Almost always.

Normally my self or a real person. Sometimes just my imagination :)

Sometimes imagination, sometimes real people, sometimes anime characters...it's really varied. ^-^

It varies from time to time, but most of the time I base it on a real person ^^

I do make them up sometimes though but mostly their based on a real person..

All my characters are like me in some way, shape, or form.

Almost always base it on a real person. Most of the time people that have been my closest friends for a long time, and sometimes people who have merely changed my life.

Either myself, people I know, or tv characters.

Only once did I ever base a character on a real person, but it was kind of stupid (I made a bad guy because I was holding a grudge against one of my friends for stealing one of my characters and putting her in his story without my permission and against my pleads not to) so I sort of left the character there, never used him again. I don't base characters on myself, not that I can remember anyway. They all just come purely from imagination, or maybe based a little off of another character from something else, but always my imagination alone.

They come from all over the place. Sometimes they're people I know, sometimes they're fictional characters/people I don't know, sometimes they're types of people I'd want to know, and sometimes they're just random characters not based on anyone or anything.

It sounds weird, but I just give them a name and a physical appearance, and then they just become real to me. They just develop their own personalities... :P

I always try not to base it on a real person or on myself. I've never really liked the idea of creating characters based on real people (especially those who are close to me) for some reason and it's very important to me that I don't. However, I do admit that there must be some part of me in every character... My characters honestly just kind of pop into my head so I guess I just use my own imagination. It's inevitable for them to be influenced by my experiences, emotions and people in my life, though, of course.

Most of the time anyway. Sometimes, I try to come up with a made-up person, especially if they're not human.