This question actually touches on some things I wanted to talk about eventually anyway, so I'll give you a long(ish) answer:

As I've mentioned, Mippi was my second full character project in Blender ever, shortly after my ghost character, Brooke Enbach. Honestly, I'm not sure how it came out so nice for a project that only spent about a week in the modeling phase and was done with a lot less Blender knowledge, but the project was really me pushing myself with an idea I had always wanted to do, among other things. I had always wanted to make a character with the shortstack body type as well as making a mimegirl since I think they're pretty underrated and I love monochrome-skinned characters (I used to have a different one forever ago that I was absolutely obsessed with), so I simply started with that concept in mind and sort of completely winged it and ended up combining the two. The body type came first as a rough model for practicing modeling off of refs, specifically following refs from artists such as Fladdykin. Much like every other character I've made (because I lack the skill to draw my own refs), I made up Mippi's design and clothing and such as I went, looking to various mime stuff for rough guidance. She was also an attempt to try at the cute yet hot character archetype, something I think I communicated well judging by the responses I've gotten regarding her.

This project also gave me a chance to see what I could do without VRoid's limitations (VRoid is a bit of a character creator with a bit of a hair modeling tool tacked on, less of a modeling tool and more of an avatar maker). I used VRoid throughout very late 2019-2021, and while I would have recommended it in a heartbeat during that timeframe, I don't think I'd say the same now. Ultimately, I've ended up pretty much no longer using the program because the program was starting to actively hamper my ideas and not allow me to explore certain concepts. Overall, this project was really a way to test what I could design now without VRoid's limitations, so I went wild with it. It came out about exactly how I wanted it to!

As for learning Blender, I can safely say that I've barely scraped the surface of what I could know. Frankly, I'd say that I've mostly focused on learning sculpting and have admittedly slacked on other concepts that I'd like to get better at (more detailed clothing is something I'd like to work on, for example). Regardless, I'd say that I'm in a better position with it than I was in like, 2018 or 2019 for example, where several different times I had opened the program, become overwhelmed by the UI, and closed it in about the span of a minute every time. At the beginning of 2022, out of spite I ended up picking it up and really forcing myself to absorb it. I still find myself learning something new every day, and I don't expect that to change. I've heard even the most experienced modelers say you never really fully learn how to do everything. I really think anyone can do it if they invest the time into it (you'll be investing a lot of said time)!

Sorry for the wall of text, I just really like to gush about design stuff and the general process. Thanks for giving me an excuse to! (and thanks to like the 3 people who will read this fully)

TL;DR I like mimes and shortstacks so I mushed them together, also Blender is hard