I don’t tend to use a lot of reference and just picture what I’m drawing in a 3 dimensional plane… I may be making my own life a lot harder but my brain just can’t do references

I literally use 100 different references so it ends up being pretty unique!

References aren't a bad thing at all. I don't really need references anymore unless I'm drawing something I'm unfamiliar with but like 6 years ago I would rely on them pretty heavily because I wasn't as experienced.

Why not do both? Using references will make your own pieces look better and help give your own designs some “credibility” points. It’s surprising how little we often know about stuff around us, how they’re build, how they work, how materials actually reflect or absorb light, textures behaving in different lighting, anatomy, etc

I only use references, if it's something I'm not drawing often, it's a specific thing or person. For body poses it's helpful too. Everything else is coming out of my head. Not everything has to be super realistic. Often my brain provides me with the final picture. This is my reference.