I usually just find a design of something I like. That goes through different forms of it until I find one that I really like. My current avatar, a snifit from Mario, had a couple different pictures of it until I cut this one out of a magazine screencap.
h u h. All this time glancing at your avatar, I thought it was Giygas from Earthbound. I really should be paying more attention lol. I just do a flavour of the month thing and throw them into a weeb trash frame for good measure. Always be true to yourself they say!