I use the force.

He lives! You must not use the force any more though... I never see you in the contests. Get to chopping again and raise the bar for everyone here.

Master Jedi anfa it has been so long since you were last seen in action,battling the Source Droids in the PSC Clone Stamp Tool Wars...have you by chance been seduced by the dark side and become the Sith Lord DARTH ANFA

Darth Anfa. I like the sound of that.

Interesting to see people's answers

Here is mine: usually I look for sources that have interesting shapes in them. I almost always disregard the subject of the source and try to deconstruct what I see. Most of the times I find shapes that inspire some character. At this point I go to google or Pinterest or Deviantart or Flickr to search for photos for further inspiration or to use for the idea I have, as reference or externals. Then I sketch something on paper to get a more complete idea. A lot of times this gets me somewhat far from the original source... Then I go back to photoshop, take the source apart and build over my sketch. Somewhere along the way I try to find a story for the character, think what it is doing or where it is. Once I have the character I work on the environment. Then I try to blend the character in the background as much as possible by adding shadows and color corrections. At the end I usually crop the image so the composition sits well with all the elements.

1. Take a dab, or Smoke a bowl
a. Steadies hands
b. Inspiration / Creativity
2. I see it as soon as I open the Source. "rarE" " very RAre"
so this is the normal
3. Place Source into PS, spin it all around, zoom in on a portion and see what you would do with just that hunk. change filters and see if that helps.
4. Search for related images
5. I use to use the news and maybe pull something from there, but Facebook , jacked that up. "i dont want to see that here"
6. Smoke again and get at it.

Single ,Most advise.... Change your History states i think that is tahw it is called "alt/ctrl/x to like 200.

Only if you need it... As your work progresses, that will take up more RAM than necessary as your history grows larger.

You have to go to your happy space... (but sometimes Darth is there)

Yes, the dark side of the force

GIMP is the tool today

he's more like the dumb side of the FARCE

I do the same as most have stated. However when I pull a source from the website and import into photoshop, I usually have an idea of how I want it to come out but in almost every piece that I have ever worked on... I start working on my original idea and as I go along it morphs into something completely different. I love just going with the flow as I am working on a piece... and I will say green helps the creative process!!!

I love using the pen tool to not only cut objects out but also to create pieces that I will need for the finished entry.

Well, I just kind of avoid it all together, i was ok at coming up with idea at one time, then i just lost it..
which is bad considering the gear i have..

my other macbook pro15 is mainly for music, but it also has photoshop.. i have 2 wacom pro large graphic tablets, one i bought in the usa, and one bought in aus.. they both ended up in aus with me.