Getting started

For the past few years I have been drawing horses.  I have been around horses, handling them and riding them, a lot and I have a natural ability to be able to draw them, usually from memory. Sometimes the anatomy is not spot on, but the energy of the drawing usually is.  

When I try to draw humans, I am less sure of myself.  I get fogged up with memories of academic life drawing study in which the emphasis was on learning accuracy rather than expressing movement.
The books I mentioned in the previous post suggest a different starting point, either quick gestural drawings to capture the "lines of force" or blind contour drawing.  The latter means drawing without looking at the paper.  Essentially it is "drawing by touch", as the artist imagines his or her pencil is touching the subject and slowly following the outline.

Both these approaches mean that the artist is using other senses besides sight to look at and make the drawing.  This makes complete sense to me.  This is how I do my horse drawing, and I am helped by the knowledge in myself resulting from years of daily contact with horses.