Concept art process

So! I'm working on my portfolio to apply to concept art/game art/movie art related internships and jobs. Here's a piece I just finished:

This piece definitely helped me work on my digital painting skills! I also documented my process with this piece, because at least one of the internships requires process images. Here you go!

These were my original sketches for the character. Basically, I just wanted to create someone who was totally badass. Then I did some color tests for the final piece:

Ended up going with the bottom right.

Then I just went in and painted! During the process, I made a few modifications - basically, I realized that the rifle wasn't working out in that angled position (it seemed super awkward), so I straightened it out some. I also reworked her left arm using a reference picture, since I realized that hand position wasn't very realistic. I also used a lot of other references throughout to make things accurate looking:

Boot - corbis.com. Photobucket pictures - me (the weird collar one is to see what the fabric would look like backlit). Desert - this site.

And that's about it! Here's a close up of her face: