Making Renders?

[peopleschamp45]

I've just been getting started on making Sigs and PSP Wallpapers in photoshop in the past week or so. I have had hit or miss experiences in finding renders of characters or people that I need, and so I am curious how some of the more experienced photoshop users make their own renders. If you have a link to a tutorial somewhere that would be fine, I just want to find out the best way to do it. I've heard talk of the pen tool being used but I am not very efficient with that quite yet.

Thanks in advance for your help!