Originally for this I did a straight forward portrait of Peter Cushing from his Hammer horror period. With the intention of producing a quick mould and several wax casts. The cast would be the basis of other Cushing characters, such as his portrayal of Dr Who and this one as the Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars.
I pulled three casts from the mould. After some tidying up I began to age him, as to how he looked in Star Wars. Once I feel that I am getting close to what I want. I try to photograph it from a similar angle to my main reference pic (you can never have too much reference.) I then take it into photoshop, do a simple line tracing of the reference and overlay it over the image of my sculpt.
