STEP 2

Research the figure or the subject of your series.

Put aside all visual inspirations and research the subject you are portraying. 

Who are they? how do they hold themselves? how do they talk? how do they stand? how do they walk? where were they born? where do they live? what was their life like?  For example are they an older person and worked in manual labor their entire life, their hands have to show the grit needed to work 40 years in the construction field.

If they are alive, go meet them or find as much video on them as possible.  Find as many photographs as possible,  you cannot have too many photographs.  Let me say that again.... you cannot have too many photographs. 

Read their biography, spend time with their friends and family, if they passed visit their resting place..... what music did they like, what movies did they like, what books did they read, what kind of clothes did they like, etc. 

Spend a week researching the subject, and NO design work, pure research and maybe just a few thumbnail sketches.