Below is the progression of a character model that I have built for demonstration purposes. The step by step guide should help students through the thought and modeling processes of creating a character from a drawing.

** The most important piece of advice is to obtain good reference for anatomy and pose, and plenty of it!

Reference image

Start very low-rez, like with a cube smoothed 2x

Step 2: Slowly add in resolution, working from both front and side views to maintain volume and roundness

Obtain extra reference for facial anatomy, like images of a celebrity your character resembles

Step 3: Cut in holes for eyes, add more resolution

Do not worry about N-gons or triangles at this point

Step 4: Flesh out nose, lips, eyelids

Keep looking at reference for proper anatomy

Step 5: Add in eyes, head, neck

Pay close attention to jaw line and cranial volume

Step 6: Add ears, cheek resoluion

Give eyelid thickness, rough in hairstyle, tweak profile

Step 7: Add brows, lashes, continue hair

Periodically check your model in subD for defects

Step 8: Rough in body shape, piece by piece

Build the body straightened at first

Step 9: Slowly increase resolution on body

Begin to build in the pose, as desired

Step 10: With a simple rig, roughly pose the figure

Good pose reference always helps too

Step 11: Replace geo hair with simmed hair

Add shaders and convert to subD on all elements

Final Model