Wow, looks beautiful! It feels quite stylised, I think it's the boldness of the colours, it really reminds me of some of the classic games set on islands.
The blade edge should be very crisp for the most part unless you are aiming for a more stylaized piece, but it seems like your'e aiming for more realism.
first of all. What kind of junior character artist? Stylised? Realistic? xD Search for Junior portfolios on Artstation. See what they do and what they use.
Here's Master Otenko, Django's companion. Wen't straight into maya for this guy as his shape is pretty straight forward. May stylise the petals a bit more...