Great insights, I can't help notice similarities to the way i develop my characters except that mine are machines, its sometimes harder to conceptualize a story when you're anthropomorphizing, I tend to get stuck on the acute aspects of why this machine has those facial features or "what face is it making?", but thanks to David I am going to start thinking about the story, the scenario that brought about the specific character in that specific moment. Another thing he shows is that it's ok to erase and erase and erase again - 25 years in the industry and I still get 'Eraser guilt' lol.

Thanks David, great insights. Really good advice there of the need to still understand the structure underneath what you're drawing, even if the drawing is not scientific. I remember hearing this about Manga as well, it takes really strong understanding of anatomy to simplify it well.