Yeah I agree with Claire. I think wanting to take so many shortcuts is actually detrimental and a negative. Also the bad news is, there is no easy answer to any of the situations you ask about, those all require long roads, lots of practice, lots of time, lots of sacrifice. We can’t say in a single sentence or point to any one place to solve complex models and workflows, achieving realism in characters is the holy grail of CGI, it’s going to be a very hard thing by default. Mostly you still and should learn and practice the old fashion way. Don’t get discouraged, it’s actually a fun road to travel through, it’s all about the journey, not the destination.
There’s a couple of courses here that can send you on your way. Linking up:
https://cgcookie.com/courses/art-of-sculpting
https://cgcookie.com/courses/human-realistic-portrait-creation-with-blender
https://cgcookie.com/courses/modeling-realistic-characters-with-blender
