You presume no-one ever made an image of him. By the fourth century, there were spread throughout Syria many versions of a legend, all agreeing on the key points, of a cloth which bore a miraculous image of Jesus. (The varied, yet substantially agreeing versions of the same legend suggests a common origin much older than the fourth century.)
Whether this image was the Shroud of Turin, the Mandylion, or the Veil of Veronica, or none of the above it suggests the image of Christ Pantocrator (the basis of Eastern Christian imagery of Jesus) was based on people who believed they actually did know what Jesus looked like.
Christ Pantocrator:
From the 6th century, based on much older paintings.
The Shroud of Turin:
Veronica's Veil:
One of six images, all remarkably similar, said to be Veronica's veil. It is believed quite likely that five are copies of one original, but which is the original is unknown.
Despite the distortions created by the physical abuse of the crucifixion and the prone posture in the Shroud of Turin, note the remarkable similarity between the images: the very long, thin nose; the cleft beard; the heavy brow; the high, gaunt cheekbones; the hairline with the high, single peak; and, in the Pantocrator and the veil at least, the eyes.
I don’t need a picture to know what He looked like.
He was a Jew. He was a builder, so likely muscular, calloused, tanned.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
But mankind always seeks physical proof to bolster weak faith.
Keep in mind that the image in the Shroud is the face of a badly beaten man - with a broken nose and cheekbone - swollen face etc.
The Pentocrator is my very favorite and I believe the artist saw the actual Shroud - as did others. Some iconic paintings that depict this same face added a few wisps of hair on the forehead - copied from the Shroud. What they didn’t realize was that the ‘wisps’ were not hair, but streaks of blood. - But their paintings are a silent witness to the fact that they were copying the likeness from The Shroud.
Many of the hundreds of iconic paintings of Jesus, done for churches, were also copied from these original paintings.
There are also written records that give His physical appearece.
Also, see post 102 fora much earlier likeness - sketched from an emerald carving of Him, ordered by the Emperor Tiberius...who was Emperor at the time of the Crucifixion...