Hi all,
Happy to meet you all.
Been browsing for a bit but wanted to join now before I posted.

I'm just beginning my drawings. Like all nerds from the 90s, I want to play around anime/cartoon art styles and so, I'm starting from several books I picked up over time. But a lot of them are just "Now add Hair (tutorial to draw hair not included, good luck)".

I talked to some of my artist buddies who have been amazing and I got conflicting answers.
- One of my friends told me that in the beginning she never drew without a reference. She swears by it as she spent the first 2 years only mimicking characters while honing her own style and slowly drew thousands of characters in her early 80s fantasy, D&D art style.
- My other friend who draws cyberpunk style, hyper science fiction said he never used references from the start and that everything came from his mind. He said he just observed real hair styles, eyes, etc and just replicated them at night when he drew over the years and even now only glances at references before making his own for commissions.

I adore and trust both of them. Any suggestions who to listen to?