>>3545210I think the problem with referencing stuff early on comes from not understanding the underlying reasons for why the artist chose to represent things this way. I made a similar mistake early on learning to draw people, I started repetitively copying a drawing of goku to try and learn how to draw muscles. It was mostly ineffective because I was just copying and memorizing lines, I was not understanding the structures the lines were supposed to represent. So when you take references and copy people's styles, always do it while thinking about why they do the things they do, what they're trying to represent with each line, what effect they're trying to create.
