a modeling problem

I am modeling a character in blender and I am trying to use a template. I have set up two planes intersecting each other at (0,0) and I would like to put a drawn image of my model facing foward on the plane facing the front and the picture of the model from the side on the plane that is facing the right side. I can easily make the planes but putting the picture on it a a little difficult. Two things I need to know is how to select only one plane (cause all I seem to be able to do now is select or deselect all with hotkey A), so I can put the respective picture on the correct plane (ex: models front view image on plane facing the front). And how to get the picture to show up other than in UV image mode. It seems the only way I can get the picture on the plane is by going the UV image mode and baking it on, and then when I switch to edit mode or object mode it dissapears, but I cant use it like that cause its only supposed to be a template, I need it to show in object or edit mode so I can start actually making my model. Thanks for any replies. :)