Visualising a Character

I'm not a fantastic drawer, I'll admit that, which is why I'm a writer and not an artist. But you don't need to be a great artist to be able to draw your own characters. What would possess you to do that? Your characters are best painted with words after the reader will have their own image in their head with some variance. What I find myself doing is just using a visual key to ask myself 'is this what I want?' mainly when it comes to fashion sense, which is probably something I lack, I'll happily wear a cowboy hat, a band t-shirt and a kilt - perhaps I'm a hard rocking cowboy from the highlands. "Yeeeeehaww lets ride into that moshpit laddie!" But I have carefully considered what my characters are wearing because what a person wears can say a lot about a person, not only that as I am using an alternative reality where society has taken a different course of history I have to actually decide on how fashion has evolved. The two big trades are from the east, most importantly, China and you have imports from the Americas, because of the Scandinavian presence in the Americas fashions have combined to create the 'Vindlandish Tunic'. From China one of the major exports is silk. The North can have some very cold climates fur is still worn as it provides warmth, I think it's too early for the society to start thinking about animal rights and to be fair, humans in the society don't exactly have rights either. I've added small pieces of fashion accessories too, such as a silk neck scarf and sash.

 Somebody who makes that slight extra effort to get dressed suggests that they're somebody who cares about their appearance and wants to make a positive impression. It could be simply a case of somebody undoing their hair from a ponytail to show a full body of hair or simply throwing on a t-shirt and pair of jeans. Somebody can have stains on their clothes from where they've not been washed, why haven't they been washed? Why has this person worn the same get up for days - throw in other senses, why do they smell of sweat - is it coming from their clothes, have they been running or haven't they washed? The latter would perhaps be combined with other smells maybe, greasy hair would be a good sign.

But here is a description I have used for Asaros:

 

My eyes have sagged, heck my hair hasn’t even seen a brush for a long time, judging from its greasy shine it is probably in need of a wash.  There are sweat marks under my pits; although my dress is peach they are noticeable. I grab a tunic from the floor and throw it on, the one tassels around the shoulders and on the hem, I can tell it’s the old Vindlandish tunic somebody bought me, but I cannot for the life of me remember who.   

It's not going to be my final description, but through it she is realising how much of a mess she is, although the reader doesn't necessarily need to be 'told' that her hair needs a wash as they'd know from seeing its greasy shine, but these are judgments Asaros is making for herself, she is judging her own appearance, yet only making enough of an effort to cover it up rather than to seek any 'real' improvement. You can probably start to make a few assumptions about her, or at least I hope.