Reference photos

From CosplayWiki

Reference shots are images of your character. They can be collected from many different sources, such as google images or deviant art. The point of reference images is to give you a better view of your character, from different angles so you can see how things lay and see the designs on your character better. Reference images also give someone who dosen't know what character you are talking about, a chance to see what you are talking about.

Reference images are also required for the masquerade when you are being judged on craftmanship, as it is important to the judges how close your costume looks to the character you modeled it off of.