Damn this is amazing, such cuties~ :3

Yeah probably is pretty tight around there~ I'm happy you like it c:

Yeees <3

Even the artists who say reference is cheating have eyes and look at the world. They could not draw a Kangaroo for example without ever looking at one, they may not use the reference while drawing, but they must have looked at it at some point. And feeding from that memory while they draw.

Once you can do it using the ref try to draw it from memory and boom once you can do that you can draw this thing without reference ;3
Eventually you have internalized so many things and forms that you can mix them all together to create something new and unique if that's what you're after.

Don't be afraid to even trace over stuff to learn how things relate to eachother at first if you really struggle with a specific thing. Then if you think you can make sense of the traced lines, try to draw using that traced art as reference.

Or even better by directly drawing some of it even. They say to truly see something you try to draw it, and i would say that's true. You notice soo much more compared to just looking at something.