Continuing on the proportion test mannequin, here we have a number of different settings which explore the possible proportions for a character. For better comparability, I have split the examples into 4 groups. (They really do look better when viewed in perspective, although I might put them into a front view kind of table as well...)

First group (upper left): Normal human proportions - male, female, child.

Second group (upper right): Unusual builds - fat guy, scarecrow guy, hero guy.

Third group (lower left): Cartoonified proportions - anime style, slight cartoony, more cartoony

Fourth group (lower right): Taking it to the extreme - dwarfism, toon hero, super deformed.

Notes:

- "dwarfism" is a multi-faceted condition that also includes proportionate but reduced growth; this here is the "Tyrion Lannister" type with unproportional limbs. The trunk here is as big as the human-style male's (well, almost) so it's not just a child.

- Likewise, the two cartoony guys are not children, although cartoonification implies a childlike "cutification", visible here in the large heads and slightly shortened legs. The shoulders however are as wide as a man's. In the case of the "more cartoony" guy, I even exaggerated the shoulder and chest width, and reduced the belly, to counter the neoteny effect.

- The anime style guy, on the other hand, may double as lanky teenager if you reduce the overall size a bit. However, the widths of the body parts have really been turned down, note the narrow pelvis.

- Male, female, and child in the upper left follow human rules: females have narrower shoulders and a larger, wider pelvis; feet and hands are a tad smaller (hands should actually just be less wide, but I don't have a control for that, meh!). The child appears fatter with less developed shoulders and a proportionally larger head; the limbs are thicker.

- The figures in the upper right are not really cartoonified, they incorporate a body type you might actually meet on the street. Sans tail and muzzle. The hero has thick limbs implying muscles, a huge chest, and a thick neck. The fat guy also has thick limbs and neck, so if these two would get made into actual drawn characters, the linework would have to imply different muscle tone and fat layers. The model here is not precise enough to deliver.

- The "toon hero" with his vastly exaggerated chest bulk and the super deformed sidekick are hard to reconcile with a more realistic world as represented by the upper left family. Personally, I believe that if you want to incorporate the more extreme deformations, the main characters should already be notably cartoonified so these extremes will not stand out as much. Seeing the human-style male side by side with the toon hero seems to be a bit weird. Cartoonification opens the door towards a more stylish universe, so I tend to prefer the slightly cartoonish guys here as "main character" material.

Of course, you may go into any direction with your style, and even within one "proportionality choice" there are still lots of stylic decisions to be made.