Well, I don't have any drawing tips, but I do have tips on creating your own characters...
1) Turn on some music, put on the headphones and close yer eyes. This usually makes me get quite cool character ideas.
2) Make oversized features (basically hands, eyes, feet) if you're going for a friendly look. Trust me, this helps a bunch.
3) Make a basic color scheme for all characters in a series and stick with it. This will create a certain style and look for yer guys.
4) If you're doing a cartoony look, keep it simple. If you add too many details and lines the character will look cluttered and messy.
5) If you want a cute/friendly character that you want to popular with children, use circles or ovals for most features (head, eyes, ears, etc...). I don't exactly know why, but this really helps. Walt Disney used this strategy when creating Mickey Mouse (just look at a pic of MM and you'll see what I mean). Also, if you want a cold, mean, scary character, use sharp edges and straight lines. Disney does this with most villans (just look at Jafar from Aladdin).
Erm...that's all I have, hope it helped...
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