I’m not positive I understand what your asking but will relate my experience as it may help. I think basically you’re saying you want to start doing some of your own projects now that you have gotten a couple tutorials under your belt? And perhaps running into a little trouble “getting the ball rolling” on an original project. Here’s what I do.
Cruz through the gallery choice section, find some stuff you like save it in an “inspiration” folder. Then when starting a new project look in your folder and get “inspired”. Don’t misunderstand me I’m not suggesting you rip off (copy) anyones work, but just get an idea of somethign you want to make. For instance the picture might be a dragon flying over a castle lets say. Then put your own creative juices to work! Go to google image search and type “dragon”. Find 10 pictures you like of dragons, put those in one folder, then get 10 pictures of castles, put those in another. Then decide what kind of area you want as a setting, forest, dessert, cliffside, etc. Get pictures of those tpye of areas.
Now the tricky part, and this is where I really suck. Take out your wacon tablet (I use the $20 ebay version) and sketch out each of you elements and how you want them arranged. I pretty much use stick figures and boxes because my skill isn’t super high. But this will help you get an idea what your different elements are going to be and how much time you will need to spend on each. Is the castle going to be way in the distance or up close? My problem is I spend too much time on crap that isn’t even going to be seen. And not enoigh on stuff that is.
Once you decide on your elements and how big small everything is going to be, then start working on your different elements. Is the dragon going to have a long or short tail? How many horns on his head? Lizard lor bird like? Then find real life reference pics. Going back to the dragon, long or short nose? If it long get a refence pic of an alligator, short go with some type of lizard, bird type, look for pictures of eagles, hawks, birds of prey, etc. Do a basic sketch of how big the head is going to be versus the body, long or short neck, etc. it doesn’t have to be a good one, trust me, I know. Put that sketch in the background to make sure you have the proportions right, use real life pics of animals to make your creature seem more anotomically correct.
Once all the elements are created, put them in your scene and you’re done. Viola! Again I’m not suggesting you copy someone’s work. But when your starting out its ok to take parts of different things and combine them into an original piece. Then when you get better stuff will just start flowing into your brain without effort. I was looking at a flamingo the other day in the zoo. His long legs gave me this idea for this destructo robot to stomp through a town and crush buildings. I busted out my digital camera, took a couple pics and mpeg movies for reference, and there you have your stomping robot of doom. Once you get the hang of it, the creative part becomes easy. The hard part is in the execution. Does it look real? Are the textures convincing? Stuff like that is the true challenge, that’s where your tutorials will help you. But right now try to get inspired. 
-Deathcricket-
