Hiya!
shrug
Art. It's nutty like that.
Yes, I think that creating a character is "art"...mostly. It has technical "tools" (re: the game system and dice/cards/whatever) that you use, but the end result is a purely creative product: A Player Character.
Because of this, I don't think I've ever managed to find the 'perfect' way to create a character that resonates right off the bat, every time. You have to find something that gives you the highest success rate for this...and stick to it. For me and most of my group, it's Random dice rolls, in order for Stats (when talking about D&D and most other RPG's). Sometimes a player will have a specific character concept in mind...in this case, we just pick stats and whatever.
For me in particular, I just start rolling dice and then when I start to see numbers, I'll get an idea. Or not. If not, then I keep using dice and keep rolling on random stuff; so I'll just take a d10 and say 1:Elf, 2: Dwarf, 3:Halfling, 4-5:Human, 6:Half-Elf, 7: Half-Orc, 8: Dragonborn, 9:Tiefling, 10:Gnome (or whatever). That gives me a race with my stats. That is USUALLY enough to get my creative juices flowing. If not... well, I have a whole pile of dice and choices!
Then again, sometimes I end up with a PC who I thought was a cool idea/concept, but when I start playing them...it just doesn't "do it" for me. So they retire/leave and I make a new one. My players experience the same thing sometimes.
As I said... Art is Nutty like that.
^_^
Paul L. Ming