also I am drawing some dreamies! I ALWAYS FEEL LIKE I DO REQUEST JOURNALS AND GO NOPE.

I still have to read that journal by onta to get what you're referencing, but I actually find this journal super interesting because I'm going through a little bit of the opposite? Or at least, I'm on the same path as what you're talking about. Throughout my whole art career I've been doing nothing but the basics. Ever since I've started drawing I've been a student. My art has been purely academic in nature, and the 'fun' stuff like characters or doodling was severely behind compared to my painting and still life stuff. It's only in the past year or so that I've been on FA seriously drawing to fit a certain sort of style (character illustration with solid lineart and a very specific process of drawing) that I've really improved in that area. Now that I'm finally getting a good grasp on this I get what you mean about wanting to return to the academic stuff, practice my painting and illustration and scenery and go back to using references.
It's weird that you're considering using heavy references as being a bad thing. True that relying on it as a crutch slows the drawing process but it usually helps the final product in a way that's severely lacking across the board, especially with people who've never learned proper anatomy and 'draw from the mind', which without reference is mostly intuitive and guessing. It sometimes works, sometimes it doesn't, but using heavy reference and constantly practicing is what makes it so the intuitive stuff is easier, you can just do anatomy from memory. There's so many people on here that I see just, never using references or making use of tools in art that I'd always learned to fall back on. So in one sense it baffles me that there's artists that ...aren't art 'students.' And it's really impressive that these people produce what they do without a day of formal schooling. So I just sit here thinking to myself how completely unstoppable would these people be if they learned some proper methodology? And that's a really exciting prospect, since it's so easy to learn with the right effort and application and direction.

So sometimes I see journals like this where people aren't happy with their art or they want to try a new direction, and of course I feel the same way sometimes, but I forget that I have the privilege of knowing exactly how to deal with that situation. Because I was taught how to learn and improve. I'm cheering you on, definitely 0u0/ but any time I feel like I'm not where I should be with my art, I fall back on the basics. Life drawing, basic anatomy and color theory. Go look at some tutorials and speedpaints, see what other people are doing, study someone's style, download some new brushes and play. Find some new artists and go through their stuff. Hell, go back to history and copy a painting or a period style of art. Look at your favorite artists and literally copy them. I know that's something that's looked down upon in the online gallery world, but it's literally the ancient technique of learning and I wish it was more widely accepted as a learning tool. When I first came to FA and started working as a business partner with deletethestars I had to do a few pieces where I replicated her style to a tee as to, quite literally, pose as her and produce some stuff under her name. And I think because of that my art and style of producing pieces skyrocketed at a pace much faster than it would have if I just tried to build from the ground up and explore on my own 'ok this works and this doesn't and I'm going to try this next time.'

So while 'starting from the ground up' may be one way of putting it, I don't think you need to do a total rehaul. And I'm sure you didn't mean it like that but when worded like that it sounds like sort of, scrapping what you've been doing and starting over fresh. It's more like a return to a foundation. A revisitation to help secure and further develop the skillset you have to fall back on. Everyone needs to do it every once in a while and anyone who doesn't think so is pretty foolish. It's as basic as stretching old muscles and practicing old habits to help boost the new ones.

SORRY IF THIS IS LIKE, RANDOM ASS ESSAY but it got me thinking!! Especially since I posted a similar sort of thing to my tumblr earlier today. That and I mean, I've been an art teacher in the past, so helping people and pushing them to reach their potential when they have feelings like this is how i do. YOU'RE GONNA GO FAR KID. SHOOT FOR THE MOON.

I spent most of my early drawing history copying others styles/methods and not ACTUALLY studying anatomy, which I didn't do until this year. And I think that's what I meant by starting from the basics, it's extremely hard for me to just sit down and think up a pose or illustration or background without some outside influence and it really upsets me.

I do appreciate your thoughts on this and this was really pleasant to read, I've never had any formal teaching due to the fact I'm homeschooled, so I just go with what I can do at the time. I probably will take a step back and starting working on quick anatomy sketches studying others styles without completely jacking it/working on them in private which seems the best route and watching speedpaints to learn how to paint better, I aspire atleast painting wise to capture emotions on anthros like  falvie does, because wow.

Also do you have a Skype? I'd love to just have someone I could talk to for academics/teaching/insight on art.

Sorry my reply is so short, my finger is busted atm.

HELL YEAH I GOT A SKYPE :D And don't worry about short reply <3 I just have a tendency to ramble lol. Gonna note you 0u0!!

A lot of my training came from watching infomercials when it came to anatomy, the human body is rather complicated, and as beautiful as that is, and how versatile it can be, it makes drawing it rather tricky. Watching those fitness commercials n stuff really helped me stare at the human body a lot without freaking people out like when I used to stare at people around me. xD
Another thong that helps is thinking about what you might want the character to be doing, and often it helps you envision a natural pose that looks okay. There are also sites that have really good posing models that you can pose and angle however you like, which is REALLY helpful! I always try to pick poses that flow well that aren't too stiff or overdramatic(unless I want it to be), it's something I've learned from seeing others' figure drawings and whatnot, if poses are too stiff or don't have much curve in their flow, it tends to look wrong or less attractive to the eye. :3c