So, making character references...

(Crossposting from my dA journal since Dreamwidth allows for anyone to reply)

One of the things I'd like to do this year is commission a picture of one of my characters. Probably either Tonya or Nyalla, and while I have text descriptions for both the place I always get stuck is visual references. Anyone have suggestions for more than just plugging keywords into Google Images? Or any magic sauce for doing that better? I'll probably grab pencil and paper try sketching out stuff, I could use the practice anyway, but yeah my skills haven't improved there since the last time I posted a drawing.

Likewise if there are publicly posted character profiles that you think are good models to follow, I'd be interested in those too.