Tim Foley's "King of Beasts" (Click to view... 96KB)It takes a little inspiration and a lot of research. I use the Internet as my main tool to download photos. I gather a large variety of pictures from as many different angles as possible, also lots of head shots.
After my first project, I started using a computer program called Poser (by Fractal Design) to reproduce the pose of the person I chose. This program creates human figures that you can put into other computer-generated scenes. It displays them in a number of different formats — wireframe, silhouette, etc. It helps eliminate perspective issues that can occur when using pictures for layout. When using photos as a template, the angle and height that the photographer shot the picture from can have the effect of foreshortening different parts of your subject. This looks perfectly natural on a flat picture, but it can cause real headaches when you add the third dimension. This computer program eliminates that.
I realize a lot of you don’t have computers, and those who do may not have the money to go buy this program (I’ve been told the latest version of this software is kind of pricey). If I didn’t have this program, I guess I would be taking pictures of “G.I. Joe” action figures to reproduce the views that I need.