I feel like you have a few too many islands here and there that you are combining now Personally i start with eyes, mouth and the nose, and then grow outwards from there, the jaw/cheek is an area that sorta grows naturally out of these circular shapes
I think you could be working on features in isolation, rather than holistically. And this makes things much more difficult. Similar to trying to sculpt in high-res without refining low, and increasing gradually. I would suggest starting with a low mesh, and complete all the loops, before adding complexity.
Thanks everyone for the advice and suggestions. Next time I'll simplify the approach more! @Neox I started with those features, but persisted to add more geometry because the features didn't seem defined like the nostril loops which take smaller polygons to construct! They temptation overcame me! :lol: It seems now that…