Interesting, a lot of people (mainly who don't draw themselves) are saying that using reference is cheating.
Well there is a clear answer to that:
If you want to draw something, you need to see it.
Doesn't matter if you use reference at the moment or used reference, you always need to see the subject beforehand.
When you use no reference, you still see the things you used to see with your eyes in your head which would be your Visual Library
Let's say you need to draw an apple, you have never seen an apple before, how are you supposed to draw it?
Either look at an apple in real life or use the internet, either way you used reference at that moment, when you decide to look at the reference for 10 seconds and then "free draw" the rest without looking, you still used reference for it.
Now if you have drawn apples for a long time now, your Visual Library is full of them, you can draw them without reference but you still used to use them (You can even argue that you still use reference because you see it in your Visual Library, but nobody goes that far ^^)
I hope this helps to not feel bad for using reference, not only for you but for other people who see this post!
It's important and shouldn't be discouraged!
Remember: You can only learn if you use reference!
