So where do we begin? Well, before embarking on any major project its a good idea to spend some time researching and gathering reference. Lets have a look at our image…
Well, for starters we will need to search out some more images of Mandy and her dog. Below are some links to a few sites I found…feel free to post more if you find them.
http://www.cagedbeagle.com/
http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~mcfadden/yeagle_wallpapers.htm
http://gallery.bellefree.com/dabeagle
http://www.comicartcommunity.com/gallery/categories.php?cat_id=143
http://cilm.estoreadvanced.biz/index.php?p=catalog&parent=24&pg=1
We don’t need to go mad, in the end we only need to see her from a certain angle but it helps to know how she would look from other perspectives. If we were to create a series of Mandy images then I would recommend hunting out a model sheet, or good orthographic views to work from.
The sketches are a great place to start but we want to go further with our 3D work. So, if your not confident with cloth you could search out some good images of clothing, trying to match Mandy`s pose so we can refer to the creases and folds in the fabric.
Next we can turn to the environment and start searching for some rocks, grass and trees. We can do a simple Google search for cliffs so we have more to work with than the simple one in the drawing. I chose the following, but feel free to move in your own direction.
I like this cliff because it has some nice defined rocks, plus more shrubs etc. to help break up the surface.
So, spend some time now building up a library for you to refer to before we move onto the modeling. Feel free to share your finds with the rest of us 
In the next post we will look into Subdivision Surfaces before we move onto modeling.
