... I'm an excellent draughtsman ...
I'm intrigued, care to elucidate? Or provide some examples of your work? (i'm not doubting you ... I just am genuinely interested)
i don't have a scanner, and i rarelly draw from life with my digital drawing table, so i have no real example of draughtsmanship, but some people find this drawing here impressive, it is largelly unreferenced, tough, and my mistakes haunt me every time i look at it
References are for those who dont know what things look like or dont have very much imagination.
i really don't have to comment on this. please stop trying to give advice to anybody on this thread, you're causing harm.
Well i've been drawing without reference most of my (short) life, only recently have i started using them, and for things i completley suck at, like animals, or women, or most other stuff that isn't giant robots/tanks/demons/monsters
every artist should assume they suck at everything equally. drawing without a reference is fine until you start to actually use references, then you start to notice how much you sucked before. if you don't, then you're doing it wrong.
about your drawings: the lion is fine, tough a bit boring, the big headed creature's head is a bit flat, you should try to suggest more volume in it, the other two guys' it's good for you to try out positions that aren't completely frontal, but you exagerated a bit on the perspective distortion.