Yeah, thank you all for the comments and opinions. It's very interesting to see different people's reaction to the style done on this piece. A couple comments of my own...
Regarding contrast on female figures: As I was trying to say earlier, overall contrast would not change. So how dark the shadows are under the chin would be the same for a female or a male, same with under the arms. But, for a female I try for softer transitions and give other features (especially the fine features in the face) a softer look with less extreme contrast. I'd do the same for a figure of a child. In this case, because I felt the subject would be more amazon-like, I intentionally played up the musculature more than I would for other female figures.
MAXXxxx: yeah, I plan to revise the left hip too (along with the right knee). I sent my client the images and he was pleased with them. But, given the current discussion, I just emailed him again to specifically ask his opinion on the stomach. Depending on the response, I'll either leave them as is, make them more subtle, or remove the abs entirely and leave it as a flat stomach.
Shrinekeeper: Thanks! As MAXXxxx said, pretty much everything you see is traditional brush work. I've got an airbrush, but am still very much a novice with it. I've used it to do some early work on a few bases, but definitely don't have the skill yet to make use of it on my figures.
And again, thank you all for your feedback and opinions! It's always helpful to step back and re-evaluate my work and choices.
