Here’s an exercise! I cannot draw cars well. I don’t like drawing cars.
The first sketch was from memory without looking at any photos of a car. The second was traced from a photo of a car. The third, without looking at any photos or previous sketches. I still can’t draw cars very well but a bit more about what they look like are embedded in my memory. :>
Tracing is a wonderful way to practice. This works for more than just machines, if you trace something then it helps you learn how it FEELS to draw something accurately, which gives you the freedom to experiment, exaggerate, and stylize your art without sacrificing structure and recognizeability.
I get a lot of compliments on the way I draw muscular people. If I had not gone through a phase of tracing models then I would not have learned how it FEELS to draw proportional muscles. It greatly improved my art in the long term, and now when I use reference photos I find that it’s easier for me to make sense of what I’m looking at.
yiss