at the beginning of a figure drawing session, the model is often requested to make a series of brief poses in rapid succession. these are called gesture poses, and are typically one to three minutes each. gesture drawing is a warm-up exercise for many artists, although some artists sketch out the gesture as the first step in every figure drawing. these broad strokes are not just done by the flick of a wrist, but by using the whole arm to capture the motion of the model. it also helps to keep the artist focused on the model instead of the paper. when it comes to the human body, artists are painfully critical; the proportions of a still life do not have to be drawn perfectly to look authentic, but even the slightest error in human proportions will be easily detected.