at mid-thigh if the arm is relaxed and hanging at your side. When you sketch out an arm, look at it and pretend the elbow is resting at the character's side--would it meet their midsection? If not, best to fix it now than have it wonky forever!
REMEMBER: You're always your own best reference! Stand up, move about, feel where your arm reaches to, where your elbow rests.

#6 - Quick gesture drawn hands of a few strokes and finding the "right" size of the head.
A note on Hands and Feet: It is a very common mistake when starting out to make the hands and feet too small. Objectively take a moment to look at your figure--could they stand up? Do they look like they could balance, let alone walk? A human foot is the same length as their forearm (go on, try it.) Something walking and balancing on its paws is going to have to have big paws. Hands are generally 3/4 the length of your face.
In character design, exaggerating the hands (making them bigger) is a good way to help with physical expression. A big snarly werewolf probably wont have sissy little hands.

A good site for hand reference photos:
http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/farp/hand

Spend some time sketching hands (you can use your own, the one that doesn't hold the pencil) in 15-25 second poses. Try to maximize the feeling of substance in as little lines as possible!
Here's some hand gesture sketches:

• Hands 1
• Hands 2
• Hand Studies

#7 - I added a couple details, such as claws, a tail, ears and the indication of where the muzzle will be. I also retraced the "good" lines to help pull them out a bit and emphasize the form.
Note on Tails: Tails are extensions of the spine, and naturally will point downward if the figure is standing. A lot of animals (some dog breeds like German shepherds & border collies, big cats like leopards) have a curve to their tails you can see when they stand or walk, but other animals, such as wolves, carry their tails down. Look at plenty of reference photos, or better yet, go to a zoo and see the animal yourself to get a feel for how they move, and their body parts fit together.
If your tail was jutting straight out of your spine at a right angle to the ground...it's probably broken and hurts a lot.

All I can stress is practice! Work from life, from photos, or from the alien broadcasts in your brain, but all I can say is: Sketch!
Look at reference! Look at people on the street! Touch things to get a tangible feel of the world! Chase your neighbors cat up a tree so you can sketch it without it running away! Sketch while in the emergency room for massive blood loss from cat scratches!

Develop the foundations and when you do have that awesome idea in your head, your hand will be trained to respond and get the right lines on paper when you need it to.

This is only page one of the Tutorial. Page two goes over the face, expression and some simple shading. I'll post it in a day or two. ;]
Hope it was helpful!

Cheers,
-Blotch