Q: If I take photos of my car, then draw the car in the photo, would my drawing be considered an "original"? Do people do that? and is it a good idea or bad?
A: It would be an "original" drawing. Many illustrators use photographic references, either as depicted, or for specific details of the photo's subject. For example, if I were to do a realistic drawing of a couple of lions, I might use as many as six or eight different photos, to make sure I had everything anatomically perfect. But, it would be no different if I took my entire composition from the photo. That's one of the reasons I have been building up an extensive "morgue" of my own photo images to use in future works. The less I have to depend on stock photo images, the better, and more "pure" my images will be. In the meantime, I rest assured that many of the world's top illustrators use photo references.