I've commissioned a lot of fan-art over the last few years of my favorite Pokémon (you can probably guess which one) but lately I've been thinking, that perhaps I should get an original character that I actually, well, own. I've had a few ideas in my head for characters, but the trouble is, I can't draw even a god damn straight line, let alone anything I can use as a visual reference.

If all I can provide is a textual reference to what my character can look like, where should I start in order to get it realized? What kind of person should I get in contact with, and what should I tell them? I know these may sound like stupid questions, but I wanted to make sure as I'm not familiar with the whole concept of owning/dealing with original characters

Text to accompany a "bad art" is probably the best way to go about it. You could describe it until the cows come home, but people come to their own individual assumptions from just text alone.

My original hydra ref (NSFW) was pretty bad, but it was enough for trout_(artist) to draw the character right (also NSFW), the only thing I had to point out to him was that Midelle had a purple pupil.

Different artists will ask for different things. What you are looking for here is somebody who will do some character design on top of illustration. You may have an idea of what your character looks like, and various traits, but until there is a visible copy of them, the artist has to fill in any missing blanks, so they are doing design work for you on top of the drawing.

Most artists will appreciate if you have the following:
- An image that gives at least a vague visual representation of body shape and form, your character will never be so unique that existing media cannot approximate parts of it. Go find something.
- A generalize color swatch, they don't have to be final, but having one is helpful for getting things close to where they need to be. A description of where the colors go. If you want to take paint and splat some colors down onto an existing image this can be useful.
- If there are any patterns, try to reconstruct them visually in some way as though it was a flat square and point to where it should go.
- A written description of the pose you are interested in, and better yet, an image of that pose.
- For features such as horns, scale shape, etc. Consider finding existing media that contains something similar to what you want, or attempt to visualize it, even if poorly. This is easier to work with for artists than "swept horns." is.

Be really clear about where details you are describing are important, and where the artist has freedoms to make things up, or should go with their instinct.

Most importantly, listen to the artist and talk to them about your design. They typically have graphic design knowledge and their opinion and instinct can be valuable towards obtaining something that looks good. If you push hard on things being very precise to how it is in your head, you are likely to end up with a character that has mismatched surface detail levels. (Ask me how I know.)

Be prepared to pay a reasonable amount towards this endeavor if you are getting a formal reference sheet instead of an illustration of the character, but in general, the first illustration tends to be more costly because of back and forth time getting things to look the way you want over once you have an example you can point at.

P.S. Don't be afraid of flat colored for a first image. Most characters are an evolutionary process and what you start with is going to change over time.

1.) Remember the KISS Principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

2.) The character's silhouette will matter the most. It's what makes the character immediately recognizable. Keep it clean and free of extraneous details.

3.) Simple color schemes are the best. Decide on a dominant color, then select secondary colors by analogous (neighbor on the color wheel) or compliment (opposite of the color wheel.)

Thanks everyone for all the advice, I will keep it in mind for when I commission a character design, I really appreciate it!