Character Descriptions

Good evening. I hope everyone has had a great couple weeks of productivity in their art or writing or both.  My topic tonight is on how authors describe their characters?  I tend to use a brief short paragraph or sentence to give a precise mental picture what I see to the reader.   I also have character sketches with their habits and traits, strengths and weaknesses, I might include a bad habit as well.  

How do you relate to your way of sharing how the characters reveal themselves?  

On another contrasting thought, an artist makes a portrait of themselves such as Picasso or Van Gogh. Might this be true in fiction writers?  I might have seen a bit of some characters reflecting the writer themselves.    The writer and artist both strives to express themselves well in their craft.