how I paint a Ranger

the finished piece

I added a little bit fog in the background, to make a more misty mood, but theres too less volume in the upper part of the picture. I tried to help a little bit with some clouds, in the foreground.
I watched at these picture for the last months, and there are many things now that I would do much different.
At that time it was for me more about the guy, the gun, and the project. How should I paint? To learn the process of painting on my own helped me very much.

light and shadows, to get more depth and dynamic, also some colorgrading

the trees are not the best, my reference was a forest at my hometown, which was like a dried out Swamp. After 1 hour in it, I was biten by more than 60 mosquitos. It did a big impact on me (60 small impacts). Very cool

the environment is important for some mood,

first the camo, I used the new pattern from the US-military as colorreference. My brushstroke was not very well

ranger (sketchbook, a5, 2009)

its a sketch I did last year, and colored with wacom, and ps
I didn't know that it will become a colored picture, it was just to much fun to draw.
I tried to draw the gun, as real as I know.