Thought I'd share some of my own tips on retopology for those about to dive into the exercise:
- Keep your subdivision surface modifier off as you're working, as the placement of vertices can become very distorted from the original model. Turn on subdivision only when you're checking your progress, or are ready to add creases and bevels.
- If you're unsure where things should go, always remember to go back to the grease pencil. Sometimes drawing out the curves will get you out of trouble.
- Use the F2 addon (here is a short from Blender Secrets that displays the functionality: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/j5ibu5vHwQs) . It makes creating new faces much, much easier, and will speed up your workflow.
- Use Shortcuts and Quick Favorites! Remember that the more you get accustomed to using the shortcut keys for a lot of functions, the easier it will be to create things. If you want to quick favorite something, most options can be right clicked and added to the list. Then, you can press the Q key to make use of your favorited function.
Totally agree with your tips dzcannon ,
With the subdiv mod, you can disable this in edit mode without actually turning it off.
No need to remember to turn it on, it is always on in object mode, and you can switch between object mode and edit mode to see how your retopology is going.
