The quest continues for the ultimate cuteness

The previous old WIP for comparison:
Almost every sketch gets a nice level up these days which is awesome. I basically take the "core" idea of the old sketch and completely redraw it with my new skill level, which produces much more varied and complex ideas. In some cases there almost is no core idea at all, it's just so completely generic that I can do whatever I want with it. But my newer concept sketches are much better and so won't need as much alteration when I finally get to processing those.
Also improved my guidelines for the resolved quality of sketch, I was having issues knowing how much quality to put into the guides themselves since the resolved sketch is also a sort of guideline, for the lineart. Previously I just drew a neat figure and basically winged the entire sketch over the top, which wasn't great but produced passable work for the most part.
So now I've got this "very rough lines but mostly in the right place" sort of guideline style that sort of works for the moment. Doesn't take too long and it's pretty clear to see when I'm sketching over the top since the lines are so thick (even at a lower transparency). The thicker lines are easier to see without focusing too hard on the screen so it saves getting eyestrain a fair bit.
Blue for body, and then I go over in a new layer with red for clothes and details.
The body is actually the third iteration of the figure guidelines that I draw, which is why it's quite accurate. Can't get that quality on the first try...yet :P

Definitely room for improvement, I'm still not sure how to get high accuracy BG guidelines in place without spending a lot of time drawing vanishing points and so on. But it's an improvement nonetheless, and I might draw manga in the above style in the future as it's a step up from the low quality inking that I've done previously. I could erase the parts of the body that aren't needed and I'll have a decent rough quality, but higher accuracy overall.
Focus has been pretty rough lately but I think that's because I'm hitting this quality control issue at the higher level and I can't find a solution that I like yet. Basically how to get the lines I want without redrawing multiple times. I don't mean when I draw the line wrong by accident, but when I actually don't even know what I want in the first place. Especially when drawing pleated skirts this is an issue as I'm trying to resolve the complex folds and interactions and I dont know if it looks good until I've drawn the whole thing and can evaluate it. really I want to evaluate in my head and draw the result which I know is correct. Not sure if this is just a "me" problem or it plagues other artists as well, but I wouldn't be surprised either way. I just need a ton of experience and that'll help, probably :P
But it seems like I'm making progress so I'm hopeful for the future :P
I really want to get back to writing some manga soon, but not sure how to fit it in with my art projects, so always a crunch with scheduling.
Onwards and upwards.