I think what pushed me forward the most into drawing free-handed and giving up on dolling was always having someone to aspire to. When I first joined the fandom my dream was to be as good as Centchi, her style is so accurate to the show's and yet so dynamic and pleasuring to see. God. I adored her work.



After picking up a "goal", I just tried to "imitate" her style, using references a lot, not tracing, do not trace. The only occasion I recommend tracing is tracing a drawing only for yourself, just so you get used to shapes and proportions, and your hands kind of remember how to draw themselves. Do not ever use it to make an art piece of your own. That is stealing and will get you into some big trouble. I used to save a ton of nice drawings I thought looked pretty good and would always look at them for reference and use it to make a drawing of my own.



After you get some practice and get better at it, you will kind of develop your style by yourself, cause ok, maybe I liked Centchi's work, but I'd rather draw ears or eyes or muzzles in a different way, either cause it's easier to draw or looks better to my tastes. Eventually, you'll be so used to drawing it you won't need to look at someone's work anymore. I barely use any reference for my canon style-ish drawings. Once every now and then, but not much necessary.



My style nowadays is pretty random actually, sometimes I feel like drawing canon style, sometimes I'd rather try something more "anatomic" and more accurate to equestrian body shapes. My favourite artist at the moment is definitely Lopoddity, the style I'm trying to achieve is sort of a mix between like her old, more cartoon-ish one and her current one. I don't quite like drawing exactly accurate horse bodies, would be nice to nail it, but somewhere in between a horse and a cartoon pony is fine by me. I'm always experimenting new styles and shapes so my "style" is kind of still inconsistent really. Specially ears. Oof. I hate and love drawing ears. Sometimes they look great, sometimes they look utterly horrifying.



But really, even nowadays I keep lots and LOTS of drawings for reference, not just of an specific artist, but anything that catches my eye, or that feels like it could be useful.



Another thing is, watch speedpaint videos or Livestreams, learning how other people draw is pretty helpful too. Some people can easily draw something straight to the final outlines of the drawing, others (like me) need to do tons of sketching before they can do the linework. I use a lot of geometrical shapes when sketching. A canon pony for example, it all starts with a circle with a cross on it (to make sure the face is centered).



I hope I was able to help at least a little bit ^^