SO I’ve been wondering… I’ve been getting into organic modelling quite alot and I had a thought…
I understand that as a modeller, we are to use as little polygon as possible. That’s understandable. But if you need to do some fine tuing, such as a jaw indent, or a forehead crease of somekind, SOMETHING that has finer detail, using a base mesh won’t do it. It’s just too spread out. As is the case for alot of people who sculpt and retopologize, it just adds for finer detail.
My question is, is it ok or normal to create a base mesh, THEN apply a subsurface, and continue to model from there??
I’ve attached 2 photos to show what I mean, the bottom photo doesn’t have a subsurf attatched to it, the top one does.
Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. Also, if anybody has anything to suggest to resources to learn about topology and organic modelling i would also VERY much appreciate your help 
thank you again!!