I was inspired by the movie poster for Nikita, la Femme Fatale. An old pulp fiction film.
imdb has the image here
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100263/

I took an approach in attempts to achieve the stylized interpretation I had conjured in my mind. I drew it out, focusing on symplifying her curves down into c's and s's. I slightly altered her pose, revealing a little bit of cleavage. and tilting here head down, avoiding the up the nose shot. I wanted sharp graphic shapes, containing detailed illustrative rendering. Originally I spent some time creating pen tool shapes in photoshop, intending to paint within them. I found this gave wierd pixelated edges even at 300 dpi, 11 by 17 inches. I ended up painting in all her shapes with a solid hard brush, and then used those shapes as selections to paint within.

Hope u enjoy.