You can surface your models as you make them.  This is hugely useful.  The 'preset shelf' shown here which show you a nice little thumbnail of the type of surface you are choosing.  
 

Here we can see a typical surface being applied using a windows image as a surface which is being mapped onto the face object
 

Another useful addition is the ability to see the model in 'UV texture mode'.   What this window is basically doing is to take the surface of the model, and, to use a real world analogue, rip of the skin and lay it flat...
 

When then lets you take a bitmap and apply it accurately to the surface, so that when the bitmap (picture) is wrapped around the 3D model the texture fits exactly as you want.  You can also use this in reverse and take the bare UV representation into a program like Photoshop, design a skin to fit it, and then wrap this onto your model.  This will help hugely when, for example trying to fit a skin onto a face model.