Like how do artists redraw a major influential character like Aristophanes or Aristotle besides surviving sculpture?
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Important people generally had their likeness preserved in some way – either through sculptures, profiles on coins, or paintings their contemporaries made of them. In some cases, the art style was very realistic, so we have a very good Idea of what the person looked like (for example, ancient Rome/Greece, though busts became more idealized as time went on). You can get a pretty good idea of what important ancient Romans looked like since they loved a good statue. There are also quite a few surviving painted portraits of random people during this era.
For less important people, or people that don’t have any surviving portrayals, we have to rely on written accounts of what they looked like. If there aren’t any specific descriptions of what a person looked like, then you just don’t really know.
Also if you have their remains (i.e. skeleton, skull), then you can do additional facial reconstruction (though these use guesswork, but can give a pretty good idea of their face) and DNA testing to get an idea of things like eye color, hair color/texture, etc.
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