Vertex Pusher has a series of tutorials for just this... I have not seen them but they are highly recommended on other forums.
https://www.vertex-pusher.com/index.php/tutorials
There are a few humans in the C4D content browser that can show you the Mesh loops.
For extremely detailed I had a book called stop staring that was for Maya but translated really easy to C4D for facial modeling, rigging and stuff....
As for a standard start.... a lot of people start with cubes in a taper deformer and go from there. Some, generally very good modelers go poly to poly and just move each new point into place.
/Randy
