But op didn't ask for the ultimate drawing test, asked for starting practice. Parent advice is spot on: the initial exercises need to focus on arranging lines

But op didn't ask for the ultimate drawing test, asked for starting practice. Parent advice is spot on: the initial exercises need to focus on arranging lines and spaces maintaining arbitrary proportions, and copying existing things is great for that. The other foundational stkill is shading, but that's easy enough to learn by doing. Then you move into figure study, and maybe begin to develop your own style, but it's not really needed at this phase. You know shapes by now, so drawing cats, animals, persons outlines works great in putting harmony into shapes. Once one can reliably put down shapes and proportions and shading, it's time to move up to scenes. Object interactions, shadows, relative positioning are the skill to master here, perspective lines can help at the beginning, copying architecture and placing figures on it a great exercise. Once this skillset is built then you've the tools to test yourself, and the litmus test is not drawing figures, that is foundational. The litmus test is to draw a figure out a scene in various styles so that it's clear in each different production both that the character and which style does it fit.