NEWBLACK'S PROFILE

Yeah I remember/was aware of the ff6 sodlier dealio -the in-battle sprites of the soldiers from ff6 map be a good starting point then :P But I don't think there's any reason to feel *that* hamstrung because it's totally up to you how your own canonical soldiers look close-up. Also the Galbadian soldiers in ff8 (and to a lesser extend the generic shinra soldiers in ff7 - first enemies in the game) had a pretty similar look in some elements of their armour design so that might be worth looking at and adapting? For generic doodad ideas you need only look at any game for the last 20 years that had a futuristic soldier in though and see how they made the armour more interesting by covering it in random "tech-looking crap" (Halo, Gears of War come to mind specifically).

Also as an aside, all this time I have been thinking that the black cut-outs along the bottom of the guns in this game were picatinny rails or some kind of ridged pump/grip, I guess now (from the large-scale bust) they were meant to be... fingers? (it totally works better if you imagine them as what I said though :V)

Also it looks like you're trying to draw each thing with a single continuous line that you're dragging along and that's why it's wobbly as hell. Seriously that is not the way to draw anything at all. Quick smooth strokes! multiple attempts! iterate until good. You're not a printer, take the pencil off the page some more. In the sketching phase it's totally fine to make a series of increasingly accurate approximations until you end up with something that looks right, you don't have to one-shot it, that's never going to happen.

Placing stuff on the lines is irrelevant when the rest of the size/shape of the head is throwing them out of place in relative terms. There's far too much else everything below the eyes and not enough forehead/scalp area above the eyes - making the eyes look too high. You have to get the oval/rest of the head right too.

Children's heads are rounder, shorter, generally less long and more compact with the eyes taking up more space on the head? In anime style art (which I don't do but here goes an attempt at advice anyway..) feminine chins seem to come to a point (more often and more gently than males, at least unless they're a more feminine looking guy or the artist went with a style that gives everyone that look) after a sloping curve (rather than a more angular masculine look)

Edit: as for bodies, adult bodies tend to be between 7 and 9 heads high whereas children can be much fewer heads high depending on age/build etc. (try measuring using the head as a unit from the original concept art to see how tall they are?) also men have much broader/squarer shoulders than women (generally speaking) and children even slimmer-shouldered still.

(see: your own avatar - that's what I meant about linking what you're learning to other art/reality :V)

Finissssh ittttt.

I keep imagining that sign is meant to say "Dudley" and then think about how accurate the state of the place is for that to be so.

*some comment about the differing levels of quality/finish between the two character busts* - I'm sure you're pretty aware tho and Cheska is the MC sooo yeah, I'll shut up a bit.