Im manly a modeller so I do a model first then if I think its good enough I will make a scene for it then its a case of getting references for the scene just like I did for the model, I know you said you are not a good drawer but I dont think you have to be to do a sketch for a scene just stick men and boxes to get the proportion for the scene right then its a case of getting references for you idears.
I do this as a hobby so do not know for exact how production would do a still scene but I think it will be some thing like this
1:Idear
2:Sketch(optional)
2a:References
3:Model
4:Texture
5:Rigging
6:Lighting
7:Rendering
If I am wrong please some one jump in.................dave