well see I probably give a false impression because you guys see very few of the sketches I do- very often for warm up or just for practice between work I sketch expressions, especially ones that I find compelling or difficult to draw (which are, to be fair, often the same thing). I look at photographs of real animals (not necessarily ducks and geese, but humans and other creatures too) to get an idea of the muscles that move and what happens to the eyes, cheeks etc. during certain grimaces- for these particular studies I actually looked at coyotes and wolves! I also end up pulling the face I’m drawing, which looks weird but actually is helpful because you can feel what is going on in your face. I find profiles difficult too, so I draw those a lot! That’s the only advice I can give on that (I never quite get it the same twice though…)
As for the second anon, I do draw in pencil and scan in sometimes, but my left hand is better at digital and that’s the hand I use for most of my sketches, so mostly these days I start with a silhouette blob and then rough over on another layer (that last picture probably describes that method best)- I find this is a good way to draw because I can make sure the image ‘reads’ and the body language is understandable even without expression or dialogue, and I can hint at contouring without getting too bogged down in perfection. Sometimes it’s more like a line sketch? It depends on what’s going on and if there are two characters interacting sometimes lines help with things like mass displacement;
hope that helps!