Go to the polymer clay section of Michaels, JoAnns, hobby lobby or whatever craft store is near you. Start looking for books. Remember, clay figures are built from the bottom up and from the outside in. Hope that helps some! 
i always keep my fondant in an airtight tub while im working. so if for example im making a bear, ill get out the fondant for his body and put the rest in the tub, shape the body making sure its smooth and theres no cracks, then ill get out the fondant for a leg, put the rest in the tub, make the leg and attach it, then take out the fondant for the other leg and so on and so forth!
this prevents the fondant from drying out on your work surface while your fiddling around with a bit of it! otherwise, it dries and when you try to model with it you get the crack lines....
hope this helps!
Go to the polymer clay section of Michaels, JoAnns, hobby lobby or whatever craft store is near you. Start looking for books. Remember, clay figures are built from the bottom up and from the outside in. Hope that helps some!
I've been doing just that! Plus, every time my son plays with his Play Dough, I start looking at the tools and seeing if I can use them for gumpaste 
I found on Ebay some great E-Books on creating faires and such from polymer clay that I think will work great with gumpaste. I will be making Tinkerbell for a cake in June and am hoping these tips will come in handy.
I tried winnie the pooh but the fondant seemed to dry very quickly and looked cracked.
I was having this prob. and asked about it myself and it was suggested to add a bit more shortening (I use MMF) and it has been working well for me.
HTH
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