"Drawing makes you see things clearer, and clearer and clearer still, until your eyes ache." ~David Hockney
I love to write. That may be unusual for Art teachers, but it led me to a discovery about drawing which I think we would all do well to adopt if only to advocate for our subject.
Participating in the Iowa Writing Project one Summer, my professors challenged us to see that writing is a thinking tool. In other words, the process is an end inn itself, regardless of how the product turns out let alone whether or not there is an audience for the final product.
The same is true for drawing. It is in and of itself an inestimably powerful thinking and learning tool and it is valuable and accessible for ALL learners, not just those who excell in it. Everyone can learn to do it and EVERYONE should because EVERYONE can benefit from the process of observing and recording their observations and from visualizing their thoughts and ideas.
One of the goals of gesture drawing is emphasizinng angles, weights, and direction. As far back as El Greco, artists have exaggerated these elements into "mannerism," for greater visual, emotional and dramatic effect. I sstarted this sketch with some pretty severe mannerism but then I distorted it even further with photo editing software. I figure that cameras and apps/software are just more tools like pencils, conte, charcoal, smudge-sticks & erasers. Use all the tools available to you whenever you can.