here is a nice way to make the same character in different poses … stonecutter told me recently, and today i tried out … these 4 poses altogether took me no more than an hour (!) 
first : model from zspheres basic body (no head) in neutral pose, adaptive skin, then unified skin, place, put head on … now pose the zspheres, adaptive skin, unified skin with same settings, place put head on (thats 3 and another pose 4 … light and render. export render.
now in your favourite paint program with paintbrush (and/or colorizer brush) paint hair, features of face, cloth … use smudge to make expression if wanted … like
and finally use smudge to make forms more human …
note i did this very roughly, i just wanted see if method works and how … with a little more time you can make wonderful painting this way …
the point is here … use modeling for giving you lightning on basic form, then paint over to get desired shapes and detail … easy and fast … enjoy
