i rarely use references for like 1:1 poses in my art bc i always manage to make it look stiff and uninteresting 😭😭 i usually use refs when i study or warm up and just construct poses that i think would look good and hopefully catch the eye by drawing a big simple shape first (i mean literally a blob of color, very vague, this is a step at which you don’t need any detail), then i either skip to just sketching or i add another layer under the sketch that comes later, where i make a rough pass of the shapes and put some landmarks in so it’s easier to do the sketch on top and i don’t have as much clean up in the sketch phase!! i use refs sometimes but it’s usually just partial refs aka a pic of a specific body part in a somewhat similar position and at a similar angle to what i’m looking for, it doesn’t have to be the exact same thing bc the main form is very similar and you can just bullshit a little tbh lmao i use refs for cock too sometimes i hate drawing dicks so much 😭 what i started doing lately is whenever i’m unsure whether my landmarks and like the layout of the pose is how it would look irl i sometimes set up a model in csp into a similar pose and angle and if i see that it’s doable then i just proceed as i would or i make adjustments and move on, this helps keep the overly critical side of my brain in check bc im always like ‘.. would this even work’ and if i get substantial evidence that it would, in fact, work like this, then i’m reassured and more motivated to finish the drawing actually!! so this is a neat little hack - if you’re unsure of something pose a model based on what you have and see if it looks alright!! but i wouldn’t recommend relying on models too much bc they’re very bad at showing how the body bends and twists since the models usually don’t have stretchable muscles!! i think daz studio has the dynamics to stretch the muscles to some extent so you can always download it (it’s free!!) and pose the model they have in there