I find either a photo, or maybe a painting I like and use it as a guide for whatever the piece will be... Once I do a piece, and do another of the same thing, I usually use the last piece as something to look at while I etch... Sometimes I'll size the picture to my base material (ivory in this case), and I'll cut it out and sort of trace around the outline with a pencil just to give me some reference as I fill in the middles... I've always drawn since I was a kid - Pencil, ink, chalk -- Anything I could find and would draw what I was looking at on a piece of paper or drawing pad of some sort... So - I basically just scale what I'm seeing to the piece I'm working on and draw what I see...