Building an Alien in Maya - Thinking about Topology

Last Tuesday we were set the task to build an alien from the reference images given. Keeping in mind how the structure (Topology) effects movement, as we will be rigging it in the future.

Though I understood the concept of topology and researched examples I struggled building the head of the alien at first:

struggling to build the head...

In order to visualise it more clearly I roughly - using other examples as a guide - drew out how I thought the topology should look.

 It helped a little, and after a few more attempts at modelling (and focusing on the body first as the shapes were slightly simpler) I've become more comfortable modelling with a focus on topology.