/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

Critique please

Also I have a question about gesture drawing. What is the main reason for doing it?
I've done a bunch now and I've realized my first 75% was a mindless grind. I just drew the figs. Now I'm implementing C,S curves and finding the line of action with the 30-60sec ones. But I feel like I'm not gaining from it, they're just wavy lines and the proportions are all wrong. Anything beyond a minute, I tend to abandon the curves and go back to how I normally draw. Meticulously scratchy. Should I maintain the curves through out?

With my latest 25% of gestures I've been studying shadows and values and I think I'm starting to see correctly how light lands on a surface and and to give the right amount of contrast.

A few threads I posted some gestures with ugly fucking faces cause I just started drawing faces on the figures and realized I suck at faces. Thanks to the anons that gave feedback. I need to work on my faces, neck, waist, and be less chicken scratchy.

Now I'm doing gestures to study form. The thing is I understand and get a better feel of the form if I do scratchy lines. Is it good to do chicken scratch when studying or should I always strive for clean lines?

I'm finally starting to understand what a 'study' is. I even went back to drawing boxes and cylinders. Paying attention to what I'm drawing, instead of just filling a drawing quota. Things are actually getting fun. Yet I still have this feeling in the back of my head that I'm doing this wrong.

tl;dr: Is Gesture drawing learning in any way you want or is there a specific textbook manner of doing it making use of C,S curves?