Developing Characters

Where do you find your character inspiration? Do you base them on someone you know personally? A famous person? Are they totally fictional? Or do you mix it up?

Me? I mix it up! Their role and/or plot of the manuscript determines if I can draw from personal experience or if I have to "borrow" from someone in the lime light. It's not always good to use someone you know as the basis of a novel ESPECIALLY if their "character" is going to be a baddie! lol Now if you feel fairly certain that person would never in a million years read your piece then it might be a risk you feel safe to take!

I typically don't make a character entirely fictional. I always seem to find someone on TV/Movies or papers/magazines, that I get some characteristics from.

Do you gather pictures for all of your characters? Or just your Hero/heroine?
When you are writing that character...do you have that picture in your mind?
I don't always gather hard copies of pictures but I DO develop them in my mind when I create that character's description on their sheet.
When I develop my character sheets I don't go as in-depth as some of my author friends. I know some of you who will sit down and create 5 page interviews! I'm always amazed by that! I, on the other hand, create a 2-3 page one depending on how much the character "talks" to me as we are chatting :-)
My interviews usually cover subjects such as: Name (full name), eye/hair/skin color, age, sex (can't always count on the name to determine this :-) ), body build, scars, tatoo's, hometown, current city,current occupation, occupational background, education level, special skills/training, family dynamics, what was their childhood like, hobbies, favorite color, favorite food, pets, clothing style, and whatever else I think may be important to know about him/her. Not all of my interviews are the same. I base them on the character and their role in the manuscript.

What tricks/techniques do you use to develop your characters?